"Limitation will be my liberation." These are my personal, non-negotiable rules for interaction design and development in 2025.
Rule 1: If it moves, it must move in 3s
Stop relying on the basic two-property animation — position shift plus opacity fade. Boring. Every moving element must animate at least three properties simultaneously. Whether that's rotation, skew, scale, or animating a child element inside — add the nuance that proves you're paying attention. The difference between a good animation and a great one is that third property nobody expects.
Rule 2: Constant motion for hover and focus states
Traditional hover states feel sad. A colour change? A border? Really? Look at how gaming interfaces handle interaction — breathing gradients, wiggling icons, pulsing buttons. The moment a user focuses on something, the interface should actively confirm: "Hey, you're here — welcome." Give them a reason to linger.
Rule 3: If I've seen it before, I'm not doing it again
I am not cloning designs from Dribbble or Behance. If a stakeholder sends me a link saying "I want this," the answer is "Nope — get out of here, Tom." Existing designs can be seeds for new ideas, never templates. My job is to create something that didn't exist before I sat down at the keyboard.
Rule 4: If AI can do it, it's not good enough
I use AI tools every day and they're genuinely useful. But AI is built on the past. It can't produce a new, disruptive concept that has no precedent because it has nothing to train on. That gap is where human creativity lives — and it's exactly where I want to work. If a tool can generate it in two seconds, I need to push further.
Rule 5: Bring back slicing and tables!!!
(Not literally.) The real point: recapture the sense of wonder from early web experimentation. In the beginning, every site felt like a wild experiment. Nobody knew the rules yet. That spirit — that willingness to try something completely unhinged — is what I want back. Limitations birth creativity. The constraint is the brief; the magic is what you do inside it.
Final thought: These rules are about raising the bar for myself. The web deserves better than safe. Welcome to the Church of Kyle — free coffee on Wednesdays. Toot toot.
