Daniel Thomas

design at @polymarket

[Joseph Smith @_jsmth]

Abode is live.

A while ago I started exploring social with the mindset of creating something fun. I ended up creating something deeply meaningful for myself.

When I started Abode it was out of frustration. How have we moved to a state of social that cares more about how you’re perceived than connection. Growing up from when social was all about connection I often became frustrated that group chats are all that remain for that space.

Don’t get me wrong it’s not all bad. A lot of great things have come out of this era of social. I just always wished for more than a chat for my close friends and family.

I wanted to create a space that felt as unique as each of my friendship groups. One that wasn’t restricted to a chat thread or functionality, I always felt that chat was this weird state of social where you’re waiting on a response, it didn’t allow for some of the best moments which are often spontaneous. Chats felt like more of a chore to keep up with, than something I wanted to be part of.

The result of this was Abode. a hyper personal, create your own social, blank canvas. it allows you to add unique functionality through the form of widgets (which we call magnets). This allows you to have a unique experience depending on how you build your space. More games? More organisation? More social? The beauty of this is it’s up to you.

This resulted in what I’ve ended up calling social through presence vs social through action. I’d be playing a real life game with a friend and update our score note in the Abode and other friends jump in and congratulate on the win. No message was needed, no context was given. Social just happened.

I’ve seen friends who wouldn’t normally go out of their way to message each other play gruelling games of connect4 with each other because they saw someone was online and playing.

It’s this idea of someone else’s presence triggering a natural hangout that’s low pressure. Not someone messaging, asking if you’re around and waiting for a response. It’s a blend between async and real time that just works.

Right now it’s very fresh, we have a very limited number of widgets as we experiment with the concept and figure out what works. The idea is to open up our widget engine to allow other people’s creativity to shine and build as part of the abode ecosystem.

- group space
- live widgets
- themes
- real time audio chat
- messaging
- AI powered summaries for easy catch up
- Automatic memory building

Not all of these features may stay but I wanted to build a space that supported all you’d need and work backwards by using the popularity of features to decide a direction that best suited the majority.

Abode is yours, and it should feel that way.

Appreciate any sharing 🫶

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@getabode gotta be goo

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@fffabs "rabbit OS operates apps on our secured cloud, so you don’t have to."

Seems like apps run on the cloud

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@_jsmth is cooking 👨‍🍳 excited to see where this goes

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@JamesIvings I saw the long blog post about how to DIY a PoE setup, do you mind sharing which device you're planning on using?

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@JamesIvings Just ordered mine for using in a van. Hoping to do a 12V conversion on it to avoid needing the inverter 🤔

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@callumchapman I built a layout very similar to this and in hindsight would just go with a standalone desk w/ some nice storage furniture separately. Too much unused desk space and makes the room feel smaller.

[Joshua Thorley @joshuathorley]

We're looking for Senior/Staff Product Designers at SeatGeek.

We're looking for people with strong visual design skills, either in nyc or remote from NA/Europe.

If you or anyone you know is looking, my DMs are open. RTs appreciated

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@cyrildiagne @clipdropapp @figma @zoink This is wild! I'd love to give it a try 🙏

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@Curvance dthomas.eth

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@aroundcenter @figmadesign It's the Multibrackets Dual Arm 👍

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

Thanks @_jsmth for sitting on VSCode live share with me and practically writing the initial version of the plugin 😘

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

Using semantic colors in Figma is a little bit of a pain. Layer styles can't inherit values from a parent, like instances can for example.

To make maintaining design systems a little easier @joshuathorley and I have started working on an idea.

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

After using it a bit, it would be better to just remove the UI.

1. Select layer
3. Change color from Figma UI
4. Hit keyboard shortcut
5. Layer styles get updated

We're planning to grow this plugin to include more design system 'handlers'.

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@Mike_Andreuzza About a month I’d say, just using it to style basic react apps mostly

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@Mike_Andreuzza Yup! I’m starting to remember the classes I use most often, less time referencing the docs. Love it 🙌

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@Shpigford Unless it's a meme stock I don't. Trying to time the market, more so individual stocks is pretty risky. My preference: Buy small amounts often and hold.

[Daniel Thomas @danthms]

@WdeB @figmadesign We made the switch at @SeatGeek over a year ago and have never looked back. The Figma team seem to be more in tune with the community + good updates happen pretty often + design system tools are really nice + I can’t remember the last time it crashed. Highly recommend 😀