Mobbin

From Mobbin's 1,460-flow onboarding study, the things I keep thinking about: A hand-drawn flower. Some birthday confetti. Two founder notes. They weren't the shortest or the slickest, but they were the ones that made me go wait…did a real person actually share something human here? One Year's founder note has a handwritten signature, and a little hand-drawn flower next to it. Tinder drops a small note and a bit of confetti the week of your birthday, which I know sounds like nothing, and it is kind of nothing, except we noticed it, and I'm writing about it now. Airbnb puts a video from Brian Chesky on the screen you see after listing your first place – not at signup, which is where most apps put their big moment, but at the moment you've actually done something. Basecamp does something similar: you sign up, and a note from Jason Fried shows up that reads like someone actually wrote it, not a copywriter reverse-engineering warmth. None of these are big design decisions. Quite the opposite – they're the kind of thing that gets flagged as "unnecessary, shall we cut for brevity" or "scope creep" during review – all the little ornaments and touches that somebody fought for, and someone else quietly deleted. And maybe they don't move a metric. I don't know. What I know is that they're the thing I remember about the product weeks later, which seems like it should count for...something. Full study in the video, link in comments.

The "let's add more features" era is finally over. Mobbin just dropped their design awards of the year and every winner had one thing in common 👇 They removed more than they added. Here's what the top 5 products got right: Headspace - iOS app of the year - calm visual system that reduces cognitive load - Playful mascot + bold palette (doesn’t feel like typical wellness) Airbnb - web app of the year - Motion keeps the experience coherent at scale - complex flows (search → booking) feel seamless Jitter - site of the year - communicates value above the fold instantly - product is shown, not explained - motion reinforces what the tool actually does Claude by Anthropic - innovator of the year - minimal interface reduces overwhelm - focus stays on output, not UI complexity - fast feedback loop between input → response Duolingo - animator of the year - micro-interactions reinforce progress - instant feedback keeps users engaged - gamification layered into every action All these products are experience-first, intentional with motion, and ruthlessly simple. Feature overload is losing. Tight feedback loops are winning. AI interfaces are becoming more minimal, not more complex. Explore all the winners: mobbin.com/awards P.S. What’s one product that nailed simplicity for you recently? #plg #UX