Newsletter #18: Shopify Polaris, tiny houses and the art of music videos

Hi there,

I hope you're feeling good.

Last week was definitely an exciting one.

On Tuesday, Shopify France organized an event called Shopify Tech Crush 2023.

It consisted in running a full day of technical workshops for 30 French web agencies which are looking into offering Shopify services to their clients.

2 workshops were presented by Shopify themselves: Roman Zenner (Enterprise Architect) and Alinka Remuszka (Senior Solution Engineer).

4 workshops were presented by freelance Shopify developers and consultants: Youness Idbakkasse (freelance Shopify CTO for fast-growing european brands), Christophe Davy (freelance Shopify consultant), Aurélien Bobenrieth (freelance Shopify developer) and myself.

It really was an amazing event. I had a great time with this beautiful team and I was happy to meet future French Shopify agencies.

In today's edition, we're discussing Shopify Polaris, tiny houses and the art of music videos.

Let's dive in.

Work

We often hear Shopify app developers say that they used Polaris to build their app’s interface.

What exactly is Polaris?

Polaris is the design system for the Shopify admin. Apps developers use it to make sure their Shopify apps fit nicely within the Shopify admin.

The reason I’m writing about it today is because I feel like Polaris is vastly underrated.

Polaris is not just a library of React components, it’s a whole design system: it’s a set of guidelines, principles and assets that are created and maintained to ensure consistency and cohesion in Shopify’s design and user experience.

Polaris’s design principles cover many topics such as color, depth, icons, layout, motion, typography, data visualization, illustrations, interaction states, sounds and accessibility.

For any person interested in web interfaces, Polaris’s documentation is a gold mine of information.

Shopify’s UX team also put together incredibly rich Figma files containing everything you need to start designing your interface: components, icons and styles.

There are even a Shopify POS UI kit, an Admin Extensions UI kit and a Checkout UI kit.

Learn more about Polaris by discovering the documentation, the Figma files and the guide on how to migrate from version 11 to version 12 (latest version).

Inspire

I have been a minimalist for many years now.

I’m not the type of minimalist that the media usually chooses to focus on: I don’t own 50 objects and my belongings don’t all fit in one backpack.

But I do live by one rule: I prioritize experiences and relationships over material possessions. I don’t own a lot of things, but every thing I own I love. As Marie Kondo would say, I only own items that spark joy.

One thing that truly inspires me is people who decided to push minimalism one step further and live in a tiny house.

A tiny house is a compact house typically encompassing only a few square meters, constructed on a trailer which allows you to tow it with a car and park it wherever you want.

I enjoy tiny houses for the radical choices their small size forces you to make, as well as the freedom and flexibility they provide.

Of course, life in a tiny house is not all butterflies: you might face legal issues as to where you’re allowed to park, seasonal limitations, maintenance challenges and limited privacy if you’re living with other people.

Nevertheless, I still love reading about those experiences because the questions that living in a tiny house raises are essential.

I believe that the answer you would give to the questions “Would you live in a tiny house? And why?” says a lot about you.

And be careful because, if the answer is yes, then the next question might be: “What are you waiting for?”.

Learn more about tiny houses by reading this article from the Financial Times.

Explore

There is a form of art that I have always loved, it’s music videos.

I take them as a complementary piece of the artist’s proposition: they say a lot in their song’s lyrics and they say a bit more in their music video.

Building the visual world of a song is a job of its own.

For songs that are broadcasted on TV, the music video is often the first touch point that people have with the song. It needs to tell a story and be memorable.

One of my favorite music videos is the one of “Move Me” by Octavian and Mura Masa.

The director Yoni Lappin did an outstanding job. The visual esthetics are out of this world.

I love everything about it: the beautiful diverse casting, the outfits, the decor, the slow atmosphere and the transitions.

Yoni Lappin’s style, both as a director and photographer, is very distinctive. He is truly one of my favorite artists.

His unique style stands out from many of his projects, such as his work with Adidas and the clip of “1 Night” by Charli XCX and Mura Masa.

Enjoy.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie