Product updates

The homepage has been rebuilt from the ground up. It now works the way the site has always claimed to: as the front page of design, one day at a time.

Today leads. The moment someone posts, their work is the first thing you see, with the countdown to midnight ticking away next to the feed. That countdown is not decoration: every day is decided at midnight, and until then the day is open. Click it and you land on the submit page, because the only way to win a day is to be in it.

An open day looks like what it is now, too. When nobody has posted yet, the homepage says so plainly: this day is still up for grabs, post before midnight and it is yours, forever. And even once there are contenders in play, the door stays open. The banner under today's feed is a standing invitation to add your work and take the day.

Below today sits the latest podium: the top three from the most recent decided day, ranked, with a link through to everything else that was posted. Under that, the wall of winners: one winner per day, in an unbroken grid, each tile opening onto that day in the calendar. Scroll on and you'll find designers worth following and the freshest work from across the community, ending in a full-width road to Explore.

While rebuilding the page we also went through everything it loads. The homepage now asks the database a fraction of what it used to, and the same pass made the rest of the site quicker as well. You will feel it most on the feed and the calendar.

The old homepage showed you what happened yesterday. This one asks what you are going to do with today.

Back when we launched the new layout, we promised an explore page for designers. It took us a while, but it’s here: Designers is a directory of everyone on todays.design, and it’s the best way we’ve had yet to find the people behind the work.

Every member has a place in it. Each entry shows their bio, what they do, where they’re based, and the work they’ve been posting — enough to get a sense of someone before you decide to follow them, rather than a wall of usernames.

You can narrow it down, too. Filter by role to find the product designers or the illustrators, and by country and city to see who’s working near you. The filters only ever offer combinations that actually have someone behind them, so you won’t click into an empty page. Looking for the type designers in Amsterdam? That’s two clicks now.

This is also why we asked you for a few more details on your profile. Your role and location are proper fields now instead of free text, which is what makes filtering possible — and when you fill them in, you can pick from what other members have already entered or add your own if it isn’t there yet. Worth a minute in your settings if you haven’t looked lately: the more complete your profile, the more likely the right person finds you.

There’s more to come here. Sorting, and the ability to organise your own posts into projects, are both on the list.

Most of what we shipped this week is invisible, which is the point. We spent it on the foundations underneath todays.design so that the visible work — projects, group messaging, the things you’ve been asking for — can arrive without breaking what already works.

The honest reason for doing this now: the signup bug we fixed the other week sat there for weeks without anyone noticing, because the page loaded perfectly well and simply showed the wrong thing. Nothing was on fire, so nothing raised its hand. That’s the category of problem we went after.

Every page on the platform now has a test that checks what it actually renders, not merely that it answered. The map of every address on the site is written down and checked automatically, so a page can no longer quietly start showing something else. Forms tell you what’s wrong in plain language — “Password is required” rather than “Invalid input” — and they all check their input the same way now, instead of each one having its own opinion.

This page had its own version of the same bug, incidentally: for a while it loaded happily with no updates on it at all. Entries are also sorted by date properly now, rather than by a filename that happened to line up.

Now back to the fun part. Thank you for being patient while we tidied up — and as always, if something looks off, use the feedback form on the platform and we’ll go find it.

If you tried to join todays.design in the past couple of weeks and got stuck, we owe you an apology — and the good news is that it’s fixed. Your verification code was arriving by email, but the page never moved on to ask for it, so there was no way to finish signing up.

That step now works the way it always should have. Enter your email, and you’ll land straight on the verification screen with the code from your inbox. If you started a signup and gave up, you can pick up where you left off — nothing was lost.

While we were in there, we gave the rest of the welcome flow some attention. When you choose a profile photo, you now see the actual photo you picked instead of a placeholder letter, so you can tell at a glance whether you grabbed the right file. The city and role dropdowns are a sensible height now, showing a handful of options at a time rather than running the length of the screen. Field labels line up with everything else on the page. And buttons show the little pointing hand again when you hover them — a small thing that had quietly gone missing, and felt wrong everywhere until it came back.

None of these are glamorous, but they were the first things a new member met. Thank you to everyone who wrote in about being stuck; that’s exactly how these get found.

todays.design used to need an invite code. It doesn’t any more — anyone can create an account with just an email address, and you’re in as soon as you confirm it.

We started with invites because a small, careful community was the right way to begin, and we’re glad we did. But we kept hearing from designers who’d found the site, liked what they saw, and had nobody to ask for a code. That’s a strange thing to do to someone who wants to share their work. If you’re holding an invite code, it still works — you just don’t need it any more.

So please, invite people. Tell the designer whose work you keep sending to friends that they can post it here themselves now.

While we were at it, we rebuilt a couple of things underneath. Direct messages now run on a connection that lives on the same network as the rest of the site, closer to wherever you happen to be. And images are generated at the size they’re actually displayed, on demand from the original file you uploaded, instead of coming from one fixed size — so thumbnails are lighter and a full-screen view has the detail to hold up.

And two things that have quietly existed for a while, in case you never found them: the explore feed has an RSS feed if you’d rather read it in your own reader, and you can revisit any single day on the site — try this one — to see what was posted.

Our new messaging feature allows you to communicate securely with other members, right here on the platform. Your messages are encrypted at rest and never leave todays.design, ensuring your conversations remain private and protected.

With Direct Messaging, you can share personal details and ideas freely, knowing that your communications are for your eyes only. Not even our team can access your messages, giving you complete privacy and peace of mind.

Starting a conversation is easy and flexible. You can either visit a member's profile and click the message icon, or head to the messages page and use the new message button.

We're not stopping here! We're working hard on bringing you group messaging in the near future. Additionally, we'll be adding exciting features like message reactions and link previews to enhance your messaging experience even further.

Wherever you are on the platform, just hit ⌘K on your keyboard—go ahead, try it now! The search box will appear instantly. Start typing, and it will quickly filter through hashtags and members. If you’re looking for posts, simply hit enter to see a beautifully organized overview page with all the relevant posts.

This feature is designed to make your experience on todays.design even smoother and more intuitive. We hope you find it as helpful as we do!

I’m excited to share that we’ve launched a brand-new layout for todays.design! As we prepare for some fantastic upcoming updates, we realized our current layout wasn’t quite ready to handle all the amazing features we have in store. So, we decided to give it a makeover first.

With the new sidebar on the left, you’ll have more control and an easier time navigating—it’s pretty similar to what you might see on platforms like X or Threads. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out even more updates to the layout.

We want to hear from you! If you notice anything that’s not working quite right, please reply to this email or fill out the feedback form on the platform. Your input is super valuable to us.

This new layout is just the beginning. Get ready for some really cool new features like an explore page for designers, the ability to organize your posts into projects, and more.

We’re excited to have you here as we work together to create a space where designers can showcase their work, engage in conversations about design, and connect with their peers.

As we continue to develop the Todays.Design platform, we’ll be sharing updates and news about the latest features and improvements. Whether it’s new functionality, updates to the user interface, or community events, you’ll find all the latest information right here.

At Todays.Design, our goal is to provide a personal, professional, and friendly platform where you can share your work, vote on other designers’ projects, and participate in discussions with like-minded creatives. We’re excited to have you be a part of our community, and we can’t wait to see the amazing work you’ll be sharing.

As always, if you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re here to make Todays.Design the best platform possible for you and the entire design community.

Thank you for being a part of our community!