Ionut Maxim

Interface studies

Quiet layout systems, restraint as a feature, and the choices that shape a screen before any pixel is drawn.

Sketched grids and notes on paper
Stare
În curs
Mediu
Figma, web
Actualizat
mai 2026

An ongoing notebook of layout sketches, type pairings, and quiet interface details. Most of them never become products. They exist to keep the muscle of looking and noticing alive.

I treat these as exercises: what happens if I remove a column, change the rhythm, push the type one size smaller. The interesting answers tend to be the boring-looking ones.

01 · Note

What I am looking for

Most product screens are noisier than they need to be. I am looking for the version that earns each element, where every line of type, divider, and label is doing real work.

When I cannot defend a thing on the screen out loud in one short sentence, that is usually a sign it does not belong yet.

02 · Note

How it informs client work

The studies are where I rehearse decisions before they get expensive. By the time a problem arrives in a real product, I have usually already sketched a version of it here.

It also keeps me honest. It is much harder to defend a busy layout in client work if I cannot make a quiet one work in a study.

03 · Note

Plates

Grid sketches in a notebook
Sketch · column rhythm study
Dark UI layout exploration on a monitor
Screen · restraint as a feature
Stacked paper sketches of UI
Iteration · same screen, four reductions

Întrebări deschise

Open questions

  • When does restraint stop being restraint and become emptiness?
  • How do you keep a quiet layout from feeling cold?
  • Which conventions are worth keeping, and which are habit dressed as standard?

Dacă simți că ceva nu e în regulă, începe de acolo.

Spune-mi ce se întâmplă și cum ar arăta un rezultat bun. Un email scurt e de ajuns — le citesc pe toate și răspund în două zile lucrătoare.

Începe o conversație

Email

[email protected]