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September 10, 2025

Hey again 👋

Just incase you missed the update of the Unicorn Club going forward here's a TLDR;

New structure:

🏗️ Build - actionable UX and interface craft you can use now
🧩 Shape - shared foundations and ways of working
🚀 Ship - release habits, measurement and iterate

The aim is simple, turn reading into progress in the same week. Same 4-6 minute skim, just with more momentum.

- Adam at Unicorn Club 🦄

Agency Gets 767% More Traffic, Saves 250 Hours Yearly

Adapting Social struggled with 50+ client sites spread across multiple hosting providers. After moving to Kinsta, they achieved 33% faster page loads and 767% increase in site traffic.

Automated workflows saved them 250+ hours annually. Now they manage everything from one dashboard on Google Cloud Platform with centralized site management. Performance and efficiency transformed their agency.

Read the Full Story →

🏗️ Build

Make better interfaces.

How can AI UI capture intent?

A clear catalogue of inline patterns (chips, dropdowns, sliders, ghost text) that refine user intent as they type across search, uploads and creation.

Why it matters: Reduces prompt burden and time‑to‑value, turning vague asks into higher‑quality outputs without chat back‑and‑forth.
Try this: Add two contextual preset chips and one inline hint to your most‑used search or upload field.

The first 30 seconds: how to show value in AI product onboarding

Design onboarding as a motivational, personalised pre‑signup flow that pays off immediately with a tailored promise and a real result.

Why it matters: Personalisation plus visible progress lifts activation and reduces drop‑off. Users continue when value is felt, not explained.
Adopt this week: Replace one generic step with a 3‑question branch and rewrite the CTA to “promise + next step”.

You no longer need JavaScript

Modern HTML/CSS (nesting, :has(), @starting-style, light‑dark(), lvh/svh/dvh, native validation) covers many interactions faster and smoother than JS.

Why it matters: Fewer scripts mean faster, more reliable interfaces with better accessibility and less maintenance.
Try this: Swap one JS accordion/toast for details/@starting-style plus :has(); keep the native input to drive state.

🧩 Shape

Shared foundations across teams.

Skipping alignment leads to zero-impact UX

Outputs without shared problem‑framing look productive but dodge the social work that makes solutions credible and stick.

Why it matters: You burn trust and slow delivery when you “print receipts” (artifacts) without alignment; fixes get rolled back.
Adopt this week: Add a 30‑minute pre‑solution session to frame the problem, success metrics, and stakeholders before any mocks or code.

Time Allocation ≠ Capacity Allocation

Cutler separates where hours go from what teams can actually deliver, surfacing the hidden drains (interruptions, rework, dependencies).

Why it matters: Treating time as capacity misguides investment and reporting; you optimise calendars, not outcomes.
First step: Split your weekly report into “time allocation” vs “capacity factors”. Capture the top three drains per team and one fix to try.

🚀 Ship

Release, measure, iterate.

15 ways your website loads from Google Search and how to measure each one

A field guide to Google’s load paths (Speculation Rules, SXG, AMP, edge/cache/redirect variants) plus robust client/server detection to tag real‑world visits.

Why it matters: Segmenting by load type removes noise in LCP/engagement, revealing what Google‑referred users actually experience.
Adopt this week: Tag Google‑referred, first‑visit, same‑tab sessions with a load‑type flag and start reporting LCP by type (e.g., SXG prefetch vs server load).