What makes design at Arc so unique (part 1)

We’ve put consistency on a pedestal.

After all, this is the key to usability, efficiency, learnability… right?

Right??

Well after interviewing the founding designer of the Browser Company, one thing is clear…

The team designing Arc is doing things differently (and it’s working).

Here’s what makes their approach so unique 👇

Leaving fingerprints

Many design teams aim to produce work that looks and feels the same.

But instead of doubling down on design systems, tokens and patterns… Arc keeps it pretty minimal:

“we have a handful of shared components for things like tabs and the sidebar… but for one-off experiences like onboarding or our mobile app, we tend to start from scratch as designers.”
— Nate Parrott

Starting from scratch creates space for each designer’s unique style to shine through in their work.

So much so that they can look at a piece of UI or an interaction and tell exactly who designed it.

“Everyone on the team has a pretty obvious style and they all blend together to create what feels like the brand.”
— Charlie Deets

Let’s look at some borders for example…

One of the first pieces of UI that I saved to my taste library features these glowing gradient borders:

But I’m also a big fan of these dotted borders on hover (one of the only times you’ll find 0px radius in the product)

Sometimes you find subtle white borders as a way to create visual separation on low contrast backgrounds.

And if you dig deeper, you can also spot some blur-less shadows that create a slightly elevated feel 👀

Now if you poll Design Twitter, almost everyone will agree that Arc has world-class design.

But judging by this small screenshot sample size, they’d probably “fail” a basic design system audit 😅

So, does that mean the product design could be improved by investing in a more cohesive visual language?

Maaaaaaybe…

But could it also mean that we place too much value on consistency for consistency’s sake?

Because Arc’s UI is undeniably 🔥

And it starts with the people.

“there are individual craftspeople with individual voices who are being allowed to shine through”
— Nate Parrott

Optimizing for feelings

This emphasis on the individual makes Arc feel more like a collaborative art piece than an ultra cohesive product.

And the thing about art? It’s not inherently right or wrong… but it does make you feel something.

“How do we want to make someone feel on the other end of our software? What is the feeling we are trying to invoke in the user? That is what we optimize for.”
— Josh Miller

Optimizing for feelings opens up new possibilities for creativity, personal expression, and maybe even a bit of f*cking around 😅

So what does it look like to infuse more of YOU into your designs?

“What if we didn’t abstract ourselves away? What if we left more space to leave our fingerprints on the products that we are all building?”
— Karla Cole

Because in a world dominated by design systems, templates, libraries, and AI… I want to craft experiences that resonate on a deeper, more human level.

Insights from the founding designer of the Browser Company

Arc is easily one of my favorite products of the last 5 years which is why I’m so excited about this interview with their founding designer, Nate Parrott.

It’s an inside look at what makes design at the Browser Company so unique. We jam about:

• How Nate went from engineer at Snap to the Browser Co.

• Why design at Arc prioritizes fingerprints > consistency

• How Nate collaborates with engineers on Arc

• The story behind Arc Search’s hook feature

• The Browser Co’s culture of prototyping

• How Nate balances intuition and data

• + a lot more…

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts 👇