I’m Neil McArdle, a product designer and builder based in London.

I design products and build them myself, from the first sketch to the code that ships. Right now that’s makeebookmakeebook, a quiet place to write books, and coverlycoverly, a search of over 3,000 book covers.

Before that I took the AvisCheckout checkout from five steps to three. It’s live on avis.com.

I also work with MobbinContractor, in the evenings, the library of real app screens designers use for reference.

What I want to design next is the tools themselves. I trained as a painter, then took a degree in social psychology, so I care about both the brush and the person holding it. This year I’ve been researching where design tools came from and what designers say they’re becoming.