Design 2026: Differentiate Beyond UI; Agentic Dev, Security, and Resilience
NEWSLETTER | Amplifi Labs
UX 2026: Stand Out by Designing Deeper, Beyond the UI
Nielsen Norman Group • January 16, 2026
NN/g reports the UX market is stabilizing after 2025’s turmoil, but 2026 remains competitive—senior generalists and strategy-focused practitioners are rebounding faster than juniors. With AI fatigue rising and standardized systems commoditizing UI, differentiation shifts to deep research, system behavior, trust, and measurable business impact. Teams should treat AI as a background utility, design for transparency and control, and use user research to guide product decisions and model customization.
AI Engineering & Agent Ops
Code-Only Agents Turn LLM Actions into Auditable, Repeatable Programs
Around the web •January 19, 2026
This piece advocates building “code-only” agents with a single tool—execute_code—so every action becomes runnable code, yielding a verifiable “code witness” rather than opaque tool traces. It details practical design choices (result-size thresholds, stdout/stderr handling, strict enforcement to block other tools, and runtime selection like Python or TypeScript) and contrasts the approach with MCP/Skills by emphasizing deterministic semantics and reusability. An open-source Claude Code plugin demonstrates the pattern, with a roadmap toward hybrid systems: natural-language orchestration paired with code-only execution for computable tasks.
Hide API Keys from Claude Code with HTTP Proxies
Around the web •January 13, 2026
Sandboxing and IP-level firewalls aren’t enough to stop secret exfiltration from agentic coding tools like Claude Code, especially given domain fronting and broad allowlists. Route both CLI and sandbox traffic through HTTP proxies (HTTP_PROXY and sandbox httpProxyPort) and use mitmproxy add-ons to inject real credentials at the proxy while keeping dummy keys in the environment—enabling fine-grained least-privilege controls, auditing, and the ability to block sensitive endpoints.
Systems, Security & Operations
Open-source, cross-platform Bluetooth mesh chat works without internet or servers
Around the web •January 19, 2026
A new open-source peer-to-peer messaging app uses Bluetooth mesh to form ad-hoc, multi-hop networks with no internet, servers, or phone numbers, enabling censorship- and surveillance-resistant communication. Native clients for iOS 16+/macOS 13+ and Android 8+ implement the same protocol for full cross-platform compatibility, with source on GitHub and code released into the public domain. For developers, it offers a reference for offline-first, device-to-device networking that can be forked or integrated into resilient communication tools for low-connectivity scenarios.
Open-source AWS-doctor CLI brings Trusted Advisor-like cost insights
Around the web •January 19, 2026
AWS-doctor is a Go-based terminal tool that analyzes AWS accounts for cost anomalies and spending trends, including month-over-month same-period comparisons and a six-month history. Its waste check flags unused EBS volumes, unassociated EIPs, idle or stopped EC2/RDS, idle load balancers, inactive NAT gateways/endpoints, and expiring EC2 reservations. It delivers Trusted Advisor-like guidance without a Business/Enterprise plan; install with `go install github.com/elC0mpa/aws-doctor@latest` and use flags like --trend and --waste per profile/region.
Experimental Qt Base Build with Fil-C Enforces C++ Memory Safety
Around the web •January 16, 2026
A developer demonstrates building Qt Base against the Fil-C toolchain—a memory-safe C/C++ implementation (v0.677, Linux x86_64) with concurrent GC and capability checks—using a custom CMake toolchain, cross-compiling with OpenGL disabled and the VNC platform. A WIP Qt patchset (cpuid and tagged-pointer fixes) enables a "Hello Qt" console app and shows Fil-C catching a QVector use-after-free at runtime, though AVX2 draw helper code currently fails on an unhandled LLVM intrinsic. For Qt/C++ teams, this suggests a path to memory safety without rewrites, but expect large binaries, x86_64-only tooling for now, and notable build/runtime limitations.
Frontend, Visual Tech & Team Platforms
Dock debuts Slack alternative with unlimited history and flat pricing
Around the web •January 18, 2026
Dock opened early access to a lightweight team chat focused on async/sync messaging, a Decisions inbox, and unlimited message history and search—free on all tiers. The product avoids per-seat fees and bundled AI, offering flat team pricing ($0 for up to 5 users, $15/month up to 20, $50/month up to 100), SOC 2–compliant data handling, and one-click Slack import/export. For teams chafing at Slack’s 90-day limit and added AI costs, Dock could materially cut collaboration spend while keeping chat simple.
A$AP Rocky's Helicopter Deploys Dynamic Gaussian Splatting at Scale
Around the web •January 18, 2026
The video was shot largely via volumetric performance capture and rendered as dynamic Gaussian splats, using Evercoast’s 56‑camera RGB‑D rig to generate ~10 TB of data and ~30 minutes of PLY sequences. Post ran through Houdini (CG Nomads GSOPs) with OTOY OctaneRender’s early splat relighting plus Blender for layout and WildCapture tooling for temporal consistency, enabling live previews, rapid iteration, and a “3D video” aesthetic without generative AI. For developers, it’s a production-grade reference pipeline showing practical capture, preview, relight, and simulation workflows for radiance-field content.
Build Themeable, Animated SVGs with CSS Relative Color and OKLCH
Smashing Magazine •January 14, 2026
Learn to turn one foundation color into a themeable, animated system using CSS relative color and OKLCH. Clarke shows proportional transforms (add/subtract lightness, multiply chroma, rotate hue) and @property-registered OKLCH channels to drive synchronized gradients, text contrast, and lighting effects across SVGs. This reduces manual palette work and makes UI theming resilient when the base color or motion changes.
