Designing for Transparent Screens
Kiln Design · 1 min read
Behind the scenes of a design system for displays you look through, not at
A transparent display has no background. Whatever the wearer is looking at — a sunset, a spreadsheet, a stranger's face — becomes your canvas.
Our first prototypes failed in the most predictable way: white text vanished against the sky, and dark text disappeared at night.
Light, never shadow
We settled on additive light: every element is built from light, never shadow, with a soft halo that keeps edges readable on anything.
On a screen you can see through, every pixel you draw is a pixel of the world you hide.
Fewer things, better placed
The result is a system with fewer components than any we have built, and more rules about where they may appear.
Contributors
The Kiln Design team