The Dream Steps Journal

Working notes on design, technology, and AI.

No fluff. No listicles. Writing from inside the work — for founders, product teams, and marketers who care about getting the details right. We publish what we wish someone had told us before we shipped.

From the journal

When video on a landing page lifts conversion — and when it kills it

Most landing-page videos hurt conversion. Some lift it dramatically. The difference is six conditions, all of which feel obvious in retrospect and almost none of which most teams test for.

Why is your WordPress site slow? (And how to make it fast.)

Seven reasons WordPress sites are slow — and the order to fix them. Hosting, plugins, caching, images, render-blocking code, database bloat, and theme weight.

WordPress vs Webflow — which is right for your business?

WordPress runs 43% of the web. Webflow runs 1%. The two platforms are competing for different jobs — here's how to know which one is actually yours.

What makes packaging that actually sells (not just looks good)

There's a difference between packaging that wins a design review and packaging that wins on a shelf. The difference is seven principles — and a six-foot blur test that catches 80% of packaging failures before the print run.

5 signs your product has a UX problem you can’t see

Product teams cannot see the UX problems users experience silently. Here are the five most common ones, the diagnostic to spot each, and why the fix is usually not a redesign.

Brand identity vs logo design: what’s the actual difference?

A logo is the mark. A brand identity is the system that makes the mark mean something. Here's what each one does — and the four-stage test for working out which one you actually need to build first.

What you’re actually paying for when you commission a logo

Logo prices range from pocket money to enterprise budgets — and most people have no idea why. Here are the seven things that actually move the price, the four bands you can buy a logo in, and the trade-off you make at each one.

Brand motion: the part of identity most companies skip

Most brand identity systems stop at static. Then the team ships the brand into a website, an app, a TikTok, and a six-second pre-roll — every one of which moves. Here's the chapter most brand books are missing.

How to design Amazon A+ content that lifts conversion

An Amazon listing converts because the buyer's questions get answered in the order the buyer asks them. A+ content is the only section of the listing where the seller controls that order. Here's the five-module structure that works.

How long does a brand identity project actually take?

Most quotes for brand identity timelines are either too short to win or too long to feel safe. Here is what the work actually looks like, phase by phase — and the five factors that move the timeline more than anything else.