# Developing Taste

Essay by Emil Kowalski (https://emilkowal.ski)

Why taste matters and how to develop it.

Topics: Craft
Source: https://emilkowal.ski/ui/developing-taste

## For agents

Nothing to install. This is a reference: cite it, or fetch the source when
the reasoning matters.

Read it at: https://emilkowal.ski/ui/developing-taste

The full text is not reproduced here. It belongs to its author. What is
above is the author's own summary and the topics it covers.

Skills in this library that act on the same ground:

- emil-design-eng (https://www.stackskills.dev/md/emil-design-eng): The design-engineering house style behind Sonner and Vaul.
- prototype (https://www.stackskills.dev/md/prototype): Builds several genuinely different UI variants behind a live picker.
- apple-design (https://www.stackskills.dev/md/apple-design): Apple's interface and motion principles, translated for the web.
- better-ui (https://www.stackskills.dev/md/better-ui): Concentric radius, optical alignment, surface depth, hit areas.
- better-interface (https://www.stackskills.dev/md/better-interface): Every better-* skill as a single review pass.

## The short version

When cars were new nobody cared about the silhouette, because the competition was a horse. Software has reached the same point, so shipping something that works is no longer a differentiator. What separates products now is design, detail and the overall feel, and Emil's argument is that taste is a trained instinct rather than a preference you are born with. He gives three ways to train it: surround yourself with the best work in your field, force yourself to say why something feels good instead of stopping at the feeling, and keep practising while asking better people for critique.

## Verification

- Source link: Resolved (HTTP 200) (pass)
- Reading copy: Plain markdown for agents at /md/developing-taste (pass)
- Attribution: Credited to Emil Kowalski (pass)

Full page: https://www.stackskills.dev/library/developing-taste