I enjoy organizing code and find cascade layers a fantastic way to organize code explicitly as the cascade looks at it. The neat part is, that as much as it helps with “top-level” organization, cascade layers can be nested, which allows us to author more precise…
Excellent 10+ Tools & Resources for Designers and Agencies in 2025
While it may seem to be admirable, it could turn out to be extremely difficult to rely solely on your own creativity when building a website from scratch. In truth, the ability to build a great website usually depends on the tools you use and in the underpinning those tools help you create. Creativity is still key, but in this case it is the creativity of the designers of those very tools.
To complicate matters, the bar is raised as far as what constitutes a great or “stunning” website in 2025. The definition of “stunning” is no longer solely about its aesthetics. It’s mostly about a website’s efficiency, responsiveness, and adaptability.
From Trafft White Label to WoodMart, the themes and plugins discussed in this article offer the efficiency, responsiveness, and adaptability that is needed to build a competitive and future-ready website.
1. Trafft White Label – Scheduling Solution for Digital Agencies
The essential: The White Label option offers agencies a fully branded, premium booking solution without the time and cost associated with developing software from scratch.
Want to see this plugin live? Click on the video.
Trafft White Label users can add value to their service offerings and generate revenue by providing a robust appointment management system while maintaining their own branding. They also benefit from using Trafft by not having to develop the software from scratch and putting in the time and expense involved in doing so.
The end users profit from having an in-house booking solution that –
- is easy to set up and operate.
- manages the bulk of their administrative tasks.
- eliminates the costs associated with operating a manual booking system.
Trafft’s Divine Beauty and Spa template provides a good an example of where you can experience the power of Trafft’s booking solution firsthand and how easy it would be to customize it for use by any services-providing business.
Customer avg. grade: 4.9/ 5 Capterra, 4.7/ 5 G2
Client review: “Great tool, exceptional service! Trafft has been intuitive to use and implement. I love the look and feel of the program and how it integrates into my websites. All of my support emails have been responded to promptly and with care to provide as much help as possible. I can’t wait to see how the company continues to grow and improve this tool. I have tried many scheduling tools, and Trafft has been the easiest and best to implement. Thank you!”
Immediate help via: YouTube videos, Documentation
2. Amelia – Feature Rich Booking Plugin for Appointments and Events
The essential: Amelia’s intuitive interface enables appointment bookings to be managed with minimal effort.
Want to see this plugin live? Click on the video.
The Amelia WordPress Booking plugin’s ease in navigability and flexibility makes it indispensable for optimizing business operations and driving growth. Consequently, Amelia has received recognition from industry website users among the thousands of businesses it powers.
- Amelia has introduced “Packages”, a game-changing top feature users can use to bundle multiple services into cohesive packages to create a streamlined and convenient booking experience that benefits both the business and its clientele.
- Extensive customization options enable businesses to tailor the system to meet their needs. The Tarot Card Reader demo site with its visually captivating and intuitive interface.
- Thanks to WooCommerce integration, Amelia provides multiple payment gateways that send invoices and offer online same-day payments.
Customer avg. grade: 4.9/5 on Capterra, 4.7/5 on Trustpilot
Client review: “Amelia is a great booking tool that has a nice look and feel right out of the box. It is a bit overwhelming at first because of the many settings you have but the customer service support is great. I can’t recommend this plugin enough.”
Immediate help via: YouTube videos, Documentation
3. MapSVG – WordPress Interactive Mapping Plugin
The essential: Map SVG maps can feature all the complexity you want.
Want to see this plugin live? Click on the video.
MapSVG offers much more that giving its users the ability to access a map. It is, given the selection of customizable templates that work in concert with its database, what users can do with a map. Access to these templates allows users to create information windows and maps of any complexity they need. That is what makes MapSVG unique among and a step or two ahead of other mapping plugins.
You have at your fingertips:
- The ability to display data from WordPress posts, the MapSVG database, CSV files, and APIs.
- 56 USA and 132 Worldwide vector maps in the database.
- A Form Builder for creating custom mapping content and if adding a directory next to a map.
- Access to drawing tools for adding clickable areas on images plus the ability to assign custom content to multicolored maps.
Customer avg. grade: 4.5 / 5
Client review: “A fabulous WordPress plugin that gets more feature-rich and powerful month-by-month. Not to mention excellent support and good response times. All-in-all, a 5-star solution for maps on WordPress.”
Immediate help via: Support manual, YouTube videos, AI assistant (live chat embedded in the plugin)
4. Uncode – Creative Theme Known for Its Attractive Concepts
The essential: With Uncode you can make a site that shines.
Want to see this template live? Click on the video.
Uncode is primarily for web designers and creative enthusiasts who are drawn to it because of its uniqueness in allowing them to tailor every section of a design to fit their special needs.
Another reason is the number of advanced features it has to offer including its 100+ demos or concepts. Check out Uncode’s Classic Twilight Restaurant concept and you will see why.
Features that contribute to Uncode’s attractiveness include:
- A Wireframes plugin with its 750+ section templates that can also be used for prototyping and other purposes.
- An enhanced Page Builder accompanied by 85 professionally designed modules.
- A Content Block for creating replicable sections of content that can be integrated into web pages.
- A Dynamic Elements and Options feature that allows access to data from diverse WordPress sources to create custom templates.
Uncode is Compatible with popular plugins like WooCommerce, WPML, HubSpot, and more, and offers free, consistent, and stable updates to ensure compatibility with standards & trends.
Customer avg. grade: 4.89/5 on 3.352 Reviews
Client review: “All is really good!!! Easy and complete!!”
Immediate help via: Support manual, YouTube videos, Facebook Group
5. wpDataTables – Best WordPress Table Plugin
The essential: wpDataTables makes the process of data visualization and representation quick, easy, and effective.
Want to see this plugin live? Click on the video.
To call wpDataTables feature rich is an understatement. It has 60+ powerful data management and visualization features to start with. It also has addons that extend its functionality even further. wpDataTables is the ideal solution for anyone who needs to present data in tables or charts.
WooCommerce integration is a key feature in that it makes wpDataTables an excellent choice for those who want to optimize an online store by including informative visual data presentations.
WooCommerce integration makes it possible for wpDataTable to:
- Create or customize product tables like that shown in the WordPress Pricing Table.
- Use customizable product tables to augment store functionality.
- Simplify tasks to improve user experience.
wpDataTables also makes exploring and analyzing data easier with its robust filtering, sorting, and search functionality.
Customer avg. grade: 4.6/ 5 WordPress
Client review: “I’ve been using it for a while, I like its ability to compile a spreadsheet from multiple sources and I’d like to highlight its performance and filters. The finished list can be easily exported to different formats. Support is simply incredible, patient, dedicated and helpful. I would recommend the wpDataTables plugin to everyone with a clear heart.”
Immediate help via: YouTube videos, Documentation
6. LayerSlider – Next-Level WordPress Slider and Animation Builder
The essential: LayerSlider transforms websites with stunning animations and powerful features, turning ordinary pages into extraordinary experiences.
Want to see this plugin live? Click on the video.
LayerSlider’s versatility makes it easy for users to design animated web content that leaves a lasting positive impression on visitors.
It is particularly noteworthy of the way in which LayerSlider has used the scroll effect to a web designer’s advantage. You’ll see this special effect put to use in newer templates like the Fashion Trends template that also makes clever use of the hover effect.
Other LayerSlider features include:
- Add-Ons: Include advanced features like counters, countdowns, error pages, and maintenance mode to elevate your website.
- Project Editor: Experience a clean, easy-to-use interface with live previews, Google Fonts support, an extensive icon library, and millions of stock images and videos.
- Professional Templates: Find a wide array of slider, popup, and website templates that are fully downloadable and simple to adjust to your style.
- Unique Effects: Utilize pre-designed transitions, animation options, and visual effects for impactful, high-quality results.
LayerSlider provides unparalleled flexibility and creative control, whether you’re a designer, marketer, or site owner.
Client review: “The scroll effects make my page come alive – it’s like magic seeing the animations unfold as you scroll.”
Immediate support options: Built-in help in LayerSlider, Ticket System, and Product Manual
7. Slider Revolution – WordPress Plugin for Creating Professionally-Crafted Visuals
The essential: Slider Revolution makes it easy to create websites that leave the competition in the dust.
Want to see this plugin live? Click on the video.
You can’t afford to have your website designs blend in with everyone else’s, which is why you need an innovative solution. While it’s not always easy to consistently adhere to the forefront of web design in your work, Slider Revolution with its ultra-modern templates for sliders, hero page templates, and single-page websites, can help you do so.
Slider Revolution addresses a level of agility and adaptability that makes it possible for any of its users to cope with ongoing changes in web design trends and practices..
Scroll through Slider Revolution’s Creative Portfolio Website slider template for example. Potential visitors just don’t come across websites like this one every day.
- Easy-to-digest tutorials accompany the individual templates.
- Some of these template designs work best with their intended layout whereas others can be transformed to fit almost any purpose.
- The templates are optimized for speed and responsiveness.
- It takes but a few clicks from the editing panel to customize content.
The Slider Revolution team adds ultra-modern, responsive, and fully-loaded templates to its library every month.
Immediate help via: Support manual, YouTube videos, Ticket Help Desk
8. Blocksy – Versatile and Super-fast WordPress WooCommerce Theme
The essential: Blocksy gives you all the flexibility you need to create professional-looking websites.
Want to see this template live? Click on the video.
Blocksy’s total integration with WooCommerce means that you can use this responsive and SEO-ready theme to create any website you have in mind irrespective of its use or niche. In the event you could use a little help in getting a project underway or would simply like to get it off to a fast start, a starter site like Pottery should give you more than a few ideas on how to proceed.
- Blocksy’s standout feature is a Header Builder that makes it easy to craft a header that reflects your brand. Each of the header elements offers a range of customization options that allows you to design a header that is user-friendly and engaging.
- professionally-crafted Header Pro Elements give you unlimited header design possibilities. All are carefully crafted to match Blocksy’s original design language.
Customer avg. grade: 5/ 5 from 835 reviews
Client review: “Blocksy is a gem! In this era where user experience, be it for the developers or the end users (website visitors) reigns supreme, Blocksy is moving the goal posts forward with its focus on versatility, performance, and impeccable design. Blocksy’s attention to user-friendliness, consistency of admin area design which translates to easiness on your eyes, and overall ergonomics, is second to none.”
Immediate help via: Support manual, YouTube videos
9. WhatFontIs.com – Free AI Powered Font Identifying Tool
The essential: WhatFontIs accurately identifies fonts in seconds using AI.
Want to see this tool live? Click on the video.
WhatFontIs is fast and accurate, easy to use, and you can use it right from the browser or browser extension. WhatFontIs’ audience ranges from first time font searchers to seasoned professionals looking to identify prepared font examples or fonts from any image.
WhatFontIs is not designed to do anything and everything. It does one thing and does it exceptionally well. It will compare the font in question against the million or so different fonts in its database and come up with a match in 10 seconds or less 90+% of the time.
- Submitting a font is easy, and with a Chrome extension it is even easier to do. With the extension it’s simply a matter of clicking on an image containing the font you intend to submit.
- Once the font is submitted, the AI-powered search engine goes to work to identify the font and 60 closest matches to that font.
- WhatFontIs provides the font name and the name of a website where the font might be purchased. WhatFontIs does not sell fonts.
Immediate help via: YouTube videos
10. Mobirise AI – Prompt Powered Free Website Builder
The essential: Mobirise enables users to create responsive and visually stunning websites using prompts instead than relying on coding.
Want to see this builder live? Click on the video.
Mobirise AI is designed to generate tailored content, stunning images, and customized layouts based on your specific prompts. When using this free AI-powered website builder you will experience a seamless website creation process that, by combining automation with your personal touch, makes acquiring an online presence easy and effective.
Mobirise AI website builder works as follows:
- You initiate the process by submitting your design ideas in terms of simple textual descriptions.
- Prompt Mobirise AI and it will create an initial cohesive website structure.
- You continue to feed Mobirise AI with more detailed textual descriptions followed by prompting until you have created an initial design to your liking.
- It then becomes a matter of refining and adjusting various aspects of your initial design using the AI website builder with its drag and drop functionality to position pre-made blocks to fit your desired layout.
- You can then customize block-by-block by replacing placeholder text and images with your own unique content.
- Once you are satisfied, you are ready to publish your website.
Immediate help via: Support manual, YouTube videos
11. XStore – Online Store Building WooCommerce Theme
XStore is an all-in-one WooCommerce and WordPress website building solution with no plugins required.
Want to see this template live? Click on the video.
For starters, XStore is customizable, super-fast, and user-friendly. This WooCommerce and WordPress website building solution can boast of a host of other standout features as well, like the fact that it is fully integrated with Elementor Booster Sales. Many of its users will point to its Full Site Builder as its top feature in that it has enabled them to fully customize key page areas like headers, footers and checkout, cart, and product pages.
XStore also features:
- AMP for WooCommerce that dramatically improves mobile loading times.
- 130+ pre-built websites including this customizable and responsive Furniture website example.
- A Grid layout that ensures precise webpage alignment within Elementor. Elementor PRO is not needed when working with the XStore theme.
- A built-in mega menu that provides a user-friendly option to highlight deeper content on your site.
- A Product Variation Gallery complete with stunning animations and hover effects.
- A Child Theme with files.
XStore also fully supports RTL and features full AJAX shop and pagination.
Customer avg. grade: 4.85 / 5
Immediate help via: Support manual, YouTube videos
12. Litho – A Modern, Highly Customizable, Multi-purpose Elementor WordPress Theme
The essential: Litho can be used by agencies, companies, and freelances to create any type of website, portfolio, or blog.
Want to see this template live? Click on the video.
Litho is a multi-purpose theme that can be used to design any type of website for any type of client. Litho’s host of impressive website building tools and features include:
- Full compatibility with Elementor.
- The Litho section builder that can be used to customize most page items using Elementor-like header, footer, mini header, archive page / post template, page title and promo popup. Note that in most themes users can only change a page’s body content.
- 200+ creative elements, a library of 300+ templates, and 37+ home pages that include Litho’s Home SEO Agency one-page website template that features an layout with many potential uses.
- A free of cost premium Slider Revolution plugin.
The Litho theme is WooCommerce ready and WPML compatible.
Customer avg. grade: 4.94 / 5
Client review: “Perfect! The theme is so full of options, I love it. And I’m so happy with the support, they are always ready to help. 5 stars both to the templates and the support team!”
Immediate help via: Support manual, YouTube videos
13. Essential Grid – Innovative WordPress Gallery Grid Plugin
The essential: Essential Grid will speed up your workflow when you are creating a grid system that meets your requirements.
Want to see this plugin live? Click on the video.
Essential Grid users will never tire of telling you how their choice among 50+ fully customizable grid skins has helped them organize and speed up their workflow. These 50+ skins are known for their layouts including the one you’ll find in the Clark Gillies Blog Grid for WordPress with its minimal and functional design. The optional lightbox will also make it a solid pick for a portfolio showcase.
Essential Grid also gives you –
- A choice or mix of even, masonry, and cobble layouts.
- The capability to build your own skins with the visual editor.
- One-time only content and sourcing uploading from Social Media sites. The need to go back and forth between your website and the Social Media site to upload information has been eliminated.
- Clean code that promotes fast page loading.
- SEO with deep linking and pagination to achieve higher site ranking in the search engines.
Customer avg. grade: 4.8/5 on Trustpilot
Client review: “Immediate help – solved it quickly.”
Immediate help via: Support manual, YouTube videos
14. WoodMart – Popular and Fully Customizable WordPress WooCommerce Theme
The essential: WoodMart’s pre-built websites and customization options makes it easy to build the perfect website.
Want to see this template live? Click on the video.
Its wide range of functions and customization options that make it easier for its users to build their websites has made WoodMart one of the most popular themes around.
With WoodMart, a single click is all it takes to get a project underway when you choose and import a responsive demo like the attractive WoodMart Energy example with its impressive imagery and informative text. Since these demos are almost unbelievably easy to customize, you can have a site up and ready to launch in no time, irrespective of the type of product you will be selling.
Thanks to Woodmart’s full customizability of its demos you can design your website any way you want. Choose the fonts and colors that appeal to you and will appeal to your visitors and change the design of product descriptions to fit your needs.
There’s even more to like.
- WoodMart’s offerings include a custom layouts builder and product- and customer-centric features that include shop, product cart, and checkout pages.
- Size is never an issue as far as a store’s website design is concerned.
- New demos and pre-built websites are released on a monthly basis.
- A White Label option is included for developers and social integrations are included for Marketers.
Customer avg. grade:4.95/ 5
Immediate help via: Support manual, YouTube videos, Support forum
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Website designers and builders certainly appreciate the large number of free web design resources that are ready for the taking it. What they don’t appreciate quite so much is the challenge involved in finding one or more that meet their unique requirements in such a large number of potential candidates. Worse yet, the theme or plugin selected must also enable them to design and build websites that will not only be able to engage visitors but be future ready as well.
Did you come across a theme or plugin that could elevate your 2025 projects to the level you would like? If you did not find what you need, you have hopefully gained a better understanding of what to look for as you continue your search.
Baseline Status in a WordPress Block
The steps for how I took the Baseline Status web component and made it into a WordPress block that can be used on any page of post.
Baseline Status in a WordPress Block originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get…
Driving innovation, from Silicon Valley to Detroit
Across a career’s worth of pioneering product designs, Doug Field’s work has shaped the experience of anyone who’s ever used a MacBook Air, ridden a Segway, or driven a Tesla Model 3.
But his newest project is his most ambitious yet: reinventing the Ford automobile, one of the past century’s most iconic pieces of technology.
As Ford’s chief electric vehicle (EV), digital, and design officer, Field is tasked with leading the development of the company’s electric vehicles, while making new software platforms central to all Ford models.
To bring Ford Motor Co. into that digital and electric future, Field effectively has to lead a fast-moving startup inside the legacy carmaker. “It is incredibly hard, figuring out how to do ‘startups’ within large organizations,” he concedes.
If anyone can pull it off, it’s likely to be Field. Ever since his time in MIT’s Leaders for Global Operations (then known as “Leaders in Manufacturing”) program studying organizational behavior and strategy, Field has been fixated on creating the conditions that foster innovation.
“The natural state of an organization is to make it harder and harder to do those things: to innovate, to have small teams, to go against the grain,” he says. To overcome those forces, Field has become a master practitioner of the art of curating diverse, talented teams and helping them flourish inside of big, complex companies.
“It’s one thing to make a creative environment where you can come up with big ideas,” he says. “It’s another to create an execution-focused environment to crank things out. I became intrigued with, and have been for the rest of my career, this question of how can you have both work together?”
Three decades after his first stint as a development engineer at Ford Motor Co., Field now has a chance to marry the manufacturing muscle of Ford with the bold approach that helped him rethink Apple’s laptops and craft Tesla’s Model 3 sedan. His task is nothing less than rethinking how cars are made and operated, from the bottom up.
“If it’s only creative or execution, you’re not going to change the world,” he says. “If you want to have a huge impact, you need people to change the course you’re on, and you need people to build it.”
A passion for design
From a young age, Field had a fascination with automobiles. “I was definitely into cars and transportation more generally,” he says. “I thought of cars as the place where technology and art and human design came together — cars were where all my interests intersected.”
With a mother who was an artist and musician and an engineer father, Field credits his parents’ influence for his lifelong interest in both the aesthetic and technical elements of product design. “I think that’s why I’m drawn to autos — there’s very much an aesthetic aspect to the product,” he says.
After earning a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, Field took a job at Ford in 1987. The big Detroit automakers of that era excelled at mass-producing cars, but weren’t necessarily set up to encourage or reward innovative thinking. Field chafed at the “overstructured and bureaucratic” operational culture he encountered.
The experience was frustrating at times, but also valuable and clarifying. He realized that he “wanted to work with fast-moving, technology-based businesses.”
“My interest in advancing technical problem-solving didn’t have a place in the auto industry” at the time, he says. “I knew I wanted to work with passionate people and create something that didn’t exist, in an environment where talent and innovation were prized, where irreverence was an asset and not a liability. When I read about Silicon Valley, I loved the way they talked about things.”
During that time, Field took two years off to enroll in MIT’s LGO program, where he deepened his technical skills and encountered ideas about manufacturing processes and team-driven innovation that would serve him well in the years ahead.
“Some of core skill sets that I developed there were really, really important,” he says, “in the context of production lines and production processes.” He studied systems engineering and the use of Monte Carlo simulations to model complex manufacturing environments. During his internship with aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, he worked on automated design in computer-aided design (CAD) systems, long before those techniques became standard practice.
Another powerful tool he picked up was the science of probability and statistics, under the tutelage of MIT Professor Alvin Drake in his legendary course 6.041/6.431 (Probabilistic Systems Analysis). Field would go on to apply those insights not only to production processes, but also to characterizing variability in people’s aptitudes, working styles, and talents, in the service of building better, more innovative teams. And studying organizational strategy catalyzed his career-long interest in “ways to look at innovation as an outcome, rather than a random spark of genius.”
“So many things I was lucky to be exposed to at MIT,” Field says, were “all building blocks, pieces of the puzzle, that helped me navigate through difficult situations later on.”
Learning while leading
After leaving Ford in 1993, Field worked at Johnson and Johnson Medical for three years in process development. There, he met Segway inventor Dean Kamen, who was working on a project called the iBOT, a gyroscopic powered wheelchair that could climb stairs.
When Kamen spun off Segway to develop a new personal mobility device using the same technology, Field became his first hire. He spent nearly a decade as the firm’s chief technology officer.
At Segway, Field’s interests in vehicles, technology, innovation, process, and human-centered design all came together.
“When I think about working now on electric cars, it was a real gift,” he says. The problems they tackled prefigured the ones he would grapple with later at Tesla and Ford. “Segway was very much a precursor to a modern EV. Completely software controlled, with higher-voltage batteries, redundant systems, traction control, brushless DC motors — it was basically a miniature Tesla in the year 2000.”
At Segway, Field assembled an “amazing” team of engineers and designers who were as passionate as he was about pushing the envelope. “Segway was the first place I was able to hand-pick every single person I worked with, define the culture, and define the mission.”
As he grew into this leadership role, he became equally engrossed with cracking another puzzle: “How do you prize people who don’t fit in?”
“Such a fundamental part of the fabric of Silicon Valley is the love of embracing talent over a traditional organization’s ways of measuring people,” he says. “If you want to innovate, you need to learn how to manage neurodivergence and a very different set of personalities than the people you find in large corporations.”
Field still keeps the base housing of a Segway in his office, as a reminder of what those kinds of teams — along with obsessive attention to detail — can achieve.
Before joining Apple in 2008, he showed that component, with its clean lines and every minuscule part in its place in one unified package, to his prospective new colleagues. “They were like, “OK, you’re one of us,’” he recalls.
He soon became vice president of hardware development for all Mac computers, leading the teams behind the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro and eventually overseeing more than 2,000 employees. “Making things really simple and really elegant, thinking about the product as an integrated whole, that really took me into Apple.”
The challenge of giving the MacBook Air its signature sleek and light profile is an example.
“The MacBook Air was the first high-volume consumer electronic product built out of a CNC-machined enclosure,” says Field. He worked with industrial design and technology teams to devise a way to make the laptop from one solid piece of aluminum and jettison two-thirds of the parts found in the iMac. “We had material cut away so that every single screw and piece of electronics sat down into it an integrated way. That’s how we got the product so small and slim.”
“When I interviewed with Jony Ive” — Apple’s legendary chief design officer — “he said your ability to zoom out and zoom in was the number one most important ability as a leader at Apple.” That meant zooming out to think about “the entire ethos of this product, and the way it will affect the world” and zooming all the way back in to obsess over, say, the physical shape of the laptop itself and what it feels like in a user’s hands.
“That thread of attention to detail, passion for product, design plus technology rolled directly into what I was doing at Tesla,” he says. When Field joined Tesla in 2013, he was drawn to the way the brash startup upended the approach to making cars. “Tesla was integrating digital technology into cars in a way nobody else was. They said, ‘We’re not a car company in Silicon Valley, we’re a Silicon Valley company and we happen to make cars.’”
Field assembled and led the team that produced the Model 3 sedan, Tesla’s most affordable vehicle, designed to have mass-market appeal.
That experience only reinforced the importance, and power, of zooming in and out as a designer — in a way that encompasses the bigger human resources picture.
“You have to have a broad sense of what you’re trying to accomplish and help people in the organization understand what it means to them,” he says. “You have to go across and understand operations enough to glue all of those (things) together — while still being great at and focused on something very, very deeply. That’s T-shaped leadership.”
He credits his time at LGO with providing the foundation for the “T-shaped leadership” he practices.
“An education like the one I got at MIT allowed me to keep moving that ‘T’, to focus really deep, learn a ton, teach as much as I can, and after something gets more mature, pull out and bed down into other areas where the organization needs to grow or where there’s a crisis.”
The power of marrying scale to a “startup mentality”
In 2018, Field returned to Apple as a vice president for special projects. “I left Tesla after Model 3 and Y started to ramp, as there were people better than me to run high-volume manufacturing,” he says. “I went back to Apple hoping what Tesla had learned would motivate Apple to get into a different market.”
That market was his early love: cars. Field quietly led a project to develop an electric vehicle at Apple for three years.
Then Ford CEO Jim Farley came calling. He persuaded Field to return to Ford in late 2021, partly by demonstrating how much things had changed since his first stint as the carmaker.
“Two things came through loud and clear,” Field says. “One was humility. ‘Our success is not assured.’” That attitude was strikingly different from Field’s early experience in Detroit, encountering managers who were resistant to change. “The other thing was urgency. Jim and Bill Ford said the exact same thing to me: ‘We have four or five years to completely remake this company.’”
“I said, ‘OK, if the top of company really believes that, then the auto industry may be ready for what I hope to offer.’”
So far, Field is energized and encouraged by the appetite for reinvention he’s encountered this time around at Ford.
“If you can combine what Ford does really well with what a Tesla or Rivian can do well, this is something to be reckoned with,” says Field. “Skunk works have become one of the fundamental tools of my career,” he says, using an industry term that describes a project pursued by a small, autonomous group of people within a larger organization.
Ford has been developing a new, lower-cost, software-enabled EV platform — running all of the car’s sensors and components from a central digital operating system — with a “skunk works” team for the past two years. The company plans to build new sedans, SUVs, and small pickups based on this new platform.
With other legacy carmakers like Volvo racing into the electric future and fierce competition from EV leaders Tesla and Rivian, Field and his colleagues have their work cut out for them.
If he succeeds, leveraging his decades of learning and leading from LGO to Silicon Valley, then his latest chapter could transform the way we all drive — and secure a spot for Ford at the front of the electric vehicle pack in the process.
“I’ve been lucky to feel over and over that what I’m doing right now — they are going to write a book about it,” say Field. “This is a big deal, for Ford and the U.S. auto industry, and for American industry, actually.”
Compiling CSS With Vite and Lightning CSS
Are partials the only thing keeping you writing CSS in Sass? With a little configuration, it’s possible to compile partial CSS files without a Sass dependency. Ryan Trimble has the details.
Compiling CSS With Vite and Lightning CSS originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the…
Keeping the page interactive while a View Transition is running
When using View Transitions you’ll notice the page becomes unresponsive to clicks while a View Transition is running. […] This happens because of the ::view-transition pseudo element – the one that contains all animated snapshots – gets overlayed on top
…
Keeping the page interactive while a View Transition…
Chrome 133 Goodies
Did you see the release notes for Chrome 133? It’s currently in beta, but the Chrome team has been publishing a slew of new articles with pretty incredible demos that are tough to ignore. I figured I’d round those up in one place.
Chrome 133 Goodies originally…
The Mistakes of CSS
All of the things that the CSS Working Group would change if they had a time-traveling Delorean to go back and do things over.
The Mistakes of CSS originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter….
What on Earth is the `types` Descriptor in View Transitions?
The @view-transition at-rule has two descriptions. One is the commonly used navigation descriptor. The second is types, the lesser-known of the two, and one that probably envies how much attention navigation gets. But read on to learn why we need types and how it opens up new possibilities…
Revisiting CSS Multi-Column Layout
After 20 years since Andy Clarke first published his book about Multi-Column Layout in CSS, he’s back to encourage a fresh look at CSS columns for enhanced readability and design flexibility.
Revisiting CSS Multi-Column Layout originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You…