Oliver Vance
Design engineer, working alone on small software.
I build small, sharp software on my own — mostly for the Mac, mostly for problems I had first.
Before that I spent eight years between design and engineering at Northgate and Sundial, which is where I learned that the interesting decisions are almost never the visual ones.
I care about interfaces that stay out of the way, type that is set rather than chosen, and shipping the boring version first. I write here when I have worked something out properly.
Based in Lisbon. Before software I was a bookbinder, briefly and badly.
Projects
All projects-
Ridge
2025
A menu bar app that shows the weather where you are about to be, rather than where you are. It reads your next calendar location and forecasts for that, which turns out to be the only forecast anyone actually wants.
ridgeapp.com
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Halfline
2024
Time tracking for people who hate time tracking. One keystroke starts a timer, one stops it, and the week assembles itself. Built after I gave up on the fourth tool that wanted me to plan my day in advance.
halfline.app
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Tessera
2024
A colour token editor that shows every pair as a contrast ratio while you drag. It refuses to let you ship a palette that fails, which has made it unpopular with exactly the people who most needed it.
tessera.tools