The UX of Note Taking

Taking notes is like building websites

1 min read

I've been a web designer/developer for over 10 years now. I've created a lot of websites and I've learned a lot about user experience and way-finding techniques that are important for making websites successful and highly converting.

Ironically I've never thought to employ that knowledge in helping me create my own note-taking system (or "second brain"). With the advent of link-based note apps (Roam, Obsidian, Logseq, etc) I've realized that it is possible to arrange and organize my notes like a website.

For example, I've been heavily inspired by Nick Milo's recent LYT Kit 6 to develop different "workbenches" or dashboards for organizing and working on my notes contextually. This is my Home dashboard with links to important contextual areas for seeing dynamic lists of my latest notes, Readwise imports, or Essay:

I also created a Library dashboard that uses a modified Dewey Decimal system to organize my knowledge categories:

The concept of building my own personal "website" around my notes and thinking has really helped me to get better at processing and moving my knowledge and idea creation forward.