The Joy of Small Tools

The best small tools have a little bit of game feel in them.

That does not mean they need particle effects or noisy animation. It means the tool should make state obvious, respond quickly, and reward the right action with clear feedback. A good editor utility, export helper, or project dashboard can feel satisfying for the same reasons a good menu does: focus, rhythm, and readable consequence.

I keep coming back to that idea when building developer tools. Make the next action visible. Make the selected thing feel selected. Make progress feel like progress.