# 07 — Sources & Bibliography **Research window:** 21 October 2026 **Method:** Primary guidelines were read directly; secondary sources were used to understand the 2026 "AI slop" discourse and portfolio expectations. Some pages (Awwwards, ACM DL) blocked automated access; their claims were not used unless corroborated elsewhere. --- ## Primary — company design guidance 1. **Apple — Human Interface Guidelines: Design principles** Used for: Purpose, Agency, Responsibility, Familiarity, Flexibility, Simplicity, Craft, Delight. 2. **Apple — Human Interface Guidelines: Generative AI** Used for: responsible AI, user control, transparency, clear expectations, non-AI fallback. 3. **Apple — Human Interface Guidelines: Machine Learning** Used for: critical vs complementary ML, private vs public data, error handling. 4. **Apple — Liquid Glass technology overview** Used as context for 2025–26 material trends; not adopted as a visual style. 5. **Google Design — Expressive Design: Google's UX Research** Used for: 46 studies, 18,000+ participants, 87% preference among 18–24, colour/shape/size/motion/containment, accessibility. 6. **Google — Material 3 Expressive** Used as the official system reference (page is JS-rendered; content corroborated via Google Design article). 7. **OpenAI — Design Guidelines / Brand** Used for: OpenAI Sans, perfect-circle wordmark, Blossom geometry (circles + right angles), open space, no effects/textures. 8. **Anthropic — design tokens (third-party documentation, updated 6 Oct 2026)** Used for: `#141413` ink, `#FAF9F5` paper, Anthropic Sans, 2px spacing increments, editorial warmth. *Note: Anthropic does not publish a complete public token file; these are community-extracted values, used as directional evidence, not copied verbatim.* 9. **Microsoft — Guidelines for Human-AI Interaction (HAX Toolkit)** Origin paper: Used for: 18 evidence-based guidelines across initial interaction, during interaction, errors, and over time. --- ## Secondary — 2026 UX & portfolio research 10. **Nielsen Norman Group — State of UX 2026: Design Deeper to Differentiate** (16 Jan 2026) Used for: AI hype → fatigue; "UI is still important, but it'll gradually become less of a differentiator"; trust requires transparency, control, consistency and support. 11. **RemoteWorks — Portfolio Design Trends for 2026** Used for: minimalism winning; dark mode default for technical audiences; case studies over galleries; mobile-first; 3–4 strong case studies beat ten shallow entries. 12. **Figma — Top Web Design Trends for 2026** Used for: retrofuturism, collage, neo-minimalism, expressive colour, immersive 3D — and to decide which trends to reject. 13. **Behance — Design Trends 2026** Used for: emotion-led humanised design, visible grids, asymmetry, intentional imperfection, accessible vibrancy. 14. **925Studios — AI Slop Web Design: Complete Guide** (19 Mar 2026) Used for: definition of AI slop, distributional convergence, default Inter/purple gradients/rounded cards, 38% visitor loss claim, human content 94.12% claim (secondary citations treated cautiously). 15. **Gi Pyeong Lee — Why Do All AI-Generated Websites Look the Same? (Hallmark)** (27 Jul 2026) Used for: Hallmark's refuse → apply → test model and the 57–65 point slop test. 16. **NxtFruit — AI Slop Design** (8 Aug 2026) Used for: "technically fine but visually interchangeable"; homogenisation. *(Page timed out during scraping; only the search excerpt was used.)* 17. **DesignMD — Taste Skill / anti-slop layout rules** Used as a cross-check for layout, typography and spacing rules. --- ## Academic / evidence-based (context) 18. **Guidelines for Human-AI Interaction** — Amershi et al., CHI 2019 (18 guidelines; basis of Microsoft HAX). 19. **User Experience Design Professionals' Perceptions of Generative AI** — CHI 2024. Used as background on designers' trust and control concerns. 20. **How AI-generated images affect human preference and trust in websites** — ACM, Apr 2026. *(Abstract blocked by Cloudflare; not quoted. Listed for completeness and future reading.)* --- ## Local evidence 21. **Project inventory** — `documentation/00-project-inventory.md` Generated from the local `C:\Users\mahes\Desktop\all projects` folders: READMEs, manifests, build artifacts and git remotes. 22. **Existing site** — `index.html`, `styles.css`, `script.js` (pre-redesign), plus `project_analysis.md`. Used for project history, descriptions and facts to verify. 23. **GitHub public profile** — Public API read on 21 Oct 2026: name, bio (`maheshwar.xyz`), 9 public repos. --- ## Limitations - Firecrawl credits were over the plan limit; bulk reading was done with crawl4ai and targeted Firecrawl queries. All quotes were verified against the returned page text. - Awwwards and ACM DL blocked automated access. No claims depend on them. - Anthropic's tokens are community-extracted. They informed the direction (warm paper/ink, editorial type), not exact values. - Statistics cited by agencies (38%, 94.12%) are secondary; they are used as directional evidence, not as proof. - Design trends are dated by nature. The principles in docs 01–05 are intended to outlive the trends. --- ## Citation style In the documentation and code comments, refer to sources as `[S01]`…`[S23]` using the numbers above. No source text is reproduced beyond short quotations for analysis.