I am watching this anime called One Piece to bond with my kids. They love the manga, but I am watching the anime. (Over a thousand episodes!) I won’t do a full review, but there is this one character who really annoys me. Usopp. Most of the pirate crew are amazingly powerful characters, but Usopp…
Lots of random thoughts. These are in no particular order. Look at my screen Some of the best work I have done was with a partner (designer, pm, or engineer) sitting right next to me. There are moments when you are designing when its appropriate to say “Look at this” and get a quick reaction.…
“Disruptive technology is an innovation that significantly alters the way that consumers, industries, or businesses operate. A disruptive technology sweeps away the systems or habits it replaces because it has attributes that are recognizably superior.” – Source: Investopedia In my lifetime, I have seen many sea changes in the world. Computers, television, job Hunting, consumerism,…
About 90% of my ADPList mentees have the exact same question. “How do I get my first design job?” I figured it would be easiest for me to just write it all down here. This post is not for marketing design where you will mostly be making websites and brochures. Also it is not for…
It’s so hard to predict things these days. I forgot last year, but I can see how I did with my 2022 predictions. 2024 Predictions Some of these are hot takes. We shall see how it goes. Predictions are fun. Happy Holidays everyone!
I have been thinking recently about job titles and hierarchies. They really a different depending on the size of the company you work for. Status is often attached to these words and make a big difference in how we treat each other. I am not going to cover all of it. Mostly, I will be…
In 2019, I was honored to be a part of an enormously successful USTA 4.0 men’s doubles team. We went to Nationals in Arizona and played our hearts out. I will remember that year of tennis for a long, long time. It was amazing. We kept winning by the skin of our teeth. Our captain…
I have noticed over the years how perfectionism can be a blight on both work and personal relationships. It is a cultural issue and often is the cause of poor user experience. You would think it would increase quality, but it does the exact opposite. The way I experience perfectionism in the world is when…
Update Part 2: I tried again. I find the way the editor works sometimes difficult to manage. Ultimately, I think I am close. If you see a bug, let me know. UPDATE: The Twenty Twenty Four theme is causing me many problems. I had to revert it to Twenty Twenty Three. The theme looked drastically…
Once upon a time, in the late 20th century, we had rich desktop software patterns. Each program was creative and interesting in its structure and design. Programs like Winamp, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Lotus Notes, Quicken, Act, and more all were as different as can be. There were designers specializing in “human factors”, but mostly these…
Hold your breathe for as long as you can. I assume it is your brain that decides to do that. Eventually, you can’t continue and you are forced to breathe. What decided it was time to stop? Again, your brain, right? So clearly at least 2 different things were happening in your brain at the…
This is dating me, but I used to watch the show Good Times. It’s a comedy-drama, created by Norman Lear, about a poor family living in the projects of New York. I remember the opening credits song as happy one, upbeat and peppy. I have come to realize that I didn’t actually know the lyrics.…
These are things I wish they taught in UX bootcamps and HCI colleges majors. Design is Everywhere Seriously, look around you. Everything you see, touch, taste, hear, and smell. Everything has passed through human hands in it’s construction. When you smell the gas leak, did you know that was designed on purpose because natural gas…
Someone was asking me about the process of blogging. I thought about how it has changed over the last 25 years. For a long time, the process was simple and went like this: The problem recently has been that I have separated my work computer and my home computer setups. This is annoying, but realistically,…