Surprise, neither are you. There are people and places where you are going to fit in well and thrive. There are other places where people will dislike you, ostracize you, and generally make your life miserable. We are not one-size fits all. Part of our human journey is finding the people and places that fit…
The Crux
crux (krəks, kro͝oks)the decisive or most important point at issue. The figurative use for “a central difficulty” (1718) is older in English than the literal sense; perhaps it is from Latin crux interpretum “a point in a text that is impossible to interpret,” the literal meaning of which is something like “crossroads of interpreters.” But Century Dictionary…
Just Jared 2020
My 17 year old son just released his first album on Spotify. He gets paid a fraction of a penny for every stream, so if everyone listens 20 times, it may pay for 12 minutes of college. Just Jared – Self Titled, 2020 https://open.spotify.com/album/5jebBNCZ2vhEluowUQieeY?si=2Y-mtCCETXCxi1vlItb-pA My Review The album is really eclectic with a variety of…
Bathroom Remodel
We recently embarked upon a bathroom upgrade. We had never done something like this before. Certainly, we learned some lessons. In the end, I give us a B+. Here are the lessons and story of the project. Problem and Floor Plans We are actually remodeling two bathrooms. The kids bathroom was too big and the…
Ode to the Spreadsheet Designer
What is the greatest user interface ever conceived? In my opinion, it is the spreadsheet. Yes, there are plenty of great interfaces, but this is my favorite. Specifically, what is amazing is the leap of faith the designer made to create this incredible UI. First a bit of history. Dan Bricklin conceived VisiCalc while watching a…
Notes for my UX Recruiter 2020
About me I am not good for everyone. I know this. A colleague from the UK said I am like Marmite. Usually, I get hired in places that want to innovate and shake up the status quo. I get hired when they want to have a strong, active, design team. On the flip side, I…
Figma 2020 Wishlist
I have made many requests in the Spectrum.Chat community. Some are long standing, others have been completed. Here is my consolidated Wishlist for 2020. Built In UI Components Every designer I have ever worked with and every desktop application I have ever seen all have some common elements. Here is a short list: TablesComboboxModalsTreesBullet Lists…
2020 Predictions
What is a successful percentage to be right on yearly predictions? 30%? 75%? I was looking back at old predictions and I have a pretty mixed record. The Jets have never once won the superbowl! Anyway, it’s that time of year. We should all make predictions. It’s worth seeing what you thought a year ago…
2019 In Review
One of the nice things about blogging is that it creates a journal of your life. I know when I got my dog. I know when I visited Japan. I know when I met Hillary Clinton. To a degree, if I didn’t blog it, I am not sure if it happened or not. On that…
Differentiation
Design Principle #12Always create space between you and the competitionGlen Lipka, 2019 Whether you are building a tech product or writing a resume or giving a presentation at a conference, it is important that people remember you. The only time you don’t want to differentiate yourself is when you are trying to blend in, like…
Figma Features 2019
My primary design tool is Figma. Long gone are my storyboard days of PowerPoint design. Right now, my team is 6 designers strong and they are all co-authoring like mad inside of Figma. We use it for everything. Figma has grown steadily in the past couple of years. They are making innovative features that people…
Tennis Level: 4.5
I currently play tennis about 2 times per week. I started around 12 years old and played through my teenage years. On the east coast, you play more in the summer and less in the winter so my play was erratic. My game was OK, nothing special. I played middle of the pack. And then…
Clean and Modern
Internally, I have a bullshitometer. It’s a technical device that detects bullshit. It looks like this: My Internal Bullsitometer, highly accurate One of the things that pushes this finely tuned device to the extreme right are when designers say the words “Clean and Modern”. This is just a stupid Jedi mind trick. It’s a way…
Inspiring Design: Google Doc
A designer asked me the other day what application design I thought was great and I happened to be working on a Google Doc. I thought it was a terrific design in many ways. Just as an aside, Google Slides is one of my LEAST favorite Google applications. It’s awful and everytime I use it,…
The Default Design
I give a design exercise to candidates to bring in for their onsite interview. The point of a design exercise is shed light on the following: Are they masters of their tool?Are they productive?Are they creative?Are they logical?Are they detail-oriented? One thing I advise candidates to avoid is the “Default Design”. The default is the…
Passion for Your Craft
My mother-in-law, Penny, is a retired nurse. After retiring, she took up weaving. For those of you who don’t know, weaving takes up alot of space. There are baskets of wool everywhere. The loom itself is enormous. Penny’s loom is roughly as big as this one. Looms are big! She used to have a dining…
Designer Review Cheat Sheet
When I review a new applicant, I look at their information and decide whether to set up a zoom video conferencing call or not. The truth is that I WANT you to succeed. I want you to have multiple lucrative offers. So to help you, here is a cheat sheet to get past my review.…
Tips for Designers 2019
Some of these tips are going to seem obvious. Like “Duuuuhhh” obvious. However, I can tell you that I am getting candidates who fail on every single one of these. Master Your Tools The job is to be in a design tool and make stuff (and go to a bunch of meetings). Meetings and design,…
Project Roles and Responsibilities
The Roadtrip Metaphor I love metaphors and this one is one of my favorites. Imagine a project as a roadtrip with some friends. Sometimes you will be driving, sometimes you will be in the passenger seat, sometimes in the back seat. There are people, like your parents, who just want to know where you are,…
Uppercase Lowercase
I enjoy thinking about how things evolved, especially words. Like for example the word uppercase comes from the original printing press. If you don’t know how a printing press works, I’ll explain quickly. There were all these little pieces of metal that had letters cast into them. A person would put those letters on a…
How to Resign Professionally
I really wish they taught this in college. However, since I have recently had people resign incorrectly, I figure it would be a good idea to write down how to do it properly. To be clear, I am not encouraging anyone to resign. I am just saying how to do it professionally. Step 1: Start…
The Design Case Study Paradox
Every designer has a section of their portfolio where they show their work. The typical method of documenting their work is called a case study. case stud·y/ˈkā(s) ˌstədē/a process or record of research in which detailed consideration is given to the development of a particular person, group, or situation over a period of time. Here…
Product Value/Effort Explained
I often like to think of things in a spectrum or on a line graph. A junior designer asked me how to convince the product management team to increase the scope of the project to add in all of the usability features. He said that it was a better product that way. I drew him…
Recruiting Two Product Designers (2019)
It’s time to hire again! I have two open headcount for product designers. Woo hoo! Senior Product Designer and regular Product Designer. We aren’t Google with fancy free food. We aren’t Facebook with crazy money for every employee. (Although we do pay quite well) We aren’t Twitter with 330 million users. I need to have…
New Designer 1st Month Checklist
I have 3 new designers starting next week. Here is how I conceptualize their first month of work. Day 1: Fill out paperwork. I just assume that it takes all day long. Thanks HR! (Sarcasm) Set up your desk and computer: Everyone likes to put their monitor and chair into their proper place. Everyone has…
Never Ask Permission
Most people think that you should ask your boss for permission to do something out of the ordinary. I think this is a terrible idea. Here is why… When you are asking permission for something, there is usually some risk associated with the action. Something could possibly go wrong. You don’t ask permission to do…
Different Approaches to Managing My Growing Team
I have three new designers showing up in the next few weeks bringing my team at Treasure Data to 7. Generally, I feel that doing 1:1 development of an employee takes time and trying to accomplish that for more than 5 people once is difficult. So I am faced with choices of how to structure…
We are all of us
It’s so easy to say, “I didn’t break the law, he did!” or “I am not racist, those guys are!” or “I wasn’t unkind, they were!” It’s finger pointing at its finest. It’s easy to avoid responsibility for things we didn’t explicitly do ourselves. However, we didn’t do anything to stop them either. We didn’t…
I Miss Windows (July, 2019)
I’ve been using a new top-of-the-line Mac as my primary desktop for the past 11 months. Although it was not by choice, I made the best of it. I installed the Beta of Sierra and now Catalina. I experimented with different apps and ways of organizing my desktops. Lately however, I have been missing Windows.…
How Essential is WiFi at work?
We had some WiFi problems at work. It went on and then went off. On and off, back and forth. I think the problem is that we have added too many people in the room and the hardware is getting overloaded. It raised the question in my head, “How much do we need internet to…
Cord Cutting 2nd Try (2019)
I had tried cord cutting before, but it didn’t work. (Parts 2, 3, and 4) However, that was a while ago and I felt that it was time to try again. My internet access is from Wave communications, 500mbits and pretty stable. I have 8 eero devices scattered around my house. Starting (monthly) costs before…
June Democratic Debates Night 2
Woof! That was a different night indeed. The first night was pretty boring by comparison. The big moments belonged to Kamala Harris (“That little girl was me.” and “People don’t want a food fight, they want food on the table.”) and Mayor Pete (“I couldn’t get it done.”) Truthfully, I wouldn’t mind supporting a Pete-Kamala…
June Democratic Debates Night 1
This is just a stream of thoughts and ideas from the debate. For the women candidates There was a moment when Tulsi Gabbard corrected Tim Ryan about 9/11. He looked like an asshole during the exchange, but I would have loved to have seen Tulsi say the following. A quick message to the men on…
5 Good, 5 Bad, 5 Wished
Things I am good at Designing software applications, especially B2B SaaS products.Creative thinkingMetaphors and wordplayMentoring (Hard to confirm this – but I think the evidence is good)Writing (and maybe blogging) Things I am bad at Directions – I get lost in my drivewaySingingMathMaking and maintaining friendshipsBeing normal (this might be a good thing, but I…
Presidential Campaign Website UX Reviews
Let’s do a quick lightning round and some observations at the end. Joe Biden Big picture of Joe and Give me money! Hmm, interesting. Scroll UP from the home page. It’s a bug. A BUG! Come on Joe! How can we trust you with the nation’s highest office if you can’t even get your website…
Risky Moments in US History
I’ve been thinking recently that our democracy has been showing signs of wear and tear. It’s easy to think, “Oh everything is going to be OK” or “OMG! We are going to turn into Mad Max!” Historically, there are plenty of examples of democracies which have fallen into dictatorship. Usually, people didn’t see it coming…
Tokyo Trip 2019
I just finished my first trip to Tokyo, Japan. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am a terrible traveller. I have a rotten sense of direction and hate planes. Plus, I am a creature of routine. Traveling is the exact opposite of routine for me. With that said, I had a wonderful…
Game of Thrones Sucks Forever
How can a show fuck up so badly? They started off so strong with a tapestry of characters following their adventures in this rich world of Westeros. But now? Now, I don’t give a shit about any of it. I am not even going to watch the prequels over this. Here are a few reasons:…
Adobe XD Listened (mostly)
I have to give credit where credit is due. In April, I complained that Adobe was taking years to build out basic things in XD. Today, they released a huge update. Let’s see how it compares to my complaints. Text Transform. Done!Scale Resize Symbols Independently. Done!Quick Access to Google Font Library – not exactly, but…
Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3
You know that one person who picks on all the little inconsistencies or details? Yeah, that’s me. For years we have been hearing “Winter is coming! Winter is coming!” like some Chicken Little story. We kept hearing about the magic and the origins of the night king. All that build up. I am imagining the…