• 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…

  • 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…

  • Rereading About Face by Alan Cooper

    About Face 4th Edition, the Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin, and Christopher Noessel. Many years ago an interviewer asked me who my influences are. My answer was pretty lame. He generously gave me a list of books to read. I read them and dozens…

  • A Big Problem #boycottSafari

    Note: This post is fairly technical, using (without explaining) many marketing concepts. It has a big impact, but may be complex for many people, especially designers. Many people in the world would prefer that everything online be free AND that their privacy is ironclad. The problem is that this ignores…

  • All Roads on Twitter Lead to Hitler

    I try hard to avoid Twitter. I use it (and LinkedIn) to publicize my blog posts. I click publish and voila! Insta-tweet. Sometimes, I will tweet a little joke or pun, but I hardly ever participate in the normal Twitterverse. The main reason is that every time I get into…

  • Why is Adobe XD taking so long on basic things?

    Designers are one of the worst markets to make products for. We are fickle/disloyal and we are picky beyond reasonableness. I feel badly for people who design products for us. With that said, I have grievances and need to air them. Adobe. What the heck is going on over there?…

  • Figma UI Refresh – Apr 2019

    Figma just released a new aesthetic to their design tool. I use Figma every day for several hours, so I care about any changes. Normally, I love change. Change is good. Even when it’s bad. In this case, there are some things to like, but overall, I think they made…

  • New-ish Band: Billie Eilish

    I heard a new band on the radio named after the singer Billie Eilish. It’s a cool mix of jazz, dubstep, and dance. The singer’s voice has an interesting tenor, similar to Mazzy Star or maybe Billie Holiday. The song Bad Guy has a nice hook to it. It was…

  • Flipping it on its Head

    We all have context. Every product you design, every job you do, every email you write all have something that came before it. None of us live and create in a vacuum. All too often, the things we design, do, and write are basically copies of things that have done…

  • Ironic Almost Truth

    April Fools. Got you. UX Rule #91: Everything cool eventually becomes lame.

  • Video: You Go High, We Go Low

    Poorly drawn and animated, but great narration and storytelling. I enjoyed it and learned a little something about group psychology. Also, Im testing out my new WordPress theme to see how embedded videos work.

  • Recruiting Trip to Indiana University

    The story starts with a chain of serendipity. Here is a quick summary of how I was invited to Indiana University. I interviewed a woman named Jin (a terrific person) for a PM role at Engagio 4 years ago. We hit it off, but didn’t end up working together. Jin…

  • UX Candidate Design Challenge – v5

    UX Candidate Design Challenge – v1 UX Candidate Design Challenge – v2 UX Candidate Design Challenge – v3 UX Candidate Design Challenge – v4 Designing a design challenge is really difficult. There are so many different things you are looking for. Recently, I have been cycling on a few different…

  • Pie Charts are (almost always) Bad UX

    Every enterprise tool out there has a pie chart somewhere in it. Yet, these visualizations often are confusing, hard to read, and a waste of space. let’s look more closely at the notorious pie chart. Where do Pie Charts go wrong? More than a dozen slices make me crazy. These…