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…
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 more. Three particular books formed…
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 the economics of how everything…
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 a conversation on Twitter, I…
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? I am going to point…
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 a mistake. Bottom line: I…
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 released on YouTube a week…
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 in the past. We don’t…
Ironic Almost Truth
April Fools. Got you. UX Rule #91: Everything cool eventually becomes lame.
Video: You Go High, We Go Low
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAbab8aP4_A&feature=youtu.be Great Video of our Current Politics 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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAbab8aP4_A&feature=youtu.be Great Video of our Current Politics 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 asked me to guest lecture at…
UX Candidate Design Challenge – v5
UX Candidate Design Challenge – v1UX Candidate Design Challenge – v2UX Candidate Design Challenge – v3UX 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 ones, but I think I want to retire…
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 are pure monstrosities. Any designer…
Designers: Stop using Wix and SquareSpace
I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwMVMbmQBug Speech from Network I keep looking at designer portfolios. One after the other, after the other, after the other. ALL OF THE PORTFOLIOS ARE THE SAME!Glen, Mar 1, 2019 When I see a portfolio, I can describe them all pretty specifically.…
Poor Designer Case Studies
I’m reviewing many design portfolios these days. For those of you who don’t know; when a designer works, they sometimes keep track of a whole project from start to finish. They put it on their personal website almost like a school book report. They include pictures and different versions of the design. This is a…
Advice for Hiring Managers
I’ve given advice to candidates, but this advice is for myself and other hiring managers. One key reality is that candidates often have multiple offers and you need to create a great experience for them. The goal is to make the candidate WANT to work for you. You have to stand out. Here are some…
The UX of CanuMeet and Google Appointment Slots
Use Case: You are a hiring manager or recruiter and you want to set up lots of screening calls with lots of candidates. You could email them back and forth, but that is error prone. It’s better to have an automatic system. I had previously reviewed Calendly and Apooint.ly. Here are a couple of others.…
ToldYouSo Use Cases
The more I work on my mobile app idea ToldYouSo, the harder it becomes. It’s like I am trying to figure out how people who disagree can resolve their differences. It’s daunting. I think it would be useful for me to write down the use cases. Initial Version (MLP) Solo PredictionA single person makes a prediction.…
Advice for New Designers 2019
I am hiring 4 designers this year, approximately 1 per quarter. Therefore, I’ve been reviewing dozens of portfolios. I spend a little more time than average on them, because when I was looking for new jobs, I hoped hiring managers gave my work more than a cursory glance. Unfortunately, most design websites are fairly poor.…
Personality Test 2019
I am recruiting new product designers these days and one candidate put her personality tests on her About page. I saw the test and (on a whim) decided to fill out the form. It just takes 5 minutes or so. Here are my results: The Architect INTJ, -A/-T My 2019 Results The text is generally…
How Hollywood has Trained us to be Bad People
Hollywood sells drama. They do not give it away and they are not a charity. They sell a product in the form of movies and TV shows that can either get direct payment in a theater or indirect payment through advertising or subscription. They are a business, plain and simple. So to maximize their profit,…
Slack’s New Logo (YP vs MP)
I hate the be such a Negative Nancy, A Debbie Downer, or A Bummer Brian. However, this new logo really rubs me the wrong way. Not for aesthetic reasons exactly. Let me explain. First look at the change: Old Version 2016-2018 Animated Logo in App New Version 2019 The new version lacks the personality and…
Asus MX34VQ 34″ UQHD Monitor and Scaling
I was using a LG 34UM68-P ultra wide monitor, but I was having some trouble seeing the edges of the screen. They literally were so far away that they turned blurry to my old eyes. Previously, I had been using a LG 34UC80-B 34-Inch 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD IPS Monitor and I really appreciate the…
2019 Predictions
Generally, I like to write these down so I have a record of predictions made. Here we go, 2019 will see the following occur: (in no order) Trump will not be impeached. There will not be enough support from Republicans and Democrats will fear a backlash. However, his foundation and businesses will get a lot…
Holiday Electronics Reviews 2018
I upgraded many of my electronics this holiday season. It’s only been a few days, but here are my initial reactions. iPad Pro 2018 I use my iPad for games, movies, light email, and reading news. I don’t want to draw with it or use it as a laptop replacement. It’s basically a big version…
Wishes for 2019
Most Important Wish I wish fervently that Rush Bader Ginsberg has a happy and HEALTHY 2019 and 2020. She recently fell and broke some ribs. The x-ray noticed some bad tumors in her lungs. Thank God, they found it early and she is currently recovering. Stay healthy RBG. We need you! Design Tool Wishes Figma…