Should your designs be trendy? It’s kind of a loaded question. If you follow the trends then you are being a design leader. However, if you don’t follow the trends, you are at risk of being left behind as irrelevant. Not everyone can make the new, cool thing. So the…
This morning, a designer and I had an idea. It wasn’t a big idea. In fact it was fairly unimportant and related to graphic design. However, the size of the idea has nothing to do with the feeling you have for it. People love their ideas regardless of whether they…
I’m often asked how I measure success or develop career growth for designers. I’ve made this map to help guide. Use this to know if you are in the right title and what a promotion entails. Also use this in recruiting to put someone at the right level when they…
I watched the show. Although it was funny in parts and well executed, it just wasn’t the right show for me. It was derivative, basically mocking The Office or 30 Rock. I don’t think my kids thought much of it. It was just a regular show. To fix it, I…
How can you make a decision when you don’t have the facts? In truth, it happens every day. The answer is that you just make a guess. Often, the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) is the one people adopt. Here is a noteworthy quote: If we have data, let’s look…
Most technology products are geared towards men. The styles and capabilities are designed for bigger wrists. However, women all have smart phones too. In fact, they have an additional distinct disadvantage. They put their phones in their purse, where they don’t feel the vibration of a call. It’s a running…
A manager once described his team to me as Adders, Dividers and Multipliers. I also heard a similar theory on NPR’s Fresh Air. Specifically about baseball players, but it applies to any team. Adders These people do their jobs. You add them to a team and they pull their weight.…
Apparently Disney and ABC are going to have a new Muppets show starting this fall. This is dangerous territory. I’m not fucking around here. The Muppets are a key element of my childhood and when I think of the Muppet Show, my heart fills with love and warmth. They better not…
Sometimes I am early to the party. For example, I was an early user of HTML (1994), CSS (1997) and jQuery (2006). However, one technology I never got into was podcasts. (Until last week.) I listen to NPR alot and always liked This American Life, Public Radio International and Freakonomics Radio.…
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gone up quite a bit in the last 100+ years. It looks like a hockey stick of growth with some sharp crevices. However, if you use a logarithmic scale it looks alot straighter. (logarithmic means that the Y axis isn’t linear but exponential. Notice the…
I try incredibly hard to avoid saying someone is an asshole without further explanation. The reason is that the adjective lacks any specifics. It doesn’t help you understand WHY. When Donald Trump speaks, I constantly want to scream at the screen, “Shut up! You are such a dick!” This is…
The Human Resources department (in most cases) is not the Office Energy department. Typically, no one is in charge of this crucial aspect of a company. When someone is visiting your office for an interview, they are noticing things such as: Office layout Types of computers/screens on the desks Ceilings/Lighting…
Well, my sabbatical is over and it’s time to get back to work. My kids are in the same boat, getting ready for a new school year. It has been a great summer. Here are some of the highlights: Hawaii Trip Lots of Tennis (2-4 times a week) Wrote about…
I was helping someone set up a password on Intuit.com. When they asked for a password, they presented this visual clue. Notice where it says NO SPACES. That is just lazy programming. Spaces are a completely valid character for a password. There was no designer or product manager who said,…