Writings about design, product management, and leadership. I often get lost in my work, so long gaps between posts are to be expected.
Posts
A Growth Framework for Design Teams
It’s been a rough summer. The company I spent the past three years reimagining the future of urban mobility with declared bankruptcy, and what was left of the design team that I built came to an end. There have been countless articles written in a variety of languages discussing the rise and fall of VanMoof, but I’m not going to write about that. What I will share are some of the good stories from the past three years, focusing on what went right.
Adventures in Self-Publishing
Yesterday I received the print proof of my book. In it, I can see the years of experience, research, writing, and design that went into its creation. It’s as full of memories as it is of lessons learned. In this post, I’ll share some of those lessons in hopes of demystifying the many different ways in which you might publish a book.
Why a Book?
I spent the last two years writing a book about experience design. Now I'm marketing and talking to people about that book. This blogpost was inspired by those conversations.
Five Ways to Avoid Being Reactive
Dealing directly with stakeholders can be a challenge. From gathering input to getting commitment for a design, the various opinions and methods of communication can be maddening.
Five Things to Avoid Saying
Whether you are a consultant working with a client, a designer trying to integrate with a team of developers, or a creative director managing teams made mostly of designers, working with other humans can be messy or magical depending on the communication.
Five Resolutions
Each new year inspires reflection and aspiration, looking back on the previous year and considering improvements for the upcoming one.
Five Successes
The past five years have been a roller coaster as Hans and I struggled in the downs and reveled in the ups of having a small boutique agency.
Onboarding at Disney
This year’s Artificial holiday trip was to Disneyland Paris. The Disney theme parks are more than simple fun – they provide many examples for experience designers to study and learn from.
Join the Conversational Interface
For the past six months, we’ve been designing an app for a product that doesn’t already exist on the market, and that likely won’t be ready for consumers for another year or two.
Redesigning watchOS
The Apple Watch is a beautiful and powerful piece of hardware accompanied by incredibly useful software. Now running software on its third iteration, it’s time to make the beauty of the software match that of the hardware.
Artificial Diversity: Creating a Feminine Culture
This year marks my tenth year out of university. It’s also my tenth year as a full-time designer. I’ve been around.
Finding an Interaction Model
When designing new experiences, it is imperative that we balance invention with inspiration. Learning from other tools helps us to create quality experiences, and copying patterns that work ensures a familiarity of experience for our users.
Designing a Conceptual Model
Designers love systems. We love creating architectures to organize features, wireframes to provide access to functionality, and flows to provide a sense of navigation.
