As the first designer at a growing startup (Discuss.io) and as a consultant for much larger companies (Liberty Mutual, Humana, USAF), I've seen first hand how difficult it can be to hire designers. Now, as the first designer at another growing startup (Chipper Cash), I have a lot more of a say in how we hire for our design team. Over the past few months, throughout dozens of interviews, I've reflected on the ways that the design industry creates unnecessary barriers within our hiring practices. Read more...

Spoiler Alert I really can't review this game without getting into spoilers. If you'd like a spoiler-free review, I'd recommend Kotaku's article on the game. But, if you're reading this and you're interested in my opinion, I'd recommend playing the game. It's really only a dozen hours to play through, no more than 20 if you're a completionist. Living in the past Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order takes place between Episode III and IV. Read more...

Intro In this series, I walk through the steps (and tools) it took to… Research a tech stack that made it easy to comply to web standards Get Hugo up and running and styling the home page (this post) Migrate my blog from Medium and my portfolio from my old site Style the blog and portfolio using SCSS Design and build out the portfolio browsing experience Migrate the only dynamic content on my site, the “I am…” page Deploy to netlify, set up DNS and redirect rules (Cross-)Post content on others’ sites and get feedback on drafts A Hugo “Hello World” Hugo has a great Quick Start guide that lets you copy and paste commands into your terminal to get started. Read more...

Every time I rebuild my website, I think that I've found the perfect solution to show off my portfolio, write and share my blog, and create a corner of the web that I can truly call my own. Yet, my last website (which was custom-built from React tools) made me realize that a website's architecture can prevent its content from being accessible for all users… In this series, I will walk through the steps (and tools) it took to… Read more...

For those working from home for the first time or (like me) are returning to work from home due to COVID-19, you may not realize that the best thing you can do to stay focused is to be flexible and kind to yourself. After scrambling for a space where your background won't expose your entire life to your coworkers, you may have spent the better part of this week reading the hundreds of articles with advice on how to work from home effectively. Read more...

Every time I go to a conference, I do my best to summarize the most important things I learned. This year, I started the conference season by volunteering at Mad*Pow’s Health Experience Design Conference (HxD). For each keynote and track I attended, I’ll be sharing a 5-point summary. I hope this post can help others were not fortunate enough to attend learn more about the field… or inspire those who shared this experience to continue the conversation! Read more...

Today is the last day of ConveyUX — a conference for user experience practitioners to discuss, present and reflect on the on-goings in the profession. In this post, I share the insights I gained from the morning’s talks and my favorite project in the afternoon’s showcase. How to Hire and Manage Consulting Firms and Freelancers Presented by: Cory Lebson Leverage the expertise and knowledge of your contractors… Do not dictate — instead, ask “what would you suggest? Read more...

Yesterday, I posted my 5-point summary of every talk I attended at ConveyUX— currently taking place in Seattle, WA. Today, I will be sharing my notes from Day 2 (Feb 28). The Architecture of Understanding Presented by: Peter Morville People have lost track of the truth, can be easily misled, and believe what they want. In his early career, Peter wanted to organize information so people could find what they need. Read more...

Last year, I spent time at the UXPA conference in Toronto and did a series of posts that highlighted the talks and workshops I attended (Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3). This year, for ConveyUX 2018, I’ll be doing the same with a 5-point summary of each talk, along with any pictures of slides or internet references that I found particularly useful. Today was the “workshop day” — which featured a choice of two workshops and a “Super Meetup” panel discussion… Read more...

A friend of mine just started as a “UX Team of One” (and Front-End Dev too!) at a startup. She asked me nicely to put together a list of tools that I use(d) in a similar position at my company. Since it’s the end of the year, and the beginning of a new one, I figured I’d go through all of the apps, websites, tools and services that I used/visited/depended on throughout 2017 and list them out for reference throughout the new year… Read more...

Last week, I was digging through notes and assignments from my time spent at the University Washington, where I learned Human Centered Design and Engineering from some of the best UX practitioners and researchers in the Pacific Northwest. In one of the folders, named “User Experience Design”, I found a final reflection paper that I will never forget. The essay was written and submitted during a difficult time of my life. Read more...

The Problem There have been many articles written trying to solve the problem of making consistent buttons within a Sketch file. Problems with these methods include: Not being able to measure the actual distance between button elements and other elements on the page Inconsistent “padding” between the centered text of the button and its edges Not using Sketch symbols at all, and preventing file-level changes to the buttons later on As designers, we must ensure that our hi-fi mockups and prototypes are both pixel-perfect and quick to build. Read more...

On the last day of the User Experience Professional Association (UXPA) Conference, I continued the deep-dive into UX that I desperately needed. After surrounding myself with the amazing talks and participating in engaging conversations, I am totally inspired. In this post, I am happy to share with you my notes from the talks I attended. User Interface Design Style Guides are Not Dead, they Just Smell Funny Presented by: Michael Bechinie Read more...