Harmful patterns of thought, become harmful patterns in UI, become harmful patterns of behavior — My path to product design and design systems wasn’t linear. I’ve bounced around different design disciplines and working environments, gravitating towards places with loose definitions of what a designer’s role is. I like too much of the process — from the strategy, to the implementation, to the way teams get…

Will AI change the way we build design systems? Probably. For the better? Eh… As designers, even those of us who don’t work “in tech” are immersed in tech. Some of us are eager early adopters. …

Technology is a hammer tapping against structures built over centuries — As we look out upon each new day with fresh eyes and worn down hearts, the question “What can I do?” echoes in heads that feel increasingly empty of ideas. How do we stand against plague after plague, economic injustice, and an unrelenting attack on bodily autonomy being waged against…

My vows for our second wedding on our first anniversary — Laurie, last year, when we were doing all this from our backyard, you started your vows with a live tweet. So this year, I have scheduled the full text of my vows to publish online as I’m speaking to you now. I will not be outdone at my own wedding…

Today we said goodbye to Guff. How many elegies have been written to dogs? I don’t think I have anything unique to say about the millennia-old relationship between man and dog. A relationship so many of us have experienced for ourselves a decade or so at a time. In part…

The future of design is queer. What does that mean in practice? — Recently, I was asked to speak to MICA students about what it means to queer design. As co-founder of Queer Design Club, I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about queer people in design; but not as much time thinking about queering design. Honestly, I find the subject…

We’re taking the queer experience in design out of the closets and into spreadsheets — A survey designed by and for the queer community The idea for the Queer Design Count came to me and my cofounder Rebecca last year, shortly after the launch of our community for queer designers. We had just finished analyzing the data from AIGA’s Design Census to compare responses from LGBTQ+ designers to their cisgender heterosexual peers. A surprising…

Creating an organization where LGBTQ+ designers can thrive — This is the third in a multi-part series on LGBTQ+ inclusion in design. Check out the first two articles on why LGBTQ+ inclusion in design matters and how bias manifests in design organizations. Bias is a design problem LGBTQ+ people are disproportionately represented in design compared to the broader population. And yet, they fare unequally…

Barriers to queer inclusion in the design field — This is the second in a multi-part series on LGBTQ+ inclusion in design. Check out the first article on why LGBTQ+ inclusion in design matters, and the next on how to build an inclusive workplace. Representation isn’t equality The field of design is incredibly queer. LGBTQ+ people are represented in design in much…