Published inDesign Your Life·Jun 28, 2017The Architecture of Creative CollaborationThe first time I spoke at the 99U conference was in 2014. While I was in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, my husband was at the Santa Clara County courthouse bidding in the auction for the probate sale of our next door neighbor’s house. We won the auction that…UX14 min readUX14 min read
Published inDesign Your Life·Aug 11, 2016Design and the SelfEverywhere we go, we are surrounded by bad design — from airplane seats that distort our posture to aesthetically inelegant cars. Landscapes that were once green and blue are now paved over. Our surroundings are full of missed opportunities to introduce delight and joy into people’s lives.Design14 min readDesign14 min read
Published inDesign Your Life·Aug 19, 2015UX Is a Canary in a Coal MineWhat design team morale means for CEOs and designers — From a young designer: “I am about to graduate with a degree in Human Computer Interaction and want to focus my job search on companies that value design. How can you tell if a company ‘gets’ design and will be a place where I can be successful?” From a CEO…Design7 min readDesign7 min read
Published inDesign Your Life·May 15, 2015How to choose which job to take“Which job offer should I take?” is among the questions I get asked the most these days. …Career Advice5 min readCareer Advice5 min read
Published inDesign Your Life·Jan 21, 2015Mindfulness Practices For Greater Focus, Empathy, and CreativityHow yoga and meditation can make people better designers Have you ever been in this situation? You’re trying to solve a problem, maybe you’re working on designing a clever solution for a hard user problem. You have boundless data in front of you and have gathered all the requirements, constraints…Yoga17 min readYoga17 min read
Dec 7, 2014Whimseybox, and a cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startupAs you think about holiday gifts this season, I’d like to warn you about the subscription service Whimseybox. This is also a cautionary tale about subscription services in general and the wrong way to go under if you’re a failing startup. Whimseybox is (was?) a subscription service for people into…4 min read4 min read
Published inDesign Your Life·Oct 29, 2014Where to find great UX candidatesPart Three in a series of posts on how to recruit UX talent “Where do you find designers to hire?” …UX8 min readUX8 min read
Published inDesign Your Life·Oct 14, 2014Writing a Job Description for UX PeoplePart Two in a series of posts on how to recruit UX talent (Before you start, be sure to read Part One: Understanding UX Skills) The best thing you can do for your company as founder/CEO is to hire a great team, so it’s worth investing a lot of time…Design7 min readDesign7 min read
Published inDesign Your Life·Oct 8, 2014Understanding UX SkillsPart One in a series of posts on how to recruit UX talent User experience design is a multidisciplinary field. A well-designed product must be visually appealing and simple, and easy to understand, learn, and use. Creating a well-designed product is an endeavor that requires technical skills — an understanding…Design10 min readDesign10 min read
Published inDesign Your Life·Jul 2, 2014How to start practicing yogaImage credit: www.yogawithamey.com Curious about yoga but not sure where or how to start? Here are a few tips: Try different styles of yoga The variety of yoga styles that exist (Bikram, Ashtanga, Jivamukti, Anusara, power yoga, restorative, yin, Iyengar, etc) can be staggering and difficult to navigate. Try a variety of styles until you…Yoga4 min readYoga4 min read
