With the turn of the decade here it’s only fitting that as the design community, we take stock of the last ten years and judge our missteps and triumphs. The craft and the industry have changed so much they have become unrecognizable. Terms like swipe right did not exist, Steve Jobs was still at the helm of Apple, the first iPad hadn’t been released and Sketch would only be released later that year. …

You might be asking yourself: Why would anyone do this? In the world of endless podcasts and the need for constant escape from Trump tweets, why would someone ever subject themselves to a month without headphones? I calculated that any given day I had my headphones in 40% of the day if not more. Podcast, music, Netflix, work, working out or my commute — they were in. As a self-declared audiophile I:

1. wanted to see if it was possible
2. my ears could use a break.

This all started in San Francisco when I forgot my headphones at a friend’s place…

Banks are like libraries to millennials, they know what it’s function is, and that it was useful at one point, but it no longer fits into their everyday lives. Any fin-tech company can undercut a bank by coming in with a user-centric UI and features that banks should have introduced years ago. This has been the case for the past couple of years. For ages, banks could not imagine an ecosystem where they could experiment. Brand reputation, large competition, and even greater profit margins held them hostage to their design model. They’re not afforded the ability to “move fast and…

The goal is to look back on this post 9 months from now and feel a sense of accomplishment, joy and growth about how far I’ve come as a person and how well my thesis idea developed. As of right now, I feel the complete opposite: a sense of bewilderment, confusion, Alice in wonderland down the rabbit hole of endless possibilities.

The final year of graduate school is centered around thesis. A nine month odyssey in which you take an idea that was once a fever dream through a rigorous process: research, interviewing, ideation, prototyping, validation and defense. …

Introduction

Back in January, in my spring semester, my Fundamentals of UX class was tasked with discovering a way for the New York Times to attract a younger demographic of users. We were given a variety of buckets to choose from: subscription models to new content avenues to storytelling. Given the time frame, this would be more of a sprint than a full-length project so we had to be strategic about our choice. Of all the choices, we decided to choose “distribution”. The Times was growing and we wanted to explore the variety of ways readers were accessing the paper. …

It is well documented in medieval times the best swordsman would often spar with a swordsmen of similar rank. Steel sharpens steel. A graduate program is not quite the grounds for sparring but it requires the same effort necessary for learning, discipline and developing a skill. For me this hasn’t been more true than during the process of launching a kickstarter. I didn’t spar with my classmates but from them through observation I learned exactly what it took to make a successful kickstarter campaign and the level of dedication needed.

In particular I watched my classmate Angie Ngoc Tran feverishly…

Here lies some musings I’ve been mulling over in the middle of my live kickstarter campaign for a pop up art gallery for those affected by homelessness or blindness.We’re almost halfway there with 4 days to go. Support if you can, we could use your help. (UPDATE: This project is fully funded and will be launching in October)

The more I design digital products the more I compare analog experiences to digital experiences, whether that be conversations to text messages or live audiences to a user group. When making my kickstarter campaign for a pop up art gallery for those…

New York City — one of the largest art communities in the world — neglects to showcase its artists who live in the shadows, underground in subways, and shelters. These people are mothers, sons, daughters, architects, artists, and artisans not in previous lives but at this very moment. Although these artists haven’t amassed a sizable following or reached certain levels of notoriety, they deserve the same opportunity to showcase their art. An artist’s upbringing or socioeconomic status shouldn’t be a deterrent to platform to showcase their art.

While researching the homeless plight and homeless initiatives across NYC, I realized many…