Published in Designing Atlassian·Jan 9How focusing on process is ruining your design portfolioIn 1935, 102 cane toads were introduced to Australia to control the population of cane beetles and French’s beetles that threatened the profitable sugar cane industry. …UX9 min readUX9 min read
Published in Designing Atlassian·Jan 28, 2022When design consistency is harmfulLooking back at the lies I was told growing up, a few stick out… Like when my grandmother convinced me that opening a can of Burger King’s Ghostbusters 2-branded tie-in drink, would cause an actual ghost to jump out. This led to such fear that the merest hint from my…Design11 min readDesign11 min read
Aug 14, 2019Chernobyl, or how to manage incidentsThe accident at Chernobyl on April 26th, 1986 is the very button of fashion at the moment, what with the eponymous HBO miniseries. Now, I’d hate for you to think of me as a bandwagon jumper in choosing now to write something about Chernobyl, but rest assured, I was interested…Chernobyl16 min readChernobyl16 min read
Published in Designing Atlassian·Nov 13, 2018When design becomes a cargo cultOr, why process alone isn’t enough for good design. A brief digression about cults Earlier this year I was lucky enough to visit Tanna Island, Vanuatu. A sun-drenched speck of land in the South Pacific, the main tourist draw is its ever-rumbling volcano, Mount Yasur. Tempting as it was to use this as an excuse…UX8 min readUX8 min read
Jun 24, 2018Phones are Bad. Part 1 — Kanye’s Pocket HammerIdeas grow in the public consciousness by a slow accretion. What was fringe yesterday slowly gains ground, inch by inch, until it becomes an accepted part of the mainstream. One way to understand what’s becoming mainstreamed is to extensively survey public opinion, and share what you find in the impenetrable…Smartphones14 min readSmartphones14 min read
Jun 6, 2016Against Using Bullshit in UX Design(This post is taken from a talk I did earlier this year at the Shanghai UI/IUX Meetup and from another blog post I wrote a couple of years ago. Lovely illustrations in the description of the poster study courtesy of Alice Colombo.) As ever, I seem to catch up with…Design17 min readDesign17 min read
Feb 22, 2016A (quick and dirty) vision of how WhatsApp could integrate newsIn my previous post, I mentioned that the Quartz app experience so closely apes the experience of using chat apps that it would make more sense just to roll this functionality into a chat app like WhatsApp. I wasn’t being entirely fair to the Quartz app — it aggregates content…UX9 min readUX9 min read
Feb 17, 2016The new Quartz app is not the future of newsBold ideas have to vault a huge number of hurdles in interaction design. Novel, risky ideas end up on the cutting room floor, which is why so many apps are so similar. It was therefore exciting to see the new iPhone app from the business site Quartz. The app is…UX5 min readUX5 min read
