Welcome to UX Bridge!
We are a group of UX designers and co-workers with diverse backgrounds and a passion for human-centered design, inclusion, and accessibility.
We work together at Delta Dental of California (based in Oakland) in a collaborative environment informed by UX principles, industry best practices, and quality metrics. The UX Bridge is our dedicated space to share our learnings and establish a meaningful connection with our extended product design community.
We enjoy exploring imaginative and innovative product solutions, and we’re very proud of the work we do.
To celebrate our first publication, we’re listing 11 tips/books and quotes from our team members. We hope that this list will inspire you to explore these titles and share some of your favorites. Enjoy!
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law
by Haben Girma
“I firmly believe that design shouldn’t create barriers but eliminate them.
Growing up with a family member with a disability, and being a color-blind designer, the desire for building accessible and inclusive experiences became part of my life.” — Haben Girma"This book inspired me to do my part (as a designer) to make experiences that work for all. Haben’s lessons are relevant to anyone with or without a disability. I also got an insight into my own biases, several of which I didn’t recognize I had.”
Circle
by Madeline Miller
“These days I spend a lot of time looking for and honoring nuance and balance in my life. Multiple things can be true at the same time, and it’s really important to me to acknowledge that in my personal life and in my professional life. My book selection represents this well, so I hope you enjoy, should you end up reading it.
One of my favorite books is Circe by Madeline Miller. The book tells the story of Circe, the Greek goddess who typically plays a supporting character in male-centric stories — this time the story is all hers. With themes of solitude, resilience, love, femininity, and introspection, this book was a lovely companion for me during a period of time where I struggled with anxiety and insomnia.”
Dear Data
by Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec
“This is an inspiring book about a year-long data project from two artists by visualizing data in daily life. I first found this book while working on a data visualization project years ago to get ideas. It made data fun and even romantic to look at. It provided me inspirations that how we can communicate and visualize data in creative ways, as well as made me to appreciate small things in daily life that just makes me smile.”
How to think when you draw Volumes 1,2 (3 coming soon on Kickstarter!)
by Lorenzo Etherington
“I am always looking for visual references, how-to’s and beautiful creative books. These books are some of the best examples of ‘how to draw’ books. They are more of an encyclopedia of different person/place/things to draw with great explanations of how the drawing subject is composed of shapes, shading, and drawing technique.
These may not be directly related to design, but I do like to keep my creative mind active. Visualizing the world around me is where I derive my understanding of design and creativity. I am always exercising my creative sensibility.
These lessons are collected blog posts, check them out for free! How to think when you draw!”
The Beautiful Ones
by Prince
“Admittedly I’m a fan of the music, so it’s interesting to learn where some of it came from, but when I read this book I found it fascinating to learn about his approach as a mentor and creative leader. He formed a number of bands over the years and gave a lot of time to supporting artists in their personal growth and careers, taking on a mentoring role from fairly early in his success. It’s also interesting to hear the story of a highly motivated, driven creator who wasn’t a tortured soul, but instead thrived on a strong work ethic and unrelenting innovation.”
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
by Susan Cain
“As someone who is both an introvert and shy, I always felt I needed to be a charismatic social butterfly to fit in and be accepted. Growing up people would constantly say to me, “don’t be so shy” or “you should speak up more.” Even as an adult, I’d continue to hear it from well-intentioned colleagues and managers. This book helped me understand my introversion, taught me to embrace it, and showed me all the strengths that come from it. This is a great book, not only for introverts trying to survive in an extrovert-dominated culture, but also for extroverts to get a better understanding of introverts and the way we are, think, and function.”
Outliers: The Story of Success
by Malcolm Gladwell
“Finally, after this book being recommended to me by a few friends, I had a moment this summer to read Outliers — A book about what makes someone a high-achiever or the best of the best. I have always been fascinated by what makes people unique and what makes someone successful. Gladwell writes about the “10,000-Hour Rule” and the importance of family, friendship, and culture in someone’s success. Though these are not definitive correlations for success, it was interesting to see it framed through these lenses. This book re-sparked my curiosity in how these factors play a role in what makes us, us.”
Articulating Design Decisions
by Tom Greever
“I wish I found this book years ago because it helped me realize that designing great products is not enough. The ability to communicate your solutions to a variety of partners and stakeholders is equally important. This is the stuff they don’t teach you in school because you need to be in it to understand that product development is not linear, technology moves quickly, and everyone is looking to you to help solve the challenges that arise. How will you be able to thoughtfully communicate your decisions and navigate yourself through a product development process with multiple stakeholders and deliver the products that your users need?”
101 Things I Learned in Architecture School
by Mathew Frederick
“Not your typical book recommendation! I’ve often mentioned that our discipline of design is an evolution from other design and disciplines. One of those disciplines is architecture. Much of what we know about design has been mastered by architects. This ranges from skills like keeping a human-centric perspective to skills as granular as drawing a straight line on paper. This book recommendation takes many of these skills and distills them to bite-sized small pages. This book I don’t recommend to read cover-to-cover. I think it’s best read picked up regularly from a coffee table.”
The Memo: What Women of Color Need To Know to Secure a Seat at the Table
by Minda Harts
“This is an absolute necessary-guide written from and to women of color — how to pragmatically and successfully navigate your career in the enterprise world. She shares with her readers the brutally honest experiences of what it’s like to be a Black women while working through the countless-barriers and micro-aggressions women of color face. In this book she comprehensively explains how–and how not to be– a true ally.”
Enough
by Patrick Rhone
“One of my early introductions to slowing down and carefully considering the value of adding something came from Rhone. With Enough Rhone focuses on how, to him, minimalism doesn’t mean having nothing or even very little. It’s more about how you determine the things that you need to be happy or to accomplish a task and keep only those. This isn’t a new idea and it’s highly interconnected with the core of the practice of mindfulness, but Rhone’s presentation of it was relatable and has definitely influenced my approach to finding the right solution for a design.”
Complete Curriculum
by Flash Kids Editors
“For those of you with little children, I am sure you may have spent hours searching and deciding on a workbook for your little ones. Well, you no longer have to search further. Complete Curriculum. You got it! This book covers it all. From comprehension, writing, spelling, to math, your little ones will enjoy all the fun stories and activities in this book. I stumbled upon this book as I was cruising around the bookstore. I thought this was just another one of those books that my daughter would be bored of. I am so glad I gave it a try. She finished this 760 page workbook and now working on the 2nd grade edition.”
If you have a favorite book, we’d love to hear from you.
We hope to post at least two articles per month, so stay tuned!
Header illustration by Faina Shpiler
Team illustrations by Steve Hall
