Words matter: why notification messages could kill Dropbox’s UX
As many of you know by now, Dropbox recently completed a large-scale brand overhaul. Dropbox says of their new branding is about “shifting the conversation around work,” offering this explanation: “Our users run the gamut from business professionals to scientists and...
Want stakeholder buy-in? See UX their way.
A few years back, I read a book (whose title I can’t recall) that delivered this absolutely GOLD nugget of wisdom regarding the struggle to get stakeholder buy-in for UX and Design: Most people in management or executive positions can’t truly see what’s broken,...
Design is Design is Design is…UX?
Look, we all know at this point that UI design is not the same thing as UX, and that doing one well does not guarantee the quality of the other. But at the same time, the two are more closely related — interdependent, in fact — than most “experts” seem to want to...
3 things every recruiter looks for in a UX Portfolio
In my Build a Powerful UX Portfolio course — part of my NEW online school, the UX 365 Academy —I talk a great deal about something that’s become clear to me over the past several months, and that’s this: Although we are all — whether UXers, designers or developers...
The (Overlooked) UX Value of Stakeholder Arguments
We’re all on the same side here…aren’t we? In a previous post, I told you a story about me screwing up — and how I lived to tell the tale 😉 A big part of that failure was not doing the work upfront to learn all I could about all the players involved in the project and...
UX Career Advice: On Screwing Up, Surviving and Succeeding
Sooner or later, you’re going to screw up. Doesn’t matter how smart or sharp or well-prepared you are, it’s going to happen. That’s just the way it is. But instead of fearing that moment in your UX career — or running away from it when it happens — I want you to...
How can my UX portfolio speak to ridiculous job post skill sets? (Tuesdays with Joe, Episode 11)
In this latest installment of Tuesdays with Joe, I tackle the ridiculous UX job postings we’ve all seen: strange mashups of titles, conflicting qualifications and unicorn-like combinations of UX, design and development skills. How can your UX portfolio possibly...
Adobe asked: what do I look for when hiring a designer?
While in Chicago speaking at HOW DESIGN LIVE recently, the good folks at Adobe cornered me and asked me to weigh in on what I look for when hiring a designer, my number one rule for talking to clients about design, and considerations for designing for a diverse...
Signal vs. Noise: Removing Visual Clutter in the UI
When I was a kid, terrestrial radio was pretty much our only option for listening to music on the go. Small, portable transistor radios (like the one you see in the picture) were essentially the blueprint for iPods and today’s smartphones. And if you were a...
