Articles and essays on design, technology, and my POV of the world. For shorter bursts find me on Mastodon.
Good design is holistic. It considers the journey your audience is on well before they ever interact with your product. It guides them from start to finish, even if your product only touches the center of that path. It also means understanding their emotional state, which in turn impacts their mental state. And their level of tolerance for whatever UX you’re about to put in front of them.
To-do lists can be as overwhelming as they are helpful. But it feels so good to check something off. Always. If I accomplish a task that isn’t on my list, I will literally add it only to immediately cross it off. Why? Because it helps me feel a sense of accomplishment. And because it’s an accommodation for my OCD.
I’ve been designing and using digital interfaces for well over two decades. In that time I’ve seen a handful of mistakes that we keep making, over and over again. They’re the UX faux pas that I love to hate. 5 of them, in particular, are especially egregious. Let’s avoid all of these at all times.
Well-intended product design can turn into a usability/accessibility nightmare. Something as simple as a button can be marked up with HTML/CSS in myriad ways. We can make sure it’s done properly with a sensible markup.
Two weeks ago a small publisher sent me an email about the book I'm writing. They asked what it was about. I responded with a synopsis and a link to the talk I've been giving which is the foundation for it. It’s about exclusivity and biases in design.
While there are many reasons to make a product accessible, the most important is simply because it’s the right thing to do. But you may have a client, team, or boss who doesn’t see the value. It’s absurd that we even have to sell accessibility, but often we do. If this is your world, I got you (complete with resources, below).
One of the biggest complaints I hear about Mastodon is that its local search is unusable. It certainly was. But not anymore. Now it’s quite powerful, if you know the basics. So here’s a primer for you. Because I love Mastodon, you, and good UX.
This is my annual list of records that brought me the most joy during a respective calendar year. 2023 brought the world some really spectacular music. Here is a list of my favorites (18 in total).
My post about hashtag accessibility on Mastodon (and later LinkedIn) got a lot of attention. There were so many replies from people who didn’t know about the accommodation I outlined, who vowed to commit to it. I also learned a lot from folks who weighed in with great insights.
Music is a very significant part of my life. I was a full-time musician for a number of years, with a lot of records and shows under my belt. But more immediately relevant, I’m a music fan. I listen to music all day, every day.