The best applications of AI will be hyper-contextual and invisible — I have come to believe that AI usually isn’t magic, it’s obfuscation. My hypothesis is that the best applications of AI will be those that are hyper-contextual and invisible. Few products will succeed by virtue of being “AI-first,” “AI-driven,” “AI-${adjective}”. …

Cycling into the wind is hard — I’ve been cycling a lot lately. Cycling’s got it all for people like me who like data and kit and bits and pieces: you’ve got your bike, you’ve got your computer, and it all orchestrates together to feed you a real-time stream of your speed, cadence, and power. There’s a…

A concept embracing the evolving nature of design work and the unique roles of design artifacts and design systems — There’s a concept that I’ve come to refer to as “design syntropy.” It’s related to the creation and use of design artifacts — all those things we create as designers and product managers and engineers as we shape a product or concept. Most design artifacts are temporary sources of truth…

Personal email addresses are weird and a pain in the ass. I used a raw gmail address for years for my personal email, while keeping my professional consulting work separate using our consultancy’s domain. Hey excited me not only because of their opinionated manifesto about email, but because the idea…

Here’s a set of design principles for creating usable and inclusive real-time captions in video calling platforms. — Over the last few months, workplace conversation and communication has adapted to the rise in remote work by shifting largely to some form of video calling. For people living with hearing loss, video calls are broadly inaccessible and exclusive. But we’re at a threshold where the technology exists to make…

Google Meet’s captions represent accessibility possibility, but are fundamentally flawed by an ethical design problem. — With the rise of remote work in the midst of a pandemic, my working world is more accessible than ever before. But I find myself more dependent than ever on one of the most inaccessible forms of communication: the video call. I’m deaf as a post. My hearing loss got…

Here’s why, and why you might want to do the same. — 🚨 Before you read this article: The COVID-19 pandemic evolved so quickly since I wrote this article, that I’d like to preface it with some additional context and to respond to some questions. Why did I write this article? We cancelled our research on Monday, March 9. I wrote this…

What do you do when you have to make a decision where there’s no obvious right answer? — It can be paralyzing. Not only do you have to decide between equally valid options, you have to commit to your decision and be prepared to defend it. It’s a challenge that products teams deal with every day. Thankfully, there’s a solution. First, let me ask you a question: on…

Poor design sets people up for failure. But it’s not their failure. — The New York Times just published a fascinating feature revealing the story playing out in the background during the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire. It’s a compelling look behind the scenes, from the moment smoke was first detected to the moment the blaze was extinguished. It’s also an infuriating look into the…