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…

Unknown unknowns and the choices we make in our products and experiences. — Ethics are a growing concern in digital products, particularly for UX designers, developers, and product managers. Dark patterns continue to be pervasive and insidious. It’s our responsibility to identify and avoid these patterns in our own work. However, there’s a specific type of dark pattern that I don’t think we’ve…

There’s two ways products go off-script: Stoppers & Stallers. Do you know what to do when you find them? — I’ve just returned from Amsterdam, where I had the opportunity to present at Uber Design Night about what sports, hearing loss, and language can teach us about better communication in our products. One of the principles for better communication I shared was the idea that the most intuitive experiences deliberately…

I was recently asked to share some reading recommendations by someone interested in getting into UX. — I’ve built up a pretty deep library of books that shaped the perspective and mindsets I bring to my work, which touches on UX, research, brand strategy and identity, business strategy, and workplaces and culture. Most of these books I’ve read at least twice, but some of them are constant…