Experience Design (XD)

Being able to present your own work is a core design skill. If you’re working somewhere that won’t let you present your own work, get out of there. Though I believe in designers presenting their own work, let’s face it, some of us are better at presentation than others. I’ve been presenting design to clients […]

The last session I attended at UPA 2011 Chauncey Wilson’s “Brainstorming and Beyond: Ideation, Innovation, and Insight.”  The slides from his presentation aren’t yet available online (I’ll update this post with the link when available), but I’m including an earlier version that he presented with Amy Cueva. In the session he shares a number of […]

Last week, I attended UPA 2011. The theme this year was Designing for Social Change. The opening keynote speaker Paul Adams, Global Brand Experience Manager at Facebook, shared his research (an earlier version of his presentation available on Slideshare) into social networks. Among the many insights of the presentation, his research showed that the change […]

Now that the newest Android tablets (Motorola XOOM and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1) have come close to matching Apple’s iPad in terms of fit and functionality, I expect the demand for Android tablets to show a marked increase in sales.  There has been a considerable amount of material written around Android smartphone  User Experience (UX) […]

In working with architects and the St. Louis Landmarks Association, I have often ran across a need to render a building or represent a landmark as an architect’s conceptual sketch. Trying out some technics in Photoshop one day, I discovered a wonderful filter called “Find Edges.” With this filter, you can make almost any photo […]

The challenge: Design a logo for a special company event with several color schemes. On websites, the logo needs to subtly change colors as someone visits the site. This would be an easy solution using Flash but because many users have iPads or iPhones that do not support it, those users would not see the […]

I liked Karen’s inspiring post about infographics and would like to follow that up with some added thoughts. Anyone can find research online and flow it into a bar or pie chart. It takes thoughtful craftsmanship to review data and compile a design with a distinct look and point of view. I have four criteria […]

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. —Oscar Wilde Have you ever worked for a client that sees graphic standards and style guidelines as laws that must be strictly adhered to? Or adhered to them so literally that you question the value you bring to a project? For example, I was once told, “Our […]

In relation to my previous posts about Apple’s iCloud and syncing capabilites, I came across an article on Poor Copywriting. How surprised I was to find this picture: When I think about all of the syncing anxiety I’ve had with Apple’s failed MobileMe product across devices and channeled through the cloud – I realize that it’s […]

Form over function or function over form? Each of us has our own biases … but consider this: Matt Cutts, a lead Google engineer, says every entrepreneur should think as hard about the look of their website as much as the services they provide.* Although a site may be professional and function in the most efficient […]

Should designers know how to code? It seems lately I can’t get away from this question. I’ve read countless blog posts and online discussions answering the question in varying levels of detail and with differing opinions. Though not a reliable sampling, anecdotally I’ve noticed that job descriptions for User Experience or Visual Designers lately have almost […]

“Keeping these devices in sync is driving us crazy,” Mr. Jobs said. As an iTunes user, there have been some instances where my itunes preferences have automatically reset based on various updates. I have since learned to check my preferences every single time there is an update to make sure that I don’t lose any […]