For a good portion of the 90’s and early 00’s I was a touring musician. There were 5 or 6 of us (depending on the band), we were young, determined and hungry – both figuratively (we wanted to be rock stars) and literally (we were broke). Seemingly unrelated, I’ve been drawn to the startup world … Continue reading Rock bands and Startups
You Don’t Need a UX Portfolio
"Can they draw straight lines?" That's what my boss asks me each time I meet a new UX Design candidate. I've interviewed a lot of UX Designers over the past two years. Inevitably (and at my request in most cases) we end up going through some of their past deliverables. Whether it's in a book … Continue reading You Don’t Need a UX Portfolio
Designing The Damn Thing
Over and over again, it seems, practitioners within the User Experience world stir up flame wars and heated debates about what it is exactly that we do and what it should be called. From Interaction Design to User Experience Design to Information Architecture to UI Design, titles and job specifications vary as frequently as Sean … Continue reading Designing The Damn Thing
Call Their Baby Ugly and 4 Other Tips for Designing with CEO’s
CEO’s can be a tough group to design for – after all, it’s their vision with which you are now entrusted. I've been fortunate enough throughout my career to work closely with several CEO's. From fledgling ideas to high-growth companies like TheLadders (where I’m the Director of User Experience), I’ve whiteboarded, wireframed and prototyped my … Continue reading Call Their Baby Ugly and 4 Other Tips for Designing with CEO’s
Gut Instincts
Much is said about education, experience and domain knowledge when discussing the potential quality of a design. If the designer has the right degrees, a solid cross-section of experience and deep industry knowledge the assumption is that the design will be great. There's a fourth component though: gut. What is gut? It's talent, emotion, intuition, … Continue reading Gut Instincts
Building the UX Dream Team
More than a few have written on how to build the ideal User Experience design team. Those articles have typically focused on the titles, skillsets and passions of the folks you put on that team. However, one key piece is typically missing from consideration when setting out to put that team together – what are … Continue reading Building the UX Dream Team
The Case for a Designer in Residence
Design is one of the key differentiators in the success of a start-up. It’s been exemplified in success stories like Mint.com, Gilt Group’s end-to-end aesthetic and experience and even larger successes such as Facebook’s clean and constrained interface trouncing MySpace’s DIY interface approach. Yet, founding teams rarely include designers and in a lot of cases … Continue reading The Case for a Designer in Residence
You can have it all
Progressing in a User Experience career leads most designers working for companies or agencies (i.e., not freelancers) to a fork in the road. In order to get to the "next level" in your career you need to decide whether you are going to become a manager or master craftsman (sometimes referred to as a subject … Continue reading You can have it all