A designer who writes.
I have blogged intermittently since the mid 90s. Thankfully, much of the early teenage angst is lost to time. This collects my writings from this site, an earlier personal website, and some newsletter projects over the years, in mostly chronological order. I also publish new writing here. I publish somewhat more formal writing about content strategy and design careers at Content Career Accelerator.
When I know what I want to say I start at the top-left corner of the page. “Dear Sir or Madam, I demand satisfaction!” When I don’t know what I want to say — or even what I think — I start in the middle of the page. Then I can go up. Or down. … continue
My friend Ange invited me back to share my talk about designing friendlier interfaces with the UX and engineering cohorts at Prime Academy last week. Their new space downtown is really cool. I meant to take pictures, but despite arriving 25 minutes early I got lost in the building itself and spilled in out of … continue
I know a lot of people who are nervous about going to things by themselves. In my experience, it gets easier with practice, and some situations are more comfortable than others.
A ship is more than the wood it’s made of, and a website is more than code, content, and design. It’s the ownership, policies, history, even the culture of the organization that publishes it.
Clearing out some old notes and found this card from a Nels Cline lecture at Music University back in 2013: “Show up on time and have your stuff work.” Nels Cline He was speaking in the context of being a studio musician but pretty good advice for just about any gig (especially public speaking).
From a 2014 journal entry: One thing that worked well today, at work especially, was taking a simple breath before every decision. Every one. Even deleting an email. “Pause. Breath. Think. What’s happening here? What’s important? Let’s let it happen slowly.” This is a habit that’s stuck with me. I don’t do it all the … continue
This is such a desperate look. If an ex-boyfriend did this you’d be embarrassed for them. If I haven’t used your app in over a year the next email I want to get is about how you’re proactively initiating a process of deleting my account and purging all data in order to protect my privacy … continue
After finding myself exhausted with the “I read an article the other day” culture of forgotten references, I made a resolution to somehow keep track of the tangled mess.
I was at my parents’ place all week last week. My iPad was the only computer I brought with. I did a lot of work on personal projects —mostly writing, editing, and planning — and kept up on email, Slack, and a few small tasks for work. It was the most intense use I’ve made … continue
More or less, anyway. I passed the lists from Des Moines Content Nerds on to Quentin for Experiencing UX. He invited me back to keynote World IA Day Des Moines in February. The Kristina Halvorson invited herself to present to our meetup group when it was still Content Nerds, and now I work for her. … continue
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