Not going to lie: Like 2020, 2021 was another terrible year for my reading. Nevertheless, 20 books. Not quite as bad as the (ugh) 10 books I read last year (twice as good in fact!), but nowhere near my pre-Covid reading goals. Fiction The Sympathizer: A Novel, Viet Thanh Nguyen Klara…

Some of you after reading this headline might be like, wait, they’re still around? Others of you, over 100 million of you, are current Flipboard users. Many of you remember Flipboard as the best iPad app for reading news and articles when it came out in 2010, winning several design…

Note: I didn’t really want to write this article, but am doing so at others’ urging hoping it’ll give other job hunters some hope, some insights, or at least a laugh. There’s an idea held by many that the more experienced you are, the more accomplished you are, the better…

There are three great design themes: making something beautiful, making something easier, and making something possible. Design is the art of the possible. Design isn’t just about problem solving; it’s about creating a more humane future. The purpose of any design is to make a hole where the future may…

All links go to Spotify. #9 Fake It Flowers, beabadoobee Hey kids, do you like 90s female indie artists? How about one from 2020? #8 Flowers of Devotion, Dehd Spiky, catchy. #7 Women in Music Part III, HAIM Ok, I give. This is fun. #6 Introduction, Presence, Nation of Language Inject…

The 10th annual (!!!) collection of the best articles nominally about design that I’ve found this year, alphabetical by author. I’m not sure if the list is shorter this year because less was written, or because I saw less, or because those of us in the US are facing a…

One of the central tasks of any UX designer is to create the interaction model. The interaction model is the overarching framework that ties the functionality together into a unified whole. Done right, the interaction model can be a major product differentiator; even if individual features are replicated, it may…

I went through two years of studio critiques while getting my Master’s degree in design, and have been through dozens of them in the five years since then*, but I can honestly say I’ve learned more about how to appropriately give design criticism from Tim Gunn, one of the hosts…