Find Your North Star
I don’t think there is one of us today that doesn’t know of the north star, and that it will always point north. It’s in movies, cartoons, comics, and books. In a project, the north star is the goal you…
A Mission for Design
I was invited to say a few off-the-cuff words at a design offsite for a Well Established Company where they were making a mission for their design team. I decided I was sick of ppt, and wrote out a few…
Designers Don’t Ask
This is the original article that became “Design Can’t be an Afterthought” on Women 2.0. I’ve left the original title, too. I was told no one would get the reference, to Women Don’t Ask so here, now you will. Historically, designers in technology companies often…
Your Number
A designer friend sat across the table from me. I took a sip of my wine, she crunched a pumpkin fry (remember this is California). She said, “I finally found a start-up I like. ” “Yeah? You like them? Want…
Words on Wireframes
Design is a Job should be required reading for anyone making a living doing Design. I will write more on that later. For now, since I have become the lady who complains about wireframes (so not the title I was…
A Language for Design Problems
[T]here are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns ie “ there are…
A small manifesto for design
Disclaimer: I have made digital products for over ten years in a variety of roles, from the formal designer role, to product manager to general manager and even long ago, code monkey. So this is my view-point. Yours might be…
Bruce Lee on how to be a Designer (ok, on how to fight, but watch…)
“I do not teach karate. I do not believe in styles anymore. …Styles tends to not only separate men because they have their own doctrine which become the gospel truth you cannot change… If you do not have style, if…
Lessons from Game Design; Citations and References
I’m sorry I did not record the talk. But here are the slides No Stinking Badges: Better Lessons from Game Design from Christina Wodtke And I will share many of my citations, my wall of heroes, my pin board I…
Working the Canvas, Reworking our Process
When I was in art school, one of the most important ideas I learned was called “working the canvas.” It meant never spending too much time on one area, but continually moving from one part to the next, so you…
Talking About Stuff