Categories
Personal

A fire story

This post is a true story. Oddly it’s a story I feel like I’ve been telling for many years, ingrained and intertwined in the fabric of my family. It is a sad story, a personal story and a story I’m glad I can finally share. In February 2010, 2.5 years after moving from Vancouver to […]

Categories
Career Planning User Experience

A case for mentorship

My latest article, A Case for Mentorship, is now up on UX Magazine. In the article I explore the value of mentorship in the UX space, some of the requirements of being a mentor and some of my lessons learned over the past few years of mentoring. Enjoy.

Categories
Creativity User Experience

Great design is tricky

Fantastic quote: “Great design is tricky. It’s easy to pick apart decisions after an app ships and second-guess its creators. What’s harder — as anyone who has ever created something knows — is being the guy in the room who has to fashion those decisions from whole cloth” From Dave Wiskus in his article Cheap […]

Categories
Information Architecture User Experience

Agile Vancouver: April 28, 2011

I’ve been on a bit of a push lately to demystify UX. I believe this comes from a frustration with the fact that increasingly I see UX/IxD/UE people (or whatever we call ourselves) becoming protective practitioners of our domain. Whether it’s the use of big words, a lack of involvement across teams or even territorial […]

Categories
Product Management User Experience

ProductCamp Vancouver presentation

I had a great day yesterday at the first ever ProductCamp Vancouver. Lots of great information sharing and networking with various people both local and beyond. My presentation, UX for Product Managers, is below. Thanks to everyone who attended and for all your feedback.

Categories
Creativity User Experience

UX ideas in the cards

My latest UX Magazine article, UX Ideas in the Cards, is now available or you can read it below. In the article I discuss some of my favourite UX card decks and how these tactile, easy-to-use tools, are great for expanding your creativity and problem solving. Enjoy the read.

Categories
User Experience

Plain language tenets in UX

My article, Plain Language Tenets in UX, is now live on the UX Magazine website. First of many articles I will be contributing in the future.

Categories
Productivity

A “zero in-box”

I was having a conversation on the weekend with a colleague about my always zero in-box and thought I’d share my simple approach to dealing with email: Rule #1: Look at your email only a few times a day. Learn not to worry about your in-box and the need to react immediately. It’s a distraction […]

Categories
Banking Jobs and Careers

Next stop: Vancouver

Twenty-one months ago we moved from Vancouver to Calgary with my employer at the time. Three months later we moved into our house. A year later layoffs landed and I was one of them. Three days later I joined an agency, then later left to join another UX consultancy. Change for certain has been a […]

Categories
Information Architecture User Experience

Doing a content audit or inventory

This is a re-post of my article Doing a content audit or inventory that was posted on the nForm blog January 26, 2010. This past couple weeks I’ve been doing a large content audit and inventory. With the increased attention on content strategy the audit/inventory seems to be making a comeback. In this post I’m […]