and why it doesn’t have to be Year after year I see more companies investing in experience design and for every one of those years, I keep seeing unfriendly UX come out the other end. I see bad patterns, “dark patterns”, and outdated patterns show up in everything. They appear…

A classist, racist, ableist pile of BS. Q: What is shared by just about every kind of loan—from payday to mortgage and credit card to equity? A: Different rates for different people. Q: What’s the reason people get these different rates? A: The “risk” associated with their ability to pay back the loan. Let’s break this down: The riskier the person is who’s applying for the loan, the worse rates they get.

Possibly the most motivating dynamic in the human condition. “Desi” looks out her window to the partly cloudy sky. She’s standing in her bedroom, trying to decide what to do first: check her phone, start a load of laundry, or chip away at a project. Some of these are wants…

Their products and services could be so much better with a bit of my shameless meddling in their business. If I could steer Apple for a bit If 80’s movie magic suddenly enables me to make company-wide decisions —steering Apple even for short time—this is what I would do to make things better. Summary: Padbooks, iPhones, Watch mini…

Everything from humanity is susceptible to change Immovable human rules Whenever new ideas are met with resistance, frequently the chief argument or motivation for argument is basically the power of tradition, structure, policy, or “culture” being a rigid and impervious force. “It’s the way it’s always been.” “That will never change.” “That is…

Suddenly my preferred video chat app is surrounded by sharks who want to destroy it and become it at the same time. Memories Zoom and I go back a while, about 8 years to be precise. It has helped me establish some meaningful contact with people in my work life. The…

Aside from the serious danger, staying home and being clean is my tendency. So it’s weird to see people freaking out and overdoing it. Introversion Being someone who recharges by having time alone, the thought and practice of spending more time away from friends and strangers doesn’t make me crazy—as it…

Why the calendar doesn’t belong with email and should be decoupled post haste Have you ever noticed that historically calendar apps are inextricably tied to email apps? I’ve come to the realization that they don’t belong to be joined at the hip and are currently much worse as a result. Reason 1: primary contact method …

It causes me to cringe at least once per episode of seasons 1 and 2. It doesn’t have to be this way. TLDR Plot for the sake of “making a scene” scenes MacGuffins-a-plenty Pro-whatever lines are shallow Drama at the expense of professionalism, science, and thought Characters made to defy…