We started off the week of (American) Thanksgiving with a death in the extended family last Sunday. Dealing with death isn’t easy at any time of year, but directly over a holiday week is much more challenging. Before we heard the news, we were already juggling the end of a pinball tournament trip, a minimum … Continue reading “Thanksgiving”

Earlier this year, the folks at Lavacon asked me to submit a talk for their Portland conference. I’d heard good things about LavaCon, but I also knew they were primarily focused on technical communication, documentation writing, and content strategy. What could a UX designer, who works in a content-adjacent field but is rarely in the … Continue reading “Putting some color in a conference presentation”

Sometimes, the developers I’m working with come to me and say, “Hey, um, what’s up with this part of the design? Because [insert problem scenario here].” Sometimes, I’ve actually accounted for that problem scenario, and I’ll explain why I did what I did. The rest of the time, and the rest of the time is … Continue reading “Commonalities: “Past me” is an idiot”