December 29, 20223 Comments

A Year in Review: 2022

One of my favorite things about the end of every year is the endless list of “Year in Review” posts I get to read. I tell myself on an annual basis that I’ll write one of my own, not for public consumption but for the sake of keeping track of a life that moves at 1,000 miles an hour. Annually you’ll hear me say, “I feel like I blinked and now it’s 202_” and it’s true! I used to have a personal newsletter that helped me keep track of most, if not all, of the events in my life and that was helpful but I really had to dig through the archive to get a sense of the entire year.

I don’t want my life to be something that just happens to me, and for the last few years it feels like it’s just been whizzing by. I am hoping that writing “Year in Review”s and intentionally reflecting on the last twelve months will help me feel like that’s less of the case. So here we go!

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December 19, 2022No Comments

Design Management for the Wary

Read time: 7 minutes

Last February, I received a message on LinkedIn from a budding designer who requested thirty minutes of my time so that she could ask me about my design experience. Just two weeks later, I received the same request from a second designer.

Up until then, I was certain with every fiber of my being that I was uninterested in design management, and responding to these requests felt very much like dipping my toes into that. The only reason I had agreed to not one but two requests for my time was because I had done the same to a handful of people a few months prior, and those folks ultimately became my colleagues at Dialexa. I had experienced firsthand how thirty minutes could change the trajectory of someone’s career.

So, I agreed.

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August 22, 2019No Comments

Shining Light on an Unexpected Career Path

I really, really enjoy talking to people. So much so that I came up with a project that allowed me to converse with others about their careers and consume some of their time in exchange for a portrait taken by me. As soon as I found out that I was attending Strive, a user experience (UX) research conference based in Toronto, I knew I wanted to learn about research, design, and strategy through the process of interviewing other conference attendees.

Here is the second part of that series, in which I speak with Lorraine M. about how adjusting lights led to a career revelation, the distinction between academic research and UX research, and the pros and cons of both.

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June 12, 2019No Comments

What Do International Relations Have to Do with UX?

I really, really enjoy talking to people. So much so that I came up with a project that allowed me to converse with others about their careers and consume some of their time in exchange for a portrait taken by me. As soon as I found out that I was attending Strive, a user experience (UX) research conference based in Toronto, I knew I wanted to learn about research, design, and strategy through the process of interviewing other conference attendees.

Here is the first part of that series, in which I speak with Vivian C. about the relationship between public policy and UX, systems thinking, and the current challenges of designing for insurance. I hope you gain as much as I did from our conversation.

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