Notes ⁽¹¹⁾

Playing around with Claude Design and realizing it very much behaves like an intern. I can get draft-level output from it, but need to hold its hand. There's lots of editing and re-prompting that needs to happen, but it's definitely faster than an actual human. My 2 main concerns are: how much work would it be for a developer to take this from prototype to production-ready? And, would it ever contribute cool, valuable, or surprising ideas like a good intern would?

Some digital product design deliverables get a bad rap. Often the criticism is valid though. Take personas for example. They're often biased, disconnected from reality, not well-researched, just UX theater, etc. But, when done — and used — right, personas can be a valuable tool*.

Bruce Springsteen — Streets of Minneapolis

Woody Guthrie would be proud. We need more of this. Every single American* needs to speak up and take a stand. When we look back, "I didn't know" or "I didn't want to make things political" won't be an acceptable excuse. You do know, and at some point everything becomes political.

*Non-Americans can (and should) protest too: Billy Bragg — City of Heroes  

I’ll be honest with you, I don’t love the idea of artificial intelligence. There are many things about it I don’t like. Even the basic premise, that this technology is intelligent doesn’t match my definition of the term. Real intelligence requires more than connecting a…

Figma's built-in color contrast checker is so helpful! I used to rely on a few different plugins to check color contrast. Some of those had features Figma is missing, but I love how integrated the Figma tool is. The line and dotted pattern to indicate…

I just posted a free (!) UX writing tip to LinkedIn. You never know, you might find it helpful.

I'll always be a bit nostalgic for the NYC subway map I used when I lived there. But as a fan of Massimo Vignelli, I love that the new design is reminiscent of the 1972 Unimark map.

I consider myself a modernist. My sense of aesthetic leans clean and simple. Think Bauhaus, Swiss Design, and maybe a hint of Scandinavian or Japanese minimalism. At the same time, I'm a sucker for "gezelligheid". That's the Dutch word for cosiness or "hygge" if you…

Snowy runs are awesome. It was snowing during my morning run today and there was about an inch or two of fresh snow on the ground. I ran through neighborhoods, forest, and farm roads and it was beautiful. I don't bring my phone when I…

Not that anyone cares, but I'm back on the indieweb. Who, what, why?! Yes, all good questions. In my — admittedly personal — definition, the indieweb is the equivalent of mom-and-pop shops for the web. In other words, instead of publishing to large social media…