Category: Uncategorized

Default third-party apps for iOS

Bloomberg today shared a report that Apple may be considering opening up third party apps as the default options on the iPhone. This would be a welcome change. There are a number of instances where I switch between the default Apple app and a competitor: Pandora vs Apple Music vs Shopify Google Maps vs Apple […]

On Writing

Writing for me has become a creative outflow to process my thoughts. Sometimes it means taking the time to write something out in order to better understand a thing and process it. At other times it means spending that time to write out the thing I wish I could read, that I wish someone else […]

Capisco Chair by HÅG

My process for buying a new product is, from an outsider’s perspective, rather slow and uncertain. I often spend months thinking about a product and trying to figure out the best way to incorporate it into my personal or work life. My new office chair was no exception. For six months I researched chair options, […]

Sharing your story

I had a lovely chat today with Brian from WPSessions.com. While chatting we got on the topic of knowledge sharing, as that’s a large part of what he does each day. One thing that strikes me, time and again, is how much insight each of us have on specific areas of interest. Over a lifetime […]

A demand to create

I believe inside all of us exists a desire to create. Most of the time we’re merely consumers, passively or actively. For those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to make time and space, we have an opportunity to use our abilities to add something to the world. The more I slow […]

On writing online

With the recent news about Automattic acquiring Tumblr, it’s got me thinking again on where and how I like sharing my thoughts online. On Twitter I am happy to retweet, share links, and write short thoughts. In times past I used Facebook for personal messages to friends and for posting pictures. I’ve mostly stopped now […]

Life with two kids

Amidst all the chaos of life, it’s important to remember that kids really do grow up incredibly fast. My son is six, and my daughter is two. I love watching them interact together as they hang. Even with the age difference they love being around each other. I’m reminded that they have an opportunity to […]

News

I’ve been trying to figure out how to consume data that’s more ephemeral in nature. Headlines and social media sites are one of the worst ways to do this. My ideal would be a weekly cycle with a brush if articles that inform me on things that are happening around the world. The challenge is […]

Remote office

Some random thoughts on my experiences working remotely recently. Most of the time I work from home, in an actual office room. We built this house a year ago, and I made sure to have a room set aside for work. Recently though I’ve been having a hard time just being in my office. I […]

GORUCK GR2 and travel ergonomics

Backpack After much debate I finally settled on buying the GORUCK GR2 34L in black. My goal has been to find one bag I could travel with, one that would fit my electronic gear, clothes, and other travel stuff. I sold my GR1 21L and swapped up for the GR2. So far I’m not quite […]

When a design discussion needs a sketch

Earlier today I was following up on a ticket from a colleague. He asked some clarifying questions on what was needed for the design. At first I thought of responding directly to the question with a written answer. However, experience has taught me that a sketch often helps me with understanding the question better, helping […]

Show what you mean

Earlier today I was following up on a design related task. After writing up the paragraph response, I decided to take five minutes and sketch up a drawing of what I wrote. I then included that. In the work I’ve done with design and development teams over the years I’ve found that a sketch will […]

Leading to Design

I’ve started a new project. It’s called Leading to Design, a site where I share my learnings as a product designer, and the journey I’m taking to support and lead a design vision within my company. Check it out! The first few posts are up, and you can subscribe to my something-weekly newsletter. 😀

Write what you want to read

A few weeks ago I shared why I write. The heart of it is sometimes I write what I wish I could read. So many of us have a thirst to learn, an undying curiosity. While you may find that starts to take the edge off of your curiosity, more often then not you can […]

Eye replacement in FaceTime

Yesterday a story running around caught my attention. In the beta version of iOS 13 FaceTime is doing something pretty unique for iPhone XS and iPhone XR users. Normally, if you make a FaceTime call, and are looking at the screen to watch the person you’re calling, it looks like your eyes are looking down. […]

A thousand words

There’s a movie that came out a few years ago starring Eddie Murphy. In it he could only speak 1,000 words, and if he went over that amount something bad would happen. That’s all I know, I never saw the movie. Some days I feel the same with writing, that I have a limited amount […]

Product Design at Automattic

The above sketch is from my work on the product filter blocks for WooCommerce. For the past three months I’ve been working at Automattic as a Product Designer with the WooCommerce team. The first few weeks were Support Rotation, followed by onboarding, and then jumping into some smaller projects and attending a few meetups. Right […]

Why write

Over the years I’ve had various motivations for writing on this site. Recently the main reason has been because I have something I want to get out of my system. Writing can be for others to read, but it can also be for me to process how I’m thinking about something. So, I’ve begun writing […]