Wow, what a day. A really diverse selection of talks that went all over the map. From building vast world-changing health systems, to scaling and archiving global online communities, to the beauty and joy of calligraphy. And lasers. …

Lessons learnt at one of the fastest-growing startups in history — Hopin has been a trip. I joined as the second designer in July 2020, a few months into this strange pandemic which still hasn’t ended. I had been working as a contractor and trying to find the right permanent job for a while. I often worked with early stage startups…

How does an ancient carpentry expression apply to digital product design? — Consider this expression, well known in carpentry: Measure twice, cut once. We’re talking about wood, of course. Now, carpentry is a lot like any kind of design: We’re talking about designing and making something for a client here. The client has very specific needs — a specific room that the…

Designing complex products isn’t easy. As a junior designer, I made the mistake more than once of jumping straight into a design app and pushing pixels, without first considering the bigger picture. As I learned my craft working with large tech companies and small startups, I discovered six principles that…

Take back control with these simple steps — Social media can be fun! Useful! Amazing! It’s also a total time suck, and it’s run by predatory corporations who view you as fodder for their advertising machines — to be exploited and abused as necessary to achieve quarterly goals. Screw that. Don’t believe me? I’m a designer and…

Endlesss — a UX case study — Make music social again Endlesss is a startup with a bold aim: Bring back the fun to music making. When I joined in mid-2018, we had a great-looking, powerful multiplayer instrument — that fit tons of features into a tiny screen. It was brilliant, but there were a few issues. CHALLENGES New users often…

Welcome Back to Pre-Edison Music! — Since mid-2018, I’ve been working with the team at Endlesss, on what I believe is a new category of app. Endlesss is a collaborative loop-based music creation platform. It’s developed out of the ideas of Tim Exile, who spent more than a decade creating a system for instant, live music…

(Now Published on UX Planet!) — What is UX? How can I get into UX? What does the day to day involve? I get asked these questions a lot. Many people, even designers, don’t really have a clue what UX actually means. They think it’s some kind of handy-wavy fu that consultants palm people off with. Meanwhile, real UX design is in high demand. What’s all the fuss about? This article has now been re-published on UX Planet

AND WHAT ‘UX’ REALLY MEANS — What is UX? How can I get into UX? What does the day to day involve? I get asked these questions a lot. Many people, even designers, don’t really have a clue what UX actually means. They think it’s some kind of handy-wavy fu that consultants palm people off with…