PinnedBurn after writingOn managing and making — In the winter of 2022 I was writing my first book. Writing a book about what you do is a great way to figure out what parts of your job you really enjoy and what parts inspire you. My book is about the relationship between language and (digital, product) design…Management And Leadership4 min readManagement And Leadership4 min read
Published inBootcamp·Pinned7 semantic lenses for designI’ve assembled a jumble of tools over my decade and a half working in UX design. Eventually, I distilled my thinking into these 7 ways of looking at design problems, and like any content designer I’m constantly editing them. …Design8 min readDesign8 min read
Nov 15, 2018Design principles in the midst of chaosAwhile ago, I went to a screening of Gary Hustwit’s film about the designer Dieter Rams. In it, Rams lived in a neighbourhood of his own design, surrounded by products he designed. It was a nice neighbourhood, where everything still worked and was, in its way, beautiful. …Design3 min readDesign3 min read
Published inInside Intercom·Apr 18, 2017How soon is now? Discovering the many jobs of language in designIn a simple design, every element has to pull its own weight. A messaging app — no matter what frills it’s decorated with — should be a simple design. And its simplest elements are words. Even the simplest design carries the weight of expectations for how it ought to work — and when its elements don’t work as expected, people react. Strongly. Last year, the words we added to the Intercom Messenger interface generated some intense reactions to the most minute details of grammar and…Design8 min readDesign8 min read
