Receiving a request from someone who wants to translate your blog posts into other languages is thrilling and humbling. It’s such an honor to know that these pieces resonate with anyone at all — but to find out that they cross geographical and cultural barriers is truly amazing!

Here are some of the translations I know about. If I’ve missed any others, please let me know in the comments.

So You Wanna Be a User Experience Designer — Step 2: Guiding Principles

Original blog post

In Italian

Principi guida per il design dell’esperienza utente
By Cesare Lamanna, managing editor of HTML.it

In Portuguese

Princípios Orientadores para UX Designers
By Maicon Sobczak, freelance graphic designer in São Paulo, Brazil

In French

20 conseils pour concevoir une bonne expérience client
By Olivier Sauvage, independent usability consultant in Lille, France

10 Most Common Misconceptions About User Experience Design

Original article

In Portuguese

O que não é User Experience Design
By Fabricio Teixeira, Brazilian user experience designer

• Improved “Freelance to Agency” podcast
• Pleasure and Pain now on UX Magazine
• I’ll be on Jeffrey Zeldman’s panel at SXSW 2009
• Best of the Last Two Years
• Help me name my blog

As my 28th birthday comes to a close, I can’t help but reflect on the past year. I experienced the deepest love, faced my greatest fears, and found accomplishments I never knew I could have.

Life feels like it’s happening to me, like I’m largely out of control. And perhaps I am, but I need to own it. My goal for age 28 is to truly be present in this life. To stop doubting my successes. To stop diminishing my worthiness. To just accept life as it is, as wholly my own, to revel in, to cherish, and to expand upon with each passing day.

I look around at my friends, my business, my possessions, and I ask, “Did I really create all this?” It doesn’t feel real, and it doesn’t feel like mine. But it is. This dream is really my reality.

What a gift. What a life. I am humbled by the greatness of it, and no longer in fear of what may be.

With love, to all of you who continually touch my soul,
Whitney

• Darlin’ Do Not Fear
• Holy crap…I gave the closing plenary at IA Summit 2010
• Being a godmother is like being a user experience designer
• The Experience of Being a Woman
• Reader E-mail: “Follow your dreams while you can”

Last Thursday I had the absolute pleasure of joining the lovely Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Benjamin on the eighth episode of The Big Web Show (read my previous post).

If you weren’t able to catch the live broadcast, be sure to check out the video and podcast.

We talked about how I’ve used Twitter to build my professional network, what it’s like to be a consultant, and all sorts of stuff about user experience. I had such a great time, and the hour flew by!

Thanks to everyone who tuned in, and especially to Jeffrey and Dan for making me feel so comfortable.

Watch now!

• The first Whit Hour was a success
• More than 600 people attend boxee NYC meetup
• Whit Hour – Week 4
• Finding a day and time for Whit Hour
• I’ll be speaking at An Event Apart 2009

Headed back home from Heathrow Airport after a lovely vacation, I stopped at the Pret A Manger for a quick pre-flight bite.

When I got to the cash register, I noticed this awesome sticker — concise, honest, and, best of all, empathetic.

VAT NIGHTMARE

We’re legally required to add on
VAT when you eat in. Nightmare.

They’re legally required to charge VAT (value added tax), but they aren’t required to be dicks about it. Yet most merchants are. The staff feels that it’s out of their control and they’re sick of getting blamed, so they shrug their shoulders and keep it quiet, hoping you won’t notice.

I admire Pret for taking a different route: being upfront, noting it prominently, and identifying with the customer. Now that they’ve set my expectations and repudiate the blame, my distaste in paying it doesn’t negatively effect their brand. In fact, I like them even more now. It’s kind of genius.

• A blogger’s worst nightmare
• Photo of the day: Please don’t touch, lick, stroke or mount the exhibits
• Advergirl gives props to Pleasure and Pain
• Photo of the day: Ferry rates in 1743
• Photo of the day: Hebrew elevator

I’m honored to be joining Jeffrey Zeldman and Dan Benjamin on tomorrow’s episode of The Big Web Show. Tune in at 1pm ET as they interview me live about all things user experience. Nothing scripted, nothing planned — just uncensored, unadulterated UX pleasure.

If you can’t make it during that time, the video and podcast will be available online soon after the live broadcast.

It’s a thrill to be included among the esteemed previous guests: Jared Spool, Luke Wroblewski, Liz Danzico, Kristina Halvorson, Melissa Pierce, Jeremy Keith, and Jeff Veen and Ethan Dunham.

See Jeffrey’s blog post announcement about my show and other upcoming episodes.

• User Centered Design is now closed
• Watch me on The Big Web Show
• I’m here at SXSW and I want to meet you!
• I’ll be on Jeffrey Zeldman’s panel at SXSW 2009
• I’ll be speaking at An Event Apart 2009

Back in February, I wrote a blog post titled How Little You Really Know. If you haven’t read it, go check it out now.

I got the below email in response, and have kept it in my inbox as a reminder of why I do what I do.

It’s a few months late, but I wanted to share it in the hopes that it motivates you to reach out to the people who help further your thinking, and to appreciate those who have the kindness to let you know when you’ve furthered theirs.

To the person who wrote this email, you know who you are. Thank you.

Wow, I am going to email your blog post to 9 octrillion people.

I am a seasoned technologist, and I’ve been exasperated at the hubris of my fellow nerds who just can’t believe their understanding of technology isn’t ubiquitous.

As a VP of IT, I’ve had shouting matches with engineers trying to convince me to adopt linux as the desktop platform in my company when my users can’t tell the difference between a forward and backslash.

I am convinced it’s this reason that the iPad is going to be a success. It’s the Internet minus the nerds, and frankly, I can’t wait.

Good luck, and keep writing to educate the rest of us.

- [name redacted]

• This email is bloggable
• An Event Apart Boston Schedule Now Online
• SeamlessWeb Mobile Site: Easy to Use, But Impossible to Order
• I admit it: I’m always five minutes late. And it stops now.
• Rejected by EuroIA

Like I mentioned in my post on UX London, I also had the pleasure of being on a UK UPA panel with Dave Gray, Jeff Patton, and Stephen Anderson titled UX Clinic. We spent about two hours answering the audience’s questions — some previously submitted and some on the fly. It was a blast.

Eva-Lotta Lamm (a.k.a. @evalottchen) created these amazing sketchnotes of the event, and I just had to share them.

Thanks to Eva (for making me look so cute!) and to all of the UK UPA folks for a great night!

• SxSW: Our panel “From Freelance to Agency: Start Small, Stay Small”
• The first Whit Hour was a success
• My Creating a Culture of UX workshop at UX London
• DIY UX at An Event Apart Chicago 2009
• Twitter as group therapy

I’ve written about SeamlessWeb before, so you probably know that I’m a huge fan of their service (delivery from an enormous selection of restaurants), but quite appalled by their website. I put up with poor usability for two very important reasons: I love food, and there’s no other option.

My biggest complaint has always been their login process, so imagine my glee when I pulled up the site the other night and found a completely redesigned page.

And then, a few days later, it was gone:

According to @seamlessweb, they are in fact doing some testing, and plan to launch the redesign soon.

Allow me to present to you the old and new existing user login flows so that you can make your own judgment about the update.

SeamlessWeb’s Old Login Process

Homepage

Login Page

SeamlessWeb’s New Login Process

Homepage

That’s it!

On the old site, it was obvious that corporate accounts were valued much more highly than personal accounts. Having to hunt down the buried link every time I wanted to order some food just made me incredibly angry. I’m hungry! Let me in!

Now, the focus is on the consumer, and login credentials can actually be entered from the homepage — like almost every other account-based site on the Internet. And best of all, it keeps you logged in.

I can’t wait for the new SeamlessWeb homepage to be launched permanently! What do you all think of the change?

• SeamlessWeb Mobile Site: Easy to Use, But Impossible to Order
• 10 Worthwhile Twitter Bots
• People you may know
• The importance of delivery to New Yorkers
• Yahoo!’s Shine

From middle school through college, I was obsessed with Starbucks. Five-times-a-week obsessed. Then five years ago I realized that I was spending $1,500 a year on coffee, quit cold turkey, and haven’t had a drop since.

Part of me also hated the evil empire it has become. In middle school when the first Starbucks opened in my neighborhood, it was a big cool-kids hangout (and I was trying to be one of them) because of their big, plush seating and seeming encouragement of endless loitering while not requiring payment for anything. To the 12-year-old me, it was, along with Barnes & Noble, the paragon of anti-establishment. Oh, how little I understood.

In college, when Starbucks opened up across the street from a much-beloved proprietary coffee joint, Kiva Han, and nearly put it out of business (and got bricks thrown into its new glass windows because of it), I started to see the light. So when I quit the joe, I resigned from Starbucks, too.

But damn, did I miss those Frappuccinos.

Since going indie, I’ve stopped into the ‘bucks from time to time, for their ample seating and free wi-fi. And I’ve looked longingly at my icy sweetness, yearning for a sip. But alas, I refuse to go back to the caffeine teet. Last summer on a particularly hot day, it occurred to me to ask around for a decaf Frap — and got turned down at five different locations. Then when a Starbucks opened in my apartment building, I happened to get the general manager who, wanting to please, offered to essentially make me one using the base of a Crème Frappuccino (which is caffeine-free) and a shot of decaf espresso for the coffee flavor. His concoction was a masterpiece, and I savored every moment of it through that green straw.

Over the past year I’ve had a handful of really bad days where I felt the only thing that could cheer me up was such a Frappuccino. I’ve hopped into whichever Starbucks was nearby and asked for it not by name, but by recipe. Baristas, well-trained as they are, would look at me cross-eyed, but would oblige. I would walk away with my drink, satisfied but embarrassed by my off-the-menu order.

That all changed today. Though it’s a gray, rainy day in NYC, I was craving a Frap hardcore, so I came into the Starbucks where I’m still sitting right now. Ready to shame myself for the sake of the drug, I looked up at the menu board and saw this:

The *new* Frappuccino however-you-want-it

Choose your:

• Milk: Whole, 2%, Nonfat, Soy
• Coffee: Decaf, Extra Coffee, Add Espresso
• Calories: No Whip, Light–1/3 fewer calories

I took it all in…and then I squealed.

“Is this for real?!” I asked the cashier.

“Yes, darling. What do you want?” he replied.

I went on to recount my entire journey up until this moment, all the way up to the cross-eyed part. Then he said, “I won’t look at you cross-eyed. What do you want?”

And I told him, quite simply, with exultation: “I would like a Nonfat, Decaf, With Whip, Grande Caramel Frappuccino please.”

And he smiled, and said, “Of course.”

And I rejoiced. Triumph.

Decaf: check. Milk: N (nonfat). Custom: +WC (whipped cream). Drink: CRF (caramel frappuccino).

I will ultimately take the credit for inspiring the However-You-Want-It Frappuccino (officially released May 4 according to Starbucks), but that isn’t why I wrote this post. Instead I felt it was important to commend a company, whose brand I’ve pretty much disdained for years, for taking it upon themselves to take customer feedback (whether direct or observed), and use it to turn one of their flagship products into one that is more inclusive, more flexible, more mindful of the varying needs of its “users”.

And above all else, to transform what was once an embarrassment into an encouraged behavior.

Thank you for your willingness to listen, willingness to change, and willingness to help make me much more comfortable within your walls. Cheers to you.

• Photo of the day: Mister Softee is healthier than Starbucks
• Photo of the day: LLUP to open
• Steal inspiration from everywhere
• I have joined the UXnet board of directors
• Why the new Skittles website is ridiculous but I don’t actually care

On April 18, 2010, Griffin James Lam Konig was born at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasett, NY, weighing in at 7 lbs 13 oz.

Griffin’s mom Donna is the 39-year-old daughter of my childhood babysitter Theresa (who I’ve always called T-T).

The day after Griffin came home from the hospital, twenty-seven years after Theresa welcomed me home from the hospital, Donna and her husband Bill asked me to be Griffin’s godmother. Theresa’s grandson is my godson.

When he first opened his eyes.

I’m an only child so I’ll never truly know the experience of being an aunt. If I’m lucky I’ll be an aunt to my future husband’s nieces and nephews, and I’m sure that I’ll have friends whose kids consider me an aunt, but I’ll never really be one by blood.

Although I am not related to Theresa by blood, she was my babysitter for the first 9-1/2 years of my life. To be clear, my parents were very present in my childhood, and continue to be amazing, loving, parents, but they own and run a company together, and have an active life away from home. Plain and simple, Theresa was a second mother to me. Her family (which also includes her son David and husband Earl) always felt like family to me, and now, in a way, they actually are.

I never expected that Donna might ask me to be Griffin’s godmother. That she did is one of the greatest gifts I will ever receive. It is an honor of epic proportions — and I also recognize that it is a huge responsibility.

Despite being Jewish (the concept of godparents being of Christian origin), I actually have a godmother of my own, and a wonderful one at that. Bonnie has been my mom’s best friend since they were in the second grade. While I was growing up, she would take me shopping, take me to dinner, stay up-to-date with what was going on in my life, tell me stories of her young adult adventures, and just generally provide me with wisdom and love.

Now that I’ve become a godmother, I felt it was important to do a bit of research to see might be expected of me in this new role. Traditionally, a godparent is meant to ensure the religious education of the child — after all, the term is godparent. But the modern take is to be a spiritual guide, an über-mentor, and a caretaker in the event that the parents are no longer present.

In thinking about what it will mean to help shape Griffin’s spirituality, I couldn’t help but relate it to my role as a user experience designer. At the core of what we do — all of the material artifacts we produce put aside — we transform the value systems of the organizations in which we work. A true user experience designer sees conflict between the internal mechanisms of the company and the external audience it wants to reach, and aims to bring greater truth to the interaction between the two, creating deeper meaning for the business and for the customer.

Is that not the same thing as encouraging spirituality? I see spirituality as the desire to develop your inner self, connecting yourself to the greater universe and finding the inspiration to be the best possible version of yourself you can be. Isn’t that our higher mission as user experience designers? To encourage our companies to be better versions of themselves, to have a stronger connection with the people they serve, to continually self-reflect and readjust their behavior accordingly? I think they’re very much the same.

So while the long road ahead as Griffin’s godmother seems daunting, I feel confident that I have the skills to do the job well, and to have an important impact on not only how the world sees him, but how he sees himself. It’s my first month on a new life-long project, and I can’t wait to get to work.

• Finding Myself in You
• May you be inscribed in the book of life
• In 2008, You Changed Me
• The Stranger Aversion
• Whose life is this?