Archives for 2012

Doing business as Vicarious Partners

April 30, 2012 by Whitney Hess 8 Comments

It is with tremendous excitement and huge dreams for the future that I am finally ready to announce that I have formally changed the name of my company to Vicarious Partners™. This new name much better reflects my mission to help organizations build deeper connections amongst colleagues and customers in an effort to deliver the [Keep Reading…]

We Don’t Know Anything

April 26, 2012 by Whitney Hess 9 Comments

We don’t know. We believe we know. Our experiences, education, instincts and values all add up to our beliefs. They also include assumptions and misperceptions and past truths. We believe something once and then we “know” it forever, because that’s easier than always having to ask. Asking isn’t easy. It takes time. It introduces risk. [Keep Reading…]

User Experience is Not Enough

April 21, 2012 by Whitney Hess 43 Comments

Designing the product is all for naught if you don’t first take the time to design the organization. — Whitney Hess (@whitneyhess) April 20, 2012 I’ve been a user experience designer for the entirety of my career. And in the decade I’ve spent doing this work, I have discovered that there is only one universal [Keep Reading…]

Six Cities in Sixty Days

April 17, 2012 by Whitney Hess 2 Comments

I have had an incredible (and staggering) two months. It began with a trip half-way around the world to Hong Kong, the furthest I’ve ever traveled, to speak at UX Hong Kong. I presented my talk Design Principles: The Philosophy of UX and gave my Creating a Culture of UX half-day workshop as well. I [Keep Reading…]

I’m off to SXSW 2012 to speak and play

March 9, 2012 by Whitney Hess Leave a Comment

Four years ago I had never even heard of South by Southwest, and now I’m on a plane heading to Austin for my 4th time attending and 3rd time speaking at the most raucous and depraved interactive technology festival on the planet. I mean that in the best way possible :) I’m trembling with excitement [Keep Reading…]

Don Draper is the Antithesis of User Experience

February 27, 2012 by Whitney Hess 14 Comments

Earlier this month, Fast Company began publishing a series on user experience written by industry analyst Brian Solis. As soon as I read the first article, I reached out to Brian on Twitter to say that I thought it was crucial that he incorporate the perspectives of practicing user experience designers in order for his [Keep Reading…]

I’m off to UX Hong Kong

February 14, 2012 by Whitney Hess Leave a Comment

A little over a year ago, I wrote a blog post titled I Wish I Were Going to UX Hong Kong and now I find myself sitting at the gate waiting to do just that. I am on my way to speak at UX Hong Kong! My life never ceases to amaze me, and this [Keep Reading…]

Location Agnostic, Context Specific

February 7, 2012 by Whitney Hess 15 Comments

At the end of last year, I contributed to a year-end roundup piece in A List Apart called “What I Learned About the Web in 2011.” I shared the most impactful lesson I had learned from various user research projects last year. CONTEXT IS KING The most important thing that 2011 taught me about web [Keep Reading…]

A Brief Recap on Year 4

February 2, 2012 by Whitney Hess Leave a Comment

2012 started off with a bang and my mind has been moving at a million miles a minute ever since. I managed to miss a few important milestones and never got around to taking the time to reflect on the year here. I suppose I decided that dwelling on the past (even if it yielded [Keep Reading…]

The plain numbers about women in tech – The VCs

January 31, 2012 by Whitney Hess 53 Comments

I’m not much for the “women in tech” stuff — preferring to prove equality rather than beg for it — but sometimes the gender imbalance in this industry is so damaging that it would be unethical for me to not call it out. About a year ago, I wrote a blog post titled The Plain [Keep Reading…]