I have attended the IA Summit every year since 2008. This year’s event takes place in my new home of San Diego, so naturally I’ll be there. It’s hard to believe it will be my 7th consecutive year when I still feel like a newbie. I love this community, I love this conference, and I [Keep Reading…]
5 Years of Independence
Happy anniversary to me! Today marks five years since I left my full-time job to go indie — and what a hell of a ride it’s been. I want to thank all my clients who have valued what I could contribute to their organizations and the countless friends, colleagues and strangers who pointed them my [Keep Reading…]
Minor in Tech
When I was 13 and about to finish the 8th grade, a teacher I hardly knew approached me in the hall. “Whitney, I’d like to talk to you about next year.” “What about next year?” “Well you’ll be entering high school next year, and you’ll be asked to pick your electives soon. I think you [Keep Reading…]
Give Us the Answer
“You are an expert,” he told me. “We want you to give us the answer.” “Then I’m not for you.” I guess I could have just taken the money, but it would have cost me my integrity. Many companies don’t believe they have time to learn a new way to work. They just want someone [Keep Reading…]
The User Experience Process for the Seamless iPad App
The Data One week after Seamless, the leading online food ordering service, released their first iPad app in March 2012, the app hit #1 in the App Store’s Lifestyle category. Today it maintains 4.5 stars with more than 6,000 ratings and reviews. “By far the best menu application available for iPad…” “I couldn’t imagine not [Keep Reading…]
How do you choose your clients?
I can tell if a project is going to be worth my time from the very first communication I have with the client. If they talk about their work with passion and excitement, if they want to connect with me as one human being to another, if they are willing to invest their time and [Keep Reading…]
What is it like to be a creative entrepreneur?
At SXSW earlier this year, my friend Saul Colt asked me to sit down for an interview on the topic of creative entrepreneurship. The questions asked are ones I often get on what it’s really like to be independent. The video produced by YouNoodle and sponsored by FreshBooks was released last week. What lessons have [Keep Reading…]
How “When I…” Reasoning Poisons a Team
Earlier this year I had a client who hired me to redesign the first step in their 3-step process. The page was getting loads of customer complaints and the last three iterations on the design hadn’t helped. As always, I started the project by interviewing key stakeholders: the product manager, the product owner, the head [Keep Reading…]
Why Guess? A Familiar Screenplay
CUT TO: INT. SCREEN SHARING MEETING – DAY A client shows their consultant the progress they’ve made on a redesign. They want the consultant’s feedback before it’s too late. CLIENT Currently the user does A, then B, then C. Now the user will be able to do C, then A, then B. We don’t think [Keep Reading…]
You Are What You Ink
I just turned down a lucrative contract because in my heart I’m ethically opposed to the company’s corporate owners. When I was first contacted by their director of engineering, I had a negative gut feeling that it just “wasn’t me,” but I put off the concern in an effort to challenge my assumptions. I wanted [Keep Reading…]
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