Yesterday was a dream. I spent the day with my long-time clients at Pace University’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems in a day-long event designed to re-engage alumni across the decades and help build a more powerful and interconnected alumni network. Here are some snaps from a workshop in which we asked, [Keep Reading…]
52 Books in 2017
One of the big, lofty goals I decided to give myself for 2017 was to read 52 books in the year. Here are some I’ve picked, in no particular order. There are more than 52 here, so I still give myself some choice. Have you read any of these? What did you think? Which must-reads [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…]
Empathy is the Core of Design Thinking
David Kelley is the founder and chairman of IDEO, probably the world’s best-known design innovation consultancy. Though not quite a household name, Kelley has arguably made as much of an impact on the field of design as the late Steve Jobs — in fact, it was under Kelley’s leadership that IDEO designed the first mouse [Keep Reading…]
Mark Ruffalo and Sesame Street Teach Kids About Empathy
Empathy is a hard thing to understand, and it’s an even harder thing to do — if you weren’t raised to do it. With the help of actor Mark Ruffalo, Sesame Street tries to explain the meaning of empathy to the kids at home. Mark: “Empathy is when you’re able to understand and care about [Keep Reading…]
The Most Valuable Thing They Teach at Harvard Business School
It all comes down to one word: empathy. At Harvard Business School, renowned professor Clay Christensen helps his students see that the role of a business is to solve someone’s problem -– and therefore, by their very nature, all businesses are an exercise in empathy. James Allworth, a fellow at Harvard Business School’s Forum for [Keep Reading…]
Interaction-design.org’s Encyclopedia is live!
Interaction-design.org is a Denmark-based foundation that explores research on all human-centered aspects of technology. In an effort to create world-class educational materials for free, they have just launched an open-access, peer-reviewed encyclopedia. The first seven chapters were released today, with many more to be published in the coming months. I was invited by editor-in-chief Mads [Keep Reading…]
Whit Hour – Week 6
Thank you so much to the 41 people who showed up for the sixth week of Whit Hour — my weekly one-hour video chat to answer any and all of your questions about user experience, consulting, and whatever else you throw at me. I really appreciate everyone’s flexibility in moving over to Ustream at the [Keep Reading…]
Whit Hour – Week 2
Thank you so much to the 20 or so folks who showed up for the second week of Whit Hour — my new weekly one-hour video chat to answer any and all of your questions about user experience, consulting, and whatever else you throw at me. Join me next week on Sunday, August 16, 9-10pm [Keep Reading…]
From the Archive: Changing Majors
The Google 2001 search engine inspired me to use the Internet Archive to find my old Carnegie Mellon student website. The furthest instance back had links to my Fall 2001 class schedule (first semester sophomore year), my “résumé in its entirety” and a real gem — a manifesto I wrote on why I had decided [Keep Reading…]
