the Pareto Principle: 20 percent of your effort accounts for 80 percent of your results.
Is the Waterfall method washing away your carefully crafted designs? Harness Design Thinking and Dual-track agile and stop project handoff for good. Though software development has embraced agile, far too many of us still encounter waterfall or waterfall-adjacent processes in our design work. In the waterfall process we carefully think about and craft a visual …
I’ve spent more than a decade in the trenches as a web developer and UX designer, working with entrepreneurs to create and grow their online businesses. Ive learned a few things along the way. Below are the top ten pieces of advice I now share with friends embarking on their online businesses. If you are …
The pep talk you need BEFORE starting your online business Read More »
I find the existence of the design sprint really interesting because it directly speaks to the challenges we face integrated design into our teams and projects. Much has been written about whether the design sprint is a true sprint (nope [1]) but less has been said about why they exist in the first place, why …
The prototype sprint kicks off every no-handoff project. Continue reading for a quick primer on what a prototype sprint is and how it sets the stage for a no-handoff project. Collaborate from day 1 A prototype sprint is collaborative and merges both UI/UX and development from the earliest stages of the project. Everyone benefits from …
Scrum is the most popular project management methodology in the world and if you work in web development chances are good you are using Scrum in some form. A current trend in Scrum is the “Sprint 0”. What is it? Why has it stuck around? And why does it offer little value to the agile …
Project handoff is often compared to throwing your work over the fence for the next team to catch. Handoff is a near-universally recognized period of inefficiency and frustration. While user-centered frameworks like Agile have broken down barriers between development and the end user, in practice the divisions between designers and programmers still persist. It’s part …
Picture paradise and you are probably thinking of someplace just like Cummins Nursery. This organic orchard and self-described “u-pick paradise” is a well established destination IRL as well as online. At the farmstand you can buy veggies, fruits, and flowers all grown on their acres of fertile land. And online you can buy saplings for …
In the form of Zen painting called Sumi-e simplicity is key. Every line conveys meaning, and only what is necessary to convey that meaning is included. Emotion is conveyed to the user because the painter banishes conscious thought and paints through feeling their subject matter. The end result is a painting that is alive, because …
Project handoff is often compared to throwing your work over the fence for the next team to catch. Handoff is a near-universally loathed period of inefficiency and frustration baked into the waterfall method. Agile has made revolutionary strides towards better integrated teams and more frequent communication. However in practice I find that the divisions between …
Whats wrong with a beautiful website? Turns out, quite a lot! The best thing about the web is its no-nonsense egalitarian nature towards visual representation. The successful “design” is the one that gets the job done, period. A design can win awards and still be an epic failure. Another can be a laughing stock of …
