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Category: UX matters

Image of me smelling a saffron bun

Don’t judge a book too much by its covers

The best books aren’t always the newest ones. Or the ones with the fanciest cover. Some of the best books are the ones that are older, worn, where the pages have been turned a hundred times, and where the cover, well it could be better.  Each of us has a

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“Beat everybody to your inconvenient truth”

That was one of the quotes I wrote down this lunchtime as I listened to an episode of the Mel Robbins podcast about imposter syndrome. There was another really good one which was “You can diffuse the imposter syndrome if you just accept where you’re at” which really struck a

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Embracing and creating ordered chaos

Back in February 2011 I left Dare and began freelancing. At the same time we started building a loft conversion in our flat, and doing a head to toe renovation of it. Terrible timing in hindsight as there were so many decision to be made on a daily basis, most

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The Walk & Talk Podcast

My walk & talk “podcast” experiment

I’ve done a little experiment that I’d love your feedback on. It’s a series of unedited, no thrills audio recordings and what I’d love your input on is if I should turn them and the idea behind them into a no thrills podcast.

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UX Fika

I’m starting a UX school

I fell into running workshops after visiting General Assembly (GA) in NYC to look at their co-working space. A chat led to a dinner in London as GA was about to open here and shortly thereafter I taught my first class with them. Fast forward five years and I’ve taught

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UX Fika - From idea to prototype in 3 weeks

UX for startups: From idea to prototype in 3 weeks

When Steve Krug wrote his book ‘Don’t make me think’ his intent was to help people to learn to think like a usability expert. Over the last few years as I’ve helped other startups with the UX for their websites and apps, I’ve seen a great gap and I wanted

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Star

On push notifications

We’ll admit that push notifications are a great way to keep up with new content when it arrives. However, those messages quickly become annoying when they relate to things that you really don’t give a shit about. – Engadget

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Day 19 | Making projections

Day 19 | Making projections

Today I’ve been head and knee deep into our financial forecast for the next 18 months. That brings us to July 2017. Quite a long time away and yet, not really that far away at all.

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Autumn tree

End of holiday. A new beginning

I’ve always had a particular liking for symbolic new beginnings. The end of summer holidays and the start of “autumn” is one of them. It fills me with excitement of what’s to come. And this year I’m a bit more excited than usual.

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Creativity written on blackboard

Introducing UX and collaborative working into teams

Over the soon to be three years I’ve been freelancing I’ve come across places where UX and collaborative working has been an integral part of the process and value that a company provides, and other places where it’s still been in its early infancy.

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Guide

How having mentors have helped me

Looking back at my years doing what I do there is one thing that stands out more than anything in terms of what I’ve found the most valuable and rewarding. And that’s having a good mentor to learn from and bounce work with.

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Passion

On how product features alone aren’t enough

You don’t differentiate through your product’s feature set, its battery life or any other spec. The difference is emotional: Don’t just do something for me, but make me happy while doing it. From the Mashable post With iOS 7, Apple Leads by Following Image source: www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/4354438814

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On simple experiences

Simple is terrific but simplistic is not. Don’t lose important complexity. Complexity gives our lives and interfaces texture. People don’t want dumbed down interfaces. They want uncomplicated experiences. Josh Clark via Luke W

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Why you should write every day

You probably think you have nothing to write about but once you start it gets hard to stop. Honestly. Writing is an incredibly important skill at all levels. By writing every day you reflect on things in a different and clearer way and you become better at expressing yourself. If you haven’t tried writing every day, give it a try for 30 days to begin with. I did it every day of 2012. Seth Godin has done it for years and swears by it.