Notes

While coding tools let designers build without coding, knowing how to code is still relevant — Designers can use AI to learn enough code to understand what they're building with LLM coding tools.

Happy Birthday Apple! — Here's to 50 Apple products I've owned over the years (some were family computers from when I was a kid). To more than 50 amazing products in Apple's first 50 years.

Build & prototype with Claude — I'm building with Claude, and it lets me focus on what I enjoy the most, being creative. In only a few hours I can now build a project that just wouldn't have otherwise been built.

Claude vs ChatGPT — After trying out both Claude and ChatGPT, the verdict is in—I'm paying for Claude. Even though it's like comparing apples to bananas, I'm finding Claude the better of the two.

Reminder: CSS hasn't kept up with technology — To be fair technology moves quickly, and thanks to the computers we carry around in our pockets, advancements in screens and colour reproduction has meant the typical way of displaying colours on the web has become limited by HEX & RGB. Our phone and computer screens are now capable of covering the P3 gamut, a wider range the previous sRGB segment of the spectrum. Somehow 16,777,216 colours are no longer enough! The slow roll out of the LCH colourspace is bringing more colours to our screens. LCH (Lightness, chroma and hue) has been around since 1976, and better presents colours similiar to how the human eye perceives them. The two gradient groupings above demonstrate how RGB and LCH vary.

AI will be a theory until it isn't — We haven't been replaced by computers just yet

Change is good — I like change. The world is constantly changing and we such always be willing to adapt, especially as UX designers. Change is growth.

Prototyping for Real — Designers need to prototype—the more complex our designs, especially for mobile apps, our designs need to live on device.

Sourdough, DIY and staying on track — Reflecting on completing a one year goal

Prototyping with SwiftUI — Thoughts on how designers can use SwiftUI to build usability test prototypes

Canadian Tire mobile app — How the team used design sprints to redesign & rebuild the ecommerce app

Passwords are broken — Design can fix them. We need to work with developers/security on finding the most human experience while acknowledging that users are humans and security is important.

How I evolved into a UX designer — The experience that changed my design career

I made my own CMS — To keep this site simple, I wrote my own blog engine

That time I attended WWDC 2018 — Your basic Apple to Google conference comparison

Graphic Design is UX design — Good design is human centric regardless of the medium, that's the message

Refash case study — Building a fashion rewards platform with a killer feature

Can code, will code — Over the years I've built a bunch of different websites—experiments or side-projects—which I've done because I had an idea. While I did build an app (Dew), I've mostly focused on websites or in a few cases a simple experiment on this site (most notably, and not deleted, my IKEA store opening visualisation). For some projects I will spin up a Wordpress install and hack together some theme, but for the most part I'll hand code the site myself.

Looking beyond software based design tools — Follow up to the XD thought piece, but also a thought piece about design process over tools

First impressions with Adobe Experience Design — My initial thoughts after using the first version of Adobe XD

When will the total number of LEGO minifigs produced outnumber the human population — While working on a side project, I began digging into the numbers behind just how big the LEGO minifig population is. There’s a graphic from a few years ago made by XKCD showing minifigs overtaking humans in 2019. However that was over two years ago and since then the LEGO Group has released a couple of big numbers regarding the minifig population, including the rate of growth.

Make a how-to video for under $50 — Design & motion animation video created for Quidco

Cycle hire kiosk experience — Taking a look at the customer journey for renting a TfL bicycle

Metro typeface exploration — A fun experiement crafting a retro typeface from a small sample

IKEA store openings notes — Background on why I created the IKEA store openings map visualisation

On the road to Tactile touch experiences — Some thoughts on using tactile versus touch controls in automotive interface design

Dew: my first overdue iPhone app — Reflections on learning to code and creating my coffee finding app

Quidco takes to the Underground — Creating an in-house advertising campaign for Quidco

Transit map experiements — Experimenting with London Underground tube map style applied to Canadian metro maps