What will become of the great wave of digital assistants in the face of huge layoffs and a cooling economy? — We’re a long way from the heady days of the Alexa announcements in 2014, when we seemed destined for a world of potato-chip-can speakers hiding in the corners of homes across the world. …

Every company’s design track shakes out a little differently — here’s what a design career looks like in our world. — While the titles for user experience roles at different companies may LOOK similar, we’ve all seen firsthand that they can differ wildly. If you’re curious about what it’s like to work on user experience in the video game industry, join us on a tour of the user experience career track…

Users of today’s voice assistants keep asking for a ‘politeness mode.’ But what do they really want? — During my time at Amazon on the Alexa voice design team, we monitored the internal Alexa enthusiasts alias. About once a month, a newcomer to the list would resurrect an evergreen request: “My kids are rude to Alexa. She should only respond if you say please!” That request, of course…

Feeling lost, sad, or angry after looking behind the Twitter curtain? Are you frustrated at the technical barriers around you? It’s not just you. — It turns out the man behind the Twitter curtain isn’t the wizard he was cracked up to be. We all thought we had more time — but that sums up humans, doesn’t it? Many feared the leadership changes at Twitter might lead to drastic changes, but the speed at which…

Deconstructing an unexpectedly boundary-pushing multimodal experience for lessons we can all apply — Ever since the publication of my book Design Beyond Devices, I’m asked frequently for my favorite examples of GOOD multimodal experiences — think experiences where you can speak, touch, wave frantically at the screen, or beyond. Like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, but less epic, at least for now…

The response to my open letter to the Seattle improv community deepened and widened the harm caused by the initial incident — and we need to learn from those incidents. — Earlier this month, I posted an Open Letter to Unexpected Productions Improv regarding an incident on November 5, 2021 where I was sexually harassed onstage. After a month of silence from the staff despite specific requests, I no longer considered it a safe working environment. …

I was sexually harassed onstage publicly during a performance and the company prefers to keep their response quiet — but organizations that prioritize comfort over change and ameliorating harm will never achieve a safe, inclusive culture. — On November 5, 2021 I was sexually harassed onstage in front of a live and virtual audience of over 100 people at Unexpected Productions when another cast member sang a sexually explicit song about me personally — outside the scope of a scene — during my goodbye performance without my…

What lessons still remain from my internships in a seemingly bygone era — and how can they help you? — “Can you help me get a UX design internship?” It’s one of the most common questions I receive, and one of the questions I’m least equipped to help with. It’s been YEARS since my teams have been able to hire a design intern. And the later folks get in their…

When the tools we use in the workplace don’t support our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, we may turn to hacking the system. Simple changes can make a big difference. — As more working professionals become comfortable talking more directly about gender identity — particularly with regard to non-binary and gender-fluid identities —one finds that workplace systems aren’t optimized to support these interactions. When people take it upon themselves to work around outdated systems, unexpected things start to break. …