
Designing UX and the Art of Restoring a Volvo 240
Reading time: 3 minutes
I am lying under my 30-year-old Volvo 240 studying the drive shaft and thinking about designing UX for enterprise software. This car began as a $500 solution for a second car 一 something for around town, running errands, going to the grocery store. What could be better than a classic Volvo brick? There’s a cardinal...

Front-Loading Washers, and the Importance of Context in User Experience Design
Reading time: 4 minutes
In his classic book, The Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman, director of The Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego, presents the argument that any failed user experience is the fault of bad design, not the fault of the user. There was a time when I agreed with Donald Norman’s theory of...

Is the Zippo Lighter the Epitome of UX Design?
Reading time: 4 minutes
As a UX designer, I’m always looking for points of reference, context, and analogy that will speak to my work. That’s why I keep a Zippo lighter on my desk. In my mind, the Zippo lighter is the epitome of good design and one of the best examples I know of pure UX genius. It...