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Can this tool make design class discussions richer?
I’ve been reflecting on how educational technology can help design students get better at seeing different opinions and expressing their own. Particularly in UX, it’s often difficult to know what aspect of a design might have the most impact on the users and business. This makes it important for future designers to understand how different…
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Maybe being in someone else's shoes should be required training
I never understood some of the ways my teachers behaved until I started teaching myself. Why did certain emails get ignored? Why did they grade so carelessly? What made them so angry about questions related to the exams? Teaching over the last seven years has exposed me to a lot of situations that made me…
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Embracing problem-creator thinking in design education
Because most generative AI tools today are solutions oriented, it’s more important than ever that design students be able to think critically and analyze broader contexts. This will both help them continue to have value in an AI-driven world and ensure we don’t lose out on innovative solutions that come from more exploratory problem-assessing approaches. …
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Unfiltered design #2: Informal learning, futility, and standards—oh and I have a podcast now!
Sometimes the word “design” is so heavily associated with just tips and tricks and at some point that gets stale. Good design can only come if our sources of inspiration are broad! So here goes… Informally formal Not only in learning but in work as well, there is a general reluctance for play… for silliness.…
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Unfiltered design #1: Teaching design, Apple vs Figma, too many standards, and chess.
Writing has always been about learning for me. I’ve started posting regularly on LinkedIn using articles I read as launchpads for my own thoughts. This way of making connections is a great way to digest the torrent of information I’m bombarded with on a daily basis. At the end of every week, I’ll compile my…
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Overcoming indecision
For the last five years, I’ve grappled with a crippling obsession with making the right decision. This is despite knowing, intuitively, that life doesn’t have right choices. The onset of this condition was likely an overconsumption of content about what is now known as “hustle culture.” Following a severe dissatisfaction with my undergraduate education, I…
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Launching a weather revolution
I’m excited to announce the project that I’ve quit my job for: WeathAR. With WeathAR, all you have to do it point your camera at the sky and the on-board AI chip in your phone will analyze it and tell you what the conditions are. Together with a ground-breaking new freemium business model, seeing the…
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Why anyone can become a UX designer
👀 This article originally appeared on Concordia University’s blog. Are you interested in becoming a user experience (UX) designer? Or are you thinking about pivoting your career towards this field? As someone who studied marketing and started working in UX without any formal training, I can tell you that this is one of the most…
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My Experience in Designing a Course in UX
👀 This article originally appeared on Concordia University’s blog. This past summer, I worked closely with Concordia Continuing Education (CCE) as a subject matter expert to develop a user experience (UX) design program. As someone who is passionate about finding patterns, I immediately started looking for parallels between designing courses and designing products. To give…
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People with Unconventional Backgrounds Can Find Success in UX
👀 This article originally appeared on Concordia University’s blog. Without any formal training in user experience (UX) design, I landed a job designing a platform for a business that brings in hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual revenue. Following this opportunity, I was accepted into a prestigious design school. In any other industry, this…
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An introduction to UX for non-designers
Last week I gave a talk at Concordia University explaining what UX is and what it takes to start building a career in this field. There were over 100 attendees who had questions about accessibility, ethics in design, and many other important discssions. You can watch the talk here: I’ll keep this post short as…
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I’m afraid of flying but I bike without a helmet
Humans are, by nature, living contradictions. I’ll spare you the philosophical waxing and keep it brief: about a month ago I fell off my bike and got a (very) minor concussion. This was the first time it ever really occurred to me that bike accidents are incredibly likely. They can happen without any serious mistake…