Posts by Trevor Alexander
Chapter 19 – Have an Honest Conversation About What You Want
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow…
Read MoreChapter 18 – Output Is More Important Than Process
Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world. ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe It’s fairly common in design portfolios to see an explanation of one’s process or the steps a designer took to arrive at the final design. Within reason, this can be…
Read MoreChapter 17 – Don’t Build Yourself Based on an App, OS, or Design System
Technology and tools are useful and powerful when they are your servant and not your master.~Stephen Covey You are a designer. You have excellent taste and are able to craft compelling digital products that help or delight other people. You are able to put together interfaces and paths that help users get what they want…
Read MoreChapter 16 – You Need a Beautiful and Meaningful Portfolio
Bad design is like wearing a rumpled suit. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person,but it may give people the wrong impression.~Unknown You cannot have an ugly design portfolio. Period. Absolutely unacceptable. “But I have great case studies!” Doesn’t matter. Make it look better. “But I’m primarily a UX designer.” That doesn’t forgive ugly. Make…
Read MoreChapter 15 – The Best Isn’t Always the Best
Be stubborn on vision but flexible on details.~Jeff Bezos You will sometimes know deep in your heart, guided by all the empathy and experience you have, that a particular design decision is the “right” one. You will be convinced to fight for it with every fiber of your being, to “win” for the sake of…
Read MoreChapter 14 – Don’t Let Details Get in the Way of the Big Picture
Focus on the excitement and it will lead you through the obstacles. ~Piya Sorcar There comes a time in every project where the details become absolutely critical to success. The key, though, is to understand when that time is and when they are a hindrance. Let’s run through a scenario. A leader comes to the…
Read MoreChapter 13 – Learn How to Fight Through Ambiguity
Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.~Gilda Radner Demanding perfect clarity on a project before you get started greatly diminishes your value and your potential. If you create a scenario where you can’t possibly begin your design work…
Read MoreChapter 12 – Learn to Love and Appreciate Your Coworkers
Coming together is beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success. ~Henry Ford Grab a coffee with anyone who’s worked anywhere for a couple of years and it’s guaranteed you’ll hear a coworker horror story. It’s near impossible to navigate a career without having terrible run-ins with those you work with day in…
Read MoreChapter 11 – Developers Will Get You More Jobs Than Designers
Whether we’re fighting climate change or going to space,everything is moved forward by computers,and we don’t have enough people who can code.~Richard Branson A quick search on job boards usually shows four to eight times as many positions for developers than for designers. Developers are constantly in demand, in greater quantities, in a more diverse…
Read MoreChapter 10 – Make Developers’ Lives Easier
The most fundamental problem in software development is complexity. There is only one basic way of dealing with complexity: divide and conquer. ~Bjarne Stroustrup With the rise of “Design Thinking” and “Design is the how the thing works” concepts, designers can be forgiven for thinking that developers are serving them. They are the ones who…
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