I often get asked about my approach to user experience design (aka UX). As a designer, it’s easy to show a bunch of pretty pictures of interfaces, but most of us know those aren’t what makes someone a good designer. A good designer is someone who elegantly solves user issues. It’s difficult to show the process and thinking that lead to making design decisions. This case study is my attempt to explain how I do design thinking and what deliverables I tend to create along the way.

Requirements

Ideas for a design are often the first thing that come to us…

Subtitle: I want to download this Siri Shortcut but I can’t add it because it says it’s “Untrusted” and I don’t know how to make it run. Help!

Siri Shortcuts are Apple’s way automate things you do on your iPhone or iPad. They’re a powerful way to accomplish a variety of tasks with less friction. If you’d like to run a shortcut someone else made there are a couple of steps that you’ll need to do first. These steps aren’t necessarily obvious, but only take a few steps to complete.

Apple calls any shortcut you haven’t created an “Untrusted Shortcut”…

I’ve always found Apple’s iOS User Interface ethos a bit odd. When you read Apple’s iOS Human Interface Guidelines, it feels sparse. The HIG is supposed to be the complete documentation for designers and developers to ensure the quality of the apps on Apple’s platforms, but it ignores many common UI elements. Elements like hamburger menus, side panels, cards, or floating action buttons, aren’t discouraged or even mentioned. Many apps use these UI elements, and it seems that Apple doesn’t like it, but won’t reject the app for their use. It pains me to say that Google’s Material Design documentation…

I love it when you find a small way to use technology to make something mundane a bit easier. Inputting a wifi password is a tiny annoyance that we’ve all had to deal now for quite a while. It’s likely you’ve mistyped many passwords in your life or just couldn’t connect because of a bad password. My home wifi setup is a mesh network made by Eero, which was expensive, but has worked well and has been a great value. While looking around the app, I found that they provide a QR code so guests can easily scan and connect…

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

― Henry David Thoreau

We’re living in an increasingly nebulous and complicated world of digital security. There are few hard rules and there is always a struggle to balance security and convenience. Two-factor authentication (short hand: 2FA) adds an extra layer of security to you account to make it more difficult for anyone but you to access your account. This is usually done by either by sending an SMS code to your phone or…

“It takes a ridiculous amount of courage and humility to suck at something for a while.”

— Merlin Mann, Back to Work, Episode 229: Shrimp in the Desert

I love collecting quotes. Collecting them is kinda corny and maybe overly earnest, but some of the most important shifts in my life have come because of a quote I heard on a podcast, and interview, or in a sermon. Something I frequently want to do when I’m listening to a podcast is to record a quote that I’ve heard and save it somehow.

My podcast player of choice is Overcast, made…

“The easiest thing to do on earth is to not write.”

— William Goldman

There’s a phrase in software development when you’re starting a new project you push what’s called your “initial commit” to a repository. It’s usually just getting a project setup. It could be hundreds of lines of code or one simple line. It’s the fresh start, the birth of something new. I’m trying that same thing here. This is my initial commit. I’ve never blogged in any meaningful way. I’ve never really written anything with any consistency. The only reason why I’ve decided to do this is…

The ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) is the largest Lutheran denomination in the world, and has its offices in Chicago. I have been able to work with them on a freelance basis many times basis and I always love my time getting to work with the ELCA. They are always kind, eager to learn, and really appreciate my skills and what I have to offer.

This project was for the triennial ‘Youth Gathering’ which brings together nearly 40,000 Lutheran youth from all over the country for a week of teaching, music and service. The Youth Gathering is a really…