As a designer, I used to obsess over the emails I sent to clients about projects. Most contained a clear thesis statement about my design objectives. And an outline of how I planned to approach image and type. Sometimes I included a breakdown of the production schedule. I’d re-read these emails long after hitting ‘send’ just to see what made sense and where I needed to improve.
In hindsight it’s clear that I didn’t love design; I loved the writing process. And writing about design and process. And thinking over design problems and potential solutions. I loved getting things out of my head and into a medium where others could clearly understand me.
After a decade of designing for clients, I taught design for college students. I spent an inordinate amount of time writing lecture and project outlines, and providing lengthy replies to emails about design assignments. Then I went to grad school to “master” design with the intention of teaching for a living, and, yep… more writing—long design criticisms, links to interesting articles, feedback for classmates about their projects, and a thesis heavier on words than design.
I didn’t plan it, but I miraculously ended up as a design researcher, where my job was to think and write about design. The cherry on top was planning, writing for, and editing the Mailchimp UX Newsletter. I was writing (or thinking about what to write) nearly every day, and loving every minute of it.
An Outlet for Output
With the exception of some tweets here and there, and a whole lot of direct messages on Slack, I’ve lacked an outlet. As a result, my list of writing topics grew as my output dwindled.
Which brings me here: a new site that serves as an outlet. I tend to write about user experience, research, and the building of/collaboration among teams. Look for more of that, along with the occasional outlier topic.
I’m excited to share my thoughts here. If something resonates, please let me know and please share with others. This is going to be fun.
