You’ve heard all the nightmares: it rains all the time, the traffic is really bad, Microsoft and Amazon dominate the job market, the male to female ratio is so bad the dating scene isn’t, yadda yadda. However, if you’re one of the California natives that can work through some of these, read on. Read

Interviewing presents incredible opportunities where designers can take control of the interview. Run the interview preparation through the user experience process, and you’ll be ahead of the pack every time. Read

Responsive design is a buzzword in User Experience. Adoption is moving at blazing speed. Designers are blogging all kinds of advice about what mobile strategy we should follow. But really, mobile first for everything? Read

While they may not replace high-level product requirement documents in all organizations, they can be used to break those requirements into bite-sized pieces that are easier to digest, understand, and build against. Read

Understanding your audience is essential to building great products. The first questions for any project should be "Who are we designing for? What are their goals? What are their motivations?" Read

I’ve also learned over time about how to get more effective feedback. Humans are very predictable in our unpredictableness. If you watch for certain patterns, you can increase your ability to discover insights that are normally hidden. Read

Many of my friends either manage or mentor teams of designers. Their main complaint about new designers? They’re unprepared for the real world of interaction design. Read

Redesigning your application the right way means putting pieces in place to make sure you can change culture and keep your job. Doing it wrong can get you fired or kill a company. Read

Unicorn designers exist, but they’re expensive, overworked, and generally can’t cover all the bases as well as advertised. The better ones have over 10 years of experience and the consulting rate to show it. Read