Overconfidence bias in User Experience Design — Our cognitive biases continue to effect us both consciously and unconsciously. Daniel Kahneman discusses this concept of “What you see is all there is”, or shortened as WYSIATI, which outlines the fundamental cognitive concept that many of us focus on existing evidence and ignore any evidence that is missing or…

My first brush up with an ethical boundary and how junior designers are not always safe to enforce them. — I understood that it was my job at this agency to advocate for the user and continue to push for a better experience. I spent a summer as a junior UX designer at an agency creating a website and booking flow for an international cruise line. One day the marketing…

Personal ethics and the lessons along the way — Ethics is deeply woven into the ethos of User Experience Design. It shapes how we navigate current issues, and is the foundation to our judgement. Ethics is also deeply personal and subjective, making it a difficult topic to discuss around most people. …

A high-level pragmatic analysis of large companies that are moving towards more sustainable practices — “Design, if it is to be ecologically responsible and socially responsive, must be revolutionary and radical. Design must be an innovative, highly creative, cross-disciplinary tool responsive to the needs of [everyone]” Victor Papanek Design is Manipulation In this world we create and manipulate things around us. It is our inherent ability as humans…

How I did it, and the lessons I learned along the way — Many programs require internship hours in order to graduate, but how does that work during a pandemic? How do you find a job breaking into a new field looking for someone to take a chance on you when experienced employees are being let go? …

Being a student is hard work, no matter where you are in your education. Beyond the pressures from family (and yourself) to succeed at all costs, to the turbulent world around us, somedays it feels like we’re climbing up Mount Everest to get our piece of paper. As the world…

This company needs no formal introduction. LEGO’s colourful and endlessly entertaining bricks have been loved by many children of multiple generations since the 1950s — myself included. My brother and I spent hours playing with our “Lego Chest” that was filled to the brim with bricks, wheels, characters and even…

How co-creating virtually with my peers fosters connection during a pandemic — I love doing workshops. Both last semester and this semester in my degree program, I found myself really looking forward to working with my peers to ideate together. It makes the process less isolating and more holistic. The best part of all is that it brings a sense of normalcy…

How Canada’s Charity Help Line Workers are barely hanging on, and how we can use Service Design to improve their experience — Content Warning: The following article discusses deteriorating Mental Health issues in adults as well as children. Admittedly, this is tough for me to write. Between losing a childhood friend to a mental health condition, to working in a chronic pain clinic where we were often the adult version of Kid’s…