One week into a nation-wide lockdown, and I’m enjoying the peace and quiet that this introverted, socially distanced life is allowing me. My mind is free of the everyday decisions of when the best time is to leave for work to avoid traffic, what to get from the shops on my way home, and where to have dinner, when not in the mood to cook. The quiet thinking that this time has afforded me is wonderful, and at the same time, frightening.

Technical debt is the entropy that software accumulates over time, slowing down developers’ efforts when attempting to release usable, working software and burdening the team with constant user support issues. Technical debt is inevitably paid in user value. Technical Debt is therefore a user experience issue. Technical debt accumulates when…

Why I think companies fail to implement mature innovation practices — Recently the State of Innovation Report was published by the National Advisory Council on Innovation in South Africa. I circulated the report to C-level leadership and I can’t say I’m surprised at the response. …

Two years ago I faced one of my many existential crises as a UX Designer, panicked and decided I’d better get my head around this “VR thing”. With no more than just a very broad idea of what VR is, and the determination of a teenager at a school dance…

Is it just me, or is the role of the UX designer something of a Jekyll and Hyde affair? One very important hat that we have to wear is to understand our users and create interfaces that solve real problems for them. The other hat, that I find myself wearing…

I’ve spent a year or two working for financial services corporates now. And what I can say without a doubt is I’ve learnt exactly what not to do if your goal is to have MANY happy clients. But this is not what this post is about, well not entirely. One…

This weekend I came across a book published in 1997 called “101 Essential tips — Using the Internet”. The topics it covers range from What is the internet to How modems work. It explains meticulously how to install a modem on Windows 95 and the concept of email and How…

If your company designs business systems, you are sure to have a few BA’s (Business Analysts) walking the trenches. In some instances BA’s produce heavy documents which outline, in detail, the task flows and use cases even the user requirements in some cases. These are then passed along to the…

The first thing I was made aware of the when I entered the software development industry was the huge divide between designers and developers. This superstition has since lost prevalence, and I think it’s mainly due to designers becoming more specialised and understanding the technicalities coders deal with on a…