Posts

A collection of articles, posts and thoughts since I began writing on the web.



Weeknotes #4

So tardy with this week. Better late than never I suppose. I also think I have a relatively good reason, getting home late on Sunday night meant there was no ... Read it →


Weeknotes #3

Claps. It’s what I’ve been calling a new XC route on the South Downs, a short skip from my front door. It stands for climbing + laps, and it’s a 7.... Read it →


Weeknotes #2

What a week. Often accompanied by Rich, each day this week was spent travelling to a new, prospective or current client across London or Sussex. A good problem to have... ... Read it →


Weeknotes #1

OK, I’m doing it. I’m jumping on the weeknotes train. Next stop: frequency anxiety! šŸš‚ Folks may notice that I’ve given my corner of a web a little upgrade. ... Read it →


6 Tips for a Successful Digital Transformation

Digital transformation. It sounds so grandiose, doesn’t it? Like some sort of beautiful metamorphosis: an ugly caterpillar of old techšŸ› magically becoming a beautiful butterflyšŸ¦‹, resplendent in its new digital ... Read it →


Do you speak businglish? Or designese?

I’ve just finished a long stint working within a large, risk-averse organisation. Being product-side for a change has been an incredibly eye-opening experience. It’s the first time in more... Read it →


Conducting project retros as customer journey maps

The retrospective isā€Šā€”ā€Šin my opinionā€Šā€”ā€Šone of the most important activities in any project. Routine post-sprint retros are a great indicator of project health, but end-of-project wash-ups are where the real gem... Read it →



Learning from failure in the design industry

Our industry’s penchant for showing semi-fictional, utopian case studies has always rankled me. No project goes smoothly. There’s always something that goes wrong, and it’s often those moment... Read it →


Crafting your origin story

My first salary job out of university was working as an Accounts Receivable manager. I somehow managed to get companies across Canada to pay their overdue invoices for my employer: ... Read it →



Leaving Clearleft

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. The same has to be said for leaving an agency that felt more like family than a job ... Read it →


Happy Places

Back in 2013 I visited NYC to attend the wonderful Brooklyn Beta conference. It was Autumn. There was a slight nip in the air, the leaves were turning, and the weather ... Read it →



Is the T-shape evolving?

Are designers evolving from just UX designers or just visual designers into multi-disciplinary generalists? There seems to be higher-quality design all-rounders coming back into vogue. Jack-of-all-trades When I was a ... Read it →


Visual inventories for agile design

As a visual designer working on agile projects, I’ve said before how it’s easy to lose sight of the larger visual language in agile sprints. When you’re tackli... Read it →


When loading fast means learning fast

A few years ago when Mark wrote his article on performance budgets, we were working together on a redesign for a luxury travel holiday website. The use of large images ... Read it →


Is marketing being reborn as CX?

A decade or more ago, digital marketing was more of a blunt instrument. It was like the first stone axe - crude, but it got the job done. I started ... Read it →


Strava made me do it

A look into my use of Strava and how it's positively affected my behaviour over time. My name is Jon, and I'm a Strava user. I never thought I could ... Read it →


When agile's not creative

When designing a site, app or digital product, all of the elements on screen need to work together. They need to sing together, harmonise with one another and form something ... Read it →


Doing the SDW 100

Climbing 13,000 feet and riding 100 miles on a mountain bike... in a day. The South Downs Way is a long distance footpath and bridleway running along the South Downs in southern ... Read it →



Strava meets MarioKart

This article was originally posted on the Clearleft blog. Most Hack Farm projects start as someone's itch that needs scratching. Last year's TinyPlanner was Boxman's need for a backwards to-do ... Read it →


On Pattern Portfolios

This article was originally posted on the Clearleft blog Arguably the key deliverable we hand over to our clients is our pattern portfolio, comprised of two main components: The component ... Read it →


2012

Better late than never, right? In retrospect, my 2012 was pretty huge, both professionally and personally. On new additions In the early summer we welcomed another Aizlewood into the world - ... Read it →



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