Small & Simple Things

Chamango & Maximum Chunkiness

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Anyone who has seen my t-shirt design knows that I love chunky fonts with chunky outlines. One of my favorite fonts is “Chango”, a free font that I’ve used for years. Here is how the creator Fontstage describes it:

Chango is a display face based on letters drawn by Mexican illustrator Ernesto “Chango” García Cabral. It’s big and heavy, ideal for head-line body sizes with a humorous touch.

The only problem I have with Chango is that the counters of the characters do unpredictable things when the outline starts getting exceptionally large. Since I like chunky outlines, I see this a lot and it’s annoying.

I thought it was a problem with the font. Since I recently started using Glyphs Mini, I spent some time cleaning up extra nodes in a copy of the Chango font thinking this would solve the problem. It didn’t.

It turns out that the problem is simply this: I like huge outlines! But if using huge outlines is wrong, I don’t want to be right. So, I set out in search of another solution. It was a lot easier than I thought.

This time, I made a copy of the Chango font and removed all the counters. Now, I use my new “solid” version in a layer below the “regular” version. I apply the chunky border to the solid layer and voila, no weird outlines with the counters because there are no counters!

I suspect that there are others out there like me that like chunky fonts and chunky outlines. Since this font is licensed under the OFL, I will make my modified version available to you, my friends. Download and enjoy!

Note: the OFL prevents me from releasing it under the same name. So, I have named it Chamango Solid. I’m including Chamango Regular. This is the version where I cleaned up the extra nodes. It is basically the same as Chango, but this way you can easily switch your layers between solid and regular.

If you get a chance, let me know how it works for you.

If you need custom lettering, a logo, or a logo with custom lettering, email me!

Cheers!

Some ill-formed, but sincere thoughts on Beauty

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 21:06:10 +0000

Beauty is a high form of quality. Beauty is not a means to an end, but an end in itself. This is true because an object is truly beautiful when its form and function are in the proper proportions. When this happens the meaning of the object is revealed intuitively.

Form follows function—that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union. — Frank Lloyd Wright

I always strive for beauty and rarely achieve it. The pursuit of beauty is the pursuit of the impossible. In this world, where ugly happens naturally and without effort, it can feel pointless to try. But occasionally, a miracle happens and humans come together to make a beautiful experience. When there is nothing left to add or take away.

I do not oppose form, but only form as a goal. Form as a goal always ends in formalism. For this striving is directed not towards an inside, but towards an outside. But only a living inside has a living outside. Only intensity of life has intensity of form. Every How is carried by a What. — Mies van der Rohe

The pursuit of beauty is not for the faint of heart. In my experience, almost everyone is satisfied with the cheap, easy answer instead of the costly, difficult innovation. I have to fight my own instincts daily, to keep beauty as the aim. It’s too easy to lose sight of this goal, and therefore lose the joy of the work. We don’t rejoice in making something utilitarian. We rejoice in elegant utility. And when I stop striving for that, I am frustrated. But when the ray of beauty shines through even for a moment the light of it feeds my passion and invites me to keep trying, keep striving. It’s like the piercing ray that shines through the dark cloud. It reminds me that there is a wealth of beauty, that we will be bathed in beauty once the clouds are parted completely.

If it is not useful or necessary, free yourself from imagining that you need to make it. If it is useful and necessary, free yourself from imagining that you need to enhance it by adding what is not an integral part of its usefulness or necessity. And finally: If it is both useful and necessary and you can recognize and eliminate what is not essential, then go ahead and make it as beautifully as you can. — The rule of thumb for Shaker creations, from ShakerBuilt by Paul Rochleau & June Sprigg

The Shaker philosophy creates a kind of reserved beauty that reveals the very philosophy that created it. This alignment of the philosophy that created the chair and the final form of the chair exemplify the wonderful marriage of form and function.

Of course, the same could be said of a chair at Walmart. It was made cheaply. The philosophy is to maximize the seller’s profits while appealing to a mass market of low to middle income people. Does that mean the object is beautiful? Cheap furniture does not inspire me. I don’t find it beautiful. So there must be something more. The philosophy itself must be worthy in order for the object created by it to be considered beautiful. Maximizing profits might be a kind of beauty to some but the objects it creates are not of an enduring nature and will be forgotten. Beauty is not skin deep. In fact beauty runs so deep that it is impossible to detach the inward beauty from the outward beauty. They are linked to each other by meaning and purpose, the one expressing the other.

Who decides whether the philosophy is worthy? I do. And you do. And we often disagree. There are a lot of Thomas Kinkade paintings that people find beautiful. I find that kind of beauty to be skin deep. It’s just a pleasant surface with no meaningful content.

How is beauty relevant to UX design? I’m designing software to help people to complete a task—what could possibly be beautiful about that? The truth is, we’re creating things that people will spend hours, days, weeks, months, and years of their lives looking at. We’re talking about the very essence of life—a human’s time. Out of respect for another human being, I want to give them something beautiful to use, as beautiful as I can make it.

Kintsugi

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 09:06:10 +0000

I have a down jacket that I love. It is light, comfortable, and warm. I wear it all winter long.

The other day I wore it while checking on the chickens. As I was entering the coop, the arm of the jacket snagged on a piece of the hardware cloth that wraps around the coop and protects the chickens. The result was a two inch hole in the sleeve that immediately threatened to start leaking downy feathers.

Fortunately, my wife is handy with a needle and thread. She stitched up the hole. As an extra precaution, she suggested we put a patch over the new stitching to protect the weakened area. I have a small collection of scout, sport, and other patches. I found one meaningful to me and Hannah sewed it on.

Surprisingly, I love the jacket even more now. The patch is from my mom’s family. It represents a little piece of our history and a joy in downhill skiing. It’s a good patch for a winter jacket that has gone on several ski trips. This brings me to Japanese Kintsugi.

Kintsugi is a kind of Japanese ceramic art, a way of repairing broken pottery that celebrates the damage as a part of the objects history. The seams are filled with a compound that includes precious metals, increasing the intrinsic and sentimental value of the object at the same time.

Hannah’s repair of my jacket feels like Kintsugi. I loved the jacket before it was torn. The tear threatened to diminish its value. But the repair restored the value, and added more value in the form of a connection to my family. And the repair is made even more meaningful to me because my wife did it.

We all need healing. I find healing in Jesus Christ. I’m not good enough. I’m broken. I’m damaged. But He fills the gaps. He puts me back together, and I’m better than before because of His intercession. He repairs me, and I’m forever grateful to him for the miracle of His divine love and compassion.

“God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.” — The Living Christ

When I went out to check on the chickens, I wasn’t planning on tearing my favorite jacket. But I wouldn’t change what happened because now I have a jacket that I love even more. I have a reminder of my wife’s kindness and a connection to my family history. More importantly, I have a token of my Savior’s grace, a reminder that through Him I have healing.

Empathy

Tue, 17 Oct 2017 09:53:17 +0000

Empathy is the ability to feel what someone else is feeling. It goes beyond its sister attribute sympathy, which is to understand what someone is feeling. With empathy, you develop your own connection with another person through shared emotions.

Empathy forges a new and powerful kind of knowledge. Looking at data sheets, reading reports, analyzing workflow, mastering technology—these are all powerful and useful kinds of knowledge. Empathy provides the framework to take knowledge and make it meaningful.

Empathy kindles the fire of motivation necessary to bring about change. Without empathy for the person who is going to be using your product or service, your efforts will lack the focus and motivation to become meaningful. The more you understand the problems and feel the pains of your users, the better solutions you will provide for them. It’s that simple.

Well, it’s simple to say but not simple to do. Empathy is developed one person at a time. Here are a few suggestions on cultivating an attitude of empathy. These can help you develop a stream of empathy to carry you through your UX design career.

Talk to people about their passions. People love to talk about themselves. Use this to your advantage. Develop a sincere desire to know more about everyone you meet. Listen more than you talk.
Watch people. Watch them especially using your products or your prototypes if you can. Try to explain seemingly inexplicable behavior.
Express understanding and appreciation for a family member, friend, or co-worker. Walk a mile in their shoes.

Consider for a moment the power of empathy. When you talk about people in the abstract, it’s very difficult to create an emotional connection with them. When you sit down with someone and get to know them and begin to see how they are a person like you with similar problems and passions, it becomes much easier to understand their needs and how you can help them. This is difficult to do without meeting people face-to-face, without listening to them, without carefully observing them and taking note of their behaviors, their preferences, and their pains and joys.

Empathy can replace ‘them’ with ‘us’. There is nothing so powerful as two or more human beings expanding their understanding and empathy toward one another. User experience design leverages this fact and that’s why empathy is so important to this industry and to your future career as a user experience designer.

I have a personal story that will help you understand how powerful empathy can be. My mom swore that she would never use a computer and she stayed true to this conviction for a long time. But in 2009, Apple came out with the iPad. We got one at work and I checked it out and brought it home to play with it.

To me, the iPad was a little underwhelming. I already had an iPhone which was pretty great. I already had a MacBook Pro which was pretty great. I didn’t see the need for this middle-of-the-road device. But it was cool and new so I brought it home to show my family.

My mom happened to be visiting us at the time. When I showed it to her I could tell she was interested. Without explaining anything about it, I simply handed her the device.

I was so surprised by what happened! She spent an hour with her eyes glued to the screen trying out different applications, playing with Maps, and generally annoying my kids by not letting them have a turn. When she handed it back to me she said “that’s a computer I would use.”

That experience changed me. I no longer saw my mother as a Luddite but as someone who had specific needs and wants from technology. I suddenly realized that the iPad was not created for me. It was created for people like my mom. People who could benefit from the power of a personal computer but didn’t like managing the complexity that came with the typical computers of the day. I understood my mother emotionally and intellectually in a way I had never comprehended before.

This illustrates exactly what can happen when we take the time to observe the end-user and understand why they do what they do and how they feel about it.

Nothing can replace empathy.

My Design Journey So Far

Sat, 26 Aug 2017 21:06:10 +0000

Photo of me demonstrating my expert management skills with one of my designers.

When I was in college there was no such thing as UX design. There wasn’t even a career in web design. As far as I know, these things just didn’t exist. All that mattered to me was becoming an amazing graphic designer like Paul Rand or Milton Glaser. Back then, the pinnacle of success would have been my design work featured in Communication Arts magazine. I spent hours drooling over the beautiful elegant designs featured in those glossy pages.

Despite my commitment to my amazing future career, I started teaching myself HTML and CSS while I was still a student. My thought at the time was to use web design as a resume builder, something to help me get jobs. This seemed like a good way to fill out a portfolio and make myself more valuable to potential employers.

I graduated in 2000 Summa Cum Nothing and started my illustrious graphic design career – with a small military contractor in DC. It was totally lame. We marketed products and services between military and civilian entities. I made the best of it and did the best work I could. I learned from my senior designer from the experiences that were presented to me. It was a good job and I was lucky that they took a chance on me.

I did get the chance to do one web design project when I was there. That glorious project included a search field. I embellished the search field with a small picture of a guy holding a metal detector. It was my corny way of saying, “He’s searching for something. Get it?” Yeah.

In 2001, in the DC area one of the most terrible things happened in US history. I am of course talking about 9/11. That awful experience gave us all pause for thought. It also made economic conditions worse than ever in that area. Inflation was already running high and we knew that we needed to find a more family-friendly economy. So, in late 2001 we returned to Utah.

I was fortunate to find work with an athletic wear manufacturer. I did more marketing, advertising, trade show, and display graphics. I created fonts, catalogs, mailers, and photo shoots. I even wrote limericks. We did an entire catalog all in limericks. Let’s hope that’s never found.

As anyone who has ever worked for a start up knows, things can be very unstable. This athletic wear company was no different. Occasionally paychecks would bounce. The owner was really just flying by the seat of his pants. It was a fun ride, but didn’t have a great future.

Once again, I made the best of it. I got my first chance to work with Flash and ActionScript. I did a lot of design work and tried to improve myself with every project.

These efforts were not limited to the office. At home, I also continued to teach myself web technologies and how to design for them. I discovered that my Apple computer came with a copy of the Apache server on it. I discovered CGI and the blogging software Movable Type and WordPress. I discovered blog design. Most importantly I discovered Jeffrey Zeldman.

Zeldman was teaching the world about Web Standards, CSS, and table-less layout. I poured myself into this world. It was a magical and exciting time for me. I loved the immediacy of creating a design or writing a blog post and being able to see it published immediately. So different from the world of print production processes that took expensive multi-million dollar equipment to create. I could create the stuff by myself at home on my own computer and publish it for the whole world to see. Of course, the whole world didn’t exactly see it, but that didn’t matter to me. To me it was amazing and exciting.

I spent more and more of my time both at home and at work learning how to design for the web. At the same time, I started looking for a new job. The devil-may-care attitude at work was wearing thin - I wanted to know that my paycheck wasn’t going to bounce. One of the places I wanted to work most was my alma mater - BYU.

Earlier, as a design student, I worked on campus as a designer for a campus marketing agency. I loved the mentoring that I received from the professionals working there. As I considered my next job move, I decided I wanted to be a mentor too. I eventually got a job as the web designer for the BYU University Library. What had started out as a side pursuit to help me get jobs (learning HTML, CSS, and web design), had in fact become the job. Now web design was all I did. And a university library was depending on me to do it very well. I don’t know if they realized how much trust they had placed in an untested web designer, but I took the job and loved it.

I worked hard. Soon, my boss asked me to hire student employees to help with the work. And my career as a mentor began. I built a small team that eventually included full-time design professionals as well as student interns and employees. It gave me great joy, not only to serve the university community, but also to provide the students with the opportunities needed to become professionals.

I worked for BYU for four years. I loved the work and my team, but at the four-year mark, I began to feel the need to move on.

I didn’t want to move on. I was really happy there. I was close to home. I had great tools. It was challenging and there was a lot of work left to do.

At the five-year mark, I got a clear impression from God that I needed to quit my job. It was scary to leave a good job, but I knew God would take care of me and my family. At the end of 2010, I quit my job and started a new adventure.

This turned out to be a great blessing. I worked for three years as an individual contributor as part of a large enterprise. I worked on native mobile apps, mobile web applications, and other great projects. Many of these tools were translated into multiple languages. I was learning to design for international audiences. I worked on bigger teams than I ever had before. I had to learn how to work with developers, product managers, QA engineers, and myriad stakeholders.

This was my first time working with experienced and talented UX designers. They shared insights with me and encouraged me. They gave me critical feedback. They gave me what I needed to become a user experience designer.

One of these people was a user experience manager. He took a job in another department and he put my name in as his replacement. I was very humbled and grateful that he did that, but I didn’t feel qualified yet for the job. I knew it was a great opportunity even to interview. I applied and went through the interview process.

Amazingly, I got the job! Once again I was in way over my head. Apparently, I am ‘wont to swim in deep waters’. And once again, I dug deep and worked hard to support my team and maintain a high bar of excellence. I learned to organize and conduct user tests, to conduct user interviews, to observe users, and to make and test prototypes. We made a lot of journey maps. And I really learned how to hire. I learned what to look for. I learned how to tell who is and isn’t ready.

In the four years since then, I’ve learned what it takes to become a user experience manager. I’ve interviewed dozens and dozens of designers. I’ve helped many of them on their journey to a successful career. It is so rewarding to be a part of their journey.

March 2, 2024

It’s been seven years since I wrote the story above. This was originally written by me as a chapter of a book. As is the fate of many books, the manuscript was never completed. Even this portion ends abruptly. My apologies.

I am posting this incomplete version now in the hopes that it will benefit others. Grit, mentoring, and divine intervention are still a daily part of my life and career. I’ve made a million mistakes and have been blessed with a handful of shining moments where I know I made a difference. May your design adventure be just as rewarding, challenging, and meaningful.

John Dilworth

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 09:53:17 +0000

John has worked as Design Lead for Ancestry.com for the past 3 years. In that time, the Ancestry.com team has tripled in size, now numbering about 15 people spread between two states, Utah and California. John works mostly from his home in Ogden, Utah and finds he’s very productive without the distractions of an office.

John has a long and sparkling list of client work, reaching as far back as Iomega and their Zip Disk products. John was conducting user research and designing world-class user interfaces before I knew UX was a thing.

John graciously took a couple hours to meet with me to discuss his work.

High-def Prototypes Are a Must

A static mockup can’t explain what is going to happen when you click this thing or tap that thing. But a high-def (HD) prototype is built in the actual technology that will run a web application—HTML, CSS, and JS! It looks and acts like the real thing.

Some argue that designers don’t need to know how to code. John’s response to this argument is, “It doesn’t hurt. And it helps a lot.”

I agree. The more we know how the web works, the better we can design for it. A painter knows paint. A sculptor knows clay or marble. Musicians understand acoustics, feedback, mics, guitars, pianos, etc. There’s a technical aspect to every medium. The better a designer understands the technical aspects of their craft, the better their designs.

Set Up a Good Pattern Library and Hold Designers to It

Another cog in the gears of John’s success is pattern libraries. When John started with Ancestry.com they had just a few page templates to guide their design work. While this is better than nothing, John found it to be very limiting. It left designers unable to answer the question of how things should look when a new situation arose.

The Ancestry.com team is working to remedy this situation. The design team is working to develop and implement a flexible component library that helps speed up the design process and improve consistency site-wide. They strictly follow design patterns laid out in a central library. These patterns are built around components instead of page templates. The components are designed to work in every situation they could be used. If a designer presents work that alters a defined pattern, they are required to change their design or to submit changes to the pattern library. If they submit changes to the pattern, they must be viable everywhere that component is used. Through this rigor, Ancestry.com is able to maintain a high level of clarity and consistency.

Speak the Language of Business

John starts every new effort by carefully defining the objectives for the project with the stakeholders. What are the goals? Why are we doing this? How will it benefit us or our customers? John aligns the design and discovery activities with these clearly defined objectives.

These objectives are different from business requirements. Requirements define what must be done. The goals define why we’re spending our time and money meeting the requirements. They provide meaning. John works to get clear goals and then consistently ties the design work back to those goals. This is the language of business and John is fluent.

Hire Well

I’m going to depart from John’s direct responses for a moment. There was one particular question I wanted to ask John. I asked John about my hiring philosophy. I trust his experience and wanted his honest opinion. In brief, here is my hiring philosophy and John’s response.

I have only two requirements for hiring.

1) Can they learn what they need to know to do the job?

Working in the user experience and technology field means lifelong learning. You have to be curious. You have to aggressively digest new technologies and practices. You enter this field with your eyes and mind open. Those who think they know it all have already lost the war.

2) Do I want to spend a lot of time with this person?

Whoever you hire, you’re going to spend a lot of time with them. For example, I have two interns right now. They shadow me daily for the express purpose of learning to do what I do. Some days, I spend more time with these people than I do with my own children. Whoever I hire, they need to be someone I can get along with.

Mostly this boils down to not hiring divas. If I have to choose between hiring a talented diva or a team player with less experience, I’ll choose the team player every time. I can teach User Experience tools and processes. Arrogance is a road block I don’t want to deal with and avoid at all costs when hiring.

John agreed with this philosophy. In his experience and research, hiring well is key to any team’s success.

John not only agrees with this philosophy, he lives it. John had this to say about his success:

“Design is never a one man show. Team is everything - tight collaboration with designers, programmers, and product managers is what makes success happen. Without being surrounded by great people who are way more talented than me, I'm nothing.”

Well said John. And well done.

“Act Well Thy Part”, poster by John Dilworth

Thanks John!

My two hours with John flew by. He is bright, articulate, and captivating. It was great to share stories and insights with one of my longtime UX heroes.

Paul Mayne

Mon, 14 Jul 2014 09:53:17 +0000

Day One is the creation of Paul Mayne. Paul launched Day One into the world in March 2011. Since launch, it has enjoyed a great deal of success and visibility. Most recently, Day One was awarded the coveted Apple Design Award. What started as a pet project built on a dream turned into a 7 person team that makes one of the best apps in the Mac and iOS app stores. Here is what Paul does to make me love Day One:

1. Start simple

The first version of Day One was missing some basic things. Although the app was meant to hold private thoughts, it didn't have app-level password protection. Neither did it allow adding images to journal entries.

These might seem like non-starters. But the large “add an entry” button dominated the UI, inviting users to start journaling now. Journaling was the core purpose of the app and it did it very well from…(wait for it)…day one.

2. Keep it Real

It's tempting to think that since Paul is the sole designer and founder at Bloom Built, that he gets everything his way. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. I asked Paul, “Have you ever had to alter your design to meet technical constraints?” Paul's answer?

“Everyday.”

Paul has developed the habit of checking in with dev early and often. Paul shares designs with developers almost daily. He gets their feedback on the feasibility of what he has designed. This often sends him back to the drawing board, but it saves him a lot more grief and heartache down the road.

3. Feet on the Ground, Head in the Clouds

While Paul takes a measured approach to innovation, he doesn't let that stop him from dreaming. He's very keen to user needs and desires for the app—and he designs accordingly. However, Paul sometimes takes a little longer to fully realize his vision. Instead of putting a large new feature in one big release, Paul has developed a system for adding large changes a little at a time.

A recent example of this is Publish. Publish allows users to push a private journal entry to a site hosted by Day One. Publish is just the first version of a larger feature set that Paul is designing and building. By getting this smaller version out he can see how it is used and get real feedback on how to build the future of Day One.

The Future

What else does Paul have in store for Day One? Bloom Built is not sitting still. Paul has a great many ideas for the future of Day One and for Journaling. I look forward to the future of Day One with excitement. Thanks Paul for making a great app and for sharing your passion!

Photo of the Apple Design Award for Day One app

I'd like to take a moment to thank Dallas Petersen. Dallas and I used to work together at BYU. I contacted Dallas to ask him about his work with Bloom Built. He invited me to interview Paul. I really appreciate the time that both of them took. Thanks guys, you're the best!

Gilbert Lee

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:53:17 +0000

Recently, Tanner Labs opened up their doors and invited in the public, providing me the perfect opportunity to find the support I need.

I approached Gilbert Lee with these questions. He is a former employee of the LDS Church (where I work now) and a VP of Digital Design for Tanner Labs. I hoped he would have some ideas how I could move toward the kind of success they’re seeing with Tanner Labs.

Photo of Tanner Labs new office space

Gilbert was very gracious with his time and advice. Here are a few simple things that set the stage for the success of his design team.

1. No Meetings in the Morning

Meetings can wait. Let’s do some actual work.

2. One Designer, One Project

Part of Gilbert’s philosophy is that a designer is only assigned to one project at a time. He really wants his designers to dive deep in a project. Designers need time to understand the business or product needs. They also need time to shepherd the product through development. Additionally, development and implementation will reveal insights that the designer can leverage to improve the overall solution. If a designer can focus on one project, they will have the time and opportunity to design a total solution.

3. Daily Design Reviews

From his experience at Domo, Gilbert learned the value of submitting his work for daily review. The CEO went through every screen shot, quickly accepting or rejecting what he saw. Obviously for a designer this is a painful experience. Gilbert didn’t even get to explain his thinking. But he found it enabled him to be more successful. He was kept closer to what was needed and avoided the pitfalls of the ‘big reveal’.

Gilbert requires his team to submit designs daily. They are submitted via email without explanation. They are sent to Gilbert and to the product manager. The product managers are instructed to give feedback in person or by phone—never by email.

4. The Power of ‘Yes’

Often a product manager will ask for something that isn’t a good idea. Gilbert’s approach is to give them what they asked for and also give them what they should have asked for. This approach makes for a much better conversation. The client has been heard and knows it. They also know that the designer is thinking critically about the work and cares about the manager’s success. If you just show your own idea while ignoring the ideas of others, they won’t be able to see your genius.

Thank you!

I am so grateful to Gilbert for spending his time to encourage and instruct me. It gives me confidence that I can take my team in a direction that will be both challenging and rewarding. Thanks Gilbert!

Every Web Designer Should Be Religious

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 19:39:00 +0000

I ran into a bug with Internet Explorer today (no surprise). Not only that, there were different bugs for IE 6 and IE 7. I banged my head on the browsers for a while. When I was at a complete loss I said a little prayer asking for help and then read my rss feeds for a little while. When I came back to the problem, I typed a few lines of code, made a few tweaks and voila, problem solved.

I feel sorry for web developers who don’t pray. Internet Explorer is too much of a monster to not seek the help of a higher power (and I don’t mean Starbucks).

August 2023 Update

I transfered this post from my old Wordpress blog. Although technologies have matured, the principle of seeking divince guidance in the details of our lives is more relevant than ever.

Also, you can buy the shirt above in my shop!