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Are You The Keymaster?
My website, like 10-seconds-after-prom-Lieutenant-Ripley, asks of all its visitors, “Are you the keymaster?” Because it is the gatekeeper. Yup, I am writing a blog post with another reference to a 1980s big hair Sigourney Weaver film. I wasn’t planning this, yet here we are. In Ghostbusters (1984), Lieutenant Ripley becomes possessed by a ghost whose…
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Moving Sucks
I took a month between jobs. I spent October watching the baseball postseason (GO DODGERS!), hanging out with rock stars, saying goodbye to LA friends, and packing all of my things in boxes. Moving is stressful. In the week leading up to my move, my left eye started to develop an annoying twitch. I get…
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It’s Weird Out There
I’ll admit it: looking for a job right now is challenging. I was nervous about putting myself out there again, given how competitive it is. The design industry is facing tremendous disruption. I keep hearing about the shaky U.S. economy, widespread layoffs at top-performing companies, and fears that AI will replace creative jobs. On top…
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The Countdown has begun!
I start my new job on November 4th. Election Day! But before I start, and before I vote, I have to move. I built a countdown timer to move day:https://countdown.joycecroft.com I’m both sad and excited for this next chapter. I’m sad to be leaving sunny and beautiful LA. And I’m sad to leave the friends…
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Before Benny Built a Spaceship, Did He Start With A Spreadsheet?
I work with real-life Bennys. Benny is a character from the 2014 LEGO movie. He is a Master Builder of spaceships: “I felt so seen,” is the response to Benny from many of my NASA aerospace systems engineer co-workers. Yep, Benny and the rocket engineers I work with share an addictive enthusiasm for building spacecrafts.…
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What Do I Do As A Designer At NASA?
I get this question a lot. And people have their own assumptions about what I do as a designer at NASA: My mom thinks I work on plans to destroy the Death Star.Friends think I float in space as an astronaut.Society thinks I do something with aliens.My bosses think I fight for the user.NASA engineers…
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Sort the Chaos.
A Proven Process for Strengthening Stakeholder Relationships Sort the Chaos. It’s a term I use to describe my research and design process. This process happens at the beginning of a project, in the Discovery Phase. At this time, I don’t know much about the project, other than the goal. I start by collecting All the…
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Design, It’s People!
I created this pop culture reference for my Config talk and I’ve used it in a few presentations since then. This scene, where Phil Hartman plays an over-dramatized Charlton Heston, is from a Saturday Night Live parody of the cult classic film, Soylent Green. Set in the year 2022 (!!), Soylent Green (1973) is a…
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Working Together: Preventing The Homer Car Through Collaboration
I have an analogy to explain what happens when a user tries to solve a problem on their own without assistance. It’s The Homer Car. What is The Homer Car, you ask? This is The Homer Car: The Homer Car is from an episode of The Simpsons titled, “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” (Season 2,…
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I Updated a Favorite Meme
When I joined my very first San Francisco Bay Area startup as an early designer, I was immersed in the world of product design. It was 2010. Here I was, new to the world of product design – fresh, eager, drinking the Kool-Aid, and working alongside my fellow designers. We were a solid team, united…