UX Field Note

  • Metaphor as Frame, Not Verdict: Rethinking the ‘User Journey’ in UX Research

    Introduction — The Tension Metaphors are shortcuts to understanding. They compress complexity into something we can name, point to, and discuss. In multidisciplinary teams, they give everyone—from engineers to product managers—a shared reference point. They orient attention and provide a common language for navigating ambiguous problems. But this same clarity can close things down. Once…


  • Designing at the World-Minute: Lessons from Stefan Zweig for UX Decisions

    Some moments decide everything. Drawing on Stefan Zweig’s Decisive Moments in History, this piece reframes high-stakes “world-minutes” for UX, with six vivid tests to design the moments that matter most.


  • The Shape of Letters: From Calligraphic Hand to Pixel Grid

    From the sweep of a calligrapher’s brush to the precision of a pixel grid, letterforms carry the traces of their tools, cultures, and makers. This essay explores how global traditions, shifting materials, and human agency have shaped — and continue to shape — the evolving language of typography.


  • The Interview They Thought They Saw

    Fictional UX research case inspired by Frost–Nixon, revealing how listening can be staged—and four practical steps researchers can take to keep it honest.


  • A Week of Searching

    An observational fiction about how we look, what we notice, and what we might misread


  • Silence in usability moderated tests, inspired by John Cage

    I recently watched a video of a pianist performing John Cage’s 4’33”. It is quite an inspiring performance, especially when we consider the pianist’s use of silence and how this also has relevance for usability moderated tests. In the video, we see the pianist first sit at the piano, then, he places a score on…