I’ve reached an interesting branching point in my iOS app: I don’t know if it’s worth finishing or not. Over the past couple months, I’ve made quite a lot of progress: the app is 100% functional, with 3 modes, and 4 themes. It’s partially localized, bug free (as near as I can tell), stable, fast, […]
Author Archives: Daniel
iOS: App 1
My goal for 2024 is to release an app to the iOS App Store. While this is a… turbulent… time for Apple’s control and influence over the future of their platform, it’s my preferred platform and a natural place to start. My first app is a simple dice rolling app. It’s simple, self-contained, and has […]
2023 is Done.
I made 2023 my year to prototype games in Unity, with a goal of completing 12 prototypes. I completed that goal with less than a week to spare. They’re not all available, but here’s what I published online (Warning: these are all protoypes, with high levels of jankiness. You’ve been warned.) I mentioned in my […]
On being ‘strategically creative’
When is the last time you really thought about why you have the creative hobbies you have? No, this isn’t about monetizing your every waking moment – it’s the opposite, quite honestly. I’ve been thinking about goals lately, and what they have to do with creativity outside of our day jobs. Why did I set […]
2023: My Year of Unity
I play a lot of games. A LOT of them. (Seriously, I created 2 video game UX explorations for fun – #1, #2, and did a whole series of JRPG soccer kits.) I think they’re excellent examples of how UX can be (or should have been) considered in complex interactive environments and differing physical and […]
2022 Website Post-Mortem
In 2022, I chose to rebuild my main website and portfolio and danielboyle.net. At the time, things at Amazon seemed incredible stable (a recent promotion, solid core business fundamentals, and a good team). I, like thousands of other Amazon employees are now staring down a suddenly the possibility of being one of thousands of employees […]
Portfolios: Thoughts from an intern review
At Amazon, the first time UX teammates see our potential candidate pool is what’s called a “materials review.” A group of 3 people has 90 minutes to review 15 candidates, and judge if they’ll move on to a phone screen and the actual interview loop. This means you have 6 minutes to make an impression […]
Keep learning.
Despite working with AI-powered systems for years, I’d never really gotten hands-on with building one. I’ve been working on this Coursera IBM Applied AI course, and finally got past the “advertising for IBM” part. Enjoy this useless chatbot.
A designer’s job is not empathy (and other unpopular opinions about UX design).
Inspired by agreements and disagreements with: Stop telling designers to stop being designers 1. Be a designer. This is a fair statement: If you are a designer, be a designer. If you’re not a designer, stop telling designers to be something else. This is also an unfair oversimplification. What is design? In short, it’s synthesis. […]
Updates in Brief
I’m now a Senior UX designer for Amazon, working to help 3rd party sellers succeed on Amazon. My goal isn’t to make them feel like selling on Amazon is something they must do. I want it to be something that the love doing. I’ll add updates for my Indeed work when I can. I recently […]