Jesse Weaver
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OneZero,
The Startup,
HuffPost,
The Next Web,
BiggerPockets,
UX Magazine,
The San Francisco Egotist
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Articles by Jesse Weaver
Exactly what you are doing right now! Read as much as possible, network as much as possible, and save as much as possible. Google Dave Ramsey. A lot of people here can't stand him but he does give great advice for increasing that bank account number. Just understand that he hates leverage and when you get to that point you can decide for yourself how much leverage you are comfortable with.
Lights, Camera, Action: Producing a Startup Success Story with UX Design
SCENE: AFTER HOURS IN A DARK CO-WORKING SPACE FADE IN: INT. DARK CO-WORKING SPACE — NIGHT A solitary figure sits in front of a laptop, the only light source in the dimly lit room. Our protagonist, an innovative entrepreneur, is determined and focused. Their face illuminated by the screen, the entrepreneur navigates the treacherous waters of the business world. Each keystroke is a testament to their resilience in facing countless challenges.
The Value of Inconvenient Design
In 1926, the last remaining wolves were killed in Yellowstone National Park. It was the outcome of a centuries-long campaign to rid North America of its wolf population. Wolves were viewed as a nuisance. They killed valuable livestock and created a barrier against our drive to conquer the West. Our bid to eradicate them was swift and effective but carried unexpected consequences.
Resilience Is the Design Imperative of the 21st Century
In March of 2008, salmonella infiltrated the public water system of the town of Alamosa in southern Colorado. The resulting disease outbreak infected an estimated 1,300 people, over 14% of the town’s population. Of those infected, one person died and 20 more were hospitalized. The Alamosa outbreak was the second-largest water-borne illness outbreak in the United States that decade.
Human-Centered Design Is Broken. Here’s a Better Alternative
Late last year, I wrote a piece titled “Design Won’t Save the World.” It focused on the limits of human-centered design and its failure to impact the big problems we face. The morning the piece was published, my wife sat in our living room reading through it. When she finished she said, “we need bee-centered design.” Since that moment I’ve been thinking about what that would mean.
Effective Design Communication in the Time of Zoom Fatigue
Written and illustrated by Jonathan Keyek-Franssen, Product Designer at Workday. Most information has no perfect channel to be passed through–social media posts are good for advertising, but so are TV spots. Podcasts are good for storytelling, but so are novels.
A Step in the Right Direction: OnePlus Nord 5- month review
It was hard to do justice to the beautiful blue colour in a photograph (P.C: Pranav Rajasekar) Can you believe that it’s already 2021? Neither can I. One of the few good things we saw last year, were the release of many new devices, particularly in the smartphone market. More specifically, lots of manufacturers put out budget options for those unwilling to shell out £1000 for their beefy, flagship models.
Design Won’t Save the World
When I was in design school, this statement filled me with incredible energy and pride. I felt it in my core. How could I not? Over the last few decades, design — and design thinking — has ascended to the point of being routinely viewed as one of the differentiators for companies and products. The fundamental idea behind human-centered design is that, to find the best solution, designers need to develop an empathetic understanding of the people they are designing for.
A Viral Treetop Video Teaches About Resolve and Connectivity
She was just up in a tree to take an online exam Veveonah in her treetop. Photo from SAYS On 12 June 2020, Veveonah Mosibin uploaded a video on YouTube. The viral “24 Hours On Tree | Challenge” video with over 840,000 views, moved from a video about a 24-hours challenge to a video that challenged the nation. Her experience highlighted the disparity in internet access in the country. Like most 18-year old college students, she has to sit for an exam.
Design has an empathy problem: white men can’t design for everyone
IDEO is one of the most well known and successful design consultancies in the world. But in recent days they’ve gotten pushback on Instagram for their record on diversity and the state of diversity in design in general. This is a critical conversation, and it’s fitting that IDEO would be a flashpoint. The design process they championed and popularized perpetuates a belief that any person can design for anyone else, and this belief plays a central role in design’s continuing lack of diversity.
Why we are hardwired to focus on the wrong parts of our product
Did you know TNW Conference has a track fully dedicated to exploring new design trends this year? Check out the full ‘Sprint’ program here. In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Noble Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman discusses the psychological phenomenon of loss aversion, which he, along with Amos Tversky, first identified back in 1979. At its core, loss aversion refers to the tendency of the human brain to react more strongly to losses than it does to gains.
Tech Workers Are Suffering From a Silent Epidemic of Stress and Physical Burnout
Why taking care of workers is good for business Photo: Joyce McCown/Unsplash Three years ago, I couldn’t stand for any period of time without my lower back seizing up. I had chronic nerve pain running from my left shoulder to my left wrist. It was bad enough that I couldn’t sleep. I was at least 20 pounds overweight and more out of shape than I had been in a decade. I was 35 years old. My physical condition was not what I would call optimal. I had fallen into the hustle trap.
Using the Printing Press to Defend Smartphones Is Stupid
The techno-whataboutists are missing the point Photo: Freudenthal Verhagen/Getty Images We build a lot of technology and push it out into the world. When things go well, we rush to take credit for what we did. But when things go wrong, we hide our heads in the sand. This isn’t just about ignoring negative outcomes — it’s about maintaining the status quo. Whenever I write a critical piece about technology and its impact on society, a certain kind of troll surfaces.
Augmented Reality: Greater Power, Greater Responsibility
The chance to make better choices with a nascent technology Photo: D-Keine/E+/Getty Images Augmented reality (AR) is technology designed to enhance the physical world by integrating digital images into or on top of it. These composite experiences are often delivered through a heads-up display built into glasses or goggles, or in its current nascent form, via a smartphone camera. AR differs from VR (virtual reality) in the way it integrates with the physical world.
The hidden bias in iterative product development
Are we psychologically primed to focus on the wrong parts of our product? In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Noble Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman discusses the psychological phenomenon of loss aversion, which he, along with Amos Tversky, first identified back in 1979. At its core, loss aversion refers to the tendency of the human brain to react more strongly to losses than it does to gains.
Resilience Is the Design Imperative of the 21st Century
To survive in a world of change, stop designing for the best-case scenario In March of 2008, salmonella infiltrated the public water system of the town of Alamosa in southern Colorado. The resulting disease outbreak infected an estimated 1,300 people, over 14% of the town’s population. Of those infected, one person died and 20 more were hospitalized. The Alamosa outbreak was the second-largest water-borne illness outbreak in the United States that decade.
The Dawn of the Reliance Economy
Your attention was never the endgame Photo by Bram Van Oost on Unsplash “Once you hit the first intersection in town, make a right onto Main Street. Go past the fire station and over the railroad tracks. Make your second right after the tracks. If you see a large metal building with a truck parked in overgrown grass, turn around; you’ve gone too far…” These are part of the directions to the house I grew up in.
Artificial Intelligence and the Dawn of the Reliance Economy
Your attention was never the end game. “Once you hit the first intersection in town make a right onto Main Street. Go past the fire station and over the railroad tracks. Make your second right after the tracks. If you see a large metal building with a truck parked in overgrown grass turn around, you’ve gone too far…” These are part of the directions to the house I grew up in. For decades, these directions, in one form or another, would be dictated to new people planning to visit.
What is storytelling in design?
We keep using that word. I don’t think it means what we think it means. What is storytelling? More and more, in design, we’re told that we need to be great storytellers. But what does storytelling actually mean, and more importantly what does it mean in the context of design?
Human-Centered Design Is Broken. Here’s a Better Alternative.
Late last year, I wrote a piece titled “Design Won’t Save the World.” It focused on the limits of human-centered design and its failure to impact the big problems we face. The morning the piece was published, my wife sat in our living room reading through it. When she finished she said, “we need bee-centered design.” Since that moment I’ve been thinking about what that would mean.
The Value of Inconvenient Design
In 1926, the last remaining wolves were killed in Yellowstone National Park. It was the outcome of a centuries-long campaign to rid North America of its wolf population. Wolves were viewed as a nuisance. They killed valuable livestock and created a barrier against our drive to conquer the West. Our bid to eradicate them was swift and effective but carried unexpected consequences.
It’s Time for Digital Products to Start Empowering Us
The digital world, as we’ve designed it, is draining us. The products and services we use are like needy friends: desperate and demanding. Yet we can’t step away. We’re in a codependent relationship. Our products never seem to have enough, and we’re always willing to give a little more. They need our data, files, photos, posts, friends, cars, and houses. They need every second of our attention. We’re willing to give these things to our digital products because the products themselves are so useful.
Why Technology’s Early Adopters Are Opting Out
I recently installed a Nest thermostat in my house. Nest has been around for a while, but I’ve been hesitant to get one. I won’t go into the details of why we finally pulled the trigger, but it made sense to have more control of our home environment. When the box arrived, I was excited. I felt like I was stepping into the future. Once I got it all wired up and began the setup, though, my original hesitation came flooding back. Nest would like to use your location. I almost bailed.
The Case for Slow Design: Make Art, Not Products – by Jesse Weaver - The San Francisco Egotist
0 By The Denver Egotist / January 11, 2019 / Coming out of school as newly minted designers, we often aspire to the heights of master craftsmanship. We envision ourselves creating expertly designed, meticulously implemented products that inspire awe with their beauty, artistry, and execution. Then the real world promptly smacks us in the face. Craftsmen spend untold hours creating their masterpieces. They sweat the details and pour their souls into the work.
Emulation Is Not a Product Strategy – User Friendly – Medium
Recently, YouTube announced significant changes to their subscription platform, YouTube Premium (formerly YouTube Red). They are stepping away from subscriptions and will be opening up their premium content for free, with ads, to all YouTube users. USA Today published an article about the change, titled “Not Everyone is Willing to Pay for Subscriptions. Just ask YouTube.” According to the article, people are burnt out on subscriptions — or, as the article put it, “The people have spoken.
Emulation Is Not a Product Strategy – Member Feature Stories – Medium
Recently, YouTube announced significant changes to their subscription platform, YouTube Premium (formerly YouTube Red). They are stepping away from subscriptions and will be opening up their premium content for free, with ads, to all YouTube users. USA Today published an article about the change, titled “Not Everyone is Willing to Pay for Subscriptions. Just ask YouTube.” According to the article, people are burnt out on subscriptions — or, as the article put it, “The people have spoken.
Instagram and the Cult of the Attention Web: How the Free Internet is Eating Itself
Time is more precious than money. Money is a renewable resource. Everyone always has the potential to make more money. Time, on the other hand, is finite. There are only so many hours in a day. By definition, you only have so much time to give. The finite nature of time means that, in the world of the attention web, the competitive landscape is all encompassing. Everything is in competition with everything else.
7 Personalities You Need on Your Design Team – Jesse Weaver – Medium
7 Personalities You Need on Your Design Team There is so much that goes into pushing great design out into the world. A good place to start is getting the right personalities on your team. Now, no personality is without it’s downsides, but here are a few that I think can be pretty helpful. Keep in mind that these may not be individual people. Depending on the size of the team, they might be all rolled up into one. No detail is too fine, no nuance too miniscule.
The Future of Digital Product Design is About Human Empowerment
On breaking our codependent relationship with our technology. The digital world, as we’ve designed it, is draining us. The products and services we use are like needy friends. Desperate and demanding. Yet we can’t step away. We’re in a codependent relationship where they are the victim — shaming us because we haven’t given them enough — and we are the rescuer, always willing to give a little more.
A Unified Theory of Everything Wrong with the Internet
Drone pilots spend 12-hour shifts in a bubble of anonymous war. When their shift is over, they come home to their families and are forced to engage in the “normal” activities of the real world. This is in contrast to combat soldiers who live in a war zone and adjust their entire reality accordingly. Drone pilots are anonymous participants in a war that exists and doesn’t exist at the same time. While most of us aren’t logging on to kill people, we are living similarly parallel lives.
Design Won’t Save the World
Human-centered design is great for mops and phones, but it won’t solve society’s biggest problems Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash “Design can change the world.” When I was in design school, this statement filled me with incredible energy and pride. I felt it in my core. How could I not? Over the last few decades, design — and design thinking — has ascended to the point of being routinely viewed as one of the differentiators for companies and products.
How the Free Internet is Eating Itself
By Jesse Weaver I'm disappointed about Instagram's most recent announcement. They'll be shifting their photo feed from a chronological list to an algorithmically driven one, ordered based on which posts they think you will like most. My disappointment is not based in nostalgia or a lament of change. I'm disappointed because the decision is a symptom of a larger...
5 Things I’ve Learned as Head of Product Design at a Startup
It’s been almost four years since I joined the team at Gaiam TV. I started just weeks before we launched and have now been through countless improvement cycles, a few failed experiments, one full redesign, and the incorporation of two acquisitions. Along the way we’ve grown into the largest streaming yoga service in the world and I’ve learned a few things about leading a design team and succeeding in a startup. When the team is small everyone has to play lots of roles.
We Don’t Need More Designers Who Can Code – RE: Write
A lot has been made of the need for designers who can code. A quick google search for “should designers learn to code” yields 25 million results. To be straight from the outset, I don’t completely disagree with the premise. However, I think the statement, “we need designers who can code” misrepresents the underlying issue. As the head of a product design team, who can also write code (front and back end), I understand the value of the combined skill set.
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