Using lessons from the present to create a near-future thriller — My fourth novel, Scorpion, is now available, and as much as it is a near-future thriller that uses technology as a tool for exploring moral ambiguity, it is also a subtle exploration of the impact of that technology on humanity. First, an excerpt from the review by Publishers Weekly: This…

Sharing Adobe’s internal Design Prototyping wiki with the world — Two years ago, I wrote an article called Building to learn: the role of prototyping in Design as a way of sharing what I’ve learned from running a 20+ Design Prototyping team at Adobe. …

How AI will open up walled gardens by making file formats, protocols, and even standards less relevant. — Ever stop to think about what makes a workflow a workflow? Or an ecosystem an ecosystem? Why we must tiptoe among artificially grown archipelagos of apps, services, and devices without ever stepping off in our own individual, creative directions? There are three primary reasons: File formats. Modern file types are…

Why you might want to buy early-concept technology — even when you know it’s not ready — The tech media will often recommend that you avoid first- and sometimes even second-generation devices. That’s reasonable advice for most people, but not everyone. And maybe not for you. To understand why you might want to take a chance on hardware and software that may not be fully baked yet…

How user experience suffers when companies put their needs above yours. — Have you noticed that your devices have become needy, insecure, boastful children constantly vying for your attention and desperately seeking praise and approval? Welcome to the age of growth hacking and data-driven product development. It used to be that, once we paid for a piece of software, it toiled for…

How consumers can help stop anti-competitive corporate behavior (without government intervention) — Now that tech, from a regulatory perspective, is the new oil, railroads, and telecommunications, it’s time to talk antitrust. But before we jump right into breaking companies up and unwinding anticompetitive mergers, it’s important to examine the role consumers play in encouraging — and more importantly preventing — monopolistic behavior.

Microsoft is good at physical keyboards. But with the introduction of the Surface Duo, they need to nail virtual keyboards, as well. — First and foremost, Microsoft’s new pocket-sized, foldable Surface Duo needs to be a productivity device. That means one of the most important things the Surface team needs to get right is the virtual keyboard. Microsoft takes keyboards seriously. During the October Surface event in New York, Panos Panay — Microsoft’s…

Comprehensive design doesn’t just happen through wireframing and workflow diagramming. Sometimes it also means writing code. I run a team of prototypers inside the Adobe Design organization, and the most succinct way to express our mission is that we bring design to life. Sometimes screen design tools or paper prototypes…

Want to see Windows 10 through the eyes of a Mac user? Strap in. — Windows 10 has a built-in application called Feedback Hub which allows anyone to submit and up-vote feedback about the Windows 10 experience. Microsoft has come to rely heavily on Feedback Hub for bug and feature prioritization, which is obviously sensible, except for the fact that it has one fundamental flaw…