12 minutes
Workplace Culture: How to Make Hard Conversations Easier
Even people with considerable power — owners, CEOs, board chairs — are often reluctant to have the tough talks that are required for them to achieve the outcomes they desire.
Articles
13 minutes
How Your Brain's Hardwiring Can Help Inform & Influence a Career Path
Nature and nurture are both critical to your career path, and so at Blink, we focus on both of these in our employee development.
13 minutes
How to Improve Creativity and Performance by Optimizing Your Brain
The human brain is not wired to have an "on" and "off" switch for work and play—and operating as if it were will deplete one’s energy and creativity.
9 minutes
Karen Clark Cole Returns to Mike Adams About Money Radio
Karen talks to Mike Adams, host of About Money Radio, about how Blink has grown since she was last on the show, and why user experience research is still an important part of designing a website, product or service.
9 minutes
Startup Grind & Fresh Brewed Tech: Karen Clark Cole Interview
On August 6, 2019, Karen Clark Cole was interviewed live on stage by Rachel Gauvin for a Startup Grind San Diego. The interview aired on the Fresh Brewed Tech podcast "Tacos & Tech"
1 hour, 15 minutes
Walk with Your Head Up: Podcast Series Interview With Karen Clark Cole
On August 7, 2019, our CEO and co-founder Karen Clark Cole was interviewed by Patricia Kathleen on her podcast.
14 minutes
Photo Tour of Our UX Design Studio and User Research Labs in San Diego
We recently finished construction of two usability labs in San Diego. Take a photo tour of our studio which is located in the heart of East Village just a few blocks from PETCO Park.
14 minutes
Five Tips for Designing Better Conversational Interfaces
From chatbots to intelligent assistants, conversation interfaces are changing the way that people interact with their computers, and designers have a unique opportunity to shape this medium at the ground level. Like all emerging tech, best practices are still being developed, but here at Blink we’ve had the opportunity to design a few of our own and learned a lot along the way.
28 minutes
Object Modeling for Designers: An Introduction
As a user experience designer, it can feel as though I am waging an on-going, never-ending battle against complexity, especially when working on enterprise systems. A popular route to simplify an experience is to implement a design system. Design systems are essential, but what I hope to show in this article is that a design system alone — particularly if it’s primarily a component level design system — does not guarantee a simple, consistent experience.
11 minutes
Redshift Digital Joins Blink for a Golden Gate Future
It is with great anticipation and excitement that I announce that the well-known, high-end, wildly creative, and super fun San Francisco UX studio, Redshift is joining forces with Blink!
14 minutes
Getting in the Mood: 9 Tips for Better Moodboards
Working as a visual designer, I've learned to use moodboards to successfully pitch concepts to our internal team and clients. Moodboards are more than selecting images that specify type, color, texture, etc. At a higher level, a moodboard should express specific feelings and attributes.
12 minutes
Better Together: User Research and Analytics
Incorporating analytics into UX processes and research methods can add value in many ways. Project teams should use a combination of different data types to consistently measure data (in the wild) about usability and user behavior.
11 minutes
Quick Testing of Accessibility for iOS Apps
There's an easy way to test how users will experience your designs on iPhone and iPad with accessibility features enabled.
15 minutes
UX Design Is a Philosophy
At Blink, we think and talk a lot about UX. And while each day more people are joining our conversation, there is still a lot of confusion around what UX actually means. I talk about it as a way of thinking and a business approach: User experience is no longer a job title or a service offering, it’s a way of thinking about your entire business.
11 minutes
Work Hard and Create Your Own Path: Women Who Inspire Us
International Women’s Day has a century-long history and celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women around the world.
12 minutes
There’s Room: Celebrating International Women’s Day at Blink
In recognition of International Women’s Day, we talked to some of the women of Blink about their experiences as women in tech, and the ways in which Blink supports women.
9 minutes
Karen Clark Cole on Mike Adams About Money Radio
Karen talks to Mike Adams, host of About Money Radio, about why having a positive user experience is no longer a way to set yourself apart, but really a requirement for any successful business.
11 minutes
Welcome Tectonic!
I am thrilled to announce the brilliant minds at Tectonic are now in-house at Blink as part of our design studio!
10 minutes
Blink Gets New Digs in January 2018!
Blink is getting ready to move into our new 28,000-square-foot studio office space which we have been designing and building out for the last 8 months.
25 minutes
Sirius XM's Business Radio Interview
Karen talks with Loren about designing complex systems through Evidence-driven Design, examples of how voice is changing healthcare for seniors and people with disabilities, and how voice can make it safer for truckers.
14 minutes
How Evidence-driven Design Supports Innovation
At Blink, we believe every interaction can be made meaningful if designed with a deep understanding of human behavior. The evidence we uncover through research drives our design process.
15 minutes
Hiring a User Experience Design Firm
Thinking of working with a user experience (UX) design firm? You may not know where to start.
11 minutes
California Dreamin'
After three years of planning, Blink’s expansion efforts are starting to take shape, beginning with the recent opening of a new office in San Diego. San Diego is the first of several new West Coast offices, and then we will be heading east.
9 minutes
Find Me on Forbes.com
In the spring of 2016 I had the good fortune of starting a blog on Forbes.com in the Entrepreneur channel.