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Read "When and Why To Start a Hardware User Research Program" to learn how hardware user research can help you create an inclusive, commercially successful product that people use, love, and remember.

In collaboration with colleagues within and outside of Blink, plus a fair amount of experimenting at home, Chief Innovation Officer Kelly Franznick put together a set of protocols for a safe return to our user research labs.

Chief Research Officer John Dirks explains why you should conduct hardware UX research early and often.

Blink is unique for applying our user research processes and approaches to both hardware and digital experiences. Some of th most complex and engaging digital experiences go hand in hand with specific hardware, and some of the most exciting hardware is useless without a visionary digital experience.

What do we mean by remote research? When is remote research the right choice? What are some tips for dealing with the challenges that come along with this approach?

Do you feel silly, amused, or fun-loving? That’s a positive emotion. Do you feel guilty, repentant, or blameworthy? That’s a negative emotion. Both positive and negative emotions change the way that our brain operates. Negative emotions narrow our perspective to focus on threats. Positive emotions broaden our field of vision.

The holiday break is here, and the Blink team is excited for a restorative time away from the studio. Quiet days and long flights make for some great reading time. Here are some books—UX-related, fiction, and otherwise—recommended by Blink.

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.

There are countless conference round-ups out there, so here is a list that focuses on the conferences we’re actually attending next year.

Nature and nurture are both critical to your career path, and so at Blink, we focus on both of these in our employee development.

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.

We are thrilled to be a part of the Seattle Interactive Conference. We are delivering three talks, two panels, one live-podcast recording, one workshop, and more! Seattle Interactive Conference is Thursday, October 17 and Friday, October 18.

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"

On August 7, 2019, our CEO and co-founder Karen Clark Cole was interviewed by Patricia Kathleen on her podcast.

Specifically choosing San Diego as our first full-service office outside of Seattle is largely due to its size and demographics.

We just completed construction of two state-of-the-art usability labs in our downtown San Diego studio. We can configure our San Diego usability labs to evoke professional office spaces, medical exam rooms, cozy living rooms, or anything in between.

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.

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.