What we're thinking about, what we're up to, and what comes next

For years I’d heard references to the Winchester House—a mansion built over many years by an eccentric heiress without any master build plan. It is well-known for its oddities such as as doors and stairs that go nowhere and windows overlooking other rooms. A couple of years ago on a Blink project I wound up staying less than a mile away from the famed mansion. Of course I had to go!

If you are a college student considering a design degree—or any degree, for that matter—you’re probably stressed, scared, and unsure about your career path.

Last week I had the opportunity to present at the Seattle Interactive Conference, a two-day event celebrating the convergence of online technology, creativity, and emerging trends.

Puget Sound Research Forum's November Luncheon is featuring the presentation “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Marketing Research?” on November 19 from 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM.

Last week, I attended the SeaVR conference in Bellevue, Washington, with fellow Blinker Ross Bohner. We were there to talk to the Virtual Reality (VR) community about the importance of optimizing the user experience of virtual reality hardware and software.

Darshana Tuladhar and Tom Columbus will be hosting a workshop at SXSW 2016 on "Happy Little Tingles: Exploring ASMR"

Siri Mehus, a senior researcher at Blink UX, will be presenting“From Speech to Conversation: A UX Challenge” at the 2015 Puget Sound World Usability Day at Microsoft’s Campus on November 12 at 3:55 PM. 

At Blink UX we perform qualitative research to inform the design of digital products. Focus groups are a familiar form of qualitative consumer research. But while the focus group has a place in our research methods toolkit, we rarely pull it out. Why is that?

Now that the benefits have been covered, let’s talk about the nuts and bolts of running an effective research debrief meeting with your clients. A little smart prep work can save a lot of time and effort when analyzing/reporting research results, especially when your time and budget is limited.

Kelly Franznick, CXO and co-founder of Blink UX, discusses the future of UX design for the Internet of Things with Mark Feffer at Dice.com.

Blink UX will exhibit at this year's SEA VR expo in Bellevue, WA on October 28, 2015.

Join us at the WA State Convention Center November 3rd and 4th as we unpack the implications of interactive online communities on local markets, human goodwill, our landfills and watersheds.

It was a Tuesday at 11:00 am and we just got off a kickoff call with a new client. We stared at each other and knew what had to happen: I needed to be on a plane the next day to cross the country to conduct customer interviews on Thursday.

One of the important aspects of customer research is talking about the observations with clients afterwards—what worked well, what didn’t, as well as “ah-ha” moments that generate lively discussions and ultimately innovation.

Many leaders in tech industries are now investing multiple billions of dollars into bringing consumer-level VR to market. Facebook bought Oculus, a forerunner for consumer-level head mounted display (HMD) hardware. Samsung, HTC, Microsoft, and Google are also investing heavily.

Seattle Business Magazine’s Tech Impact Awards recognize companies in Washington state that are using technology to have a significant impact on business, industry, or society.

Why would Apple seemingly limit what could be developed for the browser? In theory, to push developers towards developing native iOS apps. Thus, yet another shot was fired in the web app vs. native app discussion.

Farmers and those involved in agribusiness have historically been early adopters of technology to help increase yield, reduce time, and save costs. Going all the way back to 1793 and Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin we see farmers using design thinking for new solutions to wide and common problems.