Heidi Adkisson

Principal Designer

Heidi Adkisson is a principal designer. She has been leading complex projects since Blink's inception, delivering strategy and design for hundreds of clients, including ISB, Garden City Group, NASA, Moen, and Providence.

Heidi has over 20 years of software development experience working with large-scale system implementations. Her experience includes requirements analysis and interactive design, working with established companies, such as AT&T Wireless and Microsoft.

Heidi has a master's degree in human-centered design and engineering and an MBA from the University of Washington. She has a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Colorado State University and an associate degree in web/multimedia design from the Art Institute of Seattle. Heidi is a member of ACM SIGCHI and Puget Sound SIGCHI.

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.

DFC 0385 mark gsellman Alan Baumgarten speaking at Convey UX

11 minutes

Enterprise UX: A State of the Union

For anyone who regularly designs enterprise software (raising my hand here), you have likely been asked to move a dated, difficult-to-use interface to a modern user experience.

13 minutes

Rolling out the Radical Redesign

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!

16 minutes

Grappling with Platform Strategy

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.

11 minutes

Considering Continuity: The Seamless Experience

Recently, I did something I hadn’t tried before: I was “reading” a book in two separate formats on two different devices.

A color sketch of a data dashboard with several charts and graphs

12 minutes

Three Steps To Better Dashboards

Not that there is anything wrong with making a dashboard visually appealing—it’s a key part of the user experience. But I’d suggest an approach to designing dashboards that begins with the what before getting into the specifics of how to present the display.

12 minutes

Work Practice Matters

The person hovered over OmniFocus at the start of each day? Yes, that would be me. Rewind 20 years and there I am again, but this time lugging about a three-ring Franklin Planner. Suffice it to say that planning and I go WAY back.

9 minutes

Using the Livescribe Smartpen for Research

Stakeholder interviews, user research, user testing—all are integral to our approach on a Blink design engagement—and all require superior note-taking skills. Enter the Livescribe Smartpen. I’ve found the Smartpen to be an invaluable tool for note taking of all kinds, but particularly for note taking during research.

11 minutes

Increasing Your Chances of Successful Design Decisions

In the ideal world, every design decision would be informed by user research or usability testing. But in the real world, that’s not always possible. Sometimes, you just have to rely on your own internal decision‐making abilities. Below are some tips we’ve found helpful for increasing the odds of a successful user experience, regardless of the resources available for a project:

14 minutes

Real-World User-Centered Design

A couple of months ago, I was part of a panel discussion on “Real-World User-Centered Design.” The topic was the outgrowth of questions from a more introductory forum on user-centered design (UCD) principles. After the introductory forum there were still many burning questions—specifically, how do you adopt and adapt UCD principles to real-world organizational constraints?

13 minutes

Minimizing Usability Risks in Web Applications

In the year 2000, there were two neatly divided user experience worlds: the world of the web and the world of desktop applications.

11 minutes

The Art of the Conceptual Prototype

If you’re not familiar with mind mapping, it’s a handy way to visualize ideas and the connections between them for all sorts of contexts.

14 minutes

Making Design Collaboration Work

At Blink, we feel one of the greatest strengths we bring to clients is the extent to which we leverage our internal expertise—and work with clients—in a collaborative way. But effective collaboration is not a slam-dunk. The key is to tap into individual competencies and perspectives in a way that improves the outcome rather than hinders it.

11 minutes

Objects and Actions Analysis

Objects and actions analysis is a method of documenting what data (objects) need to be manipulated and what functions (actions) can be performed on the objects. A key benefit of the analysis is representing system functionality without consideration of how the interface needs to look or behave.

11 minutes

Matching Prototypes to Research Goals

One of the most important parts of planning for any type of user research or usability testing is a clear set of research questions: what do you want to find out as a result of the study? It seems like an obvious step, yet sometimes this is overlooked.

14 minutes

Characterizing Users and Usage

At Blink we create behavioral profiles, along with key scenarios, to characterize users and usage.

Heidi Adkisson

Related Content

Object Modeling for Designers: An Introduction

Enterprise UX: A State of the Union

Rolling out the Radical Redesign

Grappling with Platform Strategy

Considering Continuity: The Seamless Experience

Three Steps To Better Dashboards

Work Practice Matters

Using the Livescribe Smartpen for Research

Increasing Your Chances of Successful Design Decisions

Real-World User-Centered Design

Minimizing Usability Risks in Web Applications

The Art of the Conceptual Prototype

Making Design Collaboration Work

Objects and Actions Analysis

Matching Prototypes to Research Goals

Characterizing Users and Usage