🧸 About

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👨🏻‍💻 Current

Staff Product Designer at Digit (Remote) 2021 - Present

🗃 Past

Staff Product Designer at Edmodo in San Mateo, California 2018–2021

Freelance Designer at various companies in San Francisco, California 2018

Sr. Product Designer at Instamotor in San Francisco, California 2016–2018

Sr. Product Designer at Experticity in Salt Lake City, Utah 2014–2016

Product Designer at Lendio in Salt Lake City, Utah 2012–2014

🎓 Education

Utah State University, Design 2008–2012

📱 pls ask before calling

📬 AlanJohndangerfield@gmail.com

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Currently Thinking About:

Some blog posts and podcasts that are currently influencing the way I think and how I approach building products

Podcasts

Readings

Iterations in the Design Process

I have always thought that the biggest challenges in design are related to the way we understand ourcontext and how we approach its needs. In some way, our work is meant to constantly fail every time our "solutions" are confronted with the multiple forces which reality is composed of, but it's not a pointless effort.

blog.prototypr.io

Make me think! - Ralph Ammer

Until recently everyday objects were shaped by their technology. The design of a telephone was basically a hull around a machine. The task of the designers was to make technology look pretty. It was up to the engineers to define the interfaces of those objects. Their main concern was the function of the machine, not its ease of use. We — the “users” — had to figure out how they worked. With every technological innovation our everyday objects became richer and increasingly complex. Designers and engineers simply burdened the users with this increase in complexity. I am still having nightmares trying to get a train ticket from the old BART vending machines in San Francisco. From complicated to simple Fortunately, UX (User eXperience) designers have found ways to design beautiful interfaces that are easy to use. Their process can resemble a philosophical enquiry, where they constantly ask questions such as: What is this really about? How do we perceive this? What is our mental model? Today, as a result of their efforts, we interact with wonderfully designed interfaces. Designers have been taming complexity for us. They make extremely sophisticated technology appear simple and easy to use. From simple to too […]

ralphammer.com

The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet

In his sci-fi trilogy The Three Body Problem, author Liu Cixin presents the dark forest theory of the universe. When we look out into space, the theory goes, we're struck by its silence. It seems like we're the only ones here. After all, if other forms of life existed, wouldn't they show themselves?

onezero.medium.com

REMOTE: Office Not Required

1 in three business categories on Amazon.com. As an employer, restricting your hiring to a small geographic region means you're not getting the best people you can. As an employee, restricting your job search to companies within a reasonable commute means you're not working for the best company you can.

basecamp.com

Beyond Burned Out

When the Covid-19 pandemic began, I felt as if I were in one of those disaster movies, standing in front of a rapidly spreading fire as an entire city was about to be engulfed in flames. And despite feeling that a massive disruption was imminent, I could only watch in shock.

hbr.org

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Currently Reading

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi: 9780525509288 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

"What do you do after you have written Stamped From the Beginning, an award-winning history of racist ideas? . . . If you're Ibram X. Kendi, you craft another stunner of a book. . . .

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi: 9780525509288 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Why Designers Leave

Let's say someone asked you to paint them a painting. A beautiful painting, a masterpiece, to be hung in the lobby of an Important Building. "Great," you say. You are an accomplished painter, and this is quite an exciting project. You ask what this painting should be of. "Your speciality, of course.

medium.com

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