A person’s name is not just a convenient way to refer to them. It’s part of the core of their identity. So when a person changes their name — for a marriage, a gender transition, or any other reason — our systems need to be responsive. You may even be aware of this, but you’d […]

After my Ok Boomer post, I wanted to dig into “JAMstack” technologies and try to challenge my assumptions about modern web development. As it turns out, while this is a term I’m only recently familiar with, the JAMstack concept is actually about four years old (at the time of this writing), which feels like forever in […]

I was struck by something I read on a social media platform about the “OK, Boomer” meme. What am I, as a member of a younger generation, doing to assure that at some point down the road, I don’t have “OK, Millennial” thrown back in my face?

This fall, I had the opportunity to attend and speak at Midwest UX. The conference was well organized, offered a great experience as both an attendee and speaker, and showcased the city (and home of our AO HQ) of Grand Rapids!

I didn’t take computer science in high school. Neither did any of my friends who are women. I was fortunate enough to go to a school district that offered Advanced Placement Computer Science (AP CS). I’m also young enough to remember that I chose to take psychology instead. That decision doesn’t make any sense. I […]

Recently at work, I’ve been reminded how lucky I was to get interested in computer science while I was in high school. My school offered both regular and AP computer science, and I was allowed to do an independent study one semester. These were pretty great opportunities that allowed me to foster and then pursue […]

When I got out of college, I had most of the necessary technical chops, but it hadn’t really prepared me for working in teams. We hadn’t had any specific training on how to work with others effectively. I needed to develop my interpersonal skills. Fortunately, many schools are evolving their education plans to help develop […]