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life, work, etc.

  • Giving feedback without context

    Designers are often hesitant to receive feedback on their designs from someone who is not close to the project.

    “But they don’t have the context!”

    This has always confused me. When I present a design flow, I find the people who are furthest away from the project gave really valuable feedback. They see things I don’t. And if I find myself having to explain things in order to figure out how to interact with my prototype, something is up.

    After all, when this ships, the user won’t have been part of any of the project meetings, be aware of the research, any technical constraints, or otherwise. The design and implementation of it will need to stand on its own.

    Kelly Hoffman

    June 16, 2022
    Thoughts
  • Reel design

    A highlight reel showcasing some of the great work the design team at Automattic has been working on in the last year. ❤️

    Kelly Hoffman

    May 10, 2022
    Thoughts
  • Why write

    Of course I stole the title for this talk from George Orwell. One reason I stole it was that I like the sound of the words: Why I Write. There you have three short unambiguous words that share a sound, and the sound they share is this:

    I

    I

    I

    In many ways, writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind. It’s an aggressive, even a hostile act. You can disguise its aggressiveness all you want with veils of subordinate clauses and qualifiers and tentative subjunctives, with ellipses and evasions—with the whole manner of intimating rather than claiming, of alluding rather than stating—but there’s no getting around the fact that setting words on paper is the tactic of a secret bully, an invasion, an imposition of the writer’s sensibility on the reader’s most private space.

    –Joan Didion, Why I Write

    Kelly Hoffman

    April 3, 2022
    Thoughts
  • Wordle

    We’ve been doing the NYT crossword together every night for the past several months, which is a lovely way to end the day. This week, we started playing Wordle after seeing half the internet playing it. It’s so good. Here are the first four results, which are just fun to share. Can’t tell if we have beginner’s luck or if the crossword playing is helping. Probably a bit of both.

    Wordle 204 2/6

    ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 205 5/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 206 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 207 5/6

    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟨🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Kelly Hoffman

    January 11, 2022
    Thoughts
  • Books in 2021

    I’m still listening to books with the only exception being the physical books I bring along with me on camping trips in the van.

    The books that have stayed with me
    Ones I couldn’t stop thinking and/or talking about.

    The Midnight Library
    Nothing to See Here
    All the Light We Cannot See
    Why Fish Don't Exist

    Ones I revisited

    Getting Unstuck & From Fear to Fearlessness are recordings of Pema Chödrön giving talks on weekend retreats. I love listening to her and went back to both of these several times throughout the year.

    Full list
    with a ★ next to books I’d recommend to most anyone who asked.

    The Midnight Library
    by Matt Haig ★

    Beautiful World, Where Are You
    by Sally Rooney

    Nothing to See Here
    by Kevin Wilson ★

    All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr ★

    From Fear to Fearlessness
    by Pema Chödrön

    Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller

    Getting Unstuck by Pema Chödrön

    The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid ★ (oops, I had this on last years list)

    Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life by James Hollis

    How to Weep in Public
    by Jacqueline Novak

    The Gifts of Imperfection
    by Brené Brown

    Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

    The Guest List by Lucy Foley

    Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

    Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

    The Searcher by Tana French

    Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

    Group by Christie Tate


    And the books I’m in the middle of that I’ll carry into 2022 are Dune, Outline, and Hidden Valley Road.

    Kelly Hoffman

    January 9, 2022
    Thoughts
  • AIARE 1 avalanche course

    I took a 4 day avalanche course by Baker Mountain Guides the week of Christmas in the Mt. Baker backcountry. I’ve been casually doing some backcountry stuff the past few years, but never pulled the trigger on buying avi gear or taking a class, which isn’t super smart or safe. The first two days were over Zoom with a firehose of information – logging it all here for future reference.

    General info & videos to review regularly

    • Ultimate Guide to Backcountry Skiing
    • AIARE 1 classroom content
    • Avalanche Encyclopedia
    • AIARE – avtraining.org
    • Know Before You Go
    • Persistent Slab Avalanches
    • Fracture Character in compression tests
    • Learn Avalanche Safety – BCA youtube series
    • Terrain Tricks for Backcountry Skiers

    Trip planning

    • NWAC Avalanche forecast for Baker
    • NWAC Avalanche forecast for Snoqualmie
    • Windy TV weather
    • NOAA Point Forecast
    • Mountain Forecast
    • Hill map
    • Caltopo maps

    Where we went

    Day 3 was our first day in the field. Built a snow pit to analyze the snowpack and practiced recovery using our beacons, probe, and shovel.

    Forth and final day, went on a tour we planned the night before. Was an epic powder day with waist deep snow.

    Photos

    Kelly Hoffman

    January 8, 2022
    Thoughts
  • ggslides.com

    Grandmother & Grandfather always took pictures using slide film and we’d watch them on a projector in their living room – from their travels and just daily life. My cousin scanned 1,500 of them, from the 1960s to the early 2000s. They were scattered across different Google Photos links and I wanted an easy way to look at them and share with others so I created a site: ggslides.com. A few faves:

    Kelly Hoffman

    January 7, 2022
    Thoughts
  • Storm edit

    Grabbed a few pow laps this afternoon after a 2 foot dump. Brought the GoPro along to make a quick lil edit and because it has been a while since I strung some clips together to music. After a slow start, it’s turning out to be such a good season.

    Kelly Hoffman

    January 4, 2022
    Thoughts
  • WordPress ♡ Design

    Really excited about all the design work we put into WordPress this past year. Both within the product itself as well as in our external communications, as seen in this video I worked on that highlights all the cool stuff we are about to release. Super proud of the team working on this with me. We’re really just getting started and I’m ready to keep going to make WordPress an intuitive, well-designed experience for all.

    Kelly Hoffman

    January 3, 2022
    Thoughts
  • Strava 2021 year in review

    Big fan of Strava’s year in review design.

    I use Strava record all my rides, runs, and snowboard adventures since 2016. The past couple years I’ve hovered around 2k miles on the bike, which feels pretty solid. My favorite times on the bike this year were bikepacking with friends and I hope to keep that up this year. I’d also like to add a lot more days on snow.

    Kelly Hoffman

    January 1, 2022
    Thoughts

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