After the last few weeks of events, it’s nice to only have a couple to report:

• November 1: Would you be interested in a Content Design Fundamentals workshop? Tell me your ideal start time on the LinkedIn poll.

• STC India: UX Writing Fundamentals, 6-week class starting November 16

Finds

I was absolutely delighted by the presentations at Converge 2024, and those videos will be released to the public!

Some talks were inspirational. For example, Ben Callahan relating the interconnected roots of redwood trees to the way we all must learn from and depend upon each other in our design systems work. He shared some insights from his experimental, ongoing collaborative work called The Question. Dreamy, big-eyed stuff.

Other talks were deeply practical, like Natalie Hernandez’s examples of content design embedded with Nordstrom’s design system. She not only showed the work, but emphasized the benefits that the company realized from it—valuable stuff!

There were talks that were both heavy and light, like Heydon Pickering’s important (and hilariously obscenity-filled) take on including diverse demographics by not building for demographics, but instead to make tools that are fit for purpose.  

Then, there was a talk by Nathan Curtis about how he program manages design systems. It’s not just that this talk is clear, practicable, and full of valuable info—it’s organized beautifully. As I mentioned on LinkedIn, it’s an IA (information architecture) case study that is also a design systems talk.

Converge is a single-track conference specific to design systems put on by zeroheight, a design systems software company. Every talk was recorded, and they will be making those videos available to the public! I recommend that you sign up for early access to the videos.

Flexes and fumbles

I’ve just returned from a two-week trip to the UK. I flew into London, took the train to the Converge conference in Brighton, and then returned to London to spend a few days visiting museums with my husband.

Really, that's the flex: I took time off to pursue mental and physical activity outside of work, outside of career, etc. It's a huge privilege to have the means to travel internationally, and just to take a step away from the day-to-day grind. It’s a privilege I haven’t always had, so taking time away is a skill I’m still working to build.

Even while I build that skill, I’m eyeing other skills I wish I had. Which is a funny thing to write, as my co-authors and I get close to our first chapter deadline on the UX skill book! Specifically, I’m interested in building business development and marketing skills, so that I make sure that I’m reaching the customers that could use Catbird Content’s help. If you have any ideas for how to build those skills, or customers who have UX problems, I’d like to hear from you.

Because I didn’t do much in the past week, it would be easy to say I didn’t have an opportunity to fumble much! The one thing I wish I had done was to get better sleep while I was away. Before I left for the UK, I pushed very hard to get a lot of work done. I was pretty tired when traveling, and the 8-hour time-shift didn’t help. I had a hard time bouncing back, but perhaps that’s all part of the learning process.

Philosophy

“Just keep swimming,” said Dory. Today, the daily action recommended by a local activist group email was to “take deep breaths.” People in my wider circle are checking in on each other, asking “how are you holding up?”

Philosophically, I’m saying, sometimes we’re stuck inside a storm that just needs to be weathered.

And mostly, the stress people around me are feeling isn’t the hurricane recovery in the US Southeast, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, the still-unreleased Israeli and other hostages, or conflict in Sudan—although most of us are watching those, too, and supporting where we can.

Instead, the people around me are usually talking about the USA national elections, about 3 weeks away. In our Presidential elections, one candidate is making ominous statements about “the enemy within” and the potential need for military action surrounding the election. The other is trying to rally a coalition of centrists, liberals, and others in an uncomfortable coalition.

Half of my country seems eager for fascism (as the textbooks define it, without hyperbole), especially as characterized by authoritarian rule. For me, that’s a terrifying place to be.

Also on ballots are a huge number of consequential races, from representatives and senators to governors, school board leaders, mayors, and more. Even though my state isn’t considered a “battleground” for the presidency, it has been an exhausting, stressful, long four years of campaigning.

When you get your next Chirp, it should be the day after the election—though I don’t expect we will have definitive results then, with hundreds of millions of ballots to be counted. Here’s hoping that there is no violence at the polls, no targeting of immigrant citizens, and a peaceful transition of power to come.

I write these newsletters myself, and I stand by what’s in them. If you have kudos, concerns, or questions, please tell me. —Torrey