Empathy and Change
It was my daughters 16th birthday and I had spent well over a year planning a surf trip for us to Portugal. I pictured us surfing off into the sunset, eating amazing food, and bonding […]
“Growing” the Automattic Design Award Trophy
Entries for the 2018 Automattic Design are due November 16 We were fortunate to have Nervous System computationally design, a-hem “grow,” the Automattic Design Award trophy. Nervous Systems’ website demonstrates their astounding experiments as artists, […]
Growing Pains
The WordPress.com design team (and friends) recently conducted extensive user research around small business owners and their experiences, as you may have already read elsewhere on this blog. The team spoke to 34 entrepreneurs, gaining […]
What makes us creative?
As an industry, we’ve been proclaiming the good news of mobile-first for years. Yet as much as we talk the talk, we don’t always walk the walk. It’s not a bad thing; things are just […]
“Can you hear me?” —your customer
Automattic Design recently engaged in a “deep dive” customer research project to understand the psychology of small business owners. The underlying reason behind making this work happen has been our knowledge that roughly half the […]
Partners over Vendors
Recently, the WordPress.com design team spoke to 34 small business owners across the United States as part of a research project. The data gathered was vast, and incredibly insightful, but one thing has been sticking in […]
Putting all of the pieces together
For many small business owners, building a web presence is like trying to build a puzzle without knowing what the end result looks like. You can see how a few pieces fit together, but it’s […]
The Most Important Five Minutes
As someone who spent several years squarely in the Engaged DIY-er camp working hard on my side hustle, I should know them. But I’m starting to realize something that never really fully clicked for me […]
“Am I Doing This Right?”
As a former freelancer I would have been considered a small business owner at one point. I was managing all aspects of the business which operated under my name. There were definitely some areas that […]
