Tag: News - Silvia's personal website
I’m Silvia, an eclectic gen X woman with many interests. I go straight to the point unless I get distracted.| silviamaggi.co.uk
I’m Silvia, an eclectic gen X woman with many interests. I go straight to the point unless I get distracted.| silviamaggi.co.uk
A short tale of heads, memory, and virtual farms.| silviamaggi.co.uk
A post where I track the progress of my reading activity since the beginning of 2023.| silviamaggi.co.uk
What happened lately| silviamaggi.co.uk
Following up on my previous post, I'm sharing my new professional direction. --- During the peak of my perfect storm over the past few months, I was reminded of how much I care about accessibility. While I have mostly lost interest in the UX industry in its current form, accessibility is a subject that continues to stir big emotions in me: I want to help make the web a better place for everyone. Therefore, with over twenty years of experience in design and development, I’m offering consulta...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
Brief story of my perfect storm. --- I finished reading Normal People for the second time. In between, I saw the TV series. It seems I couldn’t let go of Marianne and Connell, some aspects of their story so similar to mine. It’s not the first time I feel so emotionally involved in a fictional story, and hopefully it won’t be the last. I don’t buy into the argument that Normal People is a millennial story. I honestly don’t even know what that means. With a few small changes on what t...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
A website for family, friends, and anyone who lands there to enjoy my photos. --- For a long time after quitting Instagram in 2021, my photos were nowhere to be seen. Sometimes I would post a few pictures on my blog but it never felt quite right. I thought there had to be a reason to publish one or more pictures, or a similarity between them to build a story. With infinite gratitude to Simone for helping me so much, I am happy and proud to launch my new photography website, which will be desi...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
The second of a series of posts in which I document my progress learning to play the ukulele. --- This post is long overdue. I started writing it several times but I have never been focused enough to do it. As with writing on my blog, also my exercising has slowed down. The previous diary entry ended with strumming rhythms and changing between the C, F and G chords. I was struggling with both. Not anymore. Despite the fact I learned just one new chord (G7), I feel much more confident playing....| Silvia Maggi's digital home
We have become distracted and let technology companies build things that have no value, but there are ways to revive the internet and thus foster more competitive and meaningful environments. --- We need to rewild the internet Our online spaces are not ecosystems, though tech firms love that word. They’re plantations; highly concentrated and controlled environments, closer kin to the industrial farming of the cattle feedlot or battery chicken farms that madden the creatures trapped within. ...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
If you ever thought ageing is the reason why technology seems more complicated, read on. Also, a guide to live in harmony with the world. --- The decline of the user interface Software has never looked cooler, but user interface design and user experience have taken a sharp turn for the worse. Form has taken over funtionality and substance, contravening the rules of good design. The evidence is in front of our eyes. 🔗 Read The decline of the user interface on InfoWorld Accessibility overla...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
Humans often remember the bad better than the good. Looking back with kindness and critical thinking can be beneficial. --- I tend to think about the past four years as a negative period of my life. In a way, it’s true. I was back in Italy, but not feeling home, and I had stopped doing what I like most: taking pictures, baking bread, knitting. I used to say that I was dead inside, and couldn’t be creative. A few days ago, flicking through my notes, I found the sketches I made while follow...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
Three articles that I found informative, funny, and uplifting. --- Designing healthy digital habits: the role of UX in mitigating technology addiction […] we delve into the complexities of technology addiction, exploring its definitions, diagnostic criteria, and the ongoing debates surrounding its legitimacy. Dr Maria Panagiotidi offers a well balanced and deep analysis on how designers can promote digital well-being through responsible UX practises. 🔗 Read Designing healthy digital habi...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
Of the few articles I read the past couple of months, the most memorable are about smartphones use and the ways modern tech can make us miserable. --- The smartphone kids are not all right So it’s not until 2010–2011 that you have this thing in your pocket, which is not a digital Swiss Army knife that you pull out when you need something. It is now a portal that millions—millions—of companies now can use to get to you, as a child. Without your parents’ permission or knowledge, they ...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
Last week I failed a Product Design / Verbal Reasoning test for a senior role. Today I wrote an email reasoning why I firmly believe that these tests exclude perfectly good professionals. Feel free to use it should you need it. --- Hi [recruiter’s name], As I failed the Product Design / Verbal Reasoning test, I don’t expect the recruiting process to continue. I would like to offer you my feedback and opinion on the experience, as [company name] might find it useful in the future. It was t...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
One of the things I missed most of our life in Cambridge is growing vegetables and flowers. Having a garden is a lot of work, but it’s highly rewarding. --- Simone and I have been busy preparing for spring during the last few weekends. We’ve found the mint we planted years ago, moved it to the other side of the garden, and are watching it thrive. From seeds, we planted: the romanesco variety of courgettes, which is sweeter and tastier chives chillies plum tomatoes parsley rocket salad red...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
This issue marks the beginning of a different type of series, where I mostly share blog posts from people writing on their personal websites. --- Digital design is conflicted UX is conflicted. I’m conflicted. I’m conflicted between pushing to go fast and fighting to slow down. I’m caught between fixing things and breaking things. I’m forced to compromise between caring and causing harm. James Royal-Lawson wrote an essay I wholly support. In it, he describes the many conflicts designer...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
A photo, a post, a video, a podcast. These are among the things that are now called ‘content’ on social media. You create content and present it to your followers the right way, at the right time. Have you tried monetise it? Well, wouldn’t it be great to be paid to do what you love? It became common thinking that turning your hobbies into profit is a great idea. Except, when you do, they become something you have to do with consistency, no matter what, to be relevant. Capitalism wants y...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
Yesterday I got to celebrate International Women’s Day in a pleasant and unexpected way. --- It was a double celebration, actually, as it was my birthday a few days ago. Simone and I had delicious Thai food for lunch, before walking home. The cold and strong winds made it a more difficult, but nonetheless charming five kilometres stroll. Feeling tired and a bit sluggish, we considered swapping dates for the event we booked for the evening. I’m glad we didn’t. We went to the Leper Chapel...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
Technology no longer excites me. To be precise, I’m not able to feel enthusiastic about new technology anymore. Might be because I’m getting older. --- I went through many digital tools and hardware in the past, had my favourites, and was prepared to defend them when needed (Apple vs Microsoft, iPhone vs Android). I was a fangirl. Has technology changed? In fact, the word enshittification was coined by Cory Doctorow1 to define what happens to online platforms that “function as two-sided...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
Nowhere near the number of all the articles I came across during the past three months, these are the most remarkable. --- On Nielsen’s ideas about generative UI for resolving accessibility “Accessibility has failed as a way to make computers usable for disabled users.” Thus begins a newsletter by Jakob Nielsen. And had it not been written by someone a great many people take seriously in the UX industry I likely would just have dismissed it. Jakob Nielsen makes a potentially harmful cas...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
A couple of unedited pictures I took last month at home with my mobile phone. Capturing shadows is one of my favourite things. --- Despite what some people think about the British weather, we enjoy a beautiful kind of light in our living room at home – also in winter. The trees just ouside our garden, the wind, and the sun, come together to create amazing displays. Sometimes I capture them of videos, which I never publish. They’re private snapshots of moments I don’t want to forget. I s...| Silvia Maggi's digital home
Considering the current situation in the world, here are the things I’m doing to take care of myself.| silviamaggi.co.uk
