Chris R Becker

Sr. Product/UX designer / Author / Educator / Mentor - Eagle Scout, Surfer, Identical Twin, Dad of 2.

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

@reathchris Agreed this ontology article I wrote might help get them down that path.

https://t.co/bwDLqNVS8d

[christopher @reathchris]

one piece of advice i have for younger designers

focus on developing a strong visual grammar and vocabulary. especially in this era of prompting. if you can't articulate your own intentions, you're at the mercy of the machine's assumptions

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

@WesleyBancroft https://t.co/BDZRBH5wJh

[Spencer Pratt @spencerpratt]

Not satisfied by the shellacking they just got, Republicans are hellbent on losing even harder in 2028 LMAO.

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

With all the changes with AI.

Designers still have to drive the context, guide the story, and ideate early and often, so what comes out at the end is something humans need.

https://t.co/Cdu6Ll2vsD

[Nero @neropursue]

vibecoders thank me later.

https://t.co/0K11z0TiAa

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

@HoussamDesigner 👋 hi

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

What I learned teaching AI prototyping at university by @JayManned in @uxdesigncc https://t.co/PqLE9nnBqH

[DANN© @DannPetty]

It’s easy to make things work now but it’s still hard to make them look good.

hire designers.

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

So much guessing from AI :(

Curious, do you have a favorite pattern?

I love sharing...
The standby symbol (⏻, IEC 60417-5009) is a vertical line (|) partially enclosed inside a broken circle (◯) - The representation of 0 + 1 - The basis for computer binary and electricity. Students are typically oblivious to this HCI UI element and its backstory.

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

Using AI for prototyping/building? UI Design vocabulary is essential, as AI is not "smart". You have to ask it for what you want.

Here is an article I wrote that might help level up your jargon and help you get what you want from AI.

https://t.co/qn8M1CDZ9M

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

@alexmarin 👋 I am a designer 🤓

Check my work at…
https://t.co/evkxLk0Dyc

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

Design systems aren't a static set of components; they're a choreography of change. Learn to dance with the change.

[Samurai Shiba @SamuraiShibaJP]

My wife has taught high school in Tokyo for twenty years.

Every year, a few of her students spend a year living with a family in America. When they come home, she asks each of them one question.

"What do you miss?"

She expects hamburgers.

She almost never gets hamburgers.

And these aren't old stories. Most of these kids came home in the last two years.

"Every time I left the house, my host mom said, 'Text me when you get there.' In Japan, nobody needs to know where I am. In Ohio, somebody always did." (Mina, 17, Ohio)

"If you walk toward a door, an American will hold it open. Even if you are very far away. So you have to run. I ran to so many doors." (Itsuki, 16, Georgia)

"My host brother screamed on the floor of a grocery store. A stranger walked by and said to my host mom, 'You're doing great, Mama.' She almost cried. I didn't know strangers were allowed to say that." (Aoi, 17, Texas)

"We went away for the weekend and left our trash can at the curb. When we got back, it was by the garage. Nobody said who. My host dad said if it had been there one more day, the neighbor would have knocked." (Haruto, 16, Minnesota)

"A car got stuck in the snow in front of our house. Four men came out of four houses. Nobody called them. They pushed, the car drove away, and they went back inside without saying their names." (Ren, 17, Michigan)

"Every American has jumper cables. Maybe half of them know which clip goes where. The other half help anyway." (Shin, 16, Montana)

"In July, my host family put a cooler on the porch. Cold water, snacks, and a sign: 'For our delivery drivers. Thank you!' I asked if they knew the drivers. They said no." (Nanami, 16, Arizona)

"Downtown, there are banners on the lampposts. Photos of soldiers from the town. Some old, some very young. My host grandpa walked me down the street and told me every name." (Yuna, 16, Iowa)

"I got a C-plus on my first test. My host dad said, 'I'm proud of you,' and put it on the fridge. In Japan, nobody is proud of a C-plus." (Takeru, 17, Pennsylvania)

Then the quietest girl in the class raised her hand.

Sora. Seventeen. Missouri.

"Nobody asks me 'home safe?' anymore," she said.

She was wrong.

In September, there was a typhoon warning for Tokyo. At 2 a.m., Sora's phone lit up.

It was her host mom. In Missouri. Watching the weather in a country she had never been to.

"Saw the storm. You home safe?"

Sora told my wife she cried for a long time. Then she typed the answer she had typed a hundred times, from football games and friends' driveways.

"Home safe."

Her host mom wrote back one line.

"Good. That's all I needed."

My wife has asked that question for twenty years. Not one kid has ever said they missed how big America is.

They miss how America says goodbye. And how it checks that you got home.

So, America. You think you've lost something.

You haven't. It's on a porch in Arizona. It's pushing a car in Michigan. It's awake at 2 a.m. in Missouri, watching our weather.

You don't remember doing any of it.

A kid in Tokyo will never forget.

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

@rjs Again 🤓

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

This paragraph by Richard Feynman hits so hard:

“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don’t think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn’t stop you from doing anything at all.”

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

@david_visuals_ Gestalt!

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

A computer, software system, or AI disappears when it is designed to meet human needs in context. It seamlessly fits into a human-centered mental model and becomes indistinguishable from its context. The systems are not a static set of components but rather a choreography of change. Learn to dance with the change.

[Deep Psychology @DeepPsycho_HQ]

Lock yourself in a room for 10 minutes and read that article. You’ll master something that 95% of people won’t understand.

[Chris R Becker @cbecker]

@dmcgco Agreed. My solution... Sketch more. I am doing way more sketching as I am working with AI code assist becuase I have to think through how to describe it. Plus, I can explore far more options.