I Am a Boring Old White Guy from Kansas

People who know me, have read more than five words I have written, seen me present, etc know that I am all about global and universal design, but here and there I get called out for a moment as some out of touch midwesterner so sure, why not list out my credentials?

First, mindset. You don’t actually have to have experienced stuff to be an advocate and ally. I can go on about this, but strongly believe it. Read a book, talk to some people, give a crap about things. Believe that progress is possible and work towards it.

But for those that think only experience counts…

I have been to:

For vacations occasionally but almost entirely for work. For speaking, for client visits, several times I did usability testing myself in these places. Oh, when I present I ususally make at least half my examples about that region, so I do my homework before travel. I have been on over 1,000 legs (flights) and driven, taken trains on three continents, etc. Oh, I am even married to someone who does not hold a US passport. Has a visa, yes, but an actual citizen of another country.

  • Yes, I think every US state except AK and HI.

  • China

  • Japan

  • England

  • Scotland

  • Iceland

  • Romania

  • France

  • Germany

  • Poland

  • Mexico

  • Canada

  • Belgium

  • Italy

  • Czechia

  • Netherlands

  • Denmark

I have done client work for:

Well, globally. Really, a lot of clients have been explicitly global, supporting dozens of languages, and unit sets and unique needs for networking and so on. I’ve even designed telecom services for other regions, so get really into the differences in these areas.

But here are some that I have specifically designed for, where I have built products for one region but not one where I live, where I have engaged researchers to do things like go into homes where sometimes it would be impossible for valid research and physical safety for me to do that:

  • Australia

  • Nigeria

  • Italy

  • Sudan

  • China

  • Hong Kong

  • India

  • Japan

  • Egypt

  • Israel

  • Brazil

  • Mexico

  • UAE

  • Italy

  • Kuwait

I am not in perfect health:

Because none of us are. My information on temporary disability comes from research, believing others and repeating good data, but as I get older I see things manifesting. Naw, I won’t list all those but wear glasses and need it, need higher contrast UI for regular use, have vertigo so personally don’t like things like parallax design, take too many pills so have even stronger opinions on how that all works, and so on.

I travel by:

Lots of things. partly because different regions work different ways, but even here at home by no means do I drive everywhere. Let’s list this by preference. When all modes are available — often only in other countries — and there’s no other reason (transporting goods, etc) and mixing different distance requirements, I’ll choose to:

  • Walk

  • eBike (used to be pedal bike, but I’ll take assistance now)

  • Subway

  • Streetcar, trolley

  • Intracity train

  • Intracity bus or shuttle

  • Water taxi

  • Intercity high speed train

  • Intercity “low speed” train

  • Ride in a helicopter (helicopters are cool! This doesn’t come up much though!)

  • Drive a car

  • Ride in an airplane

I bike and walk a LOT. I’ve been on rail transport in most of the countries listed at the top, but a car in only maybe 1/3rd of them.

BloggingSteven Hoober