Welcome to Pleasure and Pain — a blog about making stuff easier and more pleasurable to use.
User experience
My name is Whitney Hess and I’m an independent management consultant and user experience strategist. I help businesses connect with their customers by showing them how to learn who they are and what they need. I believe empathy builds empires.
Remember that website where you got totally lost and frustrated and gave up before you got anything done? That was a bad user experience that was poorly considered by the company who made it, and it’s my mission in life to erase those from the planet. Instead let’s replace them with experiences that enrich your life and make you smile and allow you to do whatever you do best.
Why blog
This is the place where I highlight the best and worst experiences I find in the virtual world and in the real world. By dissecting what went wrong (or right!), we can figure out together how to create more usable, useful and desirable products. The first step is to demand that things get better. I’m just here to help. But in order for me to learn more, you have to participate!
My credentials
In August 2008 I quit my full-time job to become an independent user experience consultant. I had been freelancing on the side for three years, and it was finally time to take the plunge. Prior to that I had been on the design team at Liquidnet, an international financial software company that runs the leading electronic marketplace for wholesale stock-trading. I’ve also worked at interactive marketing agencies Digitas and Tribal DDB, where my clients included American Express, New York Times, Allstate, Claritin, Tropicana, and EarthLink. Most notably, I helped to conceive, design and test an innovative card search tool for American Express and am named as a co-inventor on its U.S. patent.
My background
I got started as a computer scientist, but ended up graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and soon after received a Master’s degree in HCI as well, all from Carnegie Mellon University. For the capstone project for my MHCI, I was one of five Masters students to develop Roadcasting, a system that allows drivers to create and share their music playlists with other cars on the road. The project received press from Wired, MIT Tech Review, Slashdot, BoingBoing and more.
My play time
Aside from my passion for design and writing, I take lots of photos, ride my bike, knit gifts for friends, go to movies and shows, drink every craft beer I can get my hands on, eat at the best restaurants, travel the world, and never stop learning new things. I’m an only child, a lefty, a redhead, an ENFJ, and a pretty good rapper. A native Manhattanite (yes, we exist), I currently live in the historic Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. If you’re ever in town, be sure to hit me up on Twitter or by e-mail and we’ll hang out.
Subscribe to Pleasure and Pain
New things are always being posted here, and you can stay up to date a few ways. One, you can just keep coming back by directing your browser to http://www.whitneyhess.com/blog/. Or it might be more efficient to add me to your RSS reader if you use one. If you’re not an RSS user, you might want to get new posts by e-mail. Just put in your e-mail address below and presto.
Thanks for stopping by!
