Cat Nguyen
LightNews LightNews
catnguyen.design
Cat Nguyen
@catnguyen.design
33 followers 39 following 73 posts
Senior UX design lead. Chronic killjoy. She/her. Opinions = mine. Once described as, "anywhere from 24 to 70 years old."

twitter.com/gunship47
instagram.com/gunship47
Posts Replies Media Videos
catnguyen.design
I can finally share what I'd last been working on for a loooooooong time at Google, which is member tiers for the Google Home app:
"Google Home rolling out Admin and Member access levels"
9to5google.com/2024/12/16/g...
Google Home rolling out Admin and Member access levels
As previewed last month, the Google Home app is rolling out Member access with the Public Preview program.
9to5google.com
January 9, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Cat Nguyen
joybella.blacksky.app
www.apa.org/news/press/r...
January 7, 2025 at 12:41 AM
catnguyen.design
Apparently the @washingtonpost.com wants to demonstrate how democracy dies in darkness.

It's honestly not a good sign given past world history.

Here's nationwide voting registration & voting information by state/territory: vote.gov
Register to vote in your state | Vote.gov
Find the information you need to make registration and voting easy. Official voter registration website of the United States government.
vote.gov
October 29, 2024 at 12:01 AM
catnguyen.design
I'm not on the team anymore, but the trickle of work I started continues: updated headers & Google Material 3 buttons for device settings in Google Home app. This round covers 1st-party devices.

Detail: finally, there's a place in the app that names device models.

9to5google.com/2024/09/23/g...
Google Home app updates device settings pages for TVs, cameras, more
The Google Home app has quietly updated the UI for seeing information about certain types of devices including TVs, cameras,...
9to5google.com
September 25, 2024 at 9:04 PM
catnguyen.design
FYI my team is hiring; fun Google Home app stuff... www.google.com/about/career...
Interaction Designer, Hardware — Google Careers
www.google.com
June 17, 2024 at 8:50 PM
catnguyen.design
A last look before e-wasting the Nest Guard: ok the custom USB power cable that matches the curvature of the device is quite a detail.
But on the other hand, I would've preferred a standard USB cable, because you're unlikely to ever see the back of the device and it's easier to replace/repair, etc.
Photo of the Nest Guard and it's custom USB power cable connected to it, with a custom-shaped end that matches the curvature of the base of the device. Photo of the Nest Guard and it's custom USB power cable disconnected from it, showing the unusual custom-shaped end that matches the curvature of the base of the device.
June 12, 2024 at 5:58 PM
catnguyen.design
As we near the end of May and the end of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I just want to thank band-aid makers for making Asian-skin-tone-color their default. #AANHPIM #AAPI
Bandaid GIF
Alt: Repeating animation of a band-aid and the Band-Aid logo. The color of the band-aid is the default yellow-based beige/tan that matches neither the color of most white people, nor that of darker-skinned people.
media.tenor.com
May 29, 2024 at 8:12 AM
catnguyen.design
I made this for a presentation, but also for my own amusement.

Apparently memes can be an excellent way to describe settings UX findings. In foundational research, almost all people are like, "Oh I never go to settings". But the people who did were fixing something important and broken.
The "most interesting man in the world" meme image with this text at the top, "I DON'T OFTEN VISIT SETTINGS, BUT WHEN I DO," and this text at the bottom, "I'M ON AN IMPORTANT MISSION"
May 4, 2024 at 6:39 PM
catnguyen.design
#InternetTreasure 1 for when you need a pick-me-up: Khruangbin's NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert from 2018, and the viewer comments regarding the otherworldly precision of drummer DJ Johnson
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWLJ...
Khruangbin: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
May 16, 2018 | Bob Boilen -- It was daylight but the music was dark and moody. And despite having the office lights turned on high, it was Khruangbin's tranc...
www.youtube.com
April 23, 2024 at 7:37 AM
catnguyen.design
#job-hunting #tip: AI tools are handy for succinctly summarizing the responsibilities and desired skills in job descriptions.

But: I've found that the free version of Google's Gemini is no longer as good as it used to be at editing help (which was expected, given the pricing tiers & cost of AI).
April 13, 2024 at 4:09 AM
catnguyen.design
A thread: critiques of the live-action "Avatar: The Last Airbender" series, using references that only fans of the original cartoon series will get.

First, the repetitive mentions of hope make me think of this:
Animated GIF of the Ember Island Players from the original "Avatar: The Last Airbender" cartoon series where the local theater actress playing Katara is tearfully and melodramatically saying, "IT JUST GAVE ME SO MUCH HOPE!"
February 24, 2024 at 3:32 AM
catnguyen.design
For years, I'd try to start a stopwatch w/ the Google Assistant but stopped trying after always getting punted w/ "Unfortunately I can't do that".
This week I find out Google Assistant eventually got a stopwatch feature! ...when they announce that they're getting rid of the stopwatch feature. [sigh]
January 13, 2024 at 4:00 AM
Reposted by Cat Nguyen
tiffanyclay.dev
+1 for The San Antonio Express News lmao
A screenshot of a tweet from San Antonio’s local newspaper, The Express News (@ExpressNews). The text reads, “Sen. Rafael Edward Cruz, who uses the preferred name Ted, has introduced a bill to limit the use of preferred names and pronouns.” Below the text is a link card featuring a photo of the aforementioned Cancun-loving demagogue, holding a microphone up to his undeniably punchable face.
December 1, 2023 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Cat Nguyen
jamellebouie.net
yeah as far as presidential statements about the death of an american official goes, this is the closest you’re going to get to “yes he deserved to die and i hope he burns in hell”
faineg.bsky.social Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · Nov 30
This statement from Biden about Henry Kissinger is one cold-blooded shiv of a paragraph, to a degree that I truly didn't expect we were going to get.

I'm impressed.
Statement from President Biden on the Passing of Henry Kissinger Home Briefing Room Statements and Releases I’ll never forget the first time I met Dr. Kissinger. I was a young Senator, and he was Secretary of State—giving a briefing on the state of the world. Throughout our careers, we often disagreed. And often strongly. But from that first briefing — his fierce intellect and profound strategic focus was evident. Long after retiring from government, he continued to offer his views and ideas to the most important policy discussion across multiple generations. Jill and I send our condolences to his wife Nancy, his children Elizabeth and David, his grandchildren, and all those who loved him.
November 30, 2023 at 11:53 PM
catnguyen.design
#2023 #gingerbread #cookies
Apparently I can't let go of hashtags even though Bluesky doesn't support them.
www.instagram.com/p/C0FvGzlpTn_/
An overhead shot focused on three decorated gingerbread cookies surrounded by additional cookies. One of the three main cookies is a round ornament shape with a winter scene of three snow-dotted pine trees on snowy slopes with falling snow. The second is a red, yellow, and white marble-striped Christmas tree with dragées on each point of color in the marbling. The third cookie is a tiny gingerbread person in white shirt and green lederhosen accented with red. And overhead photo of decorated gingerbread cookies on parchment paper. The decorations are a variety of marbled patterns, plaids, polka dots, and stripes in white, red, orange, yellow, light green, cyan/teal blue, and light purple colors.
November 26, 2023 at 8:56 PM
catnguyen.design
I've been thinking of doing a workshop or panel on the topic of access-sharing UX.
The working title is: "Principles of sharing UX: Everybody dies and anybody could be a bad actor"
November 7, 2023 at 1:00 AM
catnguyen.design
This Halloween, the husband ate into my jack-o-lantern time by asking me to hand-paint a helmet for one of the children.

If I can figure this much out in one afternoon, forget the connected home industry, let's paint cars and motorcycles for a living.

www.instagram.com/p/CzHD2JzgFp...
The finished paint job of the stylized, abstract owl-face-inspired helmet artwork of Star Wars character Sabine Wren, on a 3D-printed Mandalorian-style helmet. The helmet is held in a front-on view to the camera, next to a print-out of reference art of the helmet. The finished paint job of the Sabine Wren helmet, the right side held to the camera, with a print-out of reference art in the background. The dark-brick red areas with the purple and white paint sections started in the artwork for the helmet. Initial pencil-drawn lines that outline the helmet artwork. I see that the husband left me with nearly all the organic lines involved in this costume.
November 3, 2023 at 3:46 AM
catnguyen.design
It took a lot of tricks to get these poses from one child.
The other child required no coaxing.
Two photos of a pre-teen girl dressed as Sabine Wren from the Star Wars' Rebels & Ahsoka series with 3D-printed, hand-painted armor, Mandalorian-style helmet, and light saber hilt. In one photo the helmet is on, in the other she stands with a serious expression. Two photos of a boy in a Miles Morales Spiderman costume with face-covering mask and hood. In both photos, the boy is enthusiastically striking dramatic action poses. They don't look like poses Morales actually did, but this does not matter.
November 3, 2023 at 3:09 AM
catnguyen.design
my 9-yo enthusiastically agrees with this bauhaus rationale for why we don't need capital letters.
this came up because he didn't want to capitalize 1st words in sentences; i told him at least he doesn't have to capitalize every noun like they do in german.
www.bauhaus-bookshelf.org/bauhaus_writ...
writing in small letters
www.bauhaus-bookshelf.org
November 3, 2023 at 2:38 AM
catnguyen.design
I set up a small variety of connected devices from different brands recently.
The TLDR is: the connected home industry is NOT user-friendly.
October 18, 2023 at 5:31 AM
catnguyen.design
LOL Duolingo's description of German fashion.
The main text translates as, "Forget Italian and French fashion! I love German fashion! Do you know what it is? White socks and brown sandals."
Screenshot from the Duolingo app where the text reads: "¡Olvídate de las modas italianas y francesas! ¡A mí me encanta la moda alemana! ¿Sabes cuál es? Calcetines blancos y sandalias marrones." Which translates as: "Forget Italian and French fashion! I love German fashion! Do you know what it is? White socks and brown sandals."
October 15, 2023 at 3:36 AM
Reposted by Cat Nguyen
amandadeibert.bsky.social
Never stops being true
October 14, 2023 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Cat Nguyen
maggietokudahall.bsky.social
Holding this quote close to my heart while I grieve and call my reps again and again making my flaccid little Jewish pleas to cease the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
"The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality." --James Baldwin
October 14, 2023 at 11:50 PM
catnguyen.design
Maybe it's just me but Vivek Ramaswamy still sounds like a caricature Vinny Thomas made up.
I am sad because Ramaswamy is real.
September 28, 2023 at 3:06 AM