Thinking
Notes on trust, brand-led customer experience, and where AI fits. Written between projects, revised in conversation.
September 2026
DESIGN & BEHAVIOUR
August 2026
AI & DESIGN
July 2026
BRAND
July 2026
BRAND & AI
July 2026
TRUSTWORTHINESS
July 2026
BRAND-LED CX
May 2026
TRUSTWORTHINESS
Bad behaviour by design
For twenty years design was the accusation. Courts and regulators have flipped it: when they want to fix a behavioural harm, the remedy they order is a settings screen.
Is anyone designing for the handover?
Uber's self-driving car was built to hand control back to a person in an emergency. It had no way of telling them an emergency had started.
You feel it before you notice it
Most brands try to be excellent everywhere. The distinctive ones pick a few moments and design them until they're unmistakable.
Your brand book is already an AI ethics policy
Everyone is asking what their AI should refuse to do. The people with the best answer already wrote it down, years ago, and called it a brand strategy.
You can point at the truth and still fail your customer
Air Canada's chatbot linked to the very page that contradicted it. The link changed nothing.
Brand-led customer experience, in practice
Why distinction is the point of customer experience, and why the answer is sometimes a slow lane.
The quiet cancellation: why customers stop trusting you
Trust is what the customer gives you. Trustworthiness is what you are, and unlike trust, it can be designed.