HI, I'M CARYN VAINIO.

I’ve worked in all kinds of team configurations in my ten years (so far) in the game industry, so I thought I’d talk a little bit about what I’ve experienced as a game UI/UX designer from two different perspectives: that of the embedded designer, and that of the “client services” designer. Both styles of working have their pros and cons. Read more →

I believe that there are two sentences that sum up adulthood: “I can have a cupcake whenever I want” and “I should not have a cupcake whenever I want.” These two statements are frequently on my mind now that I work right next door to a Cupcake Royale. Read more →

I’ve been following with interest the discussion among non-game-industry UX designers that “UX is not UI,” and finding that the evolution of UX from UI within the game industry has created a unique type of UX designer that really does seem heavily tied into UI design. Read more →

A huge portion of my UI/UX design time is spent in the sketching phase. I don’t rely completely on stencils, but when I need one I like having it. The other day I realized that, for a long time, I’d been doing something that I wish I had a stencil for. I was sure such a stencil existed, but I did a Google search, asked around on Twitter, and turned up absolutely nothing. Completely surprised by this, I decided that it’s not hard to make my own — after all, I’d done it for quilting way back in the day, when I was into that sort of thing. Read more →

I use both Twitter and Facebook, but in very different ways, and I get very different user experiences out of both of them. My Facebook friends list is very highly curated; although I sometimes feel bad about it, I have … Read more →

I love prototyping, and I love the Paper app for my iPad. Here’s a short presentation on prototyping, done with Paper. Read more →

In order to for us to avoid wasting valuable engineering time, it’s almost vital that much of my work gets thrown away. It’s better to test out ideas and waste only a day of my time than it is to waste several days of several people’s time, only to discover the idea didn’t work. Read more →

Ever since working on my own card game that initially started life as video game, I’ve been wondering what my favorite video games would look like if they were card games. Read more →

Stumptown is a local Seattle coffee brand that I can’t get enough of for two reasons: their coffee is just damn good, and their packaging design is wonderful. Read more →

We own four alpacas. Not llamas, alpacas. Inevitably someone will come to the house that’s never been there, a delivery person or door knocker, and they’ll say, “cool llamas!” And then we have to correct them. Read more →