Ideas, lessons, and perspectives.
Practical thinking on technology, accessibility, and digital strategy for the organizations shaping public life.
Practical AI for Public Institutions: Where to Start in 2026
February 2026
Most AI pitches to government sound the same. Here's what we actually tell clients when they ask where to start.
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Section 508 Compliance Without the Panic
January 2026
You don't need a six-figure audit to get started with accessibility. Here's what actually matters and where most teams go wrong.
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Building the Urban Institute's Education Data Platform
December 2025
The Urban Institute had great education research stuck in PDFs that nobody outside academia was reading. We helped them fix that.
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Don't Just "Make It Pretty"
November 2016
Why User Experience matters more than visual polish. A practical guide for organizations looking to build user-friendly designs on a budget, starting with the right process.
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Three Ways to Accomplish More in a Day
October 2016
Agile and SCRUM methodologies applied beyond the tech industry. Practical advice for task management, meeting governance, and daily stand-ups that help any team work better.
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Process Mistakes That Designers Make (and How to Avoid Them)
May 2016
Pre-launch headaches and last-minute communication woes don't have to happen. Here are the most common and avoidable situations designers encounter, with practical solutions.
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A Vision for the Future of the Internet
July 2016
An interview with Dr. Adrian Cheok on multisensory communication and the future of education, paired with a science fiction short story exploring immersive learning technology.
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The Winter of Our Retreat
March 2016
Our team headed to Breckenridge, Colorado for a week of snowboarding, hackathons, and team building. Here's what happened when we traded Caribbean water for snow-capped mountains.
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Teacher Voice in the Design Process at SXSWedu
March 2016
Our teacher engagement associate Candace Flaherty presented at SXSWedu on integrating teacher perspectives into educational technology design.
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Empathy Should Be a Presidential Prerequisite
October 2016
Here at Mobility Labs, we root for the good guys and gals. A reflection on empathy as a fundamental human trait and why it matters in leadership.
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Best Practices in User Research with Kids
August 2015
Need to conduct user research with kids? Never fear! One of the best ways to get great feedback from kids is to make your feedback session kid-friendly. Having conducted user research with 3-14 year-olds, I’ve…
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Integrating Technology into Professional Development and the Classroom
August 2015
Over thirty years ago, an open letter to the public, A Nation at Risk, called for the recommendation of teaching computer science in high school, equipping graduates to “understand the computer as an information,…
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Inequity and Technology: Why Supporting Teachers Matters
June 2015
Last time I wrote on the blog, I explored equity and technology in classrooms with a focus on students; this week, my focus is on teachers. Outside of just having access to tech, teacher expectations of students and…
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Do You Need to Localize Your Website?
May 2015
Proper localization, which is the process of adapting your product to the local marketplace, will impact not only your web traffic, but sales, advertising conversion, mobile downloads and more. As access to the…
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Why Just Having the Technology Isn’t Enough
April 2015
One reason I find educational technology so exciting is the potential to increase equity in education. Last fall, I was lucky enough to come across Mark Warschauer’s Learning in the Cloud: How (and Why) to Transform…
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The Personification of Big Artificial Intelligences
May 2014
We expect computers to know the answers to questions. In fact, many of us grow frustrated when a computer doesn’t seem to understand what we’re asking. We Google phrases and we get results that are pretty astounding,…
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Listening to the User: Teachers Should Lead
May 2014
[Edit Note: we were contacted by the author of the original article. He points out that the product they provide was developed by a team of teachers. We believe the article itself provides a good starting point for…
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User Centric Design: We’re Not Building it for Ourselves
January 2014
There are a lot of bad habits that creep upon me when I don’t pay attention. I start staying up late, eating crap food, and let clutter pile up around me. Professionally, I’ve noticed that we all often fall back on…
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Why User Experience Works Better Without User Contempt
August 2013
The discipline of User Experience consists of focusing on the needs of the user, instead of those of the web designer or website owner. The thing that makes it difficult is that we imagine that we’re already doing…
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The Light and Dark Side of Usability
July 2013
A recent article by usability expert Harry Brignull got us thinking about all the ways website owners trick their users. Brignull does not believe people start of thinking “how can I trick people,” but shows how…
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