Daniel Ritzenhaler
Daniel Ritzenhaler
Dan(iel) Ritz(enthaler)
Hello! Everyone calls me Dan or Ritz. I enjoy working in the messy creation and evolution phases of a product and, more importantly, the organization behind the product. Helping out with anything loosely related to design. Tools and strategy; people and process. All of it is interesting and exciting.
Latest Posts
I struggle mightily to describe the collaborative nature being lost with “AI” assisted thinking partners. When I try to articulate it in person, the response ends up miles away from what I intended to discuss. Someday I hope to get...
Lately I’ve been putting more effort into trusting and verifying my instincts. When I recognize they’re trying to get me do something, I give them my full attention. Then I pry and rip (aka writing) these nudges from my intuition out...
Imagine receiving a package while going into your home and along the way you pass a recycle bin. You remember ordering the item and know it isn’t fragile. Jamming a key into a gap between cardboard flaps and dragging it to tear through...
For the last year I’ve been following dozens of people on various socials and RSS feeds for artificial intelligence ideas and news. When someone shares a cool story using tools and techniques under the AI umbrella, I attempt to recreate...
A while back I wrote about doing work I couldn’t explain while remaining confident I was getting intellectually rigorous and effective results. It’s been on my mind ever since. I don’t have an exhaustive explanation, but I think I have a...
The more I study systems literature and attempt to apply what I learn, the more I encounter people (including me, almost constantly) concentrating on levels of systems that are out of our direct or indirect influence. We’re in a...
A while back I was having a work discussion and had a strong intuition we were going further than we needed to resolve a point of tension. I was having trouble articulating why I felt that way, but something was telling me I shouldn’t...
My favorite design book — without question. The Design Way, written by Harold G. Nelson and Erik Stolterman can be summarized as dismantling problems and solutions as the primary intellectual framing of design, and software development...
A short, fun book written by Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner telling their story of starting Newman’s Own and building it into an enormous, profitable, and beloved food company while donating more than $600 million to children along the...
For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to craft a sturdy set of design principles. To make design less “magic” to outsiders. To help designers stay focused on what matters. To further legitimize a chronically overlooked source of...