kimvallee.comBlog of Kim Vallee

User Experience Services Blog Contact Inspire your kids to learn to code with these books November 27, 2017 With holiday shopping in mind, I compiled a list of my favorite children books about coding. They are a mix of nonfiction books, fiction books and activities books. I wish there were books like these when I was a kid. In fact, I wish there were books as awesome as these 10 years ago. Now that they are a few, it’s important that kids have access to them. Continue Reading… Vincent van Gogh’s bedroom is on Airbnb February 16, 2016 Who doesn’t like to live amazing, unique experiences? This is why I share with you the latest promotion of The Art Institute of Chicago. To promote the current Van Gogh’s Bedrooms exhibit, they built a copy of the famous bedroom. A bedroom where you can stay in for the night. Cool! Continue Reading… How to differentiate your brand when you’re number 2 November 18, 2015 If your kids dream of being a master builder when they grow up, they don’t have to move to Denmark. They can do it in Montreal. I met yesterday with members of the team responsible for the design, the production and the branding of Mega Bloks. I went to the media tour at Mega Bloks for two reasons. I was curious to see how they make their building blocks. But the main reason why I attended this event was to know more about their branding and product development process. What I noticed through the tour was people who enjoy what they are doing. Continue Reading… An overlooked benefit of doing content marketing October 28, 2015 Two weeks ago I participated in a #Hootchat about content marketing. The Twitter chat started by asking us how we define content marketing. The majority rallies along the lines of educating, informing, helping and engaging a targeted audience with your brand story and relevant content. What surprised me is that nobody defined content marketing in terms of better understanding your audience and their aspirations. This is where many brands are missing out. Continue Reading… What you say and show on your website matters more than your site design. Start there! October 26, 2015 When small business owners approach me with the idea to redo their corporate website, I advice them what I’m about to tell you. What you say and show on your website is the real differentiator, not your site design. Start there! Then, you’ll know which website design and features are necessary to present your content. Continue Reading… How to pitch a journalist or a blogger to get press October 13, 2015 Several business owners asked lately how to get press. I’m glad that they asked me because I want entrepreneurs to avoid costly mistakes that I see businesses and their PR agencies do over and over. To be fair to PR agencies, some agencies know better but they have failed to convince their clients that the old way doesn’t work anymore. I hope that my article will reiterate that spamming our inbox with press releases is not the way to get press coverage. What I’m sharing here is how to pitch established bloggers, freelance writers and journalists. But I need to warm you: it takes time, patience and work. This is why most businesses don’t do it. You’ll yield a definite advantage if you do it the right way. Continue Reading… Where to eat well in Gatineau and Ottawa with kids September 21, 2015 We went for a weekend getaway last weekend with our 4 years old boy. I didn’t plan for anything except for meeting friends on Sunday and visiting the Canadian Children’s museum . Whenever I’m in vacation, I rely on Yelp to find restaurants. Once again, I was reminded of how practical Yelp is. The filtering options make it easy to cut down on the number of reviewed restaurants. As a rule of thumb, I focus on restaurants with 40 reviews or more. I also take the time to read the most recent reviews to get a feel of the place, to see if it fits our criteria, what we’re craving for at that moment. Then, I check the food pictures and visit their web site. Frankly, I rarely made bad choices with this technique. Continue Reading… With Osmo, the games happen outside the iPad screen September 9, 2015 What if I told you that there is an iPad app where kids interact with physical objects instead of the screen. It’s exactly what the makers of Osmo did. Their educational game set bridges between the physical and the digital world. By doing so, Osmo pleases kids, educators and parents. Once you downloaded the apps, you simply insert your iPad on the stand and place the red reflective mirror over the iPad camera to be ready to play. This is when the magic of Osmo is revealed. Continue Reading… Older Posts Written by Kim Vallee, a UX research & design consultant, an educator, a lifelong learner, a Women in STEM advocate, and a mom who cares about preparing kids for the future. Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Google Plus © Kim Vallee. All Rights Reserved. Back to top...