I cannot believe it is already December, this year has gone by in the blink of an eye. Since the pandemic struck worldwide and lockdowns came and went, my brain has lost track of time passing, my perception of time froze in April 2020 and now all of a sudden, I find myself discussing with friends and family Christmas presents and how odd this whole ordeal has been, still hoping things will go back to ‘normal’ and in complete disbelief that 2020 has nearly gone.

Therefore, I’ve decided to recap what has happened in the last few months that has…

I recently took part, as a panel member, in an online webinar on Ada Lovelace Day to celebrate the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM). The event was organised by a local college and I was invited to participate with other colleagues from work. The aim of the event was to increase the profile of women in STEAM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEAM careers. Our audience were mainly college students — particularly young women.

During the open question session that concluded the webinar, the students…

Love doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be true

Today I choose to write about, and celebrate love. I want to share with you a ‘love story’, a story which one day I hope to share with my future children. Yes you guessed it, the embarrassing, stupid and somehow romantic story of how I met my other half.

First, the facts.

I’ve always been sceptical about love. I don’t believe in ‘cursi’ (Spanish slang for someone being corny or overly sentimental) love stories. Every time I heard a friend telling a story of how they had known the love of…

“All grown-ups were once children… but only a few of them remember it.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The little prince.

When I was a kid, my two worst fears were the wardrobe monster and the hairy lady that cries out at night, what they call in Panama ‘la llorona’. During the day things were not so tough: I had to go to school, play with friends, eat, go to birthday parties, play, eat again, play more and then get ready for bed.

My biggest worries were losing my favourite toy and getting caught doing something naughty because I could be…

For a little over a year, I’ve been working on building a design system for different platforms (iOS, Android and Web) at a Large-scale business, which has been a very rewarding and interesting experience, but that being said, it hasn’t all been plain sailing.

As I’m about to move on, I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learnt from this project, and I thought it’d be good to share with other designers some lessons learnt, considering the fact that I had next to no experience of design system creation when I first started.

In a couple of days I’ll be celebrating birthday number 32 or 33? In case you are wondering, how come I’m not sure? My date of birth is a bit controversial. For as long as I can remember there has been some uncertainty about the year I was born from the two most unexpected people, you guessed it, my parents, both equally important sources of truth, my mum who gave birth and, my dad who attended the birth; making it all the more difficult for me to disagree with either.

For a while, my mother’s account of events seemed the…