Practices Articles

We’re curious people by nature. And we love to teach others what we’ve learned. So explore our blog to gain fresh insights from our expertise in areas ranging from culture to AI.

SEP Selected as a Nominee for TechPoint’s Innovation Mira Award

TechPoint has announced the nominees for its 25th annual Mira Awards, highlighting the most innovative companies, universities, and organizations in Indiana’s tech sector. The awards celebrate achievements across various categories, including the Innovation Partner of the Year. Nominees in this…
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Optimizing Discoverability in 5 Simple Steps: Unmatched IA in UX Design

In user experience (UX) design, taxonomy and ontology are two important but often overlooked tools. Taxonomies organize information into groups. Meanwhile, ontologies focus on relationships and concepts within a specific area. By understanding these concepts, we can enhance a product’s information architecture. First, let’s start by discussing the basics of taxonomy and ontology. Then, once we […]
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Chaos or Clarity? Improve Your Product Design With Systems Thinking

Embarking on the Adventure of Systems Thinking Hey there, product professionals! Ever feel like you’re embarking on an epic adventure when crafting products? That’s because, in a way, you are! Product design is like navigating through a galaxy of intricate relationships. Each decision made sends ripples through this cosmic web. This shapes our creations in […]
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Is a Lift and Shift Migration the right fit for your cloud project?

Picture this: Your team has been wrangling databases, applications, and web servers hosted and run on hundreds of VMs for years now. You have workarounds for some of the most egregious limitations, but alas… you know the time has come to replace your VMs with cloud hosting. You know that the inefficiencies and security concerns […]
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Invest in Your Career Growth with Small Habits for Professional Development

Some Professional Development activities are time-consuming.   Gaining a certification for a cloud platform, for example, requires hours of learning and study before the hours of testing.  This may feel like an intimidating amount of work.  However, even a busy schedule can include a few small habits for professional development that, over time, will add […]
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The Building Blocks of Design Hierarchy

Creating beautiful, well-laid-out screens may seem like design magic, but you don’t have to be a designer to know how to structure your content well. With just a few key fundamentals of hierarchy, you can drastically improve both the visual appeal and usability of your designs. What is hierarchy and why is it important? According […]
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10 Figma Shortcuts to Improve Your UI Design Proficiencies

Though most shortcuts in work are ill-advised or perceived as lazy, some have proven otherwise. As Figma has exploded in use amongst many in the design field these last few years, almost all SEP’s designers have adopted this tool in their own unique way. Like artists, designers have their own approach to the pieces they […]
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Transferable & Soft Skills: The Unjustly Unsung Heroes of Software Development

“If you don’t figure out what you want to do for a career, you will fall behind in life.” I can remember hearing this loaded statement as early as 8th grade. Which, looking back on it, is about the equivalent of attempting to teach a dog new tricks as a squirrel scampers about in its […]
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Think Software Maintenance is Expensive? Here’s Why It’s Worth the Investment.

The world of software and software development moves at lightning speed. Every day, new tools are introduced. Languages and frameworks are upgraded. App store requirements change. Operating systems are updated. New hardware is announced. So, what happens if the software world evolves but your software codebase doesn’t? Development Tools Chain Reaction Development tools continue to […]
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Software Design Accessibility Audits 101: What You Need to Know

Accessibility in software design is an important topic that often gets overlooked or deprioritized. The good news is, addressing accessibility does not need to be a giant undertaking. In this post, I’ll give an overview of accessibility laws and how you can conduct your own software accessibility audit. This won’t make you an expert on […]
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