January 2012
4 posts
What is a Brand?
“It’s important for entrepreneurs to understand that their “Brand” is the collective emotional response to their product or service. A brand is not a logo, and it’s certainly not a URL. Those things are the stimulus, while the brand is the response. It’s something out there, in the hearts and minds of the people you hope to sell to.” - by Mike Troiano...
December 2011
4 posts
Best User Experiences of 2011
Thougts on Apple's use of Skeuomorphism
A collection of opinions about Apple’s skeuomorphic UI design:
Skeuomorphism: The Opiate of the People by @andymangold “Some people believe that skeuomorphism makes an interface easier to use, or more intuitive for the user, and I simply don’t buy that. But what hadn’t occurred to me is that it doesn’t matter if it actually does make it easier to use, all that matters is that it...
Why you should move that button 3px to the left
Great article by Braden Kowitz on the value of polished UI. A few highlights:
Trust increases when we get the details right Customers judge online credibility by evaluating visual design, copywriting, and interactions. If trust matters to your business, then design details should matter too. Check out the academic literature on the topic of interface design and trust, or look into Stanford’s...
November 2011
4 posts
5 Types of Social Proof
1) Expert social proof – Approval from a credible expert, like a magazine or blogger, can have incredible digital influence. Example:
Visitors referred by a fashion magazine or blogger to designer fashion rentals online at Rent the Runway drive a 200% higher conversion rate than visitors driven by paid search.
2) Celebrity social proof – Up to 25% of U.S. TV commercials have used celebrities to...
WatchGems from The Complexity of Simplicity by Dan Saffer:
• “Had I but more time, I would have written less” - Thomas Jefferson. If you have more time, you can come up with simpler, tighter solutions. • People like to surround themselves with unnecessary power. Research has shown that feature lists are important UNTIL a user users the product, after which they matter less than the...
Paint by numbers and deities
Can you imagine by Trey Speegle:
The Big Poster Book of Hindu Deities: 12 Removable Prints by Sanjay Patel:
The Way We Teach Math, Sciences, and Languages Is...
“If we learned our first language like we usually learn second languages, it might look like this. A young child says, “I am hungry.” The parent replies, “Wait! Before saying am, you first must learn to conjugate to be in all persons and number, in the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods, and in the past, perfect, and future tenses.” After a few months, or maybe weeks, of this...
September 2011
1 post
1 tag
WatchFast Company’s United States of Design iPad app, complete with Fab.com pop up shop. Gorgeous! Details here.
August 2011
6 posts
Are media queries the answer to the fold?
“The idea behind responsive design is that your site adapts depending on the size of the viewport. In other words if you view the website on a small screen device like an iPhone, the site will look different from when it is viewed on a widescreen monitor. This is achieved through the use of Media Queries. The consequences of knowing the viewport size without resorting to javascript is that...
1 tag
How to Fix Our Math Education
This article sums up exactly how I believe math should be taught:
“A math curriculum that focused on real-life problems would still expose students to the abstract tools of mathematics, especially the manipulation of unknown quantities. But there is a world of difference between teaching “pure” math, with no context, and teaching relevant problems that will lead students to appreciate how a...
1 tag
Steve Jobs quotes that deeply inspire me
Love what you do
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better...
1 tag
June 2011
5 posts
1 tag
It’s easier to reinvent something to invent it.
“The reference example of this is Apple, which has created amazing and differentiated products in huge pre-existing categories like computers, laptops, MP3 players, phones, etc., and only occasionally go for new product categories (like the Newton and iPad). When Apple picks an existing category, they can take something that’s OK but fragmented, and take it to an entirely new level on...
100 things every designer needs to know about...
A great collection of short, insightful writing about applying psychology to design for the way people think, work and relate. Check out some of the most popular stories from the book.
Design Thinking is old school. Here comes Creative...
“I am defining Creative Intelligence as the ability to frame problems in new ways and to make original solutions. You can have a low or high ability to frame and solve problems, but these two capacities are key and they can be learned. It is a sociological approach in which creativity emerges from group activity, not a psychological approach of development stages and individual...
May 2011
6 posts
“Good designers think “less” is more. Great designers think...”
– http://cameronmoll.com/archives/001266.html
The history of web design (infographic) →
1 tag
Bill Gates on the power of seeing and feeling
The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity.
To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps.
You can’t get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact.
- Bill Gates, Harvard Commencement remarks, June 2007
Please enjoy
The editorial, design and fine art work of new Facebook Creative Director Ji Lee…
The IXD Library
The IxD Library is a collection of books, articles, and presentations of interest to interaction designers. It attempts to not be the definitive collection of every piece of content about interaction design, only the best and most influential. It is also strictly (as is possible) about interaction design and not usability, information architecture, visual design, human factors, or even general...
April 2011
4 posts
How good designers think
Insight: They Look at What We Don’t Know.
How?
1. They don’t tend to think about consumers; they think about people and what they want and need.
2. They like observing.
3. They bring expertise in other categories and industries to bear.
4. They look at what might all change in the short, medium and long-term, by engaging with the best trends and forecasting intelligence.
...
Ten things you need to do if you were hired today
1. Love the product
2. Know the history
3. Know the history of the execs
4. Make your boss look good
5. Know all the secretaries
6. Constantly test your value on the market.
7. Study all the marketing campaigns
8. Study the industry
9. Become the company
10 Leave
Watchseawitchery:
I started out clicking strategically… and by the end was just wildly clicking and dancing in my chair.
biancavirina:
CLICK THE SQUARES.
THE WHOLE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS.
March 2011
3 posts
February 2011
2 posts
January 2011
0 posts
The Best Flickr Groups to Find Minimal Design... →
December 2010
3 posts
Watch
Google Maps & Label Readability
41latitude:
Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem Much More “Readable” Than Those of Its Competitors?
For months, I’ve been trying to figure out why Google Maps’s city labels seem so much more readable than the labels on other mapping sites.
To me, Google’s labels seem to “pop” much more than the other sites’ labels. Major cities also seem to stand out much more. [1] And whenever you’re...
October 2010
1 post
Lessons from Scott Berkum, Glengarry, Glen Ross
How do you decide when to open your mouth, and when to keep it shut? Read on…
September 2010
2 posts
In 1924, William L. McKnight, then CEO of 3M observed, “If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need.”
July 2010
2 posts
June 2010
1 post
May 2010
4 posts
