February 9th 2012
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Played and replayed.
Posted at 7:50am and tagged with: video, music,.
February 6th 2012
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I’ve got another short piece up over at HOW Interactive Design, this time on why “Interaction is More than Looking at Screens.” Here’s a clip:
“…Back in the ’90s, forward-thinking designers started playing with HTML. The ones who did might’ve had a sense that the web was going to be a big deal, but it wasn’t a prerequisite for experimenting with design and code. It wasn’t long before the web’s big-dealishness was obvious, and the mood shifted. The web was no longer about experimentation; it was about work. For many designers who began their careers in print, the web was what they did now. Since then, the big conversation has been about making the print-to-web transition. And we’re still having that conversation.
But just like in the ’90s, there is something happening on the fringes today that forward-thinking designers are experimenting with. And if we’re not paying attention, today’s interactive designers could get left behind just like the print designers did 15 years ago. We need to start shifting the conversation from “print to web” to something more nuanced and much deeper. It begins with expanding our definition of “interactive” to push beyond work made for the screen…”
Read the whole thing here →
Posted at 2:57pm and tagged with: design, the-future,.
February 5th 2012
1 note |#
Posted at 6:14pm.
February 3rd 2012
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(Source: kk.org)
Posted at 3:10pm and tagged with: quote, the-future,.
January 31st 2012
7 notes |#
(Source: ctrl-shift.co.uk)
Posted at 3:04pm and tagged with: quote, data,.
So there are two classes of data which help solve different types of problem. Big Data is statistical and deals with general trends and patterns; Very Small Data is specific and deals with getting things done: gathering the information needed to make a decision, to make an arrangement, or to get some administrative chore done. Because it’s Very Small and rather mundane and specific, it doesn’t seem as glamorous and important as Big Data. But it is.
In fact, this is where our economy’s next big productivity breakthrough is going to come from: information logistics – getting exactly the right information to and from the right people at the right time so we can solve problems, make decisions, organise and implement things without wasting time and effort looking for the right data or sifting through and discarding the wrong data.
January 25th 2012
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Kept a “diary” as I wrote my last article. Turned that into a post about what it’s like to write for the web. A clip:
“…at this stage of any writing project the usual feelings of doubt surface. They include, but are not limited to, concern that I have little of relevance or value to say about the subject; that I’ll oversimplify the issues or be simply incorrect about something important and/or technical; that my writing will, in the end, be mediocre and yet still come off as pretentious and condescending; that anyone who reads what I produce this time around will realize that either I have no business writing or they have no business wasting their time reading what I write. I’m am well aware of the neuroses at play here…
For more →
Posted at 9:00am and tagged with: writing,.
January 24th 2012
1 note |#
My latest article for Newfangled is out…
The Truth About Content
I spend a lot of time creating content, talking about content, and creating content about creating content. So much so that the word content is hard for me to even say without feeling a little weird about it. Say any word enough and it begins to lose meaning. Sometimes I feel as if I’m trapped within a slightly-bigger-than-me-sized content bubble, that I’ve lost any objectivity when it comes to what it means to create content and understand how it operates in the world. That may or may not be true. But despite the disorientation that is sometimes at the heart of the content experience, I can see that content has taught me a thing or two…
You can read the rest here →
Posted at 10:00am and tagged with: content-strategy, content, writing,.
January 22nd 2012
8 notes |#
(Source: kschroeder.com)
Posted at 9:06pm and tagged with: quote, aliens,.
January 20th 2012
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So Much Left Unseen…
…in which I ramble about what fully “sensed” design might be like. Or at least the limitations of designing only for a screened environment. A clip:
I heard it said once that given all of the information in the universe and the comparatively tiny bit of it we can see, we human beings might as well be blind. After all, we’re missing out on a ton. But we do experience the world with other senses—not just sight— and with that in mind, it’s fascinating how much emphasis we place on creating experiences that are almost purely visual, isn’t it?
Read the whole thing here >
Posted at 7:24am and tagged with: design,.
January 19th 2012
5 notes |#
I’ve got a short piece over at the HOW Interactive Design community on “why you should consider being a generalist.” Here’s a snippet:
“But while specialization is necessary for businesses, it’s not always necessary for individuals (or even individuals who work for specialized firms). In fact, I believe employing individuals who are generalists can bring immense value to a creative firm. A serious, disciplined generalist will savvily navigate many fields to understand the big picture. They’ll see influencing factors that may come down the road and may otherwise be hidden in the blind spots of your firm’s narrow focus. They are human synthesizers. They see the unseen connections between things and act as the trimtab of your ship—sensing even the subtlest shifts in the current and adjusting your trajectory accordingly. They may not be comfortable with commanding the big, heroic reactions necessary to survive the rogue waves that come up every now and then—but they’ll probably have had a sense that something was up.”
Read the whole thing here >
Posted at 12:37pm and tagged with: design, Business,.
January 17th 2012
2 notes |#
Just posted a little something on “offline thinking” over at the Newfangled blog. This was a bit spontaneous, but if you’re interested in seeing a bunch of pictures of examples of creative brainstorming techniques you can do without a computer, check it out.
Posted at 3:09pm and tagged with: offline-thinking,.
January 11th 2012
29 notes |#
(Source: Boing Boing)
Posted at 8:44pm and tagged with: quote,.
January 10th 2012
3 notes |#
Future Daydream
The February, 2012 issue of PRINT Magazine is out. My column this time is called “Future Daydream,” and is a design-focused critique of how we envision the future and how that impacts our work. Here’s a clip:
…On the list of problems to solve, communication has sat at the top for far too long, and consequently, our countless solutions are what fill screens today. After a decade of focusing primarily upon the social applications of interactive technology, we need to turn our attention to other matters and use our many communication tools to address the interaction problems of 21st-century urbanity: resource management, transportation, energy, and infrastructure. It would be a shame to be remembered as the generation that tweeted while the world crumbled around us…
Read the whole thing here >
Posted at 11:20am and tagged with: design,.
January 4th 2012
9 notes |#
My latest article for Newfangled is out…
Why You’ll Start Paying for Analytics in 2012
Months ago, while planning the topics I’d cover in this newsletter through the conclusion of 2011, I had in mind to write something about search. It had been a while—almost two years at that point—since I last wrote anything about search specifically, though I had covered all sorts of things related to search many times since then, like search engine optimization and measurement. So, as is my habit, I created a text document called “search article” and began adding notes as ideas or reference material came up.
As I reviewed those notes, I realized something. Most of them were really about measurement. That’s when it hit me: Search as a topic is interesting—there’s certainly academic value in exploring how search engines work and how we use them—but for all practical purposes, there’s very little perceptual difference between search and measurement. After all, we’re not that interested in what people are searching for in general; we’re interested in what queries people use when they are searching for the kinds of products and services we offer, and especially in how they get from their search to our websites. In other words, what we’re really looking to understand is the feedback loop that exists between search engines and websites, and the key to doing that is in measurement.
In the past year, however, there has been at least one major change to how Google participates in that feedback loop—one you’ve probably noticed and have urgent questions about. I’m going to get to that. In fact, discussing that single change will be the bulk of this article. But before I get there, let me offer a prediction for the coming year that is, for better or worse, largely the result of decisions Google made in the last few months: 2012 will be the year that many of us start paying for analytics. Whether for specific web analytics applications, API integration, or AdWords, we are going to start discovering that consistent, reliable access to data and analysis is well worth budgeting for.
If you haven’t already come to that conclusion yourself, let me try to convince you…
Read the whole thing here
Posted at 1:02pm and tagged with: measurement, search, web-development,.
