Blog – page 47 of 75

As James Joyce said, “In the particular lies the universal.” (via Op-Ed: In The Particular Lies The Universal :: Articles :: The 99 Percent)

A good graphic designer understands how to arrange information on the page so the reader can ask and answer questions, make comparisons, and draw conclusions. When the software designer defines the visual representation of her program, when she describes the pictures that the user will interpret, she is doing graphic design, whether she realizes this or not.

— Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface

It is better than “thinking about.” It is better than “started.” It is better than “perfect.”

“Done is better than perfect,” but that doesn’t mean that to never look back at what you did. Finish something and push it out the door, show it to the world.

Tab Juice, a social e-commerce platform, has an interesting infographic on some of the psychological influences that go on in the minds of online shoppers.

When you combine the power of the mind and the force of social shopping, you have a mighty confabulation of social rules and subconscious needs. Together, these things play into the psychology of social commerce. Psychologists have defined six universal heuristics or learning methods that have been seen in shoppers and are now being seen in social commerce.

Branding is easier than it appears (via xkcd: Brand Identity)

Don’t use math. (via Dilbert comic strip for 12/19/2011 from the official Dilbert comic strips archive.)

Rands has a handy flow chart for solving your own or other people’s computer problems.

You can also download a larger version.

A priority is observed, not manufactured or assigned. Otherwise, it’s necessarily not a priority. Got that? You can’t “prioritize” a list of 20 tasks any more than you can “uniqueify” 20 objects by “uniqueness,” or “pregnantitze” 20 women by “pregnantness.” Each of those words means something. An item is either unique or it is not. A woman is either pregnant or she is not. An item is either the priority or it is not. One-bit. Mutually exclusive. One ring to rule them all.

Left brain / Right brain

(via Ads of the World)

Alan Taylor published the winners of the 2011 National Geographic Photo Contest

A torrential monsoon rain in Bhaktapur, Nepal. (© Anuar Patjane)

The Institute for the Future has an exploration of ideas for what they see as the future of science.

Invisibility cloaks. Space hacking. Quantum consciousness. Opensource biology. Empowered with new tools, processes, and skills, scientists will gain new insight into the mysteries surrounding our brains, biology, and the strange matter that makes up our reality. We will develop powerful new instruments for gazing at the farthest reaches of space and descending into the deepest oceans, further illuminating our place in the universe.

Yes, this water based jet pack does let you swim like a dolphin.

via Kottke

David Allen, author of the often cited book Getting Things Done, broke down his system into very simple sections to make it easier to adopt.

He said the key points to GTD are to:

I have not read Getting Things Done yet, but I come across so many of its quotes, maxims, and applications on the web that I expect reading it would feel more like a review session than getting something for the first time.

In a world of surfers, all you can do is work to make the best wave you can. The real revolution is that you get to make waves, not just ride them.

— Seth’s Blog: The extraordinary revolution of media choice

Organizations and individuals face a new field on which to compete. Planning the social aspects of business is now a critical factor for success.

via slideshare

msg:

arig:

Threats–like hurricanes and rectal exams–are only scary until they arrive. Once they’re over, they’re just the basis for funny stories. But, you do nearly always survive them. And, if you didn’t survive? It wasn’t because of a lack of fear. Like I say, the universe doesn’t particularly care whether you’re scared.

These three areas — the domain, the eye/brain, and the implementation — intertwine with each other. A single element may have conflicts in one area or all three at the same time. Much of the work designing interfaces involves teasing apart these conflicts in order to solve the right problem. Is the action correct, but it’s too hard to find? That’s a conflict with the eye/brain. Is the screen clear and simple but it doesn’t show the right information? That’s a conflict with the domain. Does it take too long to get feedback from a common action? That might be an implementation problem.

— Identifying conflicts in a UI design - (Ryan Singer)

Quick 50 Writing Tools [PDF]