“The A Day in the Life study is a large scale sample of internet behavior. Data collected will be released under an open data license. The first study will commence in mid July… Uzilla.org is the not for profit arm of Uzilla offering web behavior data to the community at large for the improvement of web usability.”

“It’s not that interactivity is a bad idea. It’s just too simplistic to be a useful guide for instructional design. It can even be dangerous.”

“The A Day in the Life study is a large scale sample of internet behavior. Data collected will be released under an open data license. The first study will commence in mid July… Uzilla.org is the not for profit arm of Uzilla offering web behavior data to the community at large for the improvement of web usability.”

“This method is a tool to help you draw the human form. It is by no means the best way or even a fast way. Instead, this method is aimed at thinking and setting up the human form in a three-dimensional space. Classical animation (most notably Disney) uses a similar way of working out their characters.”

“[Alan] Cooper’s view is that the kinds of disasters that have always plagued the industry — most recently, the catastrophic outcomes of many CRM (customer relationship management) systems — are a result neither of poor strategy, nor of poor engineering, but of a failure to properly coordinate the two. The missing piece in his view is product planning and design, done according to a methodology that Cooper has devised and that his company practices.”

“[Alan] Cooper’s view is that the kinds of disasters that have always plagued the industry — most recently, the catastrophic outcomes of many CRM (customer relationship management) systems — are a result neither of poor strategy, nor of poor engineering, but of a failure to properly coordinate the two. The missing piece in his view is product planning and design, done according to a methodology that Cooper has devised and that his company practices.”

“[Craig] Vogel is a professor of design. With Jonathan Cagan, a mechanical-engineering professor at the university, he teaches a course in product development. The two academics research and consult on the subject of new product design for such companies as Ford Motor, Motorola, and Whirlpool. This is what they’ve learned so far: Companies don’t do a very good job of developing new products.”

“A guide to locating events for each day of the year.” Good reference, includes Today’s Date and Time, Astronomical Events, Historical Events and Birthdays, Holidays and Festivals, The Religious Year, Timelines, The History of the Calendar and Clocks and Create a Calendar.

“Pre-ordering is the act of ordering your comics at the same time as they are solicited for comics stores to order, two months or so before publication. Orderingcomics.com provides you with a way to easily pre-order the work we consider the best available. Pre-ordering comics, whether through us or through your local comics store, accomplishes many things. It obtains a firm sale for creators of independent and marginal comics. This is crucial. Most creators, and many companies, cannot go straight to graphic novels…”

“This is my set of shapes for making wireframes in OmniGraffle (Mac OSX). For user flows and such I recommend Jesse James Garret’s IA Stencils (Visio and EPS formats) or the default Flow Chart palette available in OmniGraffle… My stencil exists of a very basic set of shapes including: browser chrome, title blck, form elements, a greeked text block, text headings, some boxes, and label and note blocks.”

“A valid and useful usability test takes time and expertise. Shortcuts and lack of rigorous controls invariably reduce the validity and usefulness of the data generated by the test. Here I offer a description of some of the key ingredients of a good usability test and some examples of poorly designed or run testing.”

“The Alphabet Synthesis Machine is an interactive online artwork which allows one to create and evolve the possible writing systems of one’s own imaginary civilizations. The abstract alphabets produced by the Machine can be downloaded as PC-format TrueType fonts, and are entered into a comprehensive archive of user creations. The products of the Machine probe the liminal territories between familiarity and chaos, language and gesture.”

“Speaking of Powerpoint, I think the common format sucks, but not in the usual way people say it sucks… 1. During a presentation people are either listening to me speak or reading my slide, not both simultaneously, and 2. A deck doesn’t contain enough information to be meaningful on its own after the presentation. So, I’m going to try a format that uses one big image next to a paragraph of text. The text will be at a typeface impossible to read from the audience, wherever that is, so people will be forced to either listen to me or daydream.”

“This is my set of shapes for making wireframes in OmniGraffle (Mac OSX). For user flows and such I recommend Jesse James Garret’s IA Stencils (Visio and EPS formats) or the default Flow Chart palette available in OmniGraffle… My stencil exists of a very basic set of shapes including: browser chrome, title blck, form elements, a greeked text block, text headings, some boxes, and label and note blocks.”

“Speaking of Powerpoint, I think the common format sucks, but not in the usual way people say it sucks… 1. During a presentation people are either listening to me speak or reading my slide, not both simultaneously, and 2. A deck doesn’t contain enough information to be meaningful on its own after the presentation. So, I’m going to try a format that uses one big image next to a paragraph of text. The text will be at a typeface impossible to read from the audience, wherever that is, so people will be forced to either listen to me or daydream.”