“This website attempts to walk you through the long and diverse history of a particular aspect of human endeavour: The translation of ideas, stories and concepts that are largely textual and/or word based into a visual format, i.e. visual communication.”
Stranded at the airport? Don’t forget Rule 240
“A few years ago, at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, I noticed something strange on the departure boards. American Airlines had three flights scheduled that afternoon from ORD to Boston, and all were apparently operating on time. United, on the other hand, had three flights scheduled from ORD to Boston, but none were operating on time. In fact, all three United flights showed ‘canceled.’
I smelled a rat. I went to the United counter and asked the reason for the cancellations. ‘Weather.’”
MIT sketching
Crazy dynamic whiteboard software and hardware. Watch through to the end — it’s not just about drawing.
Interface design and the iPhone
Edward Tufte: “The iPhone platform elegantly solves the design problem of small screens by greatly intensifying the information resolution of each displayed page. Small screens, as on traditional cell phones, show very little information per screen, which in turn leads to deep hierarchies of stacked-up thin information–too often leaving users with ‘Where am I?’ puzzles. Better to have users looking over material adjacent in space rather than stacked in time.
To do so requires increasing the information resolution of the screen by the hardware (higher resolution screens) and by screen design (eliminating screen-hogging computer administrative debris, and distributing information adjacent in space).
This video shows some of the resolution-enhancing methods of the iPhone, along with a few places for improvements in resolution.”
Layer Tennis season finale
This is not just “one to watch,” it’s two to watch! Awesome.
“An end of the season Layer Tennis Playoff Fiasco! Two matches at once! Anything can happen. Chris Glass vs Shaun Inman with commentary by John Gruber plus at the very same time Jason Koxvold vs James Hutchinson with commentary by the Dean of Layer-By-Layer Commentary, Rosecrans Baldwin. Coin flips coming. We’re declaring tomorrow a holiday. In-office drinking commences if and when one of the matches reaches Layer 7.”
It’s Time to Picture a New Web
“The adage that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ is truer than ever on the Internet”
Rap Lyrics Explained With Charts and Graphs
“Absolute genious. Compiled from the phishook forums. Let’s see how many you can figure out.”
My personal war against Crackberry
“In this age of wireless Internet and mobile email devices, having an effective meeting or working session is becoming more and more difficult. Laptops, Blackberries, Sidekicks, iphones, and the like keep people from being fully present. Aside from just being rude, partial attention generally leads to partial results. Multi-tasking is a myth (and there are lots of other articles corroborating Merlin’s points). This is especially damaging in highly collaborative and interdisciplinary fields like UX. Here at the office, we’ve begun to make most of our meetings ‘topless’ (i.e. no laptops allowed). I’ve gone a step further by trying to ban any form of networked communication from the working meetings I put together. While my colleagues here at Adaptive Path have been tolerant of my eccentricities, it’s not so easy when working with clients whose companies have a culture of being always connected and checking. So, I thought I’d share a few tips I’ve picked up for getting people to put down their Crackberries and actually do some work.”
Customer Service is the New Marketing
“A one day summit in San Francisco, February 4, 2008. Learn how smart organizations are turning customer service from just a cost center into an engine for building culture and creating evangelists. This conference brings together innovative business leaders from several industries to share tips and suggestions about how they got their own organizations to do customer service differently. Confirmed speakers include Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos; Alex Frankel, author of ‘Punching In’; Michael Murphy, head of customer service for Virgin; Robert Stephens, founder of The Geek Squad; and many more…”
SVA MFA IN DESIGN CRITICISM OPENS FALL 2008
“The new MFA in Design Criticism at the School of Visual Arts is now accepting applications for Fall 2008. This innovative two-year program trains students to research, analyze, and evaluate design and its social and environmental implications. Study with some of the best design writers and thinkers of our time, including: ‘Studio 360′ host and author Kurt Andersen; MoMA’s design curator Paola Antonelli; Pentagram partner and co-founder of Design Observer, Michael Bierut; former editor of I.D. Magazine Ralph Caplan; Metropolis contributing editor Karrie Jacobs; and architecture critic Philip Nobel.”
