Try to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.
Avoid stupidity
17 Oct 2012
Tsilli Pines says "The best solutions come from people who are motivated by their passions"
11 Oct 2012
It’s Day 3 of Design Week Portland, and I’ve managed to successfully interrupt one of the organizers of the event, Tsilli Pines, at an extremely busy time. Tsilli was gracious enough to answer all 9 of my questions – I told her it’d only be 2 or 3 – about design, Portland, and zombies, via email.
Fun interactive web-based visual toy
10 Oct 2012
It is the first ever Design Week Portland and I stopped by Fullscreen PM last night, a “casual creative show and tell meet up” and one of the multitude of nifty DWP events. There were a bunch of cool projects that artists, designers, and developers showed off, but I particularly liked Kaleidoscope, made by the folks at Instrument. It’s a beautiful javascript-based physics toy with which you can generate revolving clouds of customizable particles and then split it all apart into a lovely fracturing kaleidoscope. Hypnotic on large screens, engaging and interactive on handheld devices, Kaleidoscope is definitely worth exploring.
How to Design a Company Picnic T-shirt
9 Oct 2012
Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated our 2012 summer picnic at lovely Irving Park. Now, as the mercury drops and the giraffe-fur coats come out of their cardboard boxes with puffs of toxic mothball dust, we ease into our creaking rocking chairs, reflections of the waning summer dancing in our minds like so many whistling embers leaping from the nearby hearth. “Why didn’t I go to the river more often, goddammit?” we contemplate; or, “I squandered this whole summer sitting at my desk, eating cookies, listening to the sound of my muscles atrophying, and now it’s dark when I wake up and where did I put my raincoat?” Oh, tut-tut, you silly goose! It’s only October- the weather’s still gorgeous and the leaves in your backyard make such a delightful crunching sound.
On Rephrasing Problems
3 Oct 2012
Phrasing your problem as a question immediately gets your mind working on solutions rather than on the pragmatics associated with the project. For example, “Find new markets for XYZ” can easily be rephrased as “How can we expose more potential customers to XYZ?”
Rephrasing problems into questions (that have a clear objective) can have a drastic impact on the conversation we're having.
Where are all the women?
1 Oct 2012
“I have a four-year-old daughter and I want her to think that anything is possible, that no career in out of bounds,” she says. “If any other comparable industry had a female workforce of only 17% there would be an outcry.”
Enjoyed this article... but got a chuckle from, ""Developers tend to be good, straightforward sorts with a refreshing lack of ego, who genuinely enjoy collaborating."
Portland the best city in the country (for developers)?
25 Sep 2012
The folks over at "appfog":http://appfog.com/ have put together an extensive argument for why Portland could be the best city in the United States for developers.... and covered a lot of compelling things related to the local developer ecosystem.
Having said that... they missed everything around Portland that makes me stay in the area. All the hiking within "60 miles of Portland":http://www.amazon.com/60-Hikes-Within-Miles-Including/dp/0897329759 (there are even several trails within the city limits!), all of the rivers for kayaking, windsurfing, the snow resorts, all of the camping and backpacking that we can explore... etc.
Outside of getting immersed into your craft, it's nice to get out of the city to ponder those technical challenges while on a hike.
APIs explained via the shipping industry
24 Sep 2012
Containerization from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.
APIs explained.
Now _THIS_ is a job posting.
18 Sep 2012
What a novel idea: Put a ton of effort and creativity into the task of advertising an open position, and I guarantee that the caliber of the applicants will be higher. And man that penguin is cute.
Is designing the user experience the best approach?
14 Sep 2012
I’ve been fascinated by some recent blog articles (like the The Best Interface is No Interface) that force you to step back and think about what you’re really doing. What are you really designing? And why?
This article in UX Magazine takes a look a the impact of designing for the experience vs. designing a memory.