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Posted by Richard Ziade on February 24, 2009, 09:12AMBulletin: Social Web Apps Are Turning Us Into Infants
The Guardian reports that Lady Greenfield, Professor of synaptic pharmacology at Oxford and the director of the Royal Institution, is warning that social sites on the Internet are turning us all into a collection of blabbering infants. Some choice quotes:
[S]ocial networking sites "are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance. As a consequence, the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilised, characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity".
Oops. Greenfield goes on to put forward the possibility that there’s a link between all this short attention-span theater and the tripling of prescriptions for attenion-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Oops again.
Another interesting observation:
Social networking sites can provide a "constant reassurance – that you are listened to, recognised, and important".
This facet of it is really interesting to me. Growing up, I never had casual friends, only a few close friends. As we gather buddies, followers and “friends” through social networks, you can’t help but wonder if this key distinction – from a real friend to one that you added to your list on Facebook – will be lost on a new generation (or already is).
Posted by Richard Ziade on February 23, 2009, 03:15PMBias Is Your Friend
A week ago, I said this about the NY Times article skimmer:
Put simply, it’s better than the NY Times front page.
Since then, I made a commitment to replace the NY Times front page with the article skimmer. All that noise would obviously be trumped by this wonderfully elegant and ad-free view. Right?
Wrong.
I’m going back to the NY Times front page. I really hate being wrong, but I think it’s worth exploring why, as a designer, I thought this was better, but as a user, it really wasn’t. I think there are two reasons why I’m going back (maybe more, but I can only think of two):
- The overall structure, however noisy and chaotic, of the existing NY Times front page is forever burned in my mind. This is a painful reality: I’ve gotten comfortable and familiar with something that is less than ideal. For all its faults, I’ve learned my way around the NY Times front page. So designers be wary, the less-than-ideal becomes the ideal for an existing user base over time.
- In the NY Times Article Skimmer, all articles are created equal. You’d think applying a democratic use of grids would help matters. It didn’t for me. I value relative weight as I skim over the front page. When I view the regular NY Times page, I allow myself to get pulled in a few directions depending how the editors or layout people decided to take me. Features, big stories, editorials – they each have a different footprint which actually seems to make life easier.
So there you have it. I was wrong. Completely wrong…at least in my case. I think an over-arching lesson learned here: take off your design lab coat and be a user for a while. It’s not easy to do sometimes, but it goes a long way.
The kneejerk reaction with design is to apply objectively agreed-upon practices devoid of bias. This view is too narrow and probably a bit dangerous. The on-the-ground sentiment and understanding of how things work within the user community says a whole lot. Bias is your friend.
Kindling 1.3 Released
Last week, the All-Star team behind Kindling, our idea management application, released version 1.3. This release has all kinds of great features and tweaks including a leaderboard (where you can track the top participants in Kindling), email digests, volunteering, instance-wide announcements, advanced search and more. The Kindling Blog has all the glorious details.
Congratulations to the Kindling team on this impressive release!
Posted by Richard Ziade on February 20, 2009, 08:58AMTwo Excellent Documentaries On The Financial Crisis
If most of us weren’t interested in global or U.S. economics, we sure are now. The flow of news over the past twelve months or so is pervasive. I’m the first to admit I’m a layman when it comes to this stuff.
If you’re looking to understand things a bit better, there are two documentaries that recently aired that are well worth viewing:
- Frontline (one of my favorite programs) has a riveting hour-by-hour, day-by-day account of meltdown that took down some of the biggest banks on Wall Street. It’s called Inside the Meltdown and it’s as riveting as any episode of 24 (trust me). It is available for viewing online.
- CNBC’s House Of Cards (not available online) provides the back story of the past five years and how everyone in the U.S. real estate market collectively lost their minds.
Who needs the Bourne series when real life is as exciting as this?
Posted by Richard Ziade on February 18, 2009, 02:43PMPaint Your Logo Everywhere With Livesurface
Livesurface is an image library that allows you to drop your brand or logo into realistic looking photos. With a little help from Photoshop’s fancy perspective tools, you can do some pretty fancy things.
Posted by Richard Ziade on February 16, 2009, 08:43AMNY Times Article Skimmer : Better Than The Real Thing
Man if there ever were an argument for “less is more” the NY Times Article Skimmer is a score for “less”:
Put simply, it’s better than the NY Times front page because:
- It loads really fast.
- It compartmentalizes information so I don’t see the 560 links and blurbs all at once, and of course…
- It has no ads.
The last point is obviously a sore spot for newspapers online these days. Most are really struggling to figure out how to stay viable as the world goes electronic. I think this prototype is a lesson learned: keep things neat and orderly and don’t turn your web presence into the Magical Mystery Tour.
If that commitment is made, I think newspapers will be pleasantly surprised. In my opinion, people would pay for this peace and quiet. Also, if you tastefully dropped an ad (one single ad instead of eleven plus Google Adwords) few people would mind.
Posted by Richard Ziade on February 12, 2009, 09:41AMWhat $800 Billion Looks Like From 10,000 Feet
I’m bad at visualizing numbers, especially 800 billion numbers. This helps. Click to view it in all its glory:
Strip Generator
Strip Generator is a charming Flash app that lets you create comic strips by simply dragging and dropping elements onto a row of comic cells. Fun and the artwork has a great style to it. The site also catalogs strips created by others.
Swiss Miss Redesigns
Swiss Miss, Tina Roth Eisenberg’s consistently excellent design blog, recently launched a redesign. It’s a nice upgrade. Of course, I would’ve never noticed it because I pretty much live inside my feed reader.
The grid view works beautifully with a site like Tina’s:
WhatTheFont Released For The Iphone
“Ever seen a great font in a magazine ad, poster, or on the web and wondered what font it is? Whip out your iPhone and snap a photo, and WhatTheFont for iPhone will identify that font in seconds!” Pretty damn cool!
America’s Creation : Lessons In Collaboration
Our very own Tim Meaney has a brilliant post that talks about the power of collaboration and draws from the dialog and heated debates that ultimately shaped the U.S. government. It’s not only inspiring but sheds light on how great things can collectively come out of a mish-mash of motives, agendas and personalities. Don’t miss it.
Posted by Richard Ziade on February 2, 2009, 11:43AMArc90 NY Tech Get-Together (Keywords: Beer, Beers)
As I surf around my usual tech destinations, I’m always hearing about this event and that Foo camp happening in Northern California. Well, as residents of New York City (the greatest frickin’ city on this here earth), Arc90 has decided, in a fit of jealousy and latent envy, to have our very own networking get-together.
There will be beer and there will be something to eat with the beer. If you’re in the NY technology and design community (or, umm, want to be in) well then RSVP and join us. It should be a lot of fun.
It’s on the evening of February 12. You’ll find all the info here. See you there!