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Friday, July 6, 2001

OPENING THANG

What's the difference between D&D, storyfuck and Fray?

Captain Cursor is talking about reawakening his youthful passion for D&D, which got me thinking about collaborative storytelling, which got me thinking

Posted by christina on Friday, 07/06/01 03:44 PM CST

DESIGN MATTERS

Typographic Voices (via xblog.com)

"Perhaps because of the emphasis on images in design, more and more
designers are returning to typography as a means to make their work stand
out.

Hypermedia Design Patterns Repository
"HPR is an initiative of ACM-SIGWEB in collaboration with the University of Italian Switzerland.
Its goal is to allow a larger community to reuse design experience gathered by other designers of hypermedia and Web applications and systems, by providing useful Design Patterns."

Visualizing Information (Examples)
"We live in a datastorm, amid dense flurries of information. Hence the great challenge of contemporary information design: to create displays capable of presenting highly complicated data in precise, functional, relatively easy-to-use, and aesthetically pleasing forms."

Noel's looking for Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design, by Paul Mijksenaar.

Posted by christina on Friday, 07/06/01 03:43 PM CST

BUSINESS MATTERS

The Case for Micropayments
Jakob's first promoted micropayments in '98.

Will P2P finally make them happen? Clay Shirky doesn't think so.

The Case Against Micropayments
"Micropayment systems have not failed because of poor implementation; they have failed because they are a bad idea. Furthermore, since their weakness is systemic, they will continue to fail in the future."

and Scott McCloud thinks they will

What do you think?

Posted by christina on Friday, 07/06/01 03:42 PM CST

APROPOS OF NOTHING

have you seen jeff @ the house week? Gabe explains why his rear is worth 700 dollars. Visit before mindnight sunday, when the new movie goes up...

Posted by christina on Friday, 07/06/01 03:40 PM CST

Tuesday, July 3, 2001

OPENING THANG

At twilight, I could hear someone practicing a trombone. They occasionally managed a melody, but mostly just it was just poot-poot-poot. It's not like hearing a lonely saxophone waft across the city, but it's kind of pleasant.
At 10 last night there were fireworks going off in the neighborhood. This morning the garbage truck woke me. The garbage guys are actually pretty quiet-- the move to plastic cans has changed their noise level. But the truck has a distinctive rumble, and anyway I might as well get up and slide you all a glean before the holiday. I still love this city, despite the occasional disturbing event
... there is a strange comfort in being surrounded by familiar people you don't know.
Poet George Oppen wrote of the shipwreck of the singular, about the pleasure of being numerous, being part of a city. He lived in San Francisco, and this is the only book of his that is available in print; but it holds his complete works and it is amazing. I highly recommend it.

strangely enough none of his poems are online. that I can find, anyhow...

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Posted by christina on Tuesday, 07/03/01 07:53 AM CST

DESIGN MATTERS

I think that's the best looking useless splash page I've seen in a long time.

matt jones analyzes the sapient redesign

Posted by christina on Tuesday, 07/03/01 07:52 AM CST

USABILITY MEETS MARKETING

Somebody is confusing branding with marketing. Not the same kids!
"Good Grips kitchen tools grew out of one man's desire to build a better potato peeler for his arthritic wife. It has become one of the great marketing stories of the last decade, garnering a huge market share. Software designers can take from it two lessons: Good designs for the disabled can also benefit the normally-abled, and effective product design must come before "branding.""

We're defining brand over on EH. Come join in!

Posted by christina on Tuesday, 07/03/01 07:51 AM CST

IA MATTERS

So You Want To Be An Interaction Designer shhh.. don't tell them!

at least I think it's IAish...
Functional Spec Tutorial What and Why

Lou is heading cross country. Okay, this is only tangentially IA, but Lou is a good writer. The polar bear didn't suck...

Posted by christina on Tuesday, 07/03/01 07:50 AM CST

USABILITY MATTERS

Cooper takes on the web's Bermuda triangle--- the shopping cart
Beating the Checkout Blues

Internet Magazine: The future's bright! (via tomalak.org : : not dead after all!)
"Q&A with Jakob Nielsen. Ultimately, we all need to take our own fate in our own hands and demand usability. Refuse to use Web sites that are complex or that pop up too many annoying ads. Only buy consumer electronics products that have been reviewed as being easy to use."

Posted by christina on Tuesday, 07/03/01 07:49 AM CST

APROPOS OF NOTHING

I don't even care what this is about, I just want to chant "techno-jihad" over and over again.
"Newsweek: Men In Gray.
On its face, the e-Japan initiative makes perfect sense, once you get past the basic contradiction of a top-down initiative designed to create a bottom-up revolution. Unlike previous misguided governmental techno-jihads this seems to embrace seemingly foolproof ideas..."

0sil8.pocket
who is this lonely? who is this playful...

Serious Germans who have tried signing up for courses and formed clubs to try to discover the meaning of humor are now being offered laughter holidays. (via littlegreenfootballs.com)

When it comes to food, music, and more, which do you prefer: ubiquity or authenticity?

My dad taught me how to make jam. it's easy-- I've done it this way dozens of times and it always works great. Get a bunch of fruit, such as plums or peaches or cherries or strawberries or whatever. wash it and remove inedible bits. put in a large saucepan (preferably non-stick) and add an equal amount of sugar. yes, that's a lot. if the fruit is very sweet, you could add less. turn the heat on as low as possible and ignore it for a couple hours, just swinging by every half hour or so to stir and see if it's jam yet. it really works. The skins provide natural pectin, and it thickens as it cools so don't worry if it seems a bit thin when the fruit is mushed. You don't even really need special jars, unless you plan to keep your jam forever. I use cleaned left-over pasta and mustard jars. You will have to keep it in the fridge, though, if you don't have the fancy jar.

Happy Fourth, Americans! Happy wednesday, all you .de and .es and .uk.'s!!!!

Posted by christina on Tuesday, 07/03/01 07:48 AM CST

Sunday, July 1, 2001

OPENING THANG

originally sent Tuesday june 26th, archived today

Ever wake up and think: "what would my 16 year old self think of my current life?"

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:27 AM CST

IA MATTERS

great presentation on the use of walls in the creative process. mark Rettig manages to marry the theoretical with the pragmatic as only he can do. My favorite part is when he explains how to keep whiteboards white -- move over Heloise!

The heart of IA is in planning a site.

Meanwhile the conversation on defining IA ranges on, both on my site and off
(scroll down to Wednesday the 20th)

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:26 AM CST

DESIGN MATTERS

Digiweb magazine this month is all about the importance of simplicity in design

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:25 AM CST

USABILITY MATTERS

Steve Krug interviewed on webword, and he is charming and interesting as ever

Good conversation happening on my site about the useit.com usability analysis

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:24 AM CST

APROPOS OF NOTHING

Socks and shorts: don't do it

delights me, in the way only small things can.

my sis wrote an amazing post on fear of cancer. very human.

"Intercourse is far too dangerous for the layman to participate in. We all enjoy a visit to the circus, but that doesn't mean we should get into the cage with the tiger! Like skydiving or high-wire walking, sex is something best left for trained performers - professionals who have honed and surgically altered their bodies for use in the pornographic arts."

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:23 AM CST

OPENING THANG

send on friday June 22, but archives as you see

as I enter my second hour of being on hold with various people in search of
a min-usb cable for my MP3 player, I think I'll throw out some quickly
links...

I went completely bloggy last night, and there is a bunch of stuff up there,
from IA definitions to links to thoughts.

and some tasty links and tales from Noel on the carbonlog

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:22 AM CST

IA MATTERS

Elements of Experience Design
"a compilation of excerpts from Nathan Shedroff's Experience Design."

How It Works: Online Maps for Here, There and Everywhere
be sure to click the "multimedia" show for how it works. I love this series,
but I love info design and explanations in general.

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:20 AM CST

DESIGN MATTERS

Color Systems at the color museum (via christung.com)

Sapient's got a lovely new redesign for their site

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:20 AM CST

USABILITY MATTERS

Usability Analysis of UseIt.com

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:19 AM CST

MARKETING MATTERS

While I was away in France, pop-unders took over the web.

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:18 AM CST

APROPOS OF NOTHING

Tom Cruise Is Not Gay
Unless he is. But he's not. Probably.

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Posted by christina on Sunday, 07/01/01 08:17 AM CST