Knowing the science behind something beautiful doesn’t rob it of enchantment but “only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe”.
Saved links
A saved link is not an endorsement. It's just a thing I read or thought about reading.
@apenwarr @CAldenJacobs Stafford Beer's 1973 Massey lectures are free here: lucid explanation and a few a-ha moments.
Report: Majority Of Psychological Experiments Conducted In 1970s Just Crimes
From Mollie Ennis: I have a professor who has done a lot of work with non-western font development, I think their mission would really interest him and he might have something to offer? He's done some work with Arabic... mostly African dialects, but might have some insight!
@skullface @Shopify does!
@skullface @Shopify does!
are there any other content style guides (as part of a design system) that talk about alt text specifically? i think @shopify polaris is the first i’ve seen:
“What are you in for?” “For writing, sir.” “It says here ‘gross violation of decency.’ That means you raped or assaulted someone.” “No, sir. It was gross violation of public decency.” “Not a woman?” "No, sir. Just the public.”
I really enjoyed @craigmod’s reflections on crowdfunding his work: One favorite detail comports with my experience: not feeling “beholden” to members, but that they “formalize” my activities—a sense of seriousness and earnest responsibility.
Source: notes on the wonderful Finding Our Way podcast
We're officially 100% employee-owned! 🙌 Creating a culture of ownership has been a focus for years, and now it's become reality. Find out more:
Also liking @tom_d_kerwin's graph on design research effectiveness. In my experience most companies get stuck on the left had side of the curve. Those that escape almost always swing quickly to the right. Few spend any meaningful time in the sweet spot.
Lecture #2 from the @si658 IA class I teach @umich @umsi
Very long USB-C
“I think design at its best is when it's generous, when it goes beyond just the normal constraints of design to really help people. That's what drives me in my career.” Design Matters at 16—Mike Rigby:
This is from a fascinating conversation between her and @tferriss about writing, revising, and the importance of reading.
In Windows High Contrast Mode, Firefox 85 and Edge 88 add a backplate to text over images. IE11 dumps background images. All three dump background colors. You can override the behavior in IE11 and Edge, but might get contrast issues.
“People say the COVID disaster in America has been about a denial of science. But what we couldn’t agree on is the social compact we would need to make painful choices together in unity, for the collective good.”
“WebMD is the Internet's most important source of medical information. It's also surprisingly useless. Its most famous problem is that whatever your symptoms, it'll tell you that you have cancer. But the closer you look, the more problems you notice.”
“You will know them by their fruit but the orchard is innocent, had no prior knowledge and is really indicative of nothing” - Jesus
If you read one thing this year, make it this. #cybernetics #marketing #design #strategy #ux #contentstrategy #strategyops #operations #ops #personalization #leadership #management #conversations #CRO #hashtags
"In the case of disinformation, critical thinking can do real harm" wrote @holden in a brilliant Edsurge post. Why? "Because the goal of disinformation is to capture attention and critical thinking is deep attention."
"I firmly believe systems cannot be designed. At least not in the classic sense of the word we use at every other level below it." @corneliux
Headless is a growing t̶e̶c̶h̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶c̶k̶ buzzword in ecommerce -- is it really the answer to all your problems? I like how @kvlly approached the topic in our stream last week
Accessibility auditing and ego” ‟Accessibility auditing and pushing for more” A set of posts on overreach and understanding WCAG’s role.
Accessibility auditing and ego” ‟Accessibility auditing and pushing for more” A set of posts on overreach and understanding WCAG’s role.
Good morning, goodnight.
Shopify’s platform has seen $120B in sales compared to Amazon marketplace at $275B. This goes to show competition in tech is about new ways to solve customer needs versus building a better mousetrap. Shopify empowers everyone else to compete with Amazon
Regardless of what accessibility conformance level you target, do not arbitrarily open links in a new window or tab. If you are required to do so anyway, inform users in text. Real text, not via icons, not with ARIA.
This video explains the different areas and ideas in complexity theory
A good post by @adactio. I definitely consider myself to be a design engineer—especially these days. Sure I can write JS, but I’m happy designing and more frequently, I do nearly all of that in the browser instead of static tools like Sketch
@hpdailyrant There’s a whole area of Promise Theory @jeffsussna showed me a way he’s using that to help teams map their promises to users and to one another
@tom_d_kerwin @hpdailyrant Specifically
It’s common for today’s TVs to report back every *second* on what you’re watching. Imagine if your computer monitor did that.
@kisielk @SwiftOnSecurity As always when someone snatches failure from the hands of certain success, keep this one in mind. It is my mantra:
Holy moly, this is a incredible resource from @css to answer “How do I get started in web design”
Gonna talk friction, harm, UX anti-patterns & responsibility at 7pm EST on Clubhouse. Even if it's just me rage responding to so many *bad* conversations about this on your silly app.
Design tokens — What are they & how will they help you? Nice overview by @lukasoppermann:
Cancel Culture. BigConsultancy for Opioids edition.
My all time favourite CSS addition that’s come around in the last decade is by *far*, flexbox, but a close second is custom properties. Check out this tutorial I wrote a while ago now: They’re v good for inclusive design.
“The first carbon-negative knitwear on earth.”
“We normally avoid frustrated people” the author explains. However “when we’re frustrated, we reject the status quo, question the way things have always been done, and search for new and improved methods.”
I'm so excited to share the news: I'll be on the virtual stage at Confab 2021 alongside my awesome buddies @KarenMcGrane Jeff @Eaton @ahaval and many more awesome speakers! #ContentStrategy #ContentDesign
One thing I can’t help but notice is how efficiently I get through Twitter after abstracting it to Feedbin. I’m usually done and dusted with the latest tweets in 10 minutes. The Feedbin setup gives me back the control too. Tweets no longer feel like the…
Big blogging opinions on a lazy Sunday: the biggest problem with the web is that we're renting servers and URLs
New essay on looking closely at the world — How the (literal) stillness of the pandemic changed my relationship to pretty much everything, and how I hope to carry that out the other side:
[Google] is moving their tracking from third-party cookies that they process through the cloud to tracking that’s done in Chrome.
long live RSS
“Process changes first. Team structures change next. Vocabulary gets adopted. The org chart shifts this way & that way. By the time teams get down to the day-to-day work, one thing hasn’t changed — how they get measured, rewarded & incentivized”
In honor of International Women's Day, a quote about how glue work is systems design work:
"Operation Hidden Treasure". Coming to an audit near you, courtesy of the IRS. (There goes the principal attraction of Bitcoin.)