Emerging role in design orgs: The Super Senior Individual Contributor (Principal Designer, Design Architect)
@joelanman For the digital justice map we specifically avoided any journey paths. Just showed that there are lots of activities. That are going on in different clusters. With different people involved.
@pontifexmaximu5 @joelanman this and all the linked subchannels is everything I’ve collected:
I got tired of setting up grid systems for interface concepting, so I made a starter template with cross-device 8-point grids and 16-column layouts. There’s also a printable version with a dot grid. Hope it can be useful to you for sketching/wireframing:
Native CSS Masonry layout in just one extra line of code? Yes, please. Here it is working with CSS Grid in @FirefoxNightly More in by @rachelandrew
Apple makes a big, sexy landing page highlighting the #a11y features built into its products. Not unexpectedly, the big sexy landing page has WCAG A and AA level #a11y conformance errors, making it less than completely accessible. (1/2)
Just a really great piece from @sariazout on the coming era of community knowledge networks:
Friday night, getting things done: if you're a supporter of @Kawaakibi on @Patreon, then we now have perks, including regular AMAs + membership of our @discord server. Not a member already? You can be in 30 seconds:
If you're wondering what Google was so terrified of @timnitGebru publishing, I got a copy of the paper. Here's my best summary of what it says. Thank you to @emilymbender who coauthored the work for sending it my way.
#WarmData A brief piece on Warm Data. "The way that sense is made is not explicit. The way that sensemaking is often communicated is. This may very well prove to be the most significant obstacle in the current explosion of sensemaking attempts."
Pro tip: install “Toggle JavaScript”. I reckon it’s my most used extension, not just for progressive enhancement stuff, but for also making news sites actually readable:
Apple introduces AirPods Max. Active everything, $550. (Will be interesting to see where these fit in around quality stakes - Apple has never really tried to go high-end there)
"Platforms are the new public space, and subscriptions are the tax we pay to occupy it. This is almost enough to make one nostalgic for transactionality." Lots of great thoughts in this @_reallifemag piece on subscription/loyalty programs by @kneelingbus
The news that Nielsen is making an effort to improve their abysmal data quality to guide ad spend for offline & online channels hits like Fyre Festival for ad tech. They'll need to move mountains to create a tiny fraction of the value they're hinting at.
“We humans think we’re very smart. We know how to build bridges and microprocessors. So what? Do you know how to build a rainforest? An ocean? I didn’t think so. Nobody does. We are destroying things far, far beyond our capacity to create.”
Winter is coming. Kicking back off digital coffees to drag my extroverted self through it. Let's hang out?
Beyond excited – and nervous – to share a veeeery early sneak peek of what I've been working on 👀🐇 🕳 Meet:
This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while.
We’ve all been there. A client or coworker shows us this amazing thing they (and maybe their entire team) have worked on for hours or weeks. They are so proud of it. It’s new or maybe it just looks new. They may or may not ask you what you think—but you’re there to experience it. And your brain quietly screams.
the new version of Mapbox GL JS will be proprietary
I made some updates to my #accessiBe post (additions, no re-writes). The second: Even #accessiBe’s Latest Release is Inaccessible Look at that contrast! Look at those flags (you can only look as they have no alt attributes)! h/t @karlgroves
Another great news publication shuts its doors. This cuts deep.
Some @MiroHQ activities I have been doing lately Link to board: I'll try to schedule another walkthrough if folks are interested.
@feather I read through WCAG and wrote out design criteria in my own words so it made sense to me as a designer. Might be helpful to others!
A Utility Class for Covering Elements, also with CSS Grid. By @MicheBarks.
Human-centered UX practices don't do nearly enough to address trauma, power dynamics, and self-care. In the latest Finding Our Way, @jjg and I get schooled by @vcastillo630 on these subjects and much more. Apple: Website:
Human-centered UX practices don't do nearly enough to address trauma, power dynamics, and self-care. In the latest Finding Our Way, @jjg and I get schooled by @vcastillo630 on these subjects and much more. Apple: Website:
The HTML Design Principles “Priority of Constituencies” section states: “In case of conflict, consider users over authors over implementors over specifiers over theoretical purity.” 8/20
Nice article on DesignOps from @alisonrand
i think "get your work recognized: write a brag document" is one of the most important blog posts I've written. Building a culture where people encourage each other to track & celebrate their accomplishments is really powerful.
@cydharrell @gregpak death to bullshit
Excited to announce that WeCommerce will begin trading on the TSXV under the symbol WE on Monday at 9:30AM EST. 🚀🚀🚀
Wow. I’m going to do a little thread on the many levels of awful here. Alt: “get a coronavirus test” page using Google’s reCAPTCHA asking for the site visitor to identify “crosswalks“.
spent the day daydreaming about building a tiny house by a lake and trying to come up with reasons why not to
“Google Fonts resources will be redownloaded for every website, regardless it being cached on the CDN. Self-host your fonts for better performance. The old performance argument is not valid anymore.” 👍🏻 Learned this a long time ago from @zachleat ’s work
This got buried earlier this year (story came out just as Covid was breaking in the West), but the invisible ways our digital behaviors contribute to climate change is one of the most important (and increasingly-relevant) issues of this decade - (1/2)
Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want - by Nicholas Epley
This is unfortunate. I use the @goodreads API to publish my reading list on my personal website. I will likely abandon Goodreads over this, unfortunately.
It probably isn't the case, but I can't help but think of this XKCD at times like these.
Really enjoyed these slides on reframing digital marketing by @willak. H/t @tomcritchlow for the share:
Great post by @nJim talking about the connection between the content models that drive a site, and the tailored editorial affordances that can make those models easier to manage!
Years back, @webmeadow built this gloriously explainable CKEditor toolbar for one of our clients () — it let them build longform case studies w/embedded structured modules, with the same conventions they'd use to insert images or links.
Ran this webinar last week and I thought it was decent ... more examples than usual. Available on demand. Framing outcome-driven product bets link:
iPhone 12 Pro Camera Review: Glacier Each year I look forward to Austin Mann's iPhone camera review to see where he went (Glacier National Park, MT). This year is no exception.
The poor, where the e-waste is dumped, suffer unquantifiable and sometimes irreparable damage. Many materials used in mobile devices have carcinogenic properties when mishandled, and in some instances complications like mercury poisoning can arise.
* In 2023, the cost of ad fraud will balloon to $100 million per day. * About 18% of all ad impressions are never viewed by real people
Fairness research in ML remains largely rooted in Western concerns: the injustices, datasets, measurement scales, & legal tenets used. These infrastructures, values, & legal systems cannot be naively generalized to non-Western countries -- @autopoietic
That whole 7 +/- 2 argument for navigation, items in a list, menus, etc., is bunk. Original research paper: Miller talks about abstract concepts (linguistics, chunking) not visible item counts. Anyway, debunking resources: 🔖
That whole 7 +/- 2 argument for navigation, items in a list, menus, etc., is bunk. Original research paper: Miller talks about abstract concepts (linguistics, chunking) not visible item counts. Anyway, debunking resources: 🔖
@blankenship @ChappellTracker Several years ago, I riffed a bit on a new app icon for them with @craigmod, and we were deeply passionate about making this magical Earth bambino the app icon. They didn’t agree, unfortunately.
Have you seen good examples on (native) mobile planning/spec docs? I'm putting together a template along the lines of ones I've used/seen used when doing RFCs (). If there are existing (public) examples, I'd love to point to them.
Make your content accesible by writing meaningful image descriptions, or alt text, with this great in-depth article from @access_guide_ 👉
The most difficult thing for a design executive to accept... ...is that they must be an executive, a business leader, first, and a design leader second.
Powerful feminist voices have been denying trans women’s experiences or painting them as menaces. But we should remember that violence against vulnerable people starts by labelling them as a threat.
More anti cookie banner momentum: Cookie banners are awful. Using inessential cookies is more awful. Cookie banners aren't even necessary or legally required (even in the EU, unless you're using creepy cookies and violating member state regulations).
According to the Quran, ritual prayer - salah - is supposed to "prevent immorality and wrongdoing" - إِن الصلاة تنهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر. But that's only if you're doing it right - most of us aren't, and are in denial that it's not working.
What’s neat is when your page is deleted from Wikipedia they talk about why you’re not worthy, I almost like this better
On this day in 1990, the day the world's first website and server went live at @CERN.
Glasses. Needs more research.
On privacy: "When a company does the right thing for its users, EFF will stand with it, just as we will come down hard on companies that do the wrong thing. Here, Apple is right and Facebook is wrong." (Yeah, but what about those small businesses?!)
This post by @colly is 💯. Comparing personal sites to tending a garden is spot on. Even though I'm on holiday for Christmas break, I'm looking forward to spending some more time working on my site. It's so relaxing and satisfying
Only recently started using JetBrains Mono as my code editor font, and I love all the details. The use of ligatures to combine glyphs is a joy:
On the limits of user-centered design, and how we might integrate systems thinking into our practices to create ethical systems that work better for everyone. It was a pleasure to write this with @devinmancuso, @lishubert, and @DianaSonis
The Ethics of AI, a free online course created by the University of Helsinki.
📢🧵 My writing has a new home! It's called The First 1,000 Days. Think reproductive rights, pregnancy, childhood, parenthood. And also play & love. I'm building it with ❤ while officially jobless. So please subscribe and let's create it together! +
I’ve only seen one writer, @eric_seufert, give thoughtful analysis of how Apple’s iOS 14 privacy changes will impact the app advertising landscape. Every other journalist has basically been regurgitating talking points from the same players.
DNA is the legacy code of earth-resident life, evolved over billions of years of development, made with rarely refactored cut and paste parts, rife with abandoned features, and possessing an epic lack of documentation. But it works.
📺 Two hours of me talking about 🌏 cults, 🌊 death, 🔥 an unrequited crush, 🌬 rationality, 🌌 and blueberry jam. An AMA skillfully facilitated by @ssica3003, with excellent questions and discussion from all participants—thank you!
Forgot one! 🔊 White noise machine is great once you get used to it, prevents unwanted wake ups due to household noise/city noise etc. I like this one:
Advanced Tech is *not* a Substitute for Policy/Regulation Case study on what causes tech companies to act faster: 5 years of warnings about escalating genocide vs. threat of significant fine? (A: the fine) Many AI ethics issues are Human Rights issues
I forgot I wrote this 18 years ago for the Wall Street Journal: "The Web runs on love, not greed."
about:profiles
Quick review: ‘ ‘Architects After Architecture: Alternative Pathways for Practice’, edited by @roryhyde @HarrietHarriss and @marcarobe
Ah, I forgot that some of the people who get permanently stuck at the Senior Engineer level get very offended when told there’s a whole level of understanding they simply lack because there are no quantitative benchmarks. :)
Elements of User Experience
I recommend that organizations sever their efforts at deep understanding from any design or dev cycle and let it run separately. Slowly. In small increments. With a cadence that makes sense for what you want to know and when you need to know it.
Cool project! → The idea is to provide README badges to indicate your current/desired project type, based the ontology of OSS projects that @nayafia lays out in her book.
only lengthy trip outside Virginia. Many clauses in the Constitution bear his stamp, as he was active in the convention for months before deciding that he could not sign it. He cited the lack of a bill of rights most prominently in his Objections, but also wanted an immediate end to the slave trade and a supermajority for navigation acts, which mig
@CAldenJacobs @louisrosenfeld Thanks @CAldenJacobs! Happy to explore. On my inspiration list: the work of @Ideas_4_Change, #WeLiveHere community initiative in @Iamsterdam, the work of @myhelsinki - incl. #OmaStadi: participatory public budgeting and the new #helsinkifreedom campaign
He spent 10 days in jail after facial recognition software led to the arrest of the wrong man, lawsuit says
It’s about shifting your mindset from distant outcomes to present outputs. YES, I finally have a term this! I hate setting SMART goals or distant goals of any kind. They're deflating. I set PACTs instead. Thanks for the article @anthilemoon!
Crypto yes, but here is why it will not take over the world:
Link here: My own industry-politics guiding question for 2021 is: how can we create the context and conditions that make designers and cleaning/service staff feel it’s normal to see each other as coworkers?
"Information Architecture is about making meaning out of piles of facts." - @cwodtke
Random light recommendation for folks in Japan — these z-lights are fantastic; reasonably priced, well built, super super super precise and easy movement, I love 'em (but they don't seem to be available abroad?):
The Turing Test is an example of Goodhart’s Law - When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Turing assumed holding a conversation meant an AI as smart as a human, what we got instead is dumb AI being good at mimicking conversations
Note that this piece 'Architects without architecture' is quite separate to the previous review of 'Architects after architecture' They share similar themes (+ names) but are different takes, different times, different authors.
Final post arriving tomorrow... 52: Real Teams (Not Groups of 1 -Person Team) 51: Coherence > Shallow Autonomy 50/53: The Curse of "Success" Metrics 49: Signals and Confidence
I reworked my site a bit over the holiday: I wanted to add a bit more color/excitement, focus more on plain-english descriptions and less on tons-of-mockups, and be a bit more explanatory/descriptive about the type of work I do. 👀🔗 ✌️
so why aren't more people buying from ? (I can't buy from it in Japan …)
Final post arriving tomorrow... 52: Real Teams (Not Groups of 1 -Person Team) 51: Coherence > Shallow Autonomy 50/53: The Curse of "Success" Metrics 49: Signals and Confidence
Final post arriving tomorrow... 52: Real Teams (Not Groups of 1 -Person Team) 51: Coherence > Shallow Autonomy 50/53: The Curse of "Success" Metrics 49: Signals and Confidence
@craigmod It is truly a mystical button. Related: I have really enjoyed SoundSource for wrangling volume control & output control. It is a delight, and the only software I've found which enables volume control of multi-output or aggregate speaker setups in macos
This resonated with me on a personal level. We don’t often talk about alcoholism in Syrian society and growing up with it as a child was a bewildering and frightening experience
I've been on the Acorn train (macOS image editing software) ever since reading @meyerweb's mention of it. I like how it's just FAST and simple, so for my cropping/arranging/exporting stuff, it's a winner.
I've been on the Acorn train (macOS image editing software) ever since reading @meyerweb's mention of it. I like how it's just FAST and simple, so for my cropping/arranging/exporting stuff, it's a winner.
Chuck Close on Creativity, Work Ethic, and Problem-Solving vs. Problem-Creating
Inspired by @hyumankind I'm moving a couple years of bookmarks to (I should be done by the end of the day!) I feel like when I bookmark something in the browser my journey with that resource ends.
I'll never be done "updating" my website so I might as well share it now:
In the US alone, data centres are expected to use 660 billion litres of water per year. Water is used for two separate purposes in data centres: generating electricity and cooling the facility.
The Reality of Brands: Toward an Ontology of Marketing by Wolfgang Grassl is perhaps the most important piece I've read supporting the business value of research, design (service, experience, product, etc.), and undiluted marketing strategy.
Thoughts on screen readers and image recognition
I’d like to spend this year building out resources like @SelfDefinedApp. Unfortunately I still have to live under capitalism. Working independently means I rely on one-off contracts and unsteady cash flow. If you’re able, please sponsor my work:
"My stack will outlive yours" — "The best tool is no tool, the best build step is no build step, the best update is no update. HTML gives us all that, and more."
Teams improve their capability through small baby steps. Even if it is for only a few minutes, implementing small daily rituals that put design at the top of everyone’s agenda is a step in the right direction.
The tactical work of user experience design has the benefit of always being urgent and important. However, it doesn’t leave any room for our non-urgent, but equally important strategy needs.
@johncutlefish We are in a moment in which many service/product/bizprocess developers are pressured with single-pointed conceptions of success, which creates perverse incentives with bad results for both the org and the world
Do Ads Work? An Inquiry. In March 2017, @sapna reported that @chase was running ads across 400k sites when they were alerted they were running on hate speech. So they hand-picked 5k sites & deleted the other 395k. They found NO change in performance.
Hey all - I'm about to be on Minnesota Public Radio to talk about algorithmic bias and why it matters to all of us:
The CIA is now a tech company.
★ Here’s a scrolling story ~thing~ I made about newsletters, writing on the web, and where we go from here
If you are in an online dev class or maybe a dev bootcamp and it teaches inaccessible practices, I think it is fair to demand a refund. And warn others away. It may be harming your longer-term skills and career growth, too.
"If behavioural ads aren’t more effective than contextual ads, what is all of that data collected for? "If websites opted for a context ads and privacy-focused analytics approach, cookie banners could become obsolete…"
No one in Hollywood will release a film about the murder of #Khashoggi--really @reedhastings, @JeffBezos, @tim_cook, @RobertIger, @hbomax? None of you want to stream a Doc with 97% on @RottenTomatoes?! Idea: you all pay 20% & stream together on same day
This annual list by @rokwon is always incredible. Buy some books, learn some things, change your world:
Two recent examples from the world of espresso… and - nothing else out there like either of them, both made by enthusiasts who just had to have them.
Two recent examples from the world of espresso… and - nothing else out there like either of them, both made by enthusiasts who just had to have them.
Power. Money. Lies. Are you ready for justice? Watch #TheDissident, from the Academy Award winning director of Icarus, on @appletv today:
RT @s_DesignTools: A walkthrough in what Design Research means nowadays - touching upon distancing, practice maturity and data abundance - and what to stand for in our work. Thanks @serota for finding the perfect words
I don’t get it, can he not just stick a Wordpress instance on and blog on his own website to reach hundreds of millions of people using RSS?!
Oh hey, yesterday I wrote about some good practices for embedding tweets in articles / posts, particularly geared toward making them accessible. Or available when a certain autocrat gets banned.
As white supremacists continue coups/militia actions & Tr_mp is banned from social media, folks are worried about the internet as an alleged free speech zone. This is a crucial time to engage the work of Dr. @JessieNYC — especially her book Cyber Racism.
Your semi-annual installment of ... Hire More Designers, OK?
I realize the irony of wanting to buy things from a brand that is all about decluttering. But as a fan of containers and the Konmari method, this new collaboration SPARKS JOY! I particularly like the Clarity collection. 😉
(500) https://behavioralscientist.org/there-is-more-to-behavioral-science-than-biases-and-fallacies/
"A widespread misconception is that biases explain or even produce behavior. They don’t—they describe behavior."
The Drupal 10 readiness initiative - here we go; session video and slides now published
In this article, @TedGoas explains why every design project should start in a Google Doc.
Prudent answer: Massive fit. I think if we can apply artificial intelligence to the big data that comes from social listening we can understand everything. I see no need for any other form of research. It’s about turning insights into action in real time.
Super interesting article on helping your senior leadership team set targets and hold them to account.
🧼 "Foam is a knowledge management and sharing system inspired by Roam Research, built on @Code & @github. You can use Foam for organising your research, keeping re-discoverable notes, writing long-form content and, optionally, publishing it to the web."
@PavelASamsonov I really encourage you to read Brian Lawson's work, and to realize IDEO did not invent it, nor is their definition cannoical.
After years of volunteer effort (especially on the accessibility side) from the WordPress community on Gutenberg, Automattic is gonna monetize the shit out of it now.
@TheDavidHoll @jeppekruse @cwodtke I suddenly can't find it but this article mentions some of it
You know that whole "progress studies", "time to build" thing? Do you want to work on some *actual examples* of big, important, manufacturing projects?
Watching this again: Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene via @3qd likely the best filter blog on the Internet
I wrote something new for you. ✎ My Glamorous Life: In which I am vaccinated
I have never seen so many tab and slider components on the same page before: UX controversy aside, I do like the design variations — no one is like the other. A couple of those tabs components are pretty nice. 💡
Why Tailwind Isn’t For Me #CSS
The circular economy is about responsibility, maintenance, care, sharing, reuse. You make it you own it. We must take responsibility for the things we do in digital. Not simply to create and launch but also to maintain, improve, archive, delete.
🎉 New essay reflecting on my experiences so far as an "independent researcher"—ill-defined though that term is.
“Many aspects of our social system serve as filtering mechanisms, determining which interactions happen and between whom, and thus which social patterns people are in a position to observe.”
“Ideological thinking turns us away from the world of lived experience, starves the imagination, denies plurality, and destroys the space between men that allows them to relate to one another in meaningful ways.”
Let's do a quick #a11y review of the first website for each voting category for @AWWWARDS' best of 2020.
This looks like a 4k word story about a database, but it's really about how the government *can* build capacity to battle the pandemic. We didn't know which hospitals were in trouble. Now, we do. How'd that happen?
“If a global advertising company leverages its vast array of dossiers on its two billion users to invite antidemocratic forces to infest its channels with disinformation, democratic states should move to break it up." Siva Vaidhyanathan
Do you think vaccine band-aid ads are dystopian? I dunno, seems fun. You can learn more about the program at
Their one recommendation that works in the US is
“Anger is the first thing I feel because they eliminated my job during a pandemic and the reason they gave us is 'cost-cutting’.” Instacart is firing the 10 employees who voted last year to form a union.
A beautiful essay on the multifaceted nature of Tahrir Square: "Tahrir has the two faces of Egypt. It is the face of the bureaucratic state, and it is the place where people make revolutions. They complement each other — maybe.”
"The Plague Year" is so monumental that it has taken me weeks of scraps of time to read it carefully—I finally printed out all billion pages so I could focus. I'm going to thread some of the things that particularly caught my attention.
www.play.studio
Breaking the seal. Because I am mean to seals and plan to get back to writing more frequently.
There has never been a music video that hit me as hard as this one. I have never identified with a character in a music video as much as I identified with this homeless physicist. It is true, some problems you must be insane or (close to it) to solve.
“I see some tweets from people I know, but a robot locked in a basement somewhere decided the order of this particular timeline, so I don’t trust it” — @rands on using Twitter with Tweetdeck to find & follow info
“Put content at the heart of your design process.” Intriguing! Introducing punkt, a suite of content-focused UX tools. P.S. The little guy down in the corner is familiar to me.
I said this in a panel discussion earlier, but if the fundamental question of the web is "Why wasn't I consulted?"* then I think the fundamental question of #civictech is "Why can't we just...?" *from this 2011 @ftrain piece (that you should read)
We're all striving for perfection but the truth is in design you never quite get it.
"Leaders are orchestrators of systems, and systems instantiate knowledge as information architecture within them. So, the IA that gets embedded and coded, baked into your systems, becomes the way that the organization understands the world." @jjg
One of my favorite things about workin’ at Sentry is *constantly* talking about performance. It's how we design stuff, how we build stuff, how we refactor things. So many companies don't get it: fast ain’t a feature, it's what good software is
If your organization is asking "but how do we evaluate our research practice?"
I recently learned a new word: “jootsing” — a systematic method to foster creativity by breaking the rules. Learn more 👇
@johncutlefish That was probably when Mckinsey built its digital transformation services and all other consultancies followed:
The @MusicanovaHel Xenakis Listening Room opens at Kulttuurisauna next Wednesday 3.2. at 16:00 🎛👉 Bookmark the full program 2.2.-10.2. with links to streams 👉
The @MusicanovaHel Xenakis Listening Room opens at Kulttuurisauna next Wednesday 3.2. at 16:00 🎛👉 Bookmark the full program 2.2.-10.2. with links to streams 👉
Rare that i’m excited about a blog post about colors, but it’s cool to see @Amplitude_HQ doing things to help those of us who are color blind better read their data!
You can listen to From Versailles to Cybernetics as a lecture or read the short version as a PDF by searching for the title. It's also available as part of a collection of essays in Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Listen:
Here's a direct link to the PDF. From Versailles to Cybernetics is page 475-483. It's a quick read.
Do yourself a favour. If you write HTML and CSS, then read . In particular, read . Big mental model shift to naming margin, padding, etc as logical properties than presentational. So, not 'margin-left', but 'margin-inline-start'
Do yourself a favour. If you write HTML and CSS, then read . In particular, read . Big mental model shift to naming margin, padding, etc as logical properties than presentational. So, not 'margin-left', but 'margin-inline-start'
Blue bottle—because in spite of the equal parts annoying and almost thoughtful customer experience which is clearly KPI and growth driven, I still get my coffee—and the coffee is good.
The folks at @coralproject have aggregated a lot of that excellent research (and done some of their own)… is an excellent starting point if you run into folks boosting "just make everyone verify their real ID" as a fix.
@skamille Obligatory Silicon Valley moment that epitomizes this
definitely worked for them at coria
Knowing the science behind something beautiful doesn’t rob it of enchantment but “only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe”.
@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.)
Some ✨personal news✨ I am extremely excited and honored to join @RepSeanMaloney and the team at the @dccc as Chief Technology Officer! More here:
Every person we've given these spices to says the flavour is incredible, including the highest Libyan cooking authorities - our mothers, of course. So we started selling them - check out for the full range!
.@fortelabs on the new model for online education that actually works. Participation in a group learning together is key. At their best, cohort-based courses create a vibrant scene:
Filling out the census.
So, I was thinking of getting some new computer speakers, and I may have accidentally fallen into a pretty serious rabbit hole
Continuing tonight at 19:00 CET (Venice, Italy) time on clubhouse, I’ll be reading from Watermark by Joseph Brodsky. A 15 minute excerpt each evening over ten days. Welcome all 👉
Room: “NFTs: Are they the future of music?” Me: “No.” #goodmorning #clubhouse
💯@robinrendle
...it may seem quaint and squishy, but I do believe that measuring the flow of novel moments ... moments of tangible progress ... can be a signal here of course, some experience is needed to get the full spectrum. if all you ever know is drag...
Continuing #5/10 tonight at 19:00 CET (Venice, Italy) time on clubhouse, I’ll be reading from Watermark by Joseph Brodsky. A 15 minute excerpt each evening over ten days. Welcome 👉 🎛️🎞️ @nstructionco
Continuing #5/10 tonight at 19:00 CET (Venice, Italy) time on clubhouse, I’ll be reading from Watermark by Joseph Brodsky. A 15 minute excerpt each evening over ten days. Welcome 👉 🎛️🎞️ @nstructionco
Leadership comes BEFORE governance. The compass determines the direction. The direction determines the navigation. The navigation determines the travel. And corrections can be made on the way.
The goal is resonance
You regular lexical reminder — this is a great dictionary to also install alongside others on macOS:
@hondanhon @cydharrell well...
Zoom Escaper is a tool to help you escape Zoom meetings and other telecommunication scenarios. It allows you to self-sabotage your audio stream, making your presence unbearable to others.
For those seeking a diagramming framework that's simple, but enables complexity, I still recommend @jjg's Visual Vocabulary
Here's a fun exercise: Google anything you're interested in, then add "system diagram" to it and look at image search. For example: "coffee maker system diagram"
/thread I’m currently writing a book about diagramming, so if you found these five lessons helpful and want to support my work in this area, I have a few diagramming products for sale in my Etsy shop. (7/7) #howtodiagram
As usual, @feather says it best. I signed on in support of . If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. A11Y matters. Get the facts.
This service looks like it'll be ideal. I'm especially interested in it helping me to maintain DMs and group DMs in Telegram etc
“People With Disabilities Say This AI Tool Is Making the Web Worse for Them”
Another brilliant talk by @adactio (including some #a11y examples): Design Principles For The Web
LET CSS PICK AN ACCESSIBLE COLOR! `color-contrast()` will automatically pick a color that passes contrast ratios, just give it a list to choose from. aka: throw colors at it! ```#css body { background: var(--blue2); color: var(--onblue2); } ```
If anyone else has WFH/zoom life shoulder/neck pain, this quick 15min stretching video is amazing. Feels like a great massage (remember those?)
The new `color-contrast()` functions in Safari TP are a game-changer for #a11y and styling in design systems. Here’s my demo:
2018 Firefox bug / feature request to prevent links from opening new windows without permission: That links to a comment from an Amazon user, because, really Amazon? NNG updated its 1999 post in 2020 to still agree: 21 years!
2018 Firefox bug / feature request to prevent links from opening new windows without permission: That links to a comment from an Amazon user, because, really Amazon? NNG updated its 1999 post in 2020 to still agree: 21 years!
If you're running an agency - onboarding (which starts during the sales process) is crucial. @dohertyjf has some good tips:
been a busy couple months, but we found some time to spruce up the ol’ @autogram_is site ✨💕💅✨
What do you mean this is a parody, HIRE ME
Of course we know notifications best by the worst offenders. It's dark pattern territory going mainstream. There's steadily increasing disincentive to let them run rampant.
I made a dating app for people stuck in the Suez Canal.
Last night I was looking for a replacement to the car I bought one year ago. Specifically a lower ‘trim level’ that guarantees no touch screen. I hate the touch screen that much. This articles concludes they will improve when evidence suggests not.
@amyhoy but have u seen their brand identity?
Our book is out in 10 days! @iyad_elbaghdadi and I cover a century of our region's history, showing how the vicious triangle of terrorism, tyranny and foreign intervention emerged and how we can escape it and create a just and peaceful future.
I'm a second generation designer. I, finally, for the first time, stalked my parents' agency, Design Matters. Looking back in time to understand what I ignored growing up.
And because @mimifoxm and I never waste an opportunity to tell all the truths, read our op-ed in @FastCompany today about sisterhood, anti-Blackness, and Latinx erasure.
This, but for thoughts
Internal Design Teams and Thought Leadership
One of @eaton’s earliest ideas for the @autogram_is site was a discussions section, where we could share some of the chats we have about the links or topics we find interesting. Anyway, we just took it live; real excited to fill out!
2. I was fortunate enough to win an Amtrak writer's residency a few years ago and rode from Washington D.C. to Seattle. It was amazing despite how limited service was at times. A much better way to see America than by highway in many ways.
1. I'm excited by the prospects of investments like these. The history of Amtrak is rough (it was born from big compromises that hindered its potential and has been beat up since) but the payoffs from non-car infrastructure are usually worth it.
& uh if anybody missed this Ted Chiang New Yorker piece on AI it's really worth reading!
I had a lot of fun doing this podcast with @LarrySwanson!
The Drupal module for Next.js has a new home.
New Construction site 👉
Excited and proud to take the steps into self-employment and share with you all my new venture: Fourth Wall Content
In 2019 I called off my wedding and ended an 8-year relationship. But the internet won't let me forget it. Apps still show wedding content; photo albums surface memories. And Pinterest even has a brutally insensitive name for it: "The miscarriage problem."
Too many markdown apps, hardly any sensemaking systems. Reminds me of that Engelbart line: “Doesn't anyone ever aspire to serious amateur or pro status in knowledge work?”
Had very fun @clearleft dev-chats today about container queries. Thanks @piccalilli_ for the blog post 🌈
On NPS, VOC, qual vs. quant, and teams empowered to connect directly with customers w/quotes and help from @mulegirl @RMBanfield and @jmspool link:
Just a reminder the Utopia Fluid Type Scale Calculator by @j98 and @trysmudford is incredibly useful—thanks @clearleft!
OK, this is kind of funny
“The Journal of InfoArch is an international peer-reviewed scholarly journal bridging academia and practice. Its aim is to facilitate the systematic development of the scientific body of knowledge in the field of information architecture: Spring21, 6.1.” ~
The last place I went before all this was Helsinki. Their main library is glorious, envisioned as a living room for the community. Whether you want to read, or study, or have a meeting, or play a game, or record an album, or have a beer, or just…be.
I am currently trying to see what life feels like sans consuming alcohol. (I am on day 55 of 90) Grateful to have discovered @curiouselixirs non-boozy cocktails. What are your go to non-alcoholic drinks when socializing with friends?
"Hierarchical and sequential structures, especially popular since Gutenberg, are usually forced and artificial. Intertwingularity is not generally acknowledged—people keep pretending they can make things hierarchical, categorizable and sequential when they can't."
We recently had a debate about the state of UX - the wonderful @peterme joined as he inspired the discussion with his article 'waking up from the dream of UX' - You can read a few thoughts from @adactio from the chat here
Selling your product to your peers, bosses, or customers is the last step in the design process. We need to keep them engaged, interested, and wanting more. How do you do that? By knowing what you're actually selling.
AHH. My portfolio site is live after 5 years of not having one. I’m excited to do a bit of show-and-tell for the things I’ve been working on: Click around :~) [1/x]
Since moving to Miami a few months ago, I've had a lot of fun exploring my new stomping grounds. I wanted to share what I've found, so I wrote some field notes to give you a peek into what life is like here: Questions/additions welcome!
I am blown away by everyone's feedback to me about my @figmadesign #config2021 talk—so glad it resonated with many. Here's the slides and I plan on iterating on it a bit more. Thank you so much for coming.
FigJam from @figmadesign is my wish come true.
FRIENDS!✨ I'm excited to announce I'm working on an #a11y video course!🥳 🔜 Practical Accessibility: a get-right-down-to-it course for designers & developers who want to start creating more accessible digital products today 💌 Sign Up for updates 👉
This statement from @basecamp's leadership is one we heard from @coinbase and others will follow The push to turn back; to recapture what was, although comforting, isn't possible and soon these leaders will experience the impact of such decisions...
♠ The Alternative CSS principle “Unless you develop a complex product—and even if you do—you probably don’t need half the humungous hunk of CSS you bung at a browser. It’s possible you only need one default and one alternative style for every element.”
Coffee and @hegemonyrules doctoral dissertation on IA:
An update — here's my current approach to note-taking:
RT @gordonbrander: Design deals in wicked problems. Wicked problems are problems for which there is no one optimal solution.
@owltastic Big fonts only 😎
seriously though, i found this tech because of specific problems i wanted to solve around managing complexity within organizations:
I have trouble coming up with a better indictment of contemporary design practice than Juul, borne of Stanford's Product Design program (created by David Kelley, founder of IDEO).
Thoughtfully structured and has some useful links in the resources section: #accessibility #a11y
This is a book that changed my life. I read it as part of a unique freshman seminar elective at @DrewUniversity called Zen and The Art of Critical Thinking. I think about ideas from this book, including the story of the title, every day.
Great article that points out some of the truth of the modern media - that independent ethical news journalism is crucial for functioning societies, but that most journalism doesn’t fit in that category
I have time today, so I'll start here: I can tell this piece was written by a White man. While it may be true that what @jjg sees today horrifies him, the reality is that it's ALWAYS been horrifying to UXers from marginalized communities. A brief thread:
@round I miss Hi.
For those that prefer written form, I’m happy to oblige:
New video for y’all: I learned something from @jasonsantamaria 15 years ago that I still practice in my work every day.
"Where it gets interesting is when you flip the question around." via @adactio #UX #DarkPattern
🎉 ICYMI 🎉 We dropped four free courses with @beep on design systems for designers, developers, and product managers. No matter what your title is, we've got you covered. 😜 Design systems are changing the way we all work. Let's keep evolving together!
Looking for guidance on animation compliance with WCAG 2.2.2 (pause/stop/hide for animation > 5 sec). If you want persistent, ambient animation, how do you do that without needing a pause button? Ex: illo in the footer of
related to this, @pinboard's 2015 talk on data as toxic waste is really, really worth your time (I'd argue this is auseful frame for data you not-quite-coerce people to produce, like ratings, as well as data you just take via surveillance)
Organizing ideas through sheer force of will is difficult, and I am lazy. Luckily there may be another way? Given the right mechanisms, and enough energy and time, systems can self-organize.
It might be tempting to hide the high-fidelity artifacts from stakeholders, and use them only in your experiments. After all, more realistic = more better, right? Wrong - if you show something that looks 90% done, you'll miss crucial "30%" feedback. 4/🧵
SO EXCITED to see this Systems Thinking for Journalists toolkit from @heatherchaplin and @JournoDesign. Well executed and incredibly necessary.
I must have bought 10 copies of "Just Enough Research" by @mulegirl for young designers over the last few years. Great handbook.
Two brief design posts: Embracing Design Constraints Underlines Are Beautiful Or you know, just take some off-the-shelf design system that was built by some amorphous org that never tested with users, let alone your users.
Two brief design posts: Embracing Design Constraints Underlines Are Beautiful Or you know, just take some off-the-shelf design system that was built by some amorphous org that never tested with users, let alone your users.
They're Wrong (because they aren't the same thing) but they're not wrong, because the titles are wildly conflated at most orgs. Smart(er) orgs know that job titles and roles are not the same thing:
Do you think this is true? Or should we expect someone to specialize? (It depends, I'm sure!) “If someone is asking you to do content strategy, content design, UX writing, and copywriting, he or she is asking you to be a unicorn! 🦄” — @lauxcritora
If someone tells you they have built an accessible tool-tip, they probably haven’t. Especially if there is no consideration for touch users. As always, @codingchaos has the scoop:
Early Saturday morning, reading @Abebab 's "The Impossibility of Automating Ambiguity" 😻 ✨🌻 Will report on key findings a bit later 🌈
Enjoying reading in the front room, with the sounds of summer Stockholm suburbs via the open windows, yet with @craigmod’s ambient film loops eg from his recent walk in 🇯🇵() on the TV (as if @bryanboyer’s very slow movie player)
PODCAST: #ContentOps expert @rahelab shares insights on building and managing growing content functions. Plus, learn five major business drivers to address with Content Operations. #ContOps
“The running joke is that any discipline eventually figures out a way to define itself, such that all disciplines are part of it.” — @eaton on Content Strategy Insights with @LarrySwanson Too. True.
of course i missed the direct link to the episode 😳
As a remote team, one of the things we do to stay connected is play games on Friday afternoons. Sometimes, when we play , the drawings become part of our custom @SlackHQ emojis.
The open-source @health_icons project now has a Twitter account. Follow along if you'd like to see when we update with new, free icons or other news:
One of the advantages to learning CSS is that you can use it to enforce (and reinforce) accessibility in your projects. You cannot do this solely with class-based utility tooling.
I just added “Origins of AI in cybernetics” to Pangaro Cybernetics on #Vimeo:
I was looking for a short explanation of how the origin of artificial intelligence can be traced to cybernetics, and sure enough, @paulpangaro explains it terrifically in exactly 8 minutes #AI
@kevintwohy “Situated software, by contrast, doesn’t need to be personalized—it is personal from its inception.”
sudo apt update; pip install -U cryptography; sudo apt remove python3-openssl -y; sudo apt autoremove; pip3 install -U cryptography;
@bigger_room @reckoner165 The first is this
@bigger_room @reckoner165 And the third is a companion to the second
@bigger_room @reckoner165 The second is this
@johncutlefish Could it have something to do with looking at one of their privacy policies? 😳
Custom, personal tools for computers are precisely why iOS is so scary (depressing?) — it's almost impossible to build a tool like Monocle for iOS, and yet building a tool like this (independently, self-driven) is *fundamental* to computing itself:
if you stick before a url (to, like, say, a new yorker article) it does a pretty damn good job at cleaning it up and making it kindle friendly
Surprising absolutely no one: “94% of the Largest E-Commerce Sites Are Not Accessibility Compliant” Kinda like the site reporting it (I mean, fill out those blank `alt` attributes and maybe throw a `lang` on the page at least).
I mean, if you want a click-bait headline that focuses on a specific issue that not everyone can guess: “An HTML Element Potentially Worth $18M to Indiegogo Campaigns” And the site (mine) hosting that article is mostly accessible.
Pretty good rule: "If you need to do something once, use a GUI (Excel). If you need to do something ten times, use hotkeys and shortcuts. If you need to do something a hundred times, write a script (R)."
Reading the NIST proposal for identifying and mitigating bias in AI, and having *thoughts*. First, there is a lot to like here, and I'll definitely come back to that. But in this thread, I just want to vent a bit. #AIethics #ethNLP
Pssst! @halvorson is writing a new book! She's exploring the role of content leadership in orgs that excel at #CX. We talk about that and much more, including #ContentDesign, @ConfabEvents, @ButtonConf, and diversity and inclusion in #ContentStrategy.
Oh hallelujah — it looks like someone redesigned the weather underground weather viz (which is bar-none the best weather viz around) and made it more beautiful and uncoupled from IBM ownership:
I ❤️ using Stark for Chrome
@johncutlefish I recently splurged on a set of three of these and am glad I did. They are very solid, hold magnets nicely, and are useful both vertically and laying down.
@johncutlefish @satyanadella I think you’re referencing this concept:
I am selling my houseboat on its mooring in central London - just a couple of minutes from Tower Bridge & Tower Hill station. If you want a small place in the city, you'll go a long way to find a less expensive and more relaxing spot than this:
I am like BAM! and BAM! with these new podcast episodes—so excited about these conversations, and can’t release them fast enough. Next up is @jrc_collins, who has A+ insights about the various content specialities and how they fit together.
Luggage nerds rejoice! @SFBags just released a travel backpack that rivals the @tombihn Aeronaut 30. Designers of all stripes should enjoy watching the explainer video.
If you were looking for a clear, well-cited essay on the problems with accessiBe’s product — and the frightful tactics the company’s used to silence critics — here you go:
I had dismissed this bag before, much as I love my Everyday Backpack from @peakdesignltd, because I don’t want to go all the way up to 45L, but a look at the explainer video on the product page is seductive.
@miniver @SFBags @tombihn I'm excited about the Tom Bihn Techonaut release
@miniver @SFBags @tombihn I'm excited about the Tom Bihn Techonaut release
One of the very best things to come out of the mess of the Olympics is my buddy @adehogan’s perfect Everyday Olympics series of illustrations
Lots of good advice on technology and managing change from @mulegirl. Starting with the simplest system that works for people: the conversation. Focusing on value and what’s in it for people. Building relationships. Telling stories.
In new Chromium 92, PWAs can register themselves as handlers of custom URL protocols/ schemes using their installation manifest, making them all the more appy.
Somehow, some way, is a year old today. Our members — all 10,500 of you — have made this @19thnews journey possible. Will you join or renew today? Every $19 makes an enormous difference.
“There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.”
Use This Equation to Determine, Diagnose, and Repair Trust:
This 2013 classic from @cwodtke is evergreen
Great article by @beep. It earned one ⭐️ in my RSS reader.
I have seen sentence, narrative, or fill-in-the-blank forms (not Mad Libs) making an unneeded comeback. If you must build one, I gathered WCAG considerations and made a sample to show usability pitfalls: These require a lot of human testing, so budget.
Over 25 states & federal agencies hired consulting firms McKinsey, BCG & Deloitte to manage the coronavirus vaccination effort. Many of those states have vaccinated fewer people than states that spend more on public health & that did not hire consultants.
Ain’t it the truth.
Hey friends! If you’re hiring, I’m looking for my next full-time gig. I’m a designer, CSS developer, and illustrator, with strengths in creative leadership and cross-discipline collaboration. Here’s a bit about what I’m looking for and what I’m good at:
I wrote about five of the most valuable superpowers that diagrams and diagramming hold (and reveal what the acronym at the center of my new book's title stands for)
New blog post: Creative and Strategic Leadership in Design Orgs—Super-Senior ICs and the Shadow Strategy Team (3rd in a series on Emerging Shape of Design Orgs)
Here's a deep one for the music nerds.
Deep focus on content— good content, and the way it is manifested is a surefire way to better your chances of succeeding in whatever market you serve.
How Tech Companies Manipulate the Media @Mrwhosetheboss ft @MKBHD // This is an _excellent_ video on how reviews work. Correction, how reviews have *always* worked, everywhere. It just isn’t a video about how companies “manipulate” reviews.
Notes are conversations across time. Seeing tools for thought through the cybernetic lens of Pask’s Conversation Theory. Featuring provocations from @startuployalist, @tobyshorin, and @wolkenmachine.
Thoughts collated here: In short: relying on open rates to assess how engaged mailing list recipients are might be a risky strategy.
“People keep framing burnout as an individual problem. If you’re really going to try and make a dent in the problem and get to a better place, you’re going to have to not just focus on the people and fix them, you have to focus on the job conditions.”
working on lessons for a workshop on content design and structured content specifications for a CMS. Came across this excellent guide to data types. Essential to a successful CMS implementation.
NEW REPORT: We are calling for an outright ban on the use of AI & automated systems in criminal justice to ‘predict’ criminal behaviour & profile people. Our report demonstrates why, detailing the damaging impact of these systems on people across Europe➡️
Dive into our latest collection to understand how to create accessible colors and seamlessly integrate them with your design system 👇
Hannover Messe Graphic System Cool color patterns for the branding of the biggest industrial fair in the world! Perfect execution of the abstract shapes and patterns. Have a look, but also read so you don't miss info about the whole concept.
“OKRs ONLY work for empowered teams, otherwise they are a travesty” as ever, wise words from @cwodtke
I am happy to let overlay vendors spend money eating each other, but I am not happy when they use my name or my work to do so. Last week I found #UserWay did just that, so I wrote a grumpy: #UserWay just removed the page. I leave you to speculate why.
@dburka @indexaward Geranium is outstanding.
Raised an issue to look at how we could make @Drupal issues less “in your face” about code until that’s what the issue is actually about:
Psst. Underline your links in body content. After all, underlines are beautiful. Because form ever follows function. It is weird to see people fight this so fervently.
The UK Gov accessibility team got a sense that revealing fields inline on forms based on user selections was causing some issues. So they tested it. And yup. Slides: Partly due to code, partly user expectations.
The UK Gov accessibility team got a sense that revealing fields inline on forms based on user selections was causing some issues. So they tested it. And yup. Slides: Partly due to code, partly user expectations.
the miracle of cables
Thinking about weird web3 energy. Digital feudalism, NFTs, Carlota Perez, and eldritch emergence.
Web users are task oriented; they aren’t thinking about who they are. In audience-based navigation, people must ask themselves who the site thinks they are and what type of content that type of person wants. All these questions increase users’ cognitive effort, and people haven’t even made it past the navigation yet. Users feel anxious that the information they see might be incomplete or incorrect. When users feel
It’s always nice to see when a company understands what employees want for benefits 👏 @PolarSignalsIO
"A new study adds up the external costs that ride-hailing trips generate and finds them to be higher than those taken in a private vehicle" (Remember how these services were initially 'sold'? Car-based solutions are no answer to problem of cars.)
This website has the best content design and marketing copy writing I have ever seen in so many ways.
@somefinetweets Fav resource so far is Preethi Kasireddy’s free email course: It starts with a foundational intro to the history of money and builds from there. No sensationalism, just good insights
Good piece by @TonyByrne at the @realstorygroup on the challenges Acquia faces turning a suite of acquired products into a coherent platform. It's a problem many vendors have, but it's relevant RE their @Widen acquisition.
Introducing Accessibility Whiteboarding with Stark for FigJam! ✏️ 🗒️ 💜 Check accessibility tasks off your lists to track cross-discipline progress, leave sticky notes to discuss action items, expand your knowledge on specific a11y topics & more.
This is a better image that all of those news stories that show empty shelves and just inspire more hoarding.
I started my own version of something like this. Pretty ruff for now but I have such grand ideas for this puppy.
I haven't even read this yet but I already started cheering at the title
Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name: My money is on 'Meta' and .
Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name: My money is on 'Meta' and .
If we're talking "human-centered design", the ROI of design only works if business interests and user interests are *already* aligned. How to align business success with ethical action is the conversation to have. (It often requires regulation.)
A reminder that management is not leadership. Tips for better IC relations: 1) Keep manager's meetings to manager's topics: operations, staffing, logistics, etc. 2) Create spaces for leadership conversations (i.e. vision) and invite relevant senior IC's.
You should sign up for Critical UX: My generation was taught that a career in UX would change the world for the better. It’s as if talking about users gives you some sort of ethical auto pilot. It’s a harmful lie that I repeated, and I’m sorry.
Unless you are working on content that is getting carved into a monument or put on a plaque being sent into space for future civilizations to find, you have my permission to relax.
Are we really going to have to say MAANG
Designers should be reading HBR. They've been doing a lot of useful stuff lately, and it's pretty well designed.
Not a single adtech executive has reached out to congratulate us on our new venture, and that should tell you everything you need to know.
Who will build the world your customer journeys take place in? Who is intentionally concerned with the design and stewardship of that world? That work, to me, is content work.
Once in a while, an opportunity comes along that is so interesting I simply cannot say no…
I published the transcript of my talk, The State Of The Web: Here’s the video: And here are the slides:
I published the transcript of my talk, The State Of The Web: Here’s the video: And here are the slides:
I published the transcript of my talk, The State Of The Web: Here’s the video: And here are the slides:
I published the transcript of my talk, The State Of The Web: Here’s the video: And here are the slides:
If you’re looking for a *very* good primer on contemporary @RWD techniques, that @adactio wrote a downright EXCELLENT one. Strongly recommended:
Hats off to McKinsey. It's one of the most insightful posts of 2011 predicting future trends in that year -
Please give this a try, and share your new cool non-Mercator maps with us! It's an initial release which may have a few rough edges, so don't hesitate to report issues. Hopefully non-Mercator maps will get more popular on the Web now. 😊 More about v2.6:
@jonathontoon As a companion to the org chart, I hope you have a career progression framework showing how an employee can advance through either a managerial track or an individual contributor track. Look at what CharlieHR did:
@smdiehl For any engineer who hasn't realized this fact yet: I encourage you to check out ostensibly *technical* guides about web3 applications. Get it directly from the source! It's all empty technobabble that glosses over intractable technical issues.
Business consultants and bookkeepers, the Deloittes, Accentures, and the McKinseys are ready to drop in and “hit the ground running”. Like they dropped in and hit the ground running selling design a couple of years ago. A couple of years back, banks, consultants and bookkeeping companies, bought a couple of agencies, and now they broadly claim they’re devs and designers. Bookkeepers are specialists in UX, IOT, VR, and blockchain. It’s bizarre. They have hired excellent designers. But you can’t buy design culture. Their culture still pushes expensive pseudo-objective pyramids and piecharts in dressed up PowerPoint presentations that claim to know the future.
Reduce Your Website’s Environmental Impact With a Carbon Budget by @MicheBarks
Eaton is super correct with this take and you should buy @redsesame's book immediately
it is @redsesame's Everyday Information Architecture and it is an absolute banger.
Apparently the podcast where @katerutter and I drink and yell at each other about UX has over 500k downloads. If you're a listener, thank you! And also, I'm sorry?
“Simpler models seemed to fare better on the corrected data than the more complicated models that are used by tech giants like Google for image recognition and assumed to be the best in the field. So we may have an inflated sense of” Big AI’s efficacy.
“Just take a minute to consider the implications of that: any third-party script on your site is allowing someone else to execute code on your web pages. That’s astonishingly unsafe.” — Jeremy Keith @adactio in
The possibility of Automatic Updates in #Drupal core is getting real! Just tagged the Alpha2 of contrib module that is being developed for core inclusion It supports Drupal core patch level Composer-based updates & is ready for testing! Give it try!
"WCAG 3 and the consensus process will probably mean that it takes another 3–5 years until WCAG 3 sees any release. [..] Let's just make sure we don't get ahead of ourselves and create confusion." — @yatil #wcag #a11y
A good diagnosis of the issue at hand and the underlying opportunities that are available
Wilco and tea.
1/10 We have today published the second edition of our AI Barometer, which is an analysis of the opportunities and challenges associated with AI and data use, alongside the findings of a major survey of British businesses. Find out more here:
“Maker of Rapid Covid Tests Told Factory to Destroy Inventory” …. A story from this summer via @nytimes
Typically, attempts to collapse down political preferences into a few dimensions focus on two primary dimensions: "authoritarian vs libertarian" and "left vs right". You've probably seen political compasses like this:
Intuitively, anecdotally, and scientifically, PowerPoint may be the worst business tool ever created.
I wrote something for @wired on the marketing of future predictions
Editable components without detaching? This is possible thanks to Placeholder Components. Not a hack, not a workaround, not a single plugin is used. By learning this simple concept we can say "goodbye" to detaching components once and for all!
Content programs need a sound model and a solid foundation. They need to put people first AND account for voluminous technical details. In this chat, Deane Barker shares his expertise about how to build a truly human-centered Content Management program.
Many Big Tech companies have created platforms that offer businesses tips and tools and services to better target their customers online. These can be helpful — but anybody relying on them needs to be very careful. That’s because many of these companies’ claims about how to measure advertising effectiveness are wrong.
cept model is a visual representation of a set of ideas that clarifies the concept for both the thinker and the audience. It is a useful and powerful tool for user experience designers but also for business, engineering, and marketing… basically anyone who needs to communicate complexity. Which is most of us, these days.
Neumeier has written a lot about his concept of “Onlyness,” which he calls “by far the most powerful test of a strategic position.” To articulate a brand’s Onlyness, simply fill in the blanks in the statement “Our _____ is the only _____ that _____” with descriptions of the offering, category, and benefit, respectively. “Our burger patties are the only meat substitute that taste like real beef.” “Our accounting firm is the only personal financial services company that offers free bookkeeping.”
moxie literally just wrote it
2021 was @superfriendlyco’s worst year. Here’s why and what 2022 will look like.
Is your purpose and strategy unclear? Are your teams struggling to see where they fit? Is their hard work wasted?
“By focusing on the outcome your customers want, your team can solve for this outcome in new and innovative ways”
Content design is a young discipline, and the ways in which it’s practiced change so often that people are inventing new rules, tools and approaches all the time. That helps everyone innovate, especially when they share them out. Strong content designers need to have great flexibility, adaptiveness and be active listeners – because you’re always looking for cues about what people really care about and the problems they’re really experiencing.
Some competencies overlap with others or don’t align with how we work
Listening to @rahelab and @eaton talk about CMSs = #content #nerdvana
.@jpinsk is NOT sorry for his delay and you know what, neither am I
Added new references to historical works by movers and shakers in the ‘Canon of User Experience’. More to come. #UXcanon
I see a lot of opportunity here for content designers, who are going to become the Legal Department's best friends.
Kill Your Personas. How persona spectrums champion real… | by Margaret P | Microsoft Design | Medium
"European regulators have ruled that the technical framework underlying those obnoxious and ubiquitous consent banners that have blanketed the internet for years are actually a violation of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation."
His definition of secrets isn’t the one you grew up with. He’s not talking about spreading gossip or talking behind people’s backs. Rather, Thiel defines secrets as important truths about the world that other people don’t yet realize. They are keys into hidden chambers of knowledge, free from the distortions of lies and propaganda.
Mimetic Theory rests on the assumption that all our cultural behaviors, beginning with the acquisition of language by children are imitative.
I admire what Jeff Bezos built at Amazon, and what they've done for innovation and consumers. But they cannot operate their logistics/supply chain business at a huge loss, paid for by AWS, to stop competition. That's why we have antitrust. My WSJ op-ed:
Now accepting applications! Join a focused, expert-guided program to help you take the next step in your UX content career, led by @ScottKubie. I’ve known Scott for years … this will be GREAT. ⭐️
"You lose friends to marriage, to parenthood, to politics... to success, to failure, to flukish strokes of good or ill luck. (Envy, dear God—it’s the mother of all unspeakables in a friendship, the lulu of all shames.)" HT @kottke
☁️ I don't quite know why I made this, except to publish something soft and weird and useless. I hope you like it.
Maybe I'll clean this up and flesh it out at some point, but here's a little CSS/HTML diagram of how the cascade works:
A common mistake in design portfolio presentations is assuming interviewers want to hear a profound narrative about the product problem. We don't. We want to hear about *your challenges* while working on the product problem.
@scottkubie @karenmcgrane @abookapart @theledu @louisrosenfeld @kissane Firm agree. @Abby_the_IA’s How to Make Sense of Any Mess is an awesome gift on the IA front too:
The radical act of letting things hurt – how (not) to help a friend in sorrow, or, some of the most helpful advice on being there for a loved one suffering
I amended another accessibility bug report at mermaid-js: Hilariously, this 2021 bug was opened after the 2019 bug was closed due to inactivity. From the school of “it’s no longer a bug if we ignore it for 2 years!” I expected more vetting by GitHub.
Our guest house is up on AirBnB now if you need a break this spring or summer:
This is pretty brutal
(That screenshot is from , which, on first skim, seems *exceedingly* clear and good.)
@doriantaylor '-site: has become one of my favorite search operators
@berkun @peterme I thought I found it but instead I found DIFFERENT advice for designers from ‘The Wire’
This is how I encourage clients to tackle strategy. However, the “diagnosis” component takes time, money, and real talk. Leadership often prefers to spend money on Doing the Thing … and real talk can be scary. But this approach brings lasting change.
Laura Griffee shares the details behind the Polaris v9.0.0 release and how we’re laying the groundwork to increase token adoption in the admin and rework our existing range of token values.
Sharing my passing thoughts and Q&A's on content strategy, content design, and UX writing more on TikTok of late. No dancing, no filters, just me talking. Having fun so far!
“A good craftsperson understands the strengths and weaknesses of each model and uses it appropriately, while a poor craftsperson generally blames their tools.” — Andy Budd
Dude who invented NPS, sick of surveys (from 2016)
There are architectural mullets, too. Neighborhood-conforming in the front. Party in the back.
I'm thrilled to announce @cydharrell as our next Chief Digital Services Officer. Cyd’s wealth of experience in government technology and user-centered design will help us strengthen and transform how we connect services directly to people. Read more:
I just turned 70. Here is my advice which I wish I had known earlier.
“Passion jobs are prime for exploitation.” — @annehelen
Tailscale raises $100M to do what any Hacker News reader could have done in a weekend
New citibike silverbacks dropped today:
If you haven’t read @mikeindustries’s thoughts on what Twitter could look like under Musk‘s leadership, it’s well worth a read.
“The control which designers […] desire in the web medium, is simply a function of the limitation of the printed page. We should embrace the fact that the web doesn’t have the same constraints, and design for this flexibility.” —@johnallsopp
My Camper Journey
I am beyond sad and angry reading about the lives of the people killed — how most of them were over 60, how they survived cancer, how they fed communities. All dead, gone because we don’t take white supremacy seriously or treat it as the terrorism it is.
"a bias for action is a bit different than premature convergence. We may have a bias to act, experiment, & test assumptions. But that does not mean we are limiting options. By acting quickly and decisively, we may be leaving room to pursue MORE options."
@candiwrites Not an article but changed their name from ‘dark patterns’ Although they don’t mention why this is harmful, they say that it is to be clearer and more inclusive.
I’ve written a blog post with @Amy_Hupe and @cjforms about why sharing research on patterns and components in design systems matters, and some tips on how to do it.
Great news everyone! Tailscale's docs team including Walter P, @rosszurowski, and @MayaKaczorowski have completed the biggest reorg of our documentation since I disorganized it back in 2019. Try it now and learn about features you never knew existed!
Wondering how this might be turned into an activity. Feels like giving things a name might help? Miro:
@inkblurt @scottkubie @steveportigal @McKinsey Right there with you. Definitely not benign
This house is next level
Have you tried to make a design system but ended up with a library that no one uses? Our new @superfriendlyco “Design System in 90 Days” workbook helps you avoid design system graveyards and create a design system that lasts. Available for purchase now!
@johncutlefish This is so exceedingly useful that I took the liberty of transcribing a copy where I would have it handy:
(500) https://www.getrevue.co/profile/disruptingsystems/issues/introducing-disrupting-systems-913007
So as some of you know, I’m doing a “thing”. It’s the first of a few things that I’m launching this year. If you’d like to know a little bit about it follow the link below 👇🏼 And feel free to follow the Twitter account @disruptsystems 🙏🏼
@apenwarr @segphault This is my workflow
Wonderful touches in the new Human Interface Guidelines abound; fantastic resources on inclusivity, onboarding and AR featured. And seems like the sections are colored after a familiar rainbow color scheme…
📣 Brand new Apple Human Interface Guidelines! 📣 That’s right, we’ve completely redesigned the HIG to be more cross-platform, easier to search, and completely reorganized from high level design principles down to low-level component guidance.🧵
A nice page of good tools:
"Your company can have content strategists, content designers, UX writers, information architects, content managers, and more. Trying to apply a one-size-fits-all job title to anyone that does any kind of content work at all is unnecessary and unhelpful."
“If an AI passes the Turing test, it fails. If it talks to you like a normal human being, it’s probably safe to conclude that it’s just a glorified text engine, bereft of self.”
I’ve written about why we need to change the way we describe bad design patterns - and what to say instead. Thanks to @candiwrites and @CuriousScutter for making me aware of this issue in the first place. ⚠️ Content warning: racist language