No. 27 | Seven things I make every effort to avoid
At any given moment part of my brain is on alert to help me avoid the following.
I have blogged intermittently since the mid 90s. Thankfully, much of the early teenage angst is lost to time. This collects my writings from this site, an earlier personal website, and some newsletter projects over the years, in mostly chronological order. I also publish new writing here. I publish somewhat more formal writing about content strategy and design careers at Content Career Accelerator.
No. 26 | Seven lines from Depeche Mode songs you might also hear in a design critique
Everything counts in large amounts. Details add up. Even small things become big over time, after enough encounters with users.
The Side of the Egg
Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg. Haruki Murakami
No. 25 | Seven fears to which I give voice in order to lessen their power over me
1. The fear of my heart growing hard. 2. The fear that it already has.
Plenty of Room Upfront!
Amateur bands ask you to demonstrate your excitement. “Hey come on! You guys can do better than that! Get up here! Let’s see some dancing” Pros? They share their excitement. Which eventually infects the audience, and is returned back to them.
UCD vs. Gestalt
I’m not so sure that users should always come first on design projects. Think about it like remodeling an old building. You could go up to all of the people who happen to be near the old building, or who have visited recently, and ask them why they came to the old building and what … continue
No. 24 | Seven lessons I’ve learned from building things
I recently spent most of a weekend assembling IKEA furniture. It had me reflecting on experiences with assembling, building, and creating physical things over the years. Here are seven lessons I’ve learned from building things. 1. To not get in your own way. You have to think a few steps ahead with most builds. “Painting … continue
No. 23 | Seven ways to respond to feedback
It’s important that the gratitude be organic, not automatic.
No. 22 | Seven things I don’t mind spending a little dough on
I’m nude, what, 30 minutes a day? Tops.
No. 21 | Seven rules
I don’t eat hamburgers for breakfast and I don’t want to hear Pink Floyd north of noon. Pink Floyd after midnight but before going to sleep is acceptable but should be used sparingly.