Fresh ideas about craft, clarity, creativity, and personal growth, as well as updates on my projects, media recommendations, and links to all the weird and delightful things I find on the internet.
In case you‘re as unobservant as me, I thought I’d point out this useful button on the iPad keyboard. I didn’t notice it for at least a month: A quick tap in the bottom-right minimizes the on-screen keyboard. This is essential in making stuff work in your web browser. Form fields and the like are … Read more
Finished reading Close Encounters with Humankind recently. The writing is not great but it did contain several interesting facts I’m still mulling over, so hey. A few favorite notions: Some of our earliest tools were used to break open bones so we could eat the marrow. One reason humans may have lost our “fur” was … Read more
Made my first trip out to Sioux Falls and to Now What Workshops last week to talk about writing tools with some lovely folks. I wasn’t able to stay as long as I’d have liked but I did get to sit in on Laura Creekmore’s morning workshop on content modeling. I sketched a few notes: … Read more
Found notes from a Donna Spencer workshop on information architecture I took back in 2012. I paid out of pocket to attend and though it seemed a small fortune at the time I’m very glad I did. On where content “is”: I don’t talk about where things are in a site because they aren’t anywhere. … Read more
When I know what I want to say I start at the top-left corner of the page. “Dear Sir or Madam, I demand satisfaction!” When I don’t know what I want to say — or even what I think — I start in the middle of the page. Then I can go up. Or down. … Read more
A mostly-anonymous donor left $10 million to Seattle’s KEXP. Great public radio institution. I stream it from time to time and love their in-studio performances on YouTube, like this one featuring Guantanamo Baywatch. Rewatched Marc Maron: Too Real (Netflix). He articulates a problem I understand all too well: “I kind of just want to do … Read more
My friend Ange invited me back to share my talk about designing friendlier interfaces with the UX and engineering cohorts at Prime Academy last week. Their new space downtown is really cool. I meant to take pictures, but despite arriving 25 minutes early I got lost in the building itself and spilled in out of … Read more
I know a lot of people who are nervous about going to things by themselves. In my experience, it gets easier with practice, and some situations are more comfortable than others.
A ship is more than the wood it’s made of, and a website is more than code, content, and design. It’s the ownership, policies, history, even the culture of the organization that publishes it.
Clearing out some old notes and found this card from a Nels Cline lecture at Music University back in 2013: “Show up on time and have your stuff work.” Nels Cline He was speaking in the context of being a studio musician but pretty good advice for just about any gig (especially public speaking).