Product Owners have a hectic existence. They’re called upon to make important decisions constantly. The world is swarming with ideas and opportunities competing for attention. One of the favorite parts of my job as a Scrum Master is working with Product Owners. When I can help my Product Owner to find a focus that leads […]
Category: Design
Pretty Visualizations From R, Explained
If you’re interested in learning what people go through to create beautiful graphics from basic statistical output, then spatial.ly is a site worth bookmarking. This post, Improving R Data Visualisations Through Design, is especially worth reading. It has a handful of well-explained examples from geographer Dr. James Cheshire’s new book, London: The Information Capital. I haven’t worked with R, but data visualisation is dear to my heart. In a former […]
Art That Humanizes Data
This is just the coolest thing that I’ve seen in a long time: COSMOS is a spherical wooden sculpture that was created from data collected in the forest where it’s installed. Check it out.
Empathy Over Logic
Here’s an excellent discussion of the importance of remembering how human beings work, when you design anything for humans. Megan Schwarz is a User Experience Architect in Michigan and Brian Bono is a Detroit based art director and designer. The link is a transcript and podcast from their talk at 2014 IA Summit in March 2014 in San Diego. Slowing […]
Bottom Navs for Large Format Phones
I have tiny hands, so I’m all for Luke Wroblewski’s call for placing navigation at the bottom, especially when a handheld is any larger than an iPhone 5. I do like the big screen on my iPhone 6 — I wouldn’t trade it in. But I find myself doing this “crawling up the phone” action to reach the navs […]
Simplicity in Design
The design is finished not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Glass: A Low Fidelity Prototype
I was fortunate enough to have been recently invited to participate in some early product discussions for a new application Hearst may be working on for Google’s Glass. It’s all very hush-hush, but I think it’s ok to share this much. I haven’t had access to the new hardware, so I did a mockup for […]
Zero Is Perfect. It’s Also Nothing.
I was inspired to set up a blog by Seth Godin. His post today re-inspired me. It’s not easy, but I will start by trying and perhaps doing a lot of writing poorly, in public, until I get it right.
Eliminating Options
Eliminating options is the work of creation. A blank canvas, a lump of clay, a business opportunity: each offers a set of options. Each detail filled in, or carved away, is a choice. To choose is to discard other options. As options are discarded, the work is revealed.