Posts of the Week for May 10, 2011

Well, twice in a row makes it a habit, right?

This first one is important enough to become it’s own post.

• Clean up your mess: A guide to visual design for everyone: Daniel Higginbotham writes
  

  “You convey information by the way you arrange a design’s elements in relation to each other. This information is understood immediately, if not consciously, by the people viewing your designs. This is great if the visual relationships are obvious and accurate, but if they’re not, your audience is going to get confused. They’ll have to examine your work carefully, going back and forth between the different parts to make sure they understand.”

  (StartupDigest, May 6, 2011)

• 4 Web project problems content strategy can solve: Meghan Casey writes, “The moral of the story: if it’s broken, fix it.” And she writes,
  

  “It’s nobody’s fault that the people building websites back in the 1990s [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][2009] borrowed from the only processes they were familiar with. Print. Advertising. Software Development. But, it is our responsibility to acknowledge that those processes don’t work and come up with something better.”

  The minor correction is a reference to projects I’ve been involved with in the last two years. (By way of link from NextDigest Design, May 6, 2011)

• 11 Tips on How To Apply Social Interaction Design Thinking: If social interaction through a project is desired, then it should be designed for! It doesn’t just happen because we want it to happen. Adrian Chan writes,
  

  “One of the key social interaction design deliverables is the social interaction design requirements document. Like the market requirements document, this spec covers social needs and requirements. Social needs of the product, of users, and of course, the business served by each. And its value applies equally to social media startups, campaigns, enterprise applications.”

  (By way of link from NextDigest Design, May 6, 2011)

• eReaders and Education: There were a set of posts from O’Reilly Radar that discussed some of the implications of switching from paper textbooks to textbooks on ereaders.
  • Skimming on the digital side – O’Reilly Radar: This one talks about design choices for eReaders and how current generations of content are perhaps trying to replicate the paper-based experiences too much. These are technical limitations that can be overcome with better design.
  • Does digital text create a cognitive gap? – O’Reilly Radar: This one highlights the design needs from a study/learning perspective versus a reading a fiction book.
  • College students’ use of Kindle DX points to e-reader’s role in academia — University of Washington – washington.edu
  • DailyTech – First Long-Term E-Reader Study Compares Textbooks with Kindle DX

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