Real-time: Search or Discovery?
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Lee Hower has an interesting blog post saying that “real-time” search is actually discovery:
Search is when you know basically what you’re looking for in advance, discovery is when you want things to be revealed to you. Search experts talk about lots of different forms of search… recall or recovery search (when you know a name or a brand and are trying to locate it), research search (trying to learn more about a topic or concept), competitive or comparative search (seeking similar concepts or objects to one already known), etc. Most of the products we call real-time search today involve consumers and companies wanting to find out what’s happening right now and perhaps explore the conversation or draw high level conclusions from it. That’s discovery.
Stop Password Masking
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009Jakob Nielsen implores web developers to stop masking passwords in web input forms. I have to admit I never thought about it this way.
Usability suffers when users type in passwords and the only feedback they get is a row of bullets. Typically, masking passwords doesn’t even increase security, but it does cost you business due to login failures.
The only case when you would need to mask passwords is when the user is in a public space, in which case Jakob proposes there be a check box to mask the password in the input form. (via Kottke)
How Cloud Computing Works
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009Cloud computing is all the rage these days, but how does it actually work? The visualization of how cloud computing works, and the difference between cloud computing and traditional hosting. The key word here is scalability.
Ten Things Not to Do in New York City
Monday, June 22nd, 2009This list of Ten Things Not to Do in New York City is surprisingly accurate. If you’re going to visit NYC, this list is a must read. NYC is too interesting to waste time in tourist traps.
Eric Schmidt Commencement Speech
Sunday, May 24th, 2009“You cannot plan innovation. You cannot plan invention. All you can do is try very hard to be at the right place and be ready.”
In Praise of Dullness
Thursday, May 21st, 2009David Brooks has an interesting Op-Ed in the NYTimes about the characteristics most highly correlated with successful CEOs. The results surprised me, since at first glance they are counterintuitive.
What mattered, it turned out, were execution and organizational skills. The traits that correlated most powerfully with success were attention to detail, persistence, efficiency, analytic thoroughness and the ability to work long hours.
In other words, warm, flexible, team-oriented and empathetic people are less likely to thrive as C.E.O.’s. Organized, dogged, anal-retentive and slightly boring people are more likely to thrive.
They, too, found that extroversion, agreeableness and openness to new experience did not correlate well with C.E.O. success. Instead, what mattered was emotional stability and, most of all, conscientiousness — which means being dependable, making plans and following through on them.
via Marquis.
Dollar ReDe$ign
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009Michael Tyznik redesigned the U.S. paper money to a much more modern and functional design. Looks a lot like European money, which has great design. Here’s his rationale in the redesign:
Here are the main ideas in this design: Money and the color green are inextricably intertwined in American culture. I think itd be a mistake to remove green as the primary color. Instead, each bill has a brightly-colored holographic strip embedded into it which contains the denomination. The width of this strip also changes with the denomination. This introduces an element which makes each bill extremely easy to identify. There is also braille denoting the bills denomination on the holographic strip.
The redesign is part of a project to “rebrand” the dollar bills. Also check out the redesigns by Richard Smith and Michelle Haft.
Update: Aegir Hallmundur at The Ministry of Type relates the potential new bill designs to European bill designs, in particular the varying bill sizes depending on the denomination of the bill.
Amazing Aerial Virtual Tour of New York City
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009Really high res and grandiose aerial virtual tour of New York City. Stepping away from the grunginess of the city makes you appreciate NYC that much more.
Lincoln Center: Then and Now
Saturday, May 9th, 2009Whatever one’s take on the Lincoln Center at its 50-year milestone, the institution is certainly doing its part to stimulate the sagging economy. At a time of severe recession, when arts organizations everywhere are cutting back and even going under, Lincoln Center remains committed to its nearly $1 billion renovation project. Arts lovers in New York should be gratified to see the scaffolding and walled-off excavation sites in the plaza. Having long ago chosen the all-together-now approach to creating an performing arts complex, Lincoln Center is determined to make the best of it.
(via NYTimes)
A Portrait of the Designer as a Young Man
Saturday, May 9th, 2009My friend Andy Chen, founder of the Student Design Agency at Princeton, brilliant graphic designer, winner of the Pyne Prize, and all-around good guy has started a blog, A Portrait of the Designer as a Young Man. I only wish I could write as well as Andy, so definitely check it out and subscribe to his feed.
