October 25, 2009   8 notes
(via dataviz)

(via dataviz)

October 17, 2009   144 notes

395. Be mindful of what comes between you and the earth. Buy good tires, good sheets, and good shoes.

(via rulesformyunbornson)

October 8, 2009   24 notes

“ ‘Because it sucks’ is not a reason to redesign. ‘It sucks’ leaves the scope wide open with no measure of success. It’s a sure way to scrap the good decisions you made along with the mistakes.
Instead, start the redesign with a question: ‘What is right about this design?’ Use that perspective to identify specific problems and then target those exact problems. ”

Ryan Singer (via davidkaneda) (via zehnuhr) (via hiten) (via mikehudack)

October 5, 2009
October 5, 2009   33 notes

“ Perhaps Google’s stiffest competition in the immediate future isn’t Bing and Yahoo, but rather it’s the likes of Wikipedia, Twitter, and Facebook. Just as we no longer search for the news (24 of the top 25 newspapers have shown record declines in circulation), in the future we will no longer search for products and services; rather they will find us via social media. ”

Is Google a Social Media Company? (via Fred Wilson, Bijan Sabet)

I hope not. That sounds awful.

Fortunately, I think this is one of those new-media thought extrapolations where we’re so far into the clouds that we can’t even see reality anymore.

I’m sure products and services (or “brands”, as they like to call themselves) will continue trying to find us on social networks. That doesn’t mean that we’ll welcome them in many contexts. People are already annoyed that they can’t rant about their local cable monopoly’s awful service on Twitter without receiving a cheerful but useless reply from a PR drone with the frustratingly false implication they can do something to improve their employer’s mediocrity.

When you tell your friends that you’re having coffee at Aroma, the last thing you want is to get an at-reply from Starbucks asking you to try their location across the street. When you congratulate your friends for their new baby on Facebook, you don’t want Pampers to auto-message you (or them) about the great features on their new diapers.

Meanwhile, if you search Google for coffee or baby announcements, the chances are much better that you’re interested in seeing commercial offers — or at least won’t be interrupted and offended by them.

Social media, by design, resides in a similar context as socializing in real life. “Brands” can’t interrupt us in the social context without being awkward and unwanted. Imagine the mood if your new father-in-law followed your grandfather’s war story during Thanksgiving dinner with a pitch for his Amway energy drinks and a great investment opportunity for everyone at the table.

Commercial interaction just doesn’t work in that context, and I doubt that it ever could.

(via marco)

September 28, 2009
September 26, 2009
September 26, 2009
September 19, 2009   17 notes

“ An idea is salvation by imagination. ”

Frank Lloyd Wright (via amplequotes)

September 19, 2009   34 notes
mikehudack:

aja:
Information Is Beautiful

mikehudack:

aja:

Information Is Beautiful