today's Photo Friday topic is "furry" which reminded me of this amazing seed pod I saw while hiking around pinnacles.
Taken with my pentax optio, which has a startlingly excellent macro.
From ROI Is Not a Silver Bullet
"Although ROI methodology can be a useful tool for prioritizing possible Web development projects, by itself measuring ROI is not the path to a greater competence in user experience design."
very smart article.
What the CEO Wants You to Know : How Your Company Really Works should go into your carry-on next time you fly. It's the "Don't Make Me Think" for business, one of those wonderful thin books that you can read on a cross-country flight (twice, I suspect) and leaves you looking at everything you do a bit differently.
The author starts slow and easy, explaining why cash is critical, and how even the mailroom guy can affect the stock price. He uses the street vendors from his native India to explain the critical factors in a business's health, and guides you steadily to the point where you can actually do some financial modeling. If you are a designer, or another professional who missed out on business 101 (shut up and draw!) this is required reading. If you are lucky enough to have gotten good business fundamentals, this is the book to give to others.
Not small multiples, but rather multiple small... Bullet Madness is a collection of teensy bullets, arrows, icons and such not. Cute enough to make a japanese preteen girl squeel. Well, if she was an interface designer....
Saturday we took a walk along the ocean. i nearly stepped on a seal. They really blend in well.
Initially he hissed like a cat, and I backed away But I think I merely woke him up-- we backed away slowly, then walked on for a hour or so, exploring tidepools and watching carefully how we tread.
We saw him again on the way back. He was the only one on the beach-- his pals were all out on a rock. I wondered if he was ill, but he seemed fine, just curious and drowsy.
I have never seen a seal so close before. I saw some sea lions when I was kayaking and they were (I'm convinced) considering capsizing me. They are so big, and we are so small in comparison. It's less scary to run into one on the beach, where outrunning it is pretty likely. But it showed no hostility or concern, just mild curiosity.
I like to think it was waving bye-bye as we left. Yet another reason to join us at Asilomar-- seals, sea lions, sea otters and lots of other wildlife are part of the California Beach lifestyle (yeah, everyone talks about the surfers and beach bunnies, but that's farther south. ).
AIFIA | The Future of Information Architecture, A Retreat is coming up, and the schedule has just been posted. It's looking good-- a chance to peek into the future instead of the usual tools and techniques.
There are still a few slots left-- check it out!
Like most folks, I get envelopes full of coupons all the time. So far, the only ones I save are the ones for Chicago Pizza, and I've been reconsidering that since I went on the South Beach diet (after all, why torture myself? I could eat the coupon before I could eat pizza these days...)
But getting an envelope from Target these days is a lot like getting mail from the AIGA. These coupons look like IDEO's idea cards, like a AIGA fundraiser, like a tarot deck predicting the future of my nose... these coupon-art-cards came three days ago, and I can't quite recycle them yet. I have them spread out on the dining room table right now, because I like how they look.
They may actually be around when I run out of detergent. Which would be a win for Target, and a win for Tide. And won via aesthetics, and won by a designer smart enough to question the ink-on-your sweaty-fingers thin-newspaper-glossy coupon. God bless 'em, whoever it was.