Conference Program | ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit 2007 suggests that this year, like every preceeding year, the summit will be my favorite conference. If you are on the fence, get off it and register.
Word of wisdom from our guardian angel, dshen
"4. Don't let desperation cloud judgment. Ever. And its corollary, don't let euphoria cloud your judgment either!"
Reminds me of my favorite quote from the Community Next conference: "Signing up to be an entrapreneur is like signing up to be bipolar."
Yahoo is doing something that is almost impossible for a company over a thousand—innovating from within. And they’re doing it like a start-up—throwing a half-baked idea with insufficient documentation and not enough server support out into the world. I think we should stand up and applaud. It takes balls.
Useless, absurd, must, need, appalled, just, infuriating, essential, etc. - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals) is a favorite post for those appalled by 37signals hubris. Reading it again, some months later, they don’t seem tto be jerks so much. Merely startled by the language (and I’m not just talking spelling, here, folks) used by the irate customers.
There are two sides to every story, of course. I have been a 37signals detractor in the past and will probably be again in the future. That said, as we develop our product and get it into the world, and as I live through the B&A redesign fallout I find myself sometimes started by the contents of my email box. I think I will restrain myself from reprinting anything, but there is one important thing to recall:
PublicSquare is run by two people, both who “know better” as you like to say, but also both who are desperately fighting for the survivial of a company. Boxes and Arrows is a bunch of people, all who “know better” but who aren’t paid and typically work two hours a week on it (myself excepted— been doing 30 hours on B&A and 40 on PS. Thank god I work at home, or I wouldn’t recognize Amelie anymore.)
Every single hour we spend is a choice:
* build something we think is nifty
* build somethign that demos well
* fix something nonessential but broken
* fix somethign essential and broken
* build something essential to our stategy, but not to our revenue
* build something essential to our revenue, but not to our strategy
* build something we feel is morally “correct”
* build something that will save us time
* do customer support
* promote what we are doing
* respond to morons who think arial narrow is a crime against god
* work on ppt & excel stuff for investors
* play with baby (Lars and I both have babies within three months of each other)
* salvage marriage to increasingly disgruntled spouses
* consider yet another consultanting job so rent gets paid (and DON’T DO IT because FOCUS IS KING!)
* read up on legal stuff we should know or we’re gonna get creamed by IRS/INS/VC
* chase lawyer/accountant/etc who isn’t as worried about our business as we are
* dig up baby sitter so we can go to a networking event
* go to networking event
* write potential investors “Not dead yet! Doing more nifty things than ever!”
* do happy dance when investors write us back
* do happy dance when revenue shows up
* exercise so we don’t develop question-mark posture (see happy dance mentioned previously)
* check in with each other, since we are on different continents
* blog occasionally, to show signs of life
* promote features that keep us going, like the job board
* design revenue sharing program
* research legal stuff around revenue sharing program
* figure out how to track and do math aroung revenue sharing program
… and so it goes, and so it goes.
You have to choose! You can’t do everything, so you have to choose the things that take yoru farthest.
And while 37 signals is slightly larger than we are (okay, way the heck larger) I bet some days when a user says “But you HAVE to have localization” they just look at them and think, “Buddy, you have no frigging idea.”
some time later, having read all the posts, plus some trackbacks and commentary Okay, I don’t understand. I would have taken that post down and apologized. But it doesn’t matter, really, does it? People who hate the attitude will wait patiently until some wild-eyed fast-typing rails kid writes a copy-cat ap… that includes some of the desperately desired features.
No since Budd Uglee have I see such a "design" website.
Theous Logo Designers - Unlimited Award Winning Logos.
maybe I can do this afterall...
Rouxbe claims to be "The Recipe to Better Cooking" but is it?
The concept is simple: technique is better communicated by video than text. Recipes only workif you know what you are doing.
It is beautiful, no doubt, with a dean & delucca-like clean and airy design. In many ways it is a shining example of desing best practices - recipes are broekn out step by step, so you can watch each part once or twice before tyring to coopy. And the food videos are gorgeous, shot in that soft-porn style that has made food-peddlers from saveur to rachel ray sucesses.
But of course they have their weaknesses, disguised by elegant user expereince and a lightweight airy desing that owes as much to Getty Images as it does to Dean and Delucca.
First off, I don't want to cook from my laptop any more than I have to. I have a small enough machine and a big enough kitchen (barely!) my laptop can come onto the counter. But this is bad news:
A simple solution might be just to unpack the videos into printable recipes with screenshots. But this raises the real problem of Rouxbe. They are too pretty.
Those video recipes are gorgeous. They will take too long and cost too much to light, shoot and cut (not to mention the need for a 'food stylist'.) The addition of making illustrated text versions will further drive up cost. This is an unhealthy proposition for a start up.
It also hurts their ability to gather user-generated content. They set the bar too high-- how am I going to feel posting my "how ot prepare fava beans" shot on my digital camera with its video feature? Boom, they've just locked themselves out of both a source of free content and a way to deeply engage their audience.
Design is not enough. But for now... look at that sexy halibut, scantily glad in frisee. Oooh, baby!
