Happy year of the Monkey everyone,
Hope everyone had a good week, the past week has been very positive, my contract role has been going well, I’m really enjoying working on my current projects, the role is rather suited to my abilities and what I don’t know I’ve been given space to learn. The people are pretty cool too. I’m a happy chap.
One Argument
UX Designers need to be fighters
This article perfectly demonstrates both why UX designers are necessary and also why it’s not a simple job. It also offers some very helpful insights into how to argue (fight) for what’s best for the customer without pissing everyone off.
One Study
Data Mining Reddit
Reddit might not be for everyone, but you should at least know how powerful it can be. What gets upvoted to it’s front page has a really really good chance to gain traction in mainstream media a short time later. Here’s a fascinating piece on what works by analysising over 4 million data points on the reddit homepage. It’s a bit long, but there’s some nice graph to make it easy to scan/read.
One Slide Deck
Designing Habit forming Products
From Nir Eyal author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products a fascinating slide Deck on what makes addictive products, why are we so obessed with our smartphones and social media? Really looking forward to reading his full book.
One Article
Semantic Animations
Animations we see in websites and apps are supposed to be metaphors for what we know and best understand from the real world. That’s why designers need to think carefully how everything fits together. It should not be a series of cute animations, but one consistent language.
One Video
Commencement Speech by David Foster Wallace
“This Is Water” speech by author David Foster Wallace offer a very intelligent and at point humorous comparison on Water, Life and Humanity. Deserve re-watching to better understand his points.
Progress
[Good] Relationships, with my wife, my family, friends and even colleagues. All are making me very happy and grateful
[Bad] It’s not a big issue, but it’s still bloody cold