paper & pencil

Good Reads Week of Oct 12

Fresh vs. Familiar: How Aggressively to Redesign
People don't like change so incremental changes to existing design are best. But sometimes a complete overhaul is warranted.

How To Persuade Your Users, Boss or Clients
Great tips for any profession.

Google's Marissa Mayer Assaults Designers With Data
Love Google but as a designer I would not want to work there. Lots of great designs were done without a ton of data to back them up.

The Six "Wow" Features of Windows 7
I'm glad to hear Microsoft is took more of a design approach but this Mac snob will not be silenced.

Good IXDers borrow, great ones steal...
Excellent summary of various disciplines that we should steal from.

The Manhattan Transcripts - from moma.org

Good Reads Week of Oct 5

The Future of Health Care Is Social
In this feature article, frog design uses its people-centered design discipline to show how elegant health and life science technology solutions will one day become a natural part of our behavior and lifestyle. What you see here is the result of frog's ongoing collaboration with health-care providers, insurers, employers, consumers, governments, and technology companies.

A shorthand for designing UI flows
Ryan of 37Signals describes a new shorthand for UI flow diagrams. Very simplified version that I think will come in handy at the start of a complex project.

Why Traffic Signs Don't Work (And What You Should Learn From It)
People respond more effectively to natural cues rather than artificial ones.

8 Ways Doing Less Can Transform Your Work & Life
Focus, quality over quantity, do better not more.

Facilitation: A Love Story
Facilitation is easily one of the top skills a UX professional should master.

Beyond Goals: Site Search Analytics from the Bottom Up
Overview of bottom-up analysis of site search stats and how it can complement a top-down approach.

7 Tips to Sell Your Ideas the Steve Jobs Way
Great tips for presentations and even for design sessions.

Good Reads Week of Sept. 28

Forget "Shrink It and Pink It": the Femme Den Unleashed
Better thinking and design of products for women.

How Simplicity Can Help Creativity, Briefly
11 tips on simplifying to spark creativity.

Your Brain on Thousands of Products
Great examples of product filtering UIs. More examples in the comments too.

A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images
Benefits of using Flickr images and a great overview of the different types of licenses from Creative Commons.

Photo by SplaTT.