Love this whole exchange. http://www.marco.org/2011/05/14/instapaper-redesign-by-tim-van-damme

“Chris Rock says: ‘A lot of comedians have great jokes, and they’re like, ‘Why is this not working?’ It’s not working because the audience doesn’t understand the premise. If I set this premise up right, this joke will always work.’ The comics talk about ensuring the audience — so demanding, so easily distracted — is with them for every joke during the act. This doesn’t mean talking down or pandering. Rather, it’s good old-fashioned respect. I sometimes tell students that every design needs a welcome mat and a doorknob. The first helps a person realize, ‘Hey, this is for me.’ The second gives them a way into the design. Good design, like good comedy, is about surprise. But surprise can’t happen in a vacuum. It needs a context that establishes familiarity. If you respect your audience, you provide that context.’
http://observersroom.designobserver.com/oblog/post/seven-things-designers-can-learn-from-stand-up-comics/27038/

“The consequence of specialization and success is that it hurts you. It hurts you because it basically doesn’t aid in your development. The truth of the matter is that understanding development comes from failure.”

via Swiss Miss

For me, what matters most isn’t the code or pixels, it’s the users, clients, and friends who share it with me.

It’s always nice to find other people who think like we do, and Trent Walton does. He shares our belief that it’s more about the overall experience we create for our users, rather than the bits and pieces we use to get there. Although we strain immensely over all of those bits, and pour tirelessly over each of the pieces, what brings us the most joy is someone telling us “your work really helped me today.”

And that is what we strive for, because the whole is greater than the sum of all its parts.

You can almost hear Dieter Rams reading this article in his thick accent.

“Good content is user-centered…

Publishing content that is self-absorbed in substance or style alienates readers. Most successful organizations have realized this, yet many sites are still built around internal org charts, clogged with mission statements designed for internal use, and beset by jargon and proprietary names for common ideas.

If you’re the only one offering a desirable product or service, you might not see the effects of narcissistic content right away, but someone will eventually come along and eat your lunch by offering the exact same thing in a user-centered way.”

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/a-checklist-for-content-work/

Ever wish you could get a little more organization inside your Moleskine? I mean, they’re already small, portable, and sleek looking- all great things. But our thoughts can be all over the place, and our note-taking shows it. We found ourselves drawing all over our notebooks in an attempt to become more organized… and ended up being the exact opposite.

We fixed our own problem… then decided it might be useful to other people, too!

We came up with an experiment to incorporate our todo lists into that same Moleskine pocket notebook we carry around all the time anyway. All you do is peel and stick the StickTo right onto the page, write your todos, and check ‘em off as you go. Instant organization. There’s even a tab that sticks out to remind you you’re not quite done with your list yet. No worries, though- when you are done, you can just rip off that tab and get on with it.

When most of our organization happens online, it’s nice to have a tangible reminder that our physical lives can be just as put together.

Check them out here

Jumpchart 3 is more than just a superficial new look for the app. Its redesign is a far-reaching rethink of the way the app works. Plus, we’re quite happy to say, it lays the groundwork for the next several feature releases which will make Jumpchart even more invaluable to you in the website planning process.

Here’s what’s new:

• Redesigned look. More so than ever, Jumpchart feels like a place.

• Faster. Jumpchart is now 20-30% faster. Which means you are, too.

• Add multiple pages. Now you can “quick-add” multiple pages to the hierarchy of your site. Get more done by doing less.

• Redesigned navigation area. The navigation panel is faster and, well, better.

• New content insert bar. Formatting content has never been easier- or more convenient.

• Personal e-mail messages. Now you can add a personal touch to your project invitations.

• Keyboard shortcuts. A robust new set of shortcuts to make you more efficient.

• Better print style sheets. Sometimes it helps to feel the paper in your hands.

See it here!

I love answering support e-mails. Yes, you heard me correctly.

Before I started working with Paste, my experiences with support had been frustrating. One particularly infuriating instance comes to mind…

Two years ago, my cell phone was having major malfunctions, and the actual store representative told me I’d have to call their main support line for help.

Seriously?

So I called support and listened to an automated woman talk for half an hour about all the other services available… none of which I cared about. Not even a little bit. I just wanted to know what was wrong with my phone and how to fix it. When I finally got to talk to a real person, she was such a low level customer service rep that she couldn’t help, either. She told me to send in my phone (seriously?!?!) and she’d have their technical engineers take a look at it. Keep Reading

I think it’s time web development had a critical culture. Sure occasionally people pop off on Twitter, but it’s seldom reasoned, or well thought out. It’s a half-dashed sluffed-off thought that nobody, especially the critiqued, can profit from.

I think it would benefit clients and developers alike to see factual discourse on more than just “it looks cool on my monitor.” We should be assessing work on several attributes: design, architecture, copy, interactivity, compatibility, as well as the technical aspects living under the hood.

My hope would be that we can raise the bar for our chosen industry- treating it like the liberal art that it is. Giving credit where credit is due. Pointing out where the critiqued, and we as a whole, can get better. I think the “community” feel of web design is fantastic. But mutual back-pats are not going to elevate our craft to the status that oil painting or even editorial magazine design holds in the history of art.

So who’s ready? Do you have a critical eye, a cutting whit, and impeccable taste? Are you unafraid of being adored by some and loathed by others? Are you the type of person who can love someone dearly yet still tell them that their breath stinks? Then you have a lot of work to do. Public critical analysis of web development is in its infancy, and we all need you to help it grow up.