Is Don Norman right about Google?
“I’m guessing that Google’s playfulness and relatively sloppy integration go hand in hand. When you’re constantly playing, innovating, and launching, you don’t always have time to unify things perfectly.”
Push optional data entry as far back as you can
“That signup process solidified my long held belief: don’t ask for it if you really don’t need it. And I mean if you really don’t need it. There’s a world of difference between ‘nice to know now’ and ‘need to know now.’”
Olivo Barbieri’s aerial photographs
“In Olivo Barbieri’s aerial photographs, people look like ants and cities like toy models. He shoots from a helicopter using a tilt-shift lens.”
Getting in too-much touch (interruption is not collaboration)
“Interruption is being mistaken for collaboration. The are drastically different things. Interruption is productivity’s biggest enemy. It sounds counterintuitive to many, but we should be working harder on staying apart and less on getting in touch too much. A healthy dose of physical and virtual distance is a good thing. If we want to be highly productive we need more alone time.”
How to Choose a Designer
“When building web apps, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is who will do the design work. Your app is likely to fail if the design and usability are poor.”
Design Decisions: Sharing in Backpack
“The last thing is a better icon. That tiny text has got to go. And sharing isn’t really about broadcasting, it’s more about agreement right? Every screen and block takes an interesting path from concept to fruition.”
Fireside Chat: Richard Bird, Jim Coudal, and Carlos Segura
“We gathered three design veterans (and old friends of 37signals), Richard Bird, Jim Coudal, and Carlos Segura…Topics included their roots/influences, what it’s like to sell your own products, dream projects, control freaks, the loss of craft in design, and how they used to walk five miles to school every day, in the snow, uphill, both ways.”
Mike
on 28 Dec 06I nominate this as one of the best posts of the year: http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives2/picasso_paula_scher_and_the_lifetime_behind_every_second.php
Say What
on 28 Dec 06Google has sloppy integration? Ahem, I’d like to remind everyone that Microsoft’s latest offering Vista does not even run SQL Server.
Nathaniel
on 28 Dec 06Sharing in Backpack may be my favorite post 37Signals post this year. All of the Design Decisions are wonderful, though. Thanks for sharing! ;)
4point44
on 28 Dec 06all due respect, what does vista have to do with google’s integration?
i can say that as a very recent google convert (blogger, analytics, adwords, gmail, docs) the integration of their products is not bad. yes, things are still sometimes buried. no, you can’t get to everything from the front page.
i have maintained my blog for a week or so in typepad as well as in blogger to get a real comparison. i’ve got to say that blogger is much easier to use and integrates better with other google products. (as one might expect) i know that typepad is more flexible, and that it has better cred than a blogger account, but i’m sticking with blogger. at least for now. and this decision is based wholly on google’s integration.
Mariana
on 29 Dec 06This could be interesting!!
http://whales.greenpeace.org/global
Greenpeace presents a new website in Web 2.0 where people can give ideas to improve the next expedition to Antarctic to protect the whales. You can post your idea or comment and vote other’ s ideas. The whaling fleet has left Japan, and is headed directly to the Southern Ocean. 945 whales will be killed – unless we do something to save them.
Take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6CbG7qopX0
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