Google’s (brilliant) design pillars

I pulled this from the Google blog a few months ago. These three pillars are spot on. If only everyone designed with these things in mind. These are the same goals that I apply to each UX document I create.

Focus: With the design changes in the coming weeks and months, we’re bringing forward the stuff that matters to you and getting all the other clutter out of your way.
Elasticity: The new design will soon allow you to seamlessly transition from your desktop computer to your mobile phone to your tablet, while keeping a consistent visual experience. We aim to bring you this flexibility without sacrificing style or usefulness.
Effortlessness: Our design philosophy is to combine power with simplicity. We want to keep our look simple and clean. But behind the seemingly simple design, the changes use new technologies to make sure you have all the power of the web behind you.

Schema Mapping

Here’s something I did for my Futurology class… Our Futurology class looks at different ways to “predict” the future – or, maybe more accurately, ways to imagine the way the world could be.  This particular assignment was to map one schema onto another schema and see how you could come up with innovations.  This is what I came up with:

 

“The J-V Citing Method”

After a long day at the end of a long project to write white paper, my peer and friend, Jeremy Williams and I were starting to get a little loopy.  Jeremy coming from a Journalism background and me from a Communications background, we had different ideas of how our paper should be cited.  He said APA and I said MLA.  In our loopiness, we decided to make up our own form of citing which we dubbed “The J-V Citing Method.”  This is probably one of those “you had to be there” moments but these are exactly the memories I want to bring with me as my time at Brandcenter draws to a close.

 

The J-V Citing Method

• combo of MLA and APA styles
• “works cited” or “bibliography” is now called “Inspiration”
• “Inspiration” includes every source consulted during research
• “Inspiration” does not need to be alphabetized
• Body of paper is cited using footnotes
• Footnotes are written in MLA style

Learning History

I’m working on a group paper – we’re writing a white paper on Pervasive Computing and the Cloud. Pretty interesting stuff. It’s also a very broad subject, so sometimes we take a break from theorizing about the future of cloud computing an instead think of fun ways to share our findings in an engaging way with our peers.

One of the ideas was to use Google Calendars to show the actual date when the term “cloud computing” was first coined which led me to thinking: what if history was taught through a calendar?

Google already has many options for calendars you can load into your personal calendar. I’ve got Australian, American and Swedish holidays on mine, for example.

Also, I live by my Google Calendar. If it’s not on there, it falls right off my radar. Luckily for me, my Google Cal automatically syncs so I can create/edit/delete events either from my laptop or my phone and know nothing will fall through the cracks.

So what if I could load in a calendar that walked me through the events of a historic era? What if they could be displayed alongside my personal calendar so I could learn or refresh my memory without disrupting other aspects of my life?

That’d be pretty sweet.

The Great Adventure: Post #1

Ahoy from Brisbane, Australia!  I’ve already been in transit for over 24 hours and am getting more anxious and more excited to finally see steBLAU!

I haven’t yet gotten out into the south-eastern hemisphere air, but the television indicates that it’s HOT out there (wahoo!!!!).

In some “i’m not totally surprised” news, my checked luggage has already been misplaced.  They’re not entirely sure where it is… it could have a “rush” tag on it and meet me in Port Vila this evening, or it may be in limbo in some forgotten corner.  Apparently there is a lot of baggage department training going on this week and that paired with my inaccurate description of the bag (i said it was blue instead of green!) has rendered it unfindable.  I suppose I’ll just have to wait and find out.

Otherwise, things are going well.  I had an empty seat next to me in the flight from Dulles to LAX and sat next to a lovely couple in their 60’s who were originally from Brisbane but have relocated to Bangor, Maine for the 14 hour flight from LAX to Brisbane.  Also FINALLY saw Inception.  And I also watched a video of one of Phil Collins’ concerts.  And Eat Pray Love.  And a travel guide to Sydney.

I haven’t seen much to report on yet, although there is quite a collection of fake christmas trees in the airport terminal.

Just a few more hours until my flight to Port Vila, and then a few more hours after that I’ll be reunited with Stephanie.

Positive thinking only!

xoxo

trip itinerary for Vanuatu/Australia

Dec 10 – D.C.>L.A.>BRISBANE>PORT VILA

Dec 12 – PORT VILA>MALAKULA ISLAND (get to Lamap and see STEBLAU!!!!!!!!!)

Dec 20 – PORT VILA>BRISBANE

Dec 24 – BRISBANE>BYRON BAY

Dec 28 – BYRON BAY>SYDNEY

Jan 4 – SYDNEY>MELBOURNE

Jan 7 – MELBOURNE>PERTH

Jan 10 – PERTH>BRISBANE>L.A.>D.C.

 

 

 

15 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cool site

http://www.world-science.net/

 

Hey y’all!  I’ve been using my Facebook page to curate content that I find interesting on the web, but I think I should stop that.  First of all, I get in moods and post 17 things in a row clogging up everyone’s News Feeds and I’d bet it’s annoying.  Secondly, my Facebook is on lockdown mode so only my friends can see the content and some of these things just deserve more props in the public Internet world.

 

 

Like this site.  Which is crazy.  But still awesome.  I want to read so many of those articles!

A brand should insert itself meaningfully into people’s lives by enabling and enriching their existing behaviors, not by requiring new ones. (Oh My God What Happened, p 62)

You guys have all bought (with a Tweet!) Oh My God What Happened, right?  If not, crawl out from under your rock and get it!

Admittedly, I have not yet completed it but I just couldn’t wait to share how awesome it is.  I “purchased” it a few weeks ago but just never sat down to give it a read.  The title of this post is a quote from the book, an eloquent way of saying what I’ve been telling people for months (years?) now.  We need to communicate with people in a way that makes sense.  In a way that lessens barriers and creates a win-win situation for both the communicator AND the communicatee.

Not only does this book expertly point this out in words, its actions mimic the statement.  With glee I copied the quote and came stumbling to WordPress to share it.  I noticed, however, a button that said “Share This Page” and clicked it as well.  A new window popped up, allowing me to share the page through a number of social media outlets with the reminder, “Integrate. Don’t Interrupt” (which is actually what that section of the book is called but another important lesson, brilliantly demonstrated, in and of itself).

Have I mentioned yet how awesome this book is?

So, seriously, if you haven’t already done yourself the service of checking out this book, you can nab it here:  http://ohmygodwhathappened.com/

Brand Butlers

I think I’ve stumbled upon trendwatching.com in the past and come upon the same conclusion as I have just now:  this site is a must read.  It’s filled with timely and relevant insights and is a much more eloquent digest of current consumer trends than I could ever hope to write.  I was looking through their latest insight on Mass Mingling (spot on) and ended up at one from April about Brand Butlers.

I think I especially like this because it is exactly how I approach new client challenges.  I focus on the consumer and how the brand can create an engaging experience that is win-win.  Between this and the Mass Mingling page, I wasn’t surprised to find real-world iterations of many similar apps my classmates and I have pitched.  This stuff is so cool!!!

ROFLCon (Day 1 wrap-up)

So ROFLCon has been pretty freakin’ awesome so far.  I feel so inspired to start projects and just go out there and make stuff (I’ve been thinking about the green screen room that they’re installing at the Brandcenter and am now convinced that I need to formulate a plan to get something going).  Gautam and Don are here with me to rep the Brandcenter.  You can find transcriptions of some of the panels on the ROFLCon site , and I’ve also caught up on some panels I missed at Liz’s Brain Dump. They’ve been live-streaming the panels on the ROFLCon site and I’m hoping that they’ll archive the videos there later.  Also, Gautam is on his flipcam and I plan to edit together some highlights later (although the whole thing has been a highlight thus far).

SO, I’d direct you to check out the transcriptions for context and content – especially Ethan Z. and Danah’s keynote (which was so invigorating).

I am going to use this space to post my notes and some posed questions that I think are worth stewing on.  Bullet point style.  Of course there’s the desire to expand on some of these in the future after some honest contemplation as there are definitely some interesting themes bubbling up.  But my blog is always full of empty promises so we’ll just see how it goes.

THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD WEIRD WEB (keynote: Ethan Zuckerman and Danah Boyd)

Memes and the Internet – allowing people to be brilliant in front of the world

Watch the BRIC countries for memes (e.g. Brazil: Tenso, Russia: Glazastik)

Where are memes coming from? — more memes from countries that have had Internet longer

MAKMENDE: comes from “go ahead, make my day”

Is there one Internet or are there many? — We can create one Internet by making content that everyone can relate to, create universal memes

Divide between loling @ and loling w/ — we need to learn to lol w/ the whole world

loling w/ each other means that we are sharing references, when we share references we create culture

China:  youku.com and “cute cat technology”

Internet: geek, freak & queer culture

Subcultures are bigger trendsetters than youth

Where are the boundaries of subcultures ? What is inside and what is outside?

“Cultural Capital” – lack of access (high culture opera)/lack of information (being in the know about location of rave)

Marketers are creating second Internet bubble – trying to monetize the web, obsessed with coolhunting and making “weird” –> “cool”

Blend of marketing & subculture is unavoidable (e.g. where do punks buy their clothes?)

Social hacking — obtaining attention

Being part of a collective without knowing it (doing your own thing and discovering later that other people are doing the same thing)

Memes don’t have to be silly – they just have to be something a group of people can rally behind

There aren’t/shouldn’t be gatekeepers/bouncers of memes, but curators – anthropologists studying what it is that we love

THE LONGVIEW PANEL

“Japan is a well of global weirdness”

“the den of nerddom”

YouTube comments seem to be the place where people express their negativity (this is a theme from multiple panels — negative feedback/comments are rare except on YouTube…  but when confronted comment writer backs down as if they didn’t think anyone would read their comment.  As if they are commenting for themselves and not others)

Online you are electing to watch something as opposed to TV where you are passive and what you watch is determined for you (this isn’t a new insight but it applies to memes, “We like the moon” is an interesting example as Quiznos used it in ads)

“Cranky Old Kook Syndrome” — when there are things that are popular online that you just do not understand

The audience of a meme is integral to when they watch (i.e. people at work 9-5pm mon-fri, not as much traffic on weekends) (again, not a new insight but interesting when applied to memes)

Social media sites feed eachother (e.g. Digg and Reddit have similar content)

People watching TV keep watching TV – they don’t go online to find out more (although iPad is trying to change this)…People reading blogs online click through links to explore and find out more (while creators like going on TV to discuss meme, it doesn’t increase web traffic much)

Content is created for creator, not for audience (I wonder if this holds true to non-silly memes)

future: making things more sharable

THREE WOLF MOON

First guy who commented on three wolf moon shirt, guy who works for company that sells shirt, artist who created the design.  Nice.

This one was more for memory/experience than academics, but I thought the idea of honest v. ironic consumer was interesting.  I wonder if one is better than the other?  The ironic customer might have more of a connection with the product.  idk.  something to think on.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE AWKWARD

same feelings on this panel as above.  This panel had a slow start but I found it interesting overall.  Bummed that I missed out on I CAN HAZ DREAM? though, because it sounds like it was awesome.

recommended by lamebook: http://dontevenreply.com/