7 Things I know
Articles
When I left my job my manager asked me to hand over the standard doc full of links. This is what I shared. Here are seven things I know. Provided in
Don’t go to meetings with more than 8 people
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Unless it’s a purely social brouhaha, 8 people is the absolute maximum tolerable number of participants for a meeting on Zoom. Six is better. The
The three sees of content design
Articles
When designing an experience, principles can help you feel confident choosing among different approaches. But it’s tricky. There is no “absolute
The definitive post on whether chatGPT will take your job
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Nobody knows. No one on LinkedIn or Twitter knows. No one at the New York Times knows. None of your favorite politicians know. Even scientists
The new clothes fallacy
Articles
I recently came across an article called “I hate MVPs. So do your customers. Make it SLC instead.” In it, Jason Cohen advocates for replacing the
A Smallish Book about content design
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Me and Chelsea Larsson are writing a book together and publishing excerpts from the book as a fortnightly newsletter. Follow along! When you tell
How to make Confluence less horrible
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If you’re a knowledge worker shoveling coal for a software or web company in these Roaring Twenties, you might find yourself face to face with a
I am a writer designer
Articles
There is one topic that makes me floopy. An ever-looming question, especially around the yuppie crowd, that drains me like a machete to the bottom of a young coconut.
Work is like a hill
Articles
I’m sick of the The double diamond model. A better metaphor to describe the plight of the average, overworked, over-meetinged knowledge worker comes
Badge of dishonor
Signs of Bad Design
This is the sign that inspired this entire series of signs of bad design. It is found on the Google campus in Mountain View, California. Just about
Ceci n'est pas un poubelle
Signs of Bad Design
This sign lives in my friend’s kitchen in West Oakland, California. The size of this container and its position on the floor absolutely gives trash
This sign is a crime
Signs of Bad Design
This is a real sign near my house. Or at least, it’s a scribbled version of it but the language is the same. The sign lives in the parking lot of a
Beware the lure of consistency
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You know what’s cooler than consistent error messages? Having a bottomless supply of inconsistent error messages. Imagine an infinite stack of
Do not water
Signs of Bad Design
Signs of Bad Design are often used to counteract the impact of a strong affordance. These plants look positively water-able, and yet it’s the wrong
Never, ever use the term microcopy
Articles
When you focus too much on words you belittle the craft of writing. You do this when you call yourself a “wordsmith” or describe your output as
You need three things to design content
Articles
Those three things are people, standards, and patterns. Maybe you’re not convinced. People Standards
Permanently fixed
Signs of Bad Design
A Sign of Bad Design that is also poetry. It deftly employs two meanings of “fixed”: securely placed, immovable repaired The knob, having broken,
Assembly instructions for a side table
Articles
I purchased a side table for my reading chair for a single purpose: keep beverages (coffee, mostly) within arm’s reach as I devour knowledge. It has
Extraneous labels, ignored conventions
Signs of Bad Design
A big part of content design is labelling interactive elements. But you don’t always need labels. This is one such “interactive element” from the
The double diamond model
Articles
Has this ever happened to you? “Wait,” said the stalwart designer, “we’re converging when we should be diverging.” And with that he opened the top
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