Over time, I’m having more and more conversations about the similarities between interface design and writing. Here’s a great quote from George Orwell, who wrote 1984 and Animal Farm, that made me instantly think of interface design. “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s […]

Continue Reading: Interface design, writing, and sincerity

Given the choice between something that nobody has chosen to do and something that many people are doing, it is human nature to gravitate to what others are doing. Design accordingly.

Continue Reading: Designing for the Social Web: Signs of Life

If you aren’t taking advantage of lifecycle messaging, you’re probably leaving a lot on the table.

Continue Reading: More on the Usage Lifecycle: Lifecycle Messaging

The Usage Lifecycle is a simple model that looks at interaction from the user’s standpoint…at the stages a person goes through as they learn about and get up to speed with your product or service.

Continue Reading: Designing for the Social Web: The Usage Lifecycle

As anybody who has ever read anything knows, the most important part of a book are the quotes sprinkled throughout it. Yes, if you are able to pick the perfect quotes to start your chapters with, then you’ve done the majority of hard work in writing. The words that you write yourself, the other 50,000 […]

Continue Reading: Douglas Adams on Interactivity

Bootstrapping your niche is easier if you leverage existing motivation. How do you bootstrap your social site if you’re targeting a group that doesn’t yet use software (or doesn’t seem interested in using software)? While software designers can often see how useful their tool can be, normal users aren’t so prescient. How do you get […]

Continue Reading: Bootstrapping a Niche Social Network

The power of niche social sites isn’t just in connecting people, it’s in providing tools that allow people to do something better than they could before…or, the reason why PatientsLikeMe is an amazing web site. Ravelry.com is a social network site for the “knit and crochet community”. A site for knitters, you ask? What will […]

Continue Reading: The Power of Niche Social Network Sites

A bit of local news to share with you: Boston Web Studio: Marc Amos, whom I met through local meetups, has taken the plunge and is now an independent web designer/developer specializing in creating attractive, modern, accessible web sites that appeal to the visitors your business needs to reach. Congrats, Marc! Best of luck with […]

Continue Reading: Two Worth Watching: Boston Web Studio and Social Media for Social Change Blog