Nice bio in the NYTimes of the elusive Maria Popova (aka @brainpicker). I’m a big fan of her blog, Brain Pickings. Maria is a master curator of cool stuff.

Continue Reading: Maria Popova Has Some Big Ideas

Good design advice here. However, I balk when I read “go out and do some research to better understand their audience”. I know it’s true, and designers who have done it know how valuable research is, but I know far too many product people who just don’t do it. How do you convince people to […]

Continue Reading: Product design advice from Instagram’s Mike Krieger

In case you haven’t seen this yet: Little Big Details is a great tumblog that archives small, subtle interface elements that sometimes make a big difference.

Continue Reading: Little Big Details

What you get when you search Pinterest for web design is pretty interesting. Good way to grab some quick inspiration…

Continue Reading: Pinterest / Web design

Matt Haughey’s take on why Twitter is more fun and pleasurable than Facebook. Interestingly, Haughey likes Twitter’s lack of memory and sees Facebook as living in the past. Makes sense.

Continue Reading: Why I love Twitter and barely tolerate Facebook

A really nicely done app from Apple, Cards. You can design greeting cards right from your iPhone or iPad, and then the service sends a physical card to the recipient. I’ve received one, they’re better than most cards you’ll get this holiday season. /via Nelson

Continue Reading: Impressive App: Cards for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

Fascinating results from the Obama fundraising efforts, which further underscores the value of email. The best performing email subjects were “I will be outspent” and simply “Hey”. Article contains some great ideas for testing your own subject lines.

Continue Reading: The Science Behind Those Obama Campaign E-Mails

An interesting bit came across my twitterstream the other day: Gall’s Law “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start […]

Continue Reading: What if Gall’s Law were true?

Seth Godin writes how 8 billion dollars worth of gift cards seeps through the cracks each year. Astounding number. He rightly points out the reason we buy so many gift cards: it is not socially acceptable to give cash as presents. But when we shift that cash into a gift card, we lose the risk of giving an unwanted gift while giving something more socially appropriate.

Such a small, yet large, difference.

In Chapter 4 of The Wealth of Networks, Yochai Benkler discusses a similar distinction between “extrinsic” motivations and “intrinsic” motivations. Extrinsic motivations come from the marketplace, and involve money. They are appropriate in some situations and not others. Intrinsic motivations come from within, such as pleasure or personal satisfaction. They are also appropriate in some situations and not others.

This distinction is important in social design because so many of the activities people participate in online are motivated from a desire of social standing, not economic standing.

Take the case of a New York Times article recommendation. If I send a link of a NYTimes article to you as a friend, my only motivation is social…intrinsic…and it’s probably a small one at that. I saw this article and I thought you might like it. My reward might be a small up-tick in your opinion of me.

But if I’m getting paid money to give you that recommendation, then my motivation is in part economic, and that changes everything. You are now suspicious of the gesture…and my reward might actually be a penalty…your opinion of me will most likely deteriorate.

When friends deal with friends, money often makes no sense.

Continue Reading: Facebook’s Brilliant but Evil design

Armin Vit at Speak Up asks: Where are the canonical web designs?

“Milton Glaser’s Dylan poster. Paul Rand’s IBM logo. Paula Scher’s Public Theater posters. Massimo Vignelli’s New York subway map. Kyle Cooper’s Seven opening titles. These are only a few landmark projects of our profession. Design solutions that, in their consistent use as exemplary cases of execution, concept and process, don’t even need to be shown anymore and that, for better or worse, (almost) everyone acknowledges as being seminal works that reflect the goals that graphic design strives for: A visual solution that not only enables, but also transcends, the message to become memorable in the eyes and minds of viewers. Whether these projects are indeed as amazing, relevant and enviable as we have built them up to be is cause for a separate discussion but it’s safe to say that, as far as designs recognized around the profession, there are a certain few that invariably make the list, usually without question. Myself, I could list projects in every category from logos, to annual reports, to magazine covers, to packaging, to typefaces, to opening titles that could be considered landmark projects… But when it comes to web sites, I can’t think of a single www that could be comparable — in gravitas, praise, or memorability — as any of the few projects I just mentioned. Could this be?”

Armin then goes and mentions the obvious answer: Google.

But this is not an acceptable answer for him, because…wait for it…the logo sucks.

To talk about Google in terms of its logo has long been a pastime for people who care about logos. For years I’ve heard the same argument from people who want nothing more than to get rid of the “Mickey Mouse” logo, as it is often described.

Armin’s point is that while Google seems to be better than Yahoo, it is still plagued with a bad logo. He’s not “moved or inspired” by the design. Therefore, he reasons, it is not canonical design. Canonical design, in his mind, is one that practitioners of the medium look to as exemplary.

But, frankly, I think Armin has missed his own point…

Continue Reading: Do Canonical Web Designs Exist?