Don Norman talks about the gap between design research & practice. A couple of choice quotes: “there is no real evidence it makes a difference” & “design thinking is a nonsensical phrase that deserves to die” & “there is nothing magical about the design methods that we use”.
Wilderness Volunteering
Our old mate Marenke is now working with an organisation that has an interest in Wild Mob - who organise wilderness volunteering trips.
This is an Eskimo trip waiting to happen.
I vote Tarkine.
“At age 14, in poverty and famine, a Malawian boy built a windmill to power his family’s home. Now at 22, William Kamkwamba, who speaks at TED, here, for the second time, shares in his own words the moving tale of invention that changed his life.”
That’s some serious DIY!
20 Tips for writing on the web
There are lot’s of crappy ‘writing for the web’ articles around. This one is actually pretty good.
If you can’t be bothered clicking through and reading some sensible advice then at least read and follow George Orwell’s six rules of writing:
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech that you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive voice when you can use the active
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous!
Normalising cycling as a transport option
Although the context of this article is American, it provides some interesting insights into the way cycle infrastructure (specifically parking) can alter peoples’ attitudes to cyclists and cycling as a transport choice.
If you build it, they will come.
iPhone hackery
From Wired: Security researchers plan to reveal a security hole that would enable hackers to take complete control of an iPhone with a text-messaging attack.
