A lot of 2016 predictions, including Fred Wilson’s excellent list, mention consumer adoption of virtual reality (VR) games and apps. This week, Oculus announced a March release date and a price point just shy of $600. The New York Public Library, often a leader in digital, has released more that 187,000 digitized images in the public domain. You …
Farewell, “click here” – the disappearance of chrome
Chrome is an umbrella term for the navigational elements throughout user interface design. NN Group offers a useful description of chrome at all layers of human-computer interaction, from operating system to website to mobile app. Fun fact: Google’s browser derives its name Chrome in part from this term since it attempts to minimize visible UI chrome — most …
3 tips for timelines
I can still remember the pain of drawing history report timelines during an analog childhood. The inevitable result was a shaky line of unequal width, with at least one or two skips on the ruler, and uneven pointed arrows each end. A career in draughtsmanship did not beckon. Timelines seem like the kind of thing …
How to update forums for 2013
A lot has changed in how we access content on the internet over the past ten years. Rise of (widespread) blogging that popularized individual-as-publisher? Early 2000s. Switch to mobile interfaces? Arguably started with the 2007 launch of the first iPhone. Video? Now it’s mobile and everywhere, as YouTube has over a billion monthly viewers. And …
Context is everything: preview button
“The fact that we can even offer a ‘preview’ shows how tight the association is between content management and delivery….The existence of a preview button reinforces the notion that the desktop website is the “real” website and mobile is a satellite, an afterthought.” – Karen McGrane, in Content Strategy for Mobile
Stop the Madness: Password Proliferation
The growth of the internet has been blamed for a good deal: the decline of conversation, an explosion of pornography, and even the re-wiring of the human brain. But perhaps the most egregious crime is the proliferation of passwords required to navigate one’s everyday life. From newspaper subscriptions to checking accounts to all flavors of online retail, we’re …