January 2009 Archives

I was at Target yesterday, and someone had a table set up asking for donations for some random cause (children's cancer? hopefully they were against it.).

Now I consider myself a generous guy; I give at least 3% of my income away every December. But I really don't appreciate having to walk a gauntlet after making my purchases. It's stressful. Even girl scouts selling cookies bother me. I can't buy them because they're not vegan, but I don't want to get into a big discussion with them. So I have to just say no, and that makes me look and feel like a jerk.

Retailers take note: By giving permission to these people, you are stressing out your customers. And I will take that into account the next time I'm deciding where to shop.

First, the game: Hanna in a Choppa. I love the visual design. Simple. monochrome. Great use of typography throughout. And the gameplay is really good too. Simple controls, but each level is unique. I really like the planetoid and the lost at sea ones.

The bad interactions:

1. NorthWest's web site disables the paste command in the credit card number field when checking out. I store my credit cards in a document on my computer. I've always copy and paste them into checkout forms. This is the first time I've ever run into a problem. I ended up working around it by pasting it into the name field, and dragging it into the credit card number field. But seriously, why would you want to do anything in the checkout UI that might prevent a customer from buying your product?
2. Technorati doesn't place focus in the search field. Isn't this the #1 reason why someone goes to the site? To perform a search? Google gets it right. So does Yahoo. Even Live, Ask, and more obscure sites like IceRocket get it right. Why don't more web sites thoughtfully set the focus into form fields?
3. The Marriott Courtyard's TV interface always made me laugh. Why bother asking the user for a piece of information (like your room number) if the system already knows it?

I got sucked into a few games over the weekend. The Good Experience Games page is dangerous that way. Here's what I played:

• Fishing Girl - this one is really simple, yet quite fun and compelling. I went through it 3 times: once on easy and twice on hard. Highly recommended.
• Grow Tower and other games in the grow series. These are fun to start, and then they can become maddeningly frustrating. I still haven't figured out Grow Island. (grumble)
• Auditorium - I like this one. The organic visual flow coupled with the audio mixing is a great combo.
• Theseus Lite - A shout out to my friend Jason Fieldman who just released a free version of his iPhone game. Of course if you like it, you should buy the full version. :-)

Have fun!

I am hopeful. I am hopeful that the new administration will make policy decisions based not on the intent of the policy, but on the results that it causes. From President Obama's inauguration speech:

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.

It is my belief that the way to solve the problems plaguing our nation is through innovative policy and legislation. In fact, I think many of the problems in the country today are directly caused by poor policies that--while intentions may have been good--result in many unintended and undesired consequences.

Here are the sorts of ideas we should be investing in.

• Berkeley, CA allows residents to borrow money for solar panels against their property taxes. Read more...
• All vehicles should have real-time mileage feedback to help drivers maximize fuel economy. Read more...
• Build airports on a plateau so that gravity is used to aid airplanes during both takeoff and landing, which significantly reduces fuel consumed. Read more...

Is it just me?

This is one helluva tough economic climate. It looks worse to me than the 2000 bubble (but if course I was insulated at a large company then). Not a week goes by where I don't learn of another friend getting laid off.

My one piece of advice for you if you get laid off: apply for California unemployment benefits. As long as you didn't leave your job voluntarily and you are earning less than $600/week, you are eligible. And $450/week of income is better than nothing.

I always associate MLK Day with Shed a Little Light by James Taylor. It's a great song in its own right, and particularly apt today.

Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King,
And recognize that there are ties between us,
All men and women living on the Earth,
Ties of hope and love, of sister and brotherhood.

That we are bound together,
In our desire to see the world become,
A place in which our children
Can grow free and strong.

We are bound together,
By the task that stands before us,
And the road that lies ahead,
We are bound and we are bound.

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist.
There is a hunger in the center of the chest.
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist.
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest.

Shed a little light, oh Lord
So that we can see
Just a little light, oh Lord
Wanna stand it on up
Stand it on up, oh Lord
Wanna walk it on down
Shed a little light, oh Lord

Can't get no light from the dollar bill
Don't give me no light from a TV screen
When I open my eyes
I wanna drink my fill
From the well on the hill
(Do you know what I mean?)
...

You've got to give Obama credit for truly embracing the power of the internet. The Citizen's Briefing Book on Change.gov lets anyone submit an idea for improving the government, and then a Digg-like voting system filters floats the most popular ideas to the top.

Of course it's open for abuse. I wonder how well this new site can withstand the attacks that a site like Digg has already seen and now defends against? I also note that you don't need a SSN or any sort of proof of citizenship to create an account. So people all over the world can (and will) create ideas and vote on them.

Still, it's a good first step in more direct contact with citizens on important issues. If you end up over there, I'd appreciate a vote up on my idea: Make the health care problem our politicians' problem.

Thanks to the invaluable help of my co-blogger David Creemer, 3 different Macs, 2 hours, the interwebs and a glass of 17-year-old scotch, I now pwn my iPhone and am happily using it on the T-mobile network.

Unfortunately it's not as good of a deal as one could previously get. T-Mobile wised up to the fact that their $6/month T-Zones option was leaving too much money on the table. It's now $25/month for unlimited data. But when coupled with their cheapest calling plan ($30/month), it's still $20/month cheaper than an equivalent plan from AT&T. I'll take it.

Sadly, the T-mobile coverage map lied. I was sure I'd get a stronger signal in my house than with AT&T, but it turns out to be worse: 1 bar if I'm lucky. I may end up back at AT&T for this reason alone. Or maybe I'll try to get something like this cell phone signal booster. Of course I could pay for 15 months of AT&T before I'd break even on this $300 gadget.

As I was finishing up a design spec on Monday, I was getting a bunch of error messages like the ones shown here. And then things went south in a hurry. The app started crashing about every minute, and would always crash when trying to view the last page in the document. Thankfully I didn't need to edit that page in order to finish the design and PDF it (it was an appendix of older design alternatives).

The next day I tried again. Same problem. It got so bad, I actually started submitting the crash reports :-) Then I contacted technical support. They pointed me to a beta version of the app. I installed and have been running it ever since. Works like a charm.

So if you are an OmniGraffle user, I'd recommend you get the beta, especially if you're experiencing any crashes.

As for the overall experience, it was pretty good. Ideally, the app would alert me to beta builds as well as official updates, especially if it noticed the multiple crashes. And also ideally, the crash report system would alert me to the beta as well. But at least I did get the info eventually, and quickly.

I've been in full-on job search mode for about 3 months now. I've sent out close to 50 inquiries, talked to a couple dozen companies, and did an interview loop through a dozen. Through all of this, I've gotten clear in my mind what would constitute the ideal recruiting process, from the candidate's viewpoint.

1. Post in popular design forums: IxDA, Boxes and Arrows, 37Signals, Coroflot, Smashing Magazine and Good Experience. It also wouldn't hurt to get on some of the more general forums like LinkedIn, Venture Loop, Startuply, Simply Hired, and Indeed.
2. Use the right keywords for the role and description: Interaction Design (IxD), User Experience Design (UE/UX), Interface Design, wireframes, paper prototypes, user stories, task flows, UI specs... This shows you understand the role and what they will bring to your organization. If you simply ask for a generic designer, people will think you just want a graphic designer who knows Photoshop and can help you with your business cards and logo.
   
3. Do not recruit for a "designer +" dual-role, e.g. interaction designer + developer. I don't know why companies who would never, ever consider hiring a developer + product manager role, or marketing + accounting role, delude themselves thinking they can get someone who is a great designer and great at something else too something else. I'm sure you can find a few of them out there. But only in the most exceptional cases will they truly excel in both areas. Much more likely, they will be a jack of both trades, master of neither.
4. Great designers understand the importance of designing against clear goals. Every conflict I've ever had over one of my designs was either an aesthetic/subjective issue, or it was due to the fact that not everone had the same goals and priorities in mind when evaluating the design. Over many years, I've learned to spend at least as much time on defining the problem as I do on designing a solution.
   
5. Don't use a recruiter if you can get away without one. If you must use one, make sure they add value to the process, both for you and for the candidates. I've run into far too many recruiters who really don't understand what IxD is, and thus they can't really evaluate me and my fit for the role. And that's just frustrating. I'd much rather talk directly to the hiring manager and skip the intermediary.
6. Communicate impeccably throughout the whole interview process. Start with an overview of how the process works, and about how long it will take. Always follow up promptly minimally with the next step. If you don't want to pursue a candidate at any point, tell them. Immediately. Don't just let it drop. It takes only a minute, and it shows respect.
7. If you like the designer, tell them. Recruit them. Hiring someone is a two-way street. You are evaluating them for fit into the role and company, but they are doing the same with you. There was one company that really stood out on this point. They mentioned my design portfolio and how they loved my approach to design and the results achieved. I was initially lukewarm on them, but they won me over. I ended up taking a contract-to-hire gig with them.

I'd love your feedback on these, especially if you have specific feedback such as additions or changes.

Human civilization is about six thousand years old -- the first real civilizations arose in Mesopotamia about 4000 BC, give or take a few hundreds of years.

One human generation is generally regarded to be about 20-25 years or so. That means that from you and me, back to the dawn of human civilization is only about 250 generations. If we think in terms of life-spans, the number shrinks even more. From you, back through someone you knew (like a grandparent), back to the beginning of human history might be only about 120 "hops."

Life of any kind on Earth is about 3.5 billion years old. Even using the same life-span number (which is way too conservative -- i.e. mice don't live for 40-50 years) there are something like 100 million "hops" from you back to the origin of life.

I'm not sure why, but the contrast amazes me -- there might be only about 100 "degrees of separation" from me to Hammurabi. But the if the entire screen you're looking at right now represents the age of all life on Earth, our history is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. <-- (that was is it back there).

LifeHacker turned me onto this site. Apparently, booze makers have marketing money to spend on handing out free samples of their products. My Open Bar lists these promotional events. I've not tried it, but it seems like the perfect thing for these tough economic times. Withdraw from the harsh realities of everyday life in an alcohol-induced haze, and pay nothing for the privilege. I'll see ya there. And I'll even get you a drink.

While I was back in Michigan dealing with the aftermath of my mom's death, I talked to her lawyer. There were a couple of non-obvious about inheritance that I think everyone should know.

1. Assets with beneficiaries set are automatically transferred without going through probate. This means creditors cannot touch those assets. They are no longer a part of the estate upon death.
   
2. Next-of-kin are not responsible for the debts of the deceased. Any creditor telling you otherwise is simply trying to extort money from you. Therefore, do not pay any bills on behalf of the deceased.
   

My mom did a pretty good job setting things up for my brother and me. She had a will drawn up by a lawyer, she had a letter of instruction, and she had an assortment of retirement funds, annuities, and life insurance policies with beneficiaries set.

However, her main bank account and her house did not, so those will end up going through probate. Thankfully, she was fiscally conservative. As far as we can tell, the only debt she had was the mortgage on the house, and whatever she had charged to her credit card in December. There probably will be some medical bills too from the day she died, but her insurance will cover most of that.

So in my case, probate will be really straightforward and easy. But imagine the case where there are massive hospital bills not covered by insurance, or credit card debt, or a house that was bought in the bubble and is now worth less than the mortgage. Creditors will have access to any assets in probate to cover their debts. Thus, the fewer assets in probate, the better.

To me, the horn is there for one reason only: to get the attention of someone outside your car. Whether it's another driver or a pedestrian. Tooting the horn is basically saying "Hello, I'm here. Maybe you didn't notice me. Maybe you did. But either way, we know for sure you do."

Given that, here are acceptable scenarios for using the horn:

• The light turned green and the driver in front of you hasn't noticed yet after a couple of seconds.
• A car signaling to move into your lane.
• A car moving into your lane oblivious to your existence.
  
• Coming up behind a cyclist who is riding in the center of the lane.
• A driver exiting a car parked on the side of the road as you approach.

Unacceptable scenarios include:

• that *$%&# cut me off!
• if this %*@&$ is gonna drive in the left lane, he %&*# well better go faster than that!
• My boss humiliated me today and I need to take it out on someone.
  

From my observations, horn are mostly used to express anger or irritation. I suppose it makes sense; The person feels this emotional build up, and the horn is a simply and obvious way to release it. But if you think about it, honking in anger ultimately does no good. What person, upon hearing a horn blasted at them in anger, is going to think, "Gee, I never really reflected on it before, but I believe the judgment of some utter stranger, and his klaxon is my wake-up call to change my erroneous ways."?

It's interesting how we tend to attribute malice to the people in traffic who do us wrong, and yet how often are we acting in malice in our own driving? Virtually never (I hope).

I used to be a more emotional driver. I know I'm mellowing out as I age and get more perspective (though not enough, as I'm sure my wife would tell you!). I now try approach my driving unemotionally, where the other cars on the road are merely obstacles programmed to act a certain way. I simply need to do my best to predict what the ones near me will do, and make my driving decisions accordingly to minimize a collision. Honking is merely a part of the automaton.

The airlines are hurting. Everyone is in this economy, but it's particularly evident in the airline industry. I took a round trip United flight, and I was simply stunned by the sheer amount of upsell they try to do during check-in.

All checked bags are an additional fee now: $15 for the first, $25 for the second. And you have the option of upgrading to Economy Plus (i.e. the amount of leg room that all of our seats once had), and they even try to sell you more frequent flyer miles.

I was a bit peeved about the luggage fee. But the since flight was free (using up my frequent flyer miles, before United goes under for good), I suppose I got a pretty good deal overall. And on the trip, I did figure out how to check your bags for free. I plan on doing this in the future. I encourage you and your friends to do the same.

Since all airlines are now charging for all checked luggage, most people now bring "carry-ons"--and I use that word quite loosely. The vast majority of these bags are rolled, dragged or lugged on, but never carried. With so many travellers carrying on, the overhead bins are full before the plan is even halfway boarded. So now the rest of the passengers are getting on with their luggage, and there's no where to put it. Well, there is the space under the seat in front of them, but let's be honest; it would simply be too base, too inconvinient, to stow it there. As if that monstrosity would even fit.

These poor souls are now wandering up and down the aisle staring wide-eyed at the row of full bins. They absentmindedly open the closed bins, as if one of these will magically turn out to be empty. It never is.

At this point the flight attendants are doing everything they can to get the plane boarded and pushed back for an on-time departure. They're not going to charge you to check that bag. They don't have time to deal with processing credit cards and making change for a $50. They happily take your bag, slap a tag on it, then fling it out the door for the ground crew to deal with.

So that's the secret: Carry everything on, then check it at the gate. It's more limiting in that you have to abide by the TSA rules du jour, but hey, you'll save enough for a nice meal at one of the fine dining establishments at the airport.

This sounds like a line out of Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen), but surprisingly it's not in there. It should be. It's exactly fits the seemingly trite but really profound advice in that song.

Take more pictures.

As my brother and I were planning for my mom's memorial service, we needed to get about 30 pictures of her throughout her life for a slide show. Dan already had 20 from the ones he found in her house, and the many he had of her with his girls (her granddaughters). So I just had to pick 10 of the best from my collection.

I found 9. 9 pictures of my mom in all of my digital photos. I've been taking digital pictures since I got my first digital camera around Halloween 1998. I have well north of 15,000 pictures. And I have 9 unique, good pictures of my mom.

3 of those I scanned in from my wedding pictures. And granted, I do have more of her at the wedding. But most of those are dupes; her standing in formation with various permutations of the family, with slight smile variants in each.

The last really good picture I have of her is from Mother's Day, 2005. 3½ years ago. I've seen her many times since. I have pictures from those visits. Mostly of the girls, my nieces. I have the side of her head. an arm holding a granddaughter's hand. Her fuzzy in the background.

I even have a bunch of my dad from this time. He had a stroke, on top of a litany of other heath problems. We're all acutely aware of his mortality. But we didn't think the same way about my mom.

I'm trying the be pragmatic about it. She didn't mind. To her, the granddaughters were the center of attention. They are a the ones that should have their pictures taken. But I can't help but feel a little guilty and a lot stupid. After all, it takes a minimal amount of time and effort to move the camera 1° and take one more picture.

So do it. Don't take anyone in your life for granted. And if you've got the camera out, get a picture of everyone.