I’m sure the ThoughtWorkers will love this:
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ThoughtWorks Chicago Entrance Sign Mockup & Photoshop & Human Performance
ThoughtWorks Chicago Entrance Sign Mockup
Originally uploaded by josh.ev9.
This afternoon I threw together a mockup of what the new sign in the entrance of the new ThoughtWorks Chicago office will look like. I worked with Michael, who did the actual design of the sign.
Photoshop is, in fact, quite powerful. I’m becoming really in tune with it, after many years of practice. Photoshop has some really really advanced features that are difficult to understand. I’ve found that once you figure out how to use them, in a one-by-one fashion they become easier to understand. Still, it takes a lot of patience.
In the book I’m currently reading there was some talk about how machines should/could be used to not simply help people do their work, but to take human performance to the next level. That is, computers and technology shouldn’t just be easy to use…they should help people do things they couldn’t do before.
I don’t know if that’s happening today. I see organizations doing things they could not have done without computers, but individuals…not so much. Sure, people do some things with computers that could not have been done otherwise…but on the whole, we’re doing a lot of reading, writing, printing, etc. The stuff we’ve always done, just in a digital format.
Why do I bring this up? Well, today is World Usability Day! Usability is concerned with making tools easier to use and understand. But what I think we’ve lost in all this talk of usability is the idea that we should be helping humans do things that they could not have done at all without the technology we create. It’s not just about being “user-friendly,” rather, we should be “user-empowering.” Right?
Where do you stand on the issue of Usability vs. Human Performance? Weigh in with a comment.
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Celebrate World Usability Day 2006
Wishing you and yours a delightful World Usability Day, from josh.ev9.org. More details, and perhaps an editorial, are forthcoming.
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I miss California
As the days get shorter and colder here in Chicago, a feeling has been bugging me deep down in my soul. I’m missing California, and the feeling of being at home. I know if I were there now, I’d probably be unhappy about some things. The traffic always sucks. My rent would triple. I’d spend a hellofalot more time behind the wheel of my car.
Still, that warm sun does something to my disposition, and seems to make everybody a bit more upbeat. The winter time is tough, but I’ll get through it. Maybe I should plan a weekend trip to California one of these days…
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Best. Radio. Show. Ever.
You could call me an avid This American Life listener. The first half of the How To episode is by far my favorite segment ever. Imagine Ira Glass, Sarah Vowell, and the CarTalk guys, all in one episode. Great stuff.
I almost laughed out loud a number of times on the way home this evening. I held it in, though…for the sake of the other passengers on the bus.
Have a listen.
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Do you see it?
There’s something different about my blog compared to the last time you saw it. First right guess gets a prize. Maybe it’ll be you.
(Maybe a better prize will go to the third guess…)
Josh
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Election 2006 InfoGraphic Design
Tonight is a big night here in the US. It’s election night, one of my favorite nights of the year. Well, it doesn’t really happen every year, but still. I like it. Ok? Alright.
This evening I was hanging out at NPR.org checking out the stats. One of the reasons I enjoy election nights is the interesting ways that the news organizations use information graphics. Check out this nifty little image:
I really like the use of the “finish line” for control of the house. This image is instantly understandable. The big story all over the news right now is about how close this election will be with respect to Democrats gaining control of the House & Senate, and this image simply explains how that is playing out. Kudos to NPR.
Now let’s check out MSNBC‘s little visual tool:
This visualization definitely has its merits. The “speedometer” metaphor is a good one, but seems to connote a feeling of “slow” for Democrats and “fast” for Republicans. Still, it makes visual sense. One complaint I have is that the text is just too small, but that’s nitpicky as well. The biggest problem with this graphic is that it packs so much information into a small space. It’s hard to take away any substantial meaning from this graphic at a glance. One speedometer would have said so much more than the combination of two.
Finally, let’s have a look at a graphic from CNN.com:
What’s with those colors? I count 5 separate colors, each of which I suppose is meant to mean one of 3 things:
- Blue = Democrat
- Red = Republican
- Grey = No election in this term
I have no idea what the in-between colors are for. That horrible neon blue means nothing to me…and neither does the green…despite the one-liner instruction. And to top it off, there is no key (no, that bar with graphics at the top does not count as a key). Come on, CNN, you can do better with your InfoGraphics (in fact, you have to, it’s one of your biggest nights of the year).
So now we’ve seen some good, bad, and ugly of Election InfoGraphic Design. You can weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below. Check it out, my blog is a mini democracy. Cool beans.
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Vote Today!
Just a reminder from your friend at josh.ev9.org. Do your civic duty today. Get out and vote!
Yesterday I spent $14.40 in order to vote, that’s how die-hard I am. My California absentee ballot didn’t show up in the mail until Saturday afternoon, so yesterday I had to ship my ballot via ExpressMail, which arrives by noon the following day. I almost didn’t pay, $15 is a bit steep just for one person’s vote, but if there’s anything I’ve learned from my politically-minded family and friends it’s that YOU MUST VOTE when you get the opportunity. So I did.
So should you. Go vote!
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Is Chicago the next hotbed of Digital Design?
Now, I have no hard evidence to prove or disprove my hypothesis, but I get the feeling that there’s a Design tradition brewing in the Chicagoland area. Heck, it may precede my days here. Still, before I came to Chicago, if you were to ask me (and most of my design-minded friends, I’m sure) where the hotbeds of Design are, cities such as New York and San Francisco would probably be the first American cities to be named. After that there are a handful of other cities worldwide that come to mind, but Chicago? No way. No how.
That may all be changing. In the past few months it’s been hard to miss some exciting, new companies with brilliant, forward thinking ideas. It also just so happens that these companies are based in my new hometown.
37signals and Humanized seem to be thinking about both technical and real-life* issues with healthy doses of (big D) Design thinking. Creative, agile thinking has and will keep these companies ahead of the curve. If I have anything to say about it, ThoughtWorks will learn from the Design field as well. We’re great at what we do, but we’re also really good at learning new things. I hope TW will be part of the technology-based paradigm shift that I see happening around me in Chicago. I have no doubt we can make it happen.
* Real-life issues = stuff that matters to everyday, normal, honest-to-goodness, down home, “just like your momma, poppa, grandma, and uncle” people.
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Refocusing the Blog
So it seems I’ve turned on my most prized readership. When I started this blog, there was one group of people in particular to whom I regularly directed my writing: my family and friends. My posts of late have featured more than a normal amount of Techno-speak, which is not all that fun to read for many of my readers.
I attribute this change in focus to the fact that my blog is now a part of the ThoughtBlogs, so my voice doesn’t only represent me, but the company I work for as well. Being syndicated on other sites gives me a bit of the heebie-jeebies, and makes me not want to talk about things that are all that personal…for whatever reasons.
I need to do something about this. I want my friends and family back. I know my writing has ignored you a bit, and I’m sorry about that. I’ll do better.For everybody else, no worries. I’ll still be around (and plenty technical…if you can call my writing techinical at all), but you might just not see the personal stuff unless you surf on over to the blog itself.
Speaking of which, have you checked out the new design yet?
