Product Management
UX/UI & Interacion Design
Thoughts and Links
This is definitely great news and I wonder if this will also coincide with the launch of Brand Pages - as many Google Apps Accounts are actually small to medium businesses. #google #apps #GooglePlus #integration
Reshared post from +Ben Parr
Yup, Google Apps Support. Finally.
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Google+ To Support Google Apps in Next Few Days Google has announced that Google+ will support Google Apps accounts within the next few days.
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This website aims to build the visual language for the 99% movement, also known as Occupy Wallstreet. I find the idea interesting, and the icons are functional and the designs clear. But it also conveys that the 99% is a dull nameless mass - which is in my opinion in conflict with the diversity of opinions and goals of this heterogenous movement.
The website states that they try to unite the movement with an unified graphic language - but at the moment the language is not very unique. I think that the lowest denominator is not the best approach and there might be need for more thought and variety.
#OWS #design #Identity #style
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OccupyDesign Building a visual language for the 99%, grassroots style. Infographic + other protest signs, logistical signage, and universal icons to support the Occupy Together movement.
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Google's Analytics tool provides many insights - if you know what to look for. The new visualization reports should help people to understand more easily what is going on. It's basically a revamped path visualization like the one found in funnels, but available to all pages. Looking forward in using this tool. Reshared post from +Danny Sullivan
If you do graphics, you'll know about the famous Napoleon's March illustration from 1869 that shows how his army was wiped out. Now, Google Analytics lets you do the same charts for your own site, but hopefully with a better ending!
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Google Analytics Gains "Napoleon's March" Flow Visualization Charts Google Analytics announced a new set of reports that should help marketers and website owners to understand how users behave on their websites. The feature was presented this morning during Web 2.0 Su...
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A Book Apart, the excellent publishing company started by +Jeffrey Zeldman has published 2 new books today. They are inexpensive and always a great read - and for the first time also available as a bundle. This books are also a great read not only for designers and developers, but also for project managers and clients who want to understand what all the fuzz is about the latest trends in web design is ... they might skip the technical parts but grasp a broad view what to expect and what not.
#book #abookapart #epub #design #suggestion
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A Book Apart, Designing for Emotion & Mobile First Bundle Designing for Emotion & Mobile First Bundle. Designing for Emotion & Mobile First Bundle Designing for Emotion. View more images. Paperback bundle $30.00 + shipping + Add. ebook bundle $15.00 ...
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Designers might want to add layout templates for Google Presentations to the brand standards they deliver to their clients. I find myself helping clients move to Google Apps for their Email and basic Office needs - the only part missing until now was a valid Powerpoint alternative.
I will have to try the new functions and see if it has offline capabilities ... that would be killer - especially for client presentations with a tablet.
Does anyone else have alternatives to Google Presentations?
#Google #Apps #Presentation #Powerpoint
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Official Google Blog: A fresh start for Google presentations A fresh start for Google presentations. 10/18/2011 08:00:00 AM. A year and a half ago, we released completely new document, spreadsheet and drawing editors. Google Docs has been picking up speed ever ...
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While there are enough Families with problems in their own household finances, the US Government really is in bad shape if you apply a "normal" view. #government #spending #data #visualization
Reshared post from +Joseph Pred
Here is why S&P downgraded the US credit rating.
• U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000 • Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000 • New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000 • National debt: $14,271,000,000,000 • Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000
Now let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.
• Annual family income: $21,700 • Money the family spent: $38,200 • New debt on the credit card: $16,500 • Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710 • Total budget cuts: $385
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I read a lot about the importance of "less" features and better experience. The mobile first movement comes to mind and I can totally see that it makes sense to not get caught in a Featuremania, but sometimes one feature is more than important, even though it's small. Example: How Remember the Milk (a popular Todo-List App) got me back to their service
Remember the Milk has a lot of features, actually it had all the features I needed - Super Easy Task property input through shortcodes, Locations, Web Interface, Mobile App with Widgets, Automatic Syncing etc. but one ... You couldn't create a new task with the Android Share Menu from another App. This feature would have been super easy to implement and a small update would have fixed this.
The developer preferred to make a complete overhaul of the Android App (without telling anyone) and didn't update the App for months.
This made me look for other solutions and try about 10 other services and get really frustrated. Not only because the user experience was different with other services, but mostly because they where lacking one or another feature I used to love on RTM (Remember The Milk).
I settled for Google Tasks and a nice Mobile App to manage them, even though it lacked a nice web interface and the ease of adding Task properties with shortcodes - but it had the feature I was looking for - the Add Task through the "share menu" in Android.
And here comes the update to the Android App of RTM today ... a lot of bells and whistles and improved use experience, but more important for me ... the share functionality is included.
So I'm back on my favourite Todo-List App/Web Service ...
What I learned Designers are often focused on the experience and try to simplify the functionality to make a slick web/mobile app - but sometimes the little bit more on functionality is more important than the updated icon or slicker dashboard screens
#RTM #UX #Design #Development
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The ginormous Remember The Milk for Android update - Remember The Milk Blog ARCHIVES. October 2011; September 2011; August 2011; July 2011; June 2011; May 2011; April 2011; March 2011; February 2011; January 2011; December 2010; November 2010. View all archives, October 2011,...
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To all freelancer building websites for small businesses. For you it's easy to add them to Google Places, so offer it as a service to your clients. The benefits to them will be in the long run. It's not just for mobile usage - Google Places results are shown on the desktop as well and is easy SEO.
#smb #clientservice #seo
Reshared post from +Sam Denton
Making Your Small Business Known to Google
The other night I posted some photographs from a Halloween party at the home of some friends of my family. They run a small business from their home and, as a favor, I thought that I'd check in at that business, but they did not show up on Google's list of places where I could check in.
Then over the weekend, my friend +Philip Newell noted that he had visited the August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area. While there, he wanted to check in at a local outfitter but they, too, did not show up on the list of places, and he was wondering, "Why not?"
So I decided to investigate. Google has three programs for businesses wishing to advertise themselves. The simplest one is also free, registration with Google Places. However, it is the business owner's responsibility to register. Below, I have copied instructions for how to do so from the Google Places website. Once registered, it should show up as a place where Google+ users can check in.
http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=143059&rd=1 If you own a business, you probably know the basics. You can add extras like photos and descriptions if you have them handy, or come back to add them later. At the end of the sign-up, we'll ask you to verify your submission by phone or postcard. We do this to make sure that only the right people are able to change any public data about your business.
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When the first version of that app came out I thought it would go into this direction - the universal translator is near. #android #translation #voice
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I'm interested to see if this really plays out this way. They had for sure some lawyers looking over this issue beforehand. In my opinion they made a new launcher which skinned the whole operating system (just like other phone manufacturers do) and closed sourced that part. I can't see anything wrong with that.
Will stay on top of this topic.
#android #opensource #kindle
Reshared post from +Henrý Þór Baldursson
Hey Amazon. Will we have to sue you to get access to the source for Amazon's Kindle Fire operating system that you
stolebased off Android? If you don't provide source for GPL code that you use and have modified for your tablet, then you'll lose the copyleft permissions granted to you by the license. Hence, you'll be unable to release software based on Linux and the other GPL'd bits of software in Android.
http://kdk.amazon.com has a form to request "beta developer" approval, that I've applied for. If anyone gets denied that access, and there's no other way to get the SDK and the source for the GPL'd licensed software, then I certainly hope the FSF sues Amazon's asses off.
GPL doesn't just mean "Ooh, free stuff I can appropriate into my own product and sell for gobs of money", that's the BSD License. GPL means you can redistribute and modify software, as long as you provide the sourcecode with any modifications.
Failure to do that results in loss of privileges to the original source. If that happens, then have fun trying to keep your Kindle Fire ecosystem alive.
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Kindle Development Kit for Active Content Build innovative active content for Kindle, Amazon's wireless reading device. The Kindle Development Kit (KDK) provides rich APIs, tools, and documentation to help you create active content for E ...
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I'm just listening right this moment to the audiobook of +Jeff Jarvis Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live- so will switch my headphones to hear this talk :)
Reshared post from +Jeff Jarvis
Please come join the Facebook talk I'll be giving this afternoon at HQ about Public Parts and privacy. They're streaming live at 3p PT, 6p ET. It's public, of course.
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Facebook Live with Jeff Jarvis, Author of Public Parts | Facebook
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No time for reading about Design? Want to get an insight what designers/developers/artists think about their work directly from their voice? Why not listen to some design podcasts. I often feel that written interviews are edited versions of the voice of designers - interpretations of the designers thought by writers and editors. In podcast interviews I can not only hear the voice but also get an idea about the character and the importance of a subject to a designer - it's a real conversation after all. I will share weekly a podcast who inspires me to do better work and/or think differently about my work.
First off a very popular one - Design Matters with Debbie Millman Design Matters with Debbie Millman is a thought-provoking internet podcast, which profiles industry-leading graphic designers, change agents, artists, writers and educators.
Although very popular I just found out about this great interview series - take you time to listen also to the archive. Here are the links - Enjoy: - http://observermedia.designobserver.com/show_designmatters.html - http://observermedia.designobserver.com/show_designmattersarchive.html - Podcast Subscription URL: http://designobserver.com/show.designmatters2009-10.xml
#podcast #design #interview #inspiration #education
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Design Matters Archive: Observer Media: Design Observer
09.23.11. Jessica Hische In this podcast interview with Debbie Millman, Jessica Hische discusses her attachment to the internet, the differences between being a letterer and a type designer and workin...
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I would love to see the Send To button also in the mobile version of the website and the app ... Reshared post from +Seyhun Akyürek
How To Share Google Reader Stories to Google Plus. You can share content with any circles. Cool tip. #google+
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How To Share Google Reader Stories to Google Plus Those of us who are still playing with Google Plus are eagerly awaiting its further integration into other Google services (in ways other than the red box in the top right corner). The updates are com...
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Not officially linked from their mobile apps page but it is real. To be honest I look forward to the Android Tablet Version - but this is a start. After reading some posts from other designers it seams that also the redesigned mobile website also looks very similar on a tablet.
#facebook #ipad #app #mobile
Reshared post from +Daniel Stoddart
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Facebook for iPad With hi-res photos, games, chat and more, it's the best of Facebook-on your iPad.
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One of my big passions is food and cooking, not surprising as I'm italian. Before living in North America, Spaghetti with Meatballs was something fictional, only seen on TV Shows and in Movies - something that doesn't exist (because you cannot find it in Europe, let alone Italy).I was almost shocked to see "italian" restaurants present Spaghetti with Meatballs as authentic cuisine ... then I discovered this article which explains it all... :) #cooking #italian #american
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Spaghetti with Meatballs | Almost Italian This dish, perhaps more than any other, has defined Italian-American cuisine. In fact, the concept of Spaghetti with Meatballs inspired the first edition of Almost Italian
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This is even more a pain if your are a freelancer and don't want to buy multiple licenses of Windows/OSX/Etc. There are many tools out there who take screenshots, but this new one is one step further.
An easy to use interface loads virtualized Windows/Mac/etc instances with the browser running. That means you can test hoover and real interaction of the website in the chosen browser. Great and cheap.
#webdesign #testing #browser
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Cross-Browser Testing Tool - BrowserStack Online way to test your website for browser compatibility. All versions of IE, Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera. Fix issues instantly.
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If you follow to many people you might miss a tweet. You might point out that's the point of Twitter, to not be forced to see everything. But I often followed someone because I wanted to see the latest update. Especially now that I'm living in Google+ I will miss certain tweets. This is where http://ifttt.com/ comes to help. The "If this then that" web app is the perfect partner for this kind of tasks.
I made a recipe which monitors a specific Twitter account for any updates and sends me an email.
Another recipe I use - I created a extra calendar and IFTT makes a new entry for every day it rains - so I will have a personal records of the how many days it rained here in Vancouver - just to compare my personal impression with some facts.
Have you used iftt.com and what are your uses?
#iftt #lifehacker #twitter
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ifttt / Put the internet to work for you. Put the internet to work for you.
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Great discussion and article - from the comments you can see that there are many car drivers who have never been to a place where a city hasn't got a rectangular grid. #design #city
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Invention: The ‘Liquid Grid’ Street Layout, A Replacement For Cul-De-Sacs & Block Grids | Chris Norstrom Chris Norström on ui, ux, design, ideas, and storytelling. Search for: Skip to content. ALL; Creations + Inventions + Ideas. Creations only; Inventions only; Ideas only. Redesigns; Logos; Other. Artic...
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#font #webfont #typekit
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New FontFont web fonts Today, even more FontFont web fonts are available to host on Typekit: the FF Nexus superfamily, FF Karbid (in several optical styles), and FF Signa Serif. And augmenting your Typekit library subscr......
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Reshared post from +Matt Steiner
Just when I thought my opinion of law makers could not go any lower
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Access To Italian Wikipedia Blocked In Protest Of Wiretapping Bill In Italy | Techdirt If you go to the Italian version of Wikipedia, you will not find a gateway to 847,000 articles in that language, but (at the time of writing, at least) an unusual letter to the reader:
the Italian ...
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