Archive for September, 2009

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Postcript is…

29 September, 2009

A brief postscript to my “Design is…” post from a couple of weeks ago.

I used the design ideas from Presentation Zen to give a speech, a speech that needed to use visual aids at Toastmasters.

Toastmasters is a club that focuses on public speaking, and some members of my club are a little allergic to using powerpoint for this project. I was toying with the idea of using fabric samples to illustrate the colour wheel, but when someone in the club said that powerpoint was always awful I decided to rise to the challenge.

Illustrating claustrophobia

Illustrating claustrophobia

I choose “Fear” as my subject, and gave an 8 slide presentation (the speech is 6 minutes) using images to illustrate the various fears we have and our reactions to them. I got positive feedback on the night.

Even better at the following meeting two people came up and said they’d “copied” the concept of my presentation – that is they’d gone for image heavy presentations rather than text and bullet points. I recommended the book and website of Presentation Zen – I really can’t take any credit for the concept but I’m so happy that that others are picking up on it.

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Burn the candle at both ends

18 September, 2009

Picture 5I’ve been working pretty hard of late, trying to deliver a site to test with the network (which is now done, and we’re waiting for feedback – nervously), and I said to someone that I’d been “burning the candle at both ends”.  He looked happy for me, and asked me about what wild stuff I’d been up to.

That’s when I found out that the definition I’d been working with is something I invented; I’d always thought it mean you’d had to use candles – or the modern equivalent electric light – at each end of the day.

My friend was using the modern meaning of living at a hectic pace – and assuming I still had a life outside work.

The original meaning is different again. Candles were valuable and burning them at both ends was wasteful, you would have to hold the candle horizontally and it would burn faster. The wasteful meaning was so strong that it was applied to couples when both the husband and wife were spendthrifts.

Well I’ve been too busy to spend any money, so that’s definitely not the meaning I had in mind.

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Design is…

16 September, 2009

Picture 3One of the frustrations of being involved in a design process is that every can have an opinion on design, and express it. Having recently heard design dismissed as “aesthetics” (by a non-designer, obviously) I’ve been looking harder at some discussions of design principles.

Common principles include; balance, rhythm, proportion, dominance, unity, negative space, and colour. These are discussed on Digital Web in some detail.

I’ve noticed is that there is a lack of understanding of these principles, and almost no understanding of the interplay between the principles. If, for example you change the colour of an element on your site from bright red to pale grey that element will recede. It will no longer be dominant, and your site may look unbalanced as a result.

And in my research I found a lovely discussion on Presentation Zen – a site well worth visiting for design inspiration – about Japanese principles of design. Emphasis is on providing a quietness in design allowing what is essential to be more apparent.

Seijaku (静寂)Tranquility or an energized calm (quite), stillness, solitude. This is related to the feeling you may have when in a Japanese garden. The opposite feeling to one expressed by seijaku would be noise and disturbance. How might we bring a feeling of “active calm” and stillness to ephemeral designs outside the Zen arts?

It’s a quality overlooked in many website designs; we’re often so focussed on impact, or trying to accomodate competing needs on the one page, that this simplicity is lost. I think it’s worth reviewing your designs for what can be REMOVED as well as what more can be added.

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Get Motivated

14 September, 2009

Guess what! Motivating people by money alone doesn’t work. Or at least it only works in a very narrow set of circumstances. There’s been a lot of talk about the bonus culture of the banking system, and its part in the current crisis so this presentation is timely.

He promotes the idea that giving people “autonomy, mastery and purpose” will be more effective than the traditionaly “carrot and stick” model of motivation currently in general use. Take a look; it’s interesting, and part of  a book “Drive” coming out in December (you can pre-order now).

more about “Get Motivated“, posted with vodpod

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Are you stranded?

10 September, 2009

I’m sometimes stranded; I wrote a policy about blogging and social media 2 years ago, checked it with legal etc, took it to business heads and published it – all in a couple of weeks.  Because back then no-one really thought this “web 2.0″ would come to anything. My discussions met with blank looks. It was disheartening but I figured I would just go forward and do what I could – sooner or later they’d wake up – or I’d be proven wrong!

So what can you do when the world isn’t “getting it” and you’re stranded?

A blog post from Harvard suggests 5 tips to re-energise yourself

  1. Look ahead of the curve.
    Read/follow bloggers etc who are on the edge – waiting for print will guarantee that you’ll be out of date.Yes obviously, plus you should be living what you’re preaching.
  2. Don’t tell people what they want to hear.
    But real innovators aren’t afraid to stick their necks out and say or tweet what they really think.

    Yes! Often the message is diluted or compromised by absorbing other’s needs or business demands. It’s good to keep the high level message simple, strong and repeated.

  3. Follow your heart.
    The volume of ideas and information online makes it virtually impossible to sift and analyze your way to the very best of the best. There always will be a new new thing, and in my experience, searching for the bleeding edge is just a recipe for blood loss.

    Yes! Plus stop following the crowd, start from what’s right for your business and where your passion is, not from some reported “best practice”.

  4. Picture 1Get un-stranded.
    Look for the people in your industry or field who are blogging or twittering about the kinds of innovation you’re advocating.

    Yes, I think of this as building a horizontal network – and I would suggest looking beyond your own industry to other industries which may share some characteristic of your own industry. For example, my company is a financial services company, this is a highly regulated industry. Looking at another highly regulated industry – the pharmaceutical industry – can be helpful.

  5. Hire a buddy.
    You wouldn’t swim alone; you don’t need to evangelize alone, either. Dig into that network for an employee, consultant or colleague who can back you up when it’s time to make your case.

    Yes, and sometimes an external person (sadly) has more credibility than an internal person.

It’s a good list; I’d also say that practical results are more convincing that the best presentation or a dozen meetings. So if you can identify a simple business question that your innovation can answer you might get more followers than holding a dozen meetings.

image from goldring via flickr

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Video Magazine

2 September, 2009

Imagine opening up your magazine and finding a full video player… very minority report.

Unfortunately I’m on the wrong side of the Atlantic to receive this (oh, and I’m not a subscriber to Entertainment Weekly). So it goes.

I think the technology behind this is great, and the potential for other uses is huge – for advertising and content. To see the detail behind the technology and some other uses there’s another video on YouTube.

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