Daniel Naumann

Here’s a great presentation on slideshare that runs through what social media is and why companies should pay attention:

The general idea is that a massive amount of the general internet users are using social media sites/apps and it’s growing fast (which also means quite a lot of your customers are using social media). they will talk about you whether you like it or not – you can’t control it. So move away from your one-way communication models (like “campaigns”) and engage social media to facilitate 2-way communication models (like “conversations”).

I also like the presentation style – one main point per slide (not slides full of bullet points and text).

Thanks to Mark Whelan (via Sensis Yammer) for this one.

Cheers,
Dan.

All the different acronyms and versions can get confusing. Here’s a nice cartoon that explains what XHTML is and how it relates to HTML 5, etc.:

Warning educational and fun!

Thanks to Smashing Magazine for this one.

I can’t say I’ve ever thought of using a small car to design a font. Actually I’ve never thought about designing a font at all, but luckily for us, Pierre Smeets and Damien Aresta have. They teamed up with Toyota (using their new iQ car) and drove the car around to create the lines that form the font.

Neat.

Thanks to Ben Crapp (via twitter) for this one.

Cheers,
Dan.

You see some cool projection projects, but this one is absolutely stunning:http://vimeo.com/5595869 Seriously, just watch it, I promise you’ll be amazed.

It’s pretty much just an art piece, but I’m sure there would be some interesting applications (unfortunately probably for commercial organisations to have animated logos or something equally annoying).

Thanks to James Mansfield (via twitter) for this one.

Cheers,
Dan.

A while ago I asked several people which podcasts they listen to. I checked out the suggestions and found a few myself. Here’s a list of what I found:

Adaptive Path: Not bad, but a little dull. I’ve only managed to listen to a handful of these because other ones are more interesting. The sound volume is all over the place too which is annoying with headphones. They tend to be a good length though (20-30min)

Boagworld Web Design Advice: Pretty good. Can be a little heavy on the plugs (they are an agency and they have sponsors for the show) so fast-forward the start. The 2 guys are entertaining with some good banter which keeps me interested. They also have midland/northern England accents which I find adds to the amusement level (I know it shouldn’t, but I just like hearing accents). Can get a bit long though.

Boxes and Arrows: Actually I’ve just realised that I haven’t listened to one of these yet… I do like the website though if that helps.

Design Critique: Products for People: 2 US guys with the occasional guest critique a product – from a UX point of view. They can stray from the UX angle a bit into personal preference, but I like their banter and tend to hold me interest even though their shows can sometimes go a little long (30-60min). It seems to be product reviews as opposed to software/websites, which can be a nice change.

Design Guy: I love these. Super short (always less than 10min) and each episode about a single theme. Pretty much aimed as visual design, each episode explains a “timeless principles, simple explained”. For example he’ll explain what design is, or what a designer is/does, basic Gestalt theory, colour theory, embracing constraints, etc. good stuff.

Simplexity of Design: OMG this was boring – such a monotone voice. It’s a guy keeping a record of his masters thesis. He basically talk about his findings, etc. The main problem is that he is reading it without any expression. Maybe he says some good things, I wouldn’t know, I’ve zoned out in 30 seconds.

UXDesignCast: Maybe it was just the ones I got, but the guy doing the interview, or just talking to himself something, would cure insomnia. He doesn’t seem to do them all but I can’t be bothered finding the ones he doesn’t do. The interviews weren’t very thought provoking anyway.

UXpod: Melbourne’s own Gerry Gaffeny (well kind of Melbourne’s). Great topics, great interviews and again an amusing accent. Wins me over every time. I think this might be my favourite design/ux one so far.

TED: Lots of people recommended the TED talks and I now see why. These things are freaking amazing. Any topic is up for grabs. The presenters are almost always excellent and the topics are usually presented in such a great way. You’ll get exposed to everything and anything. Just go watch them. Now. Well maybe after work at least.

And there you go.  I hope someone found that helpful

The infosthetics blog sums it up nicely: The beautifully made infographic animated movie “It’s Time for Real / Eat Local, Eat Real” highlights the increasing tendency of food importation, and how this phenomenon influences the economy, the environment and our neighbourhoods. The message is mainly meant for Canadians, but certainly applies universally.

Courtesy of the infosthetics blog

Surfing and Design working together. Does it get any more beautiful? No, it doesn’t, that was a rhetorical question.

Thomas Meyerhoffer has been busy designing a new surfboard shape, and it’s pretty crazy.

Thomas has designed for Apple and Porsche, so he’s got some skill. It’s interesting to see him apply this to surfboard design, which hasn’t changed a lot for 40 or so years. He’s done a hell of a lot of user testing too

You can see it in action as well.

Thanks to James Mansfield for pointing this one out to me (via twitter).

There is a lot of things to like about Firefox, but with a recent upgrade to 3.5 yesterday, I’ve noticed a nice little change. Firefox asks you if you’d like to save a username/password when logging in to sites – this is nothing special as all browsers do that. But they’ve changed the message now if there is already an existing password saved for that site/username.

It use to just always ask “Do you want Firefox to store this password?” (or something like that) regardless if it was the first or tenth time for the site. But now it asks “Would you like to change the stored password for ” – if you’ve previously saved a password for the site.

The message is much clearer as I always wondered whether Firefox was just adding another entry in it’s password list or overwriting the old one. Now I know

If you’re like me you’re probably getting a little sick of MJ’s songs (I like his stuff, but days of nothing else is wearing thin…). But bare with me a little longer and check out the wonderful NY Times vis-graph of his music.

It has a nice timeline of his songs and where they placed in the Billboard 100. It also compares MJ to a couple of other artists (actually I was totally freaked out by the Maria Carey comparison – she’s had more number 1’s than MJ! Oh the humanity!).

Courtesy of: infosethics

Cheers,
Dan `The Smooth Criminal’ Naumann.

A report from Morgan Stanley on Gen Y usage of digital media  (PDF)

The report is actually written by an intern/work experience guy  who is Gen Y themselves. The report is about their personal usage and that of their friends. Morgan Stanley freely admit it’s not statistically significant, but thought it was interesting so decided to publish it.

I don’t think there is anything earth shattering in there, but the first person perspective is interesting.