Why I Use AddThis

Here's a nice article by David Pierce talking about AddThis personalization and why he uses the AddThis sharing platform on his site. Couldn't have explained it better myself- thanks David!

• Why I Use AddThis | Digitizd Plus

On Creativity and Design

Matt Ward poses the question, can creativity and design be independent of each other? As designers, we can create beautiful, functional and highly usable experiences without necessarily being "creative", in the sense of bringing something into being that has never been seen before.

However, as the web is a shared medium where, in most circumstances, the user is trying to *do* something, is this a bad thing? Is the thoughtful construction of typography and visual elements using a grid, open standards and best practices "creativity", or just clever synthesis? Interesting questions, as we think through our roles as both artists and practitioners.

Read more:

• On Creativity & Design

Follow: A New AddThis Labs Experiment

This morning we released a new feature in AddThis Labs called AddThis Follow. You've probably noticed "Follow us on Facebook..." and similar links on various websites you've visited. We thought we'd offer our AddThis publishers an easy way to not only quickly add this feature to their site, but also track clickthroughs to their social profiles right in their AddThis analytics console.

I've added my own Follow menu to this blog, over on the right side of the page.

This new feature supports social profiles on Facebook, Twitter, RSS, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, YouTube and Flickr. Once visitors start using it, I'll be able to go to my AddThis.com analytics, switch from "Sharing" to "Subscribe/Follow" data and track how my visitors are connecting to my various social media profiles.

We'd love to hear what you think of this experiment; would you use it? Are there things you would add or change? Give us your feedback in the AddThis Follow forum.

Get a Follow menu for your own site here:

• AddThis Follow Labs Experiment

Read more:

• Justin Thorp's official blog post

Twitter Blog: The 2010 World Cup: a Global Conversation

Beautiful infographic displaying how Twitter usage and content evolved over the course of the World Cup. Enjoy!

Read more:

Twitter Blog: The 2010 World Cup: a Global Conversation

Design Leadership

This is a fantastic presentation from the creative folks at Frog Design, outlining what it takes to be a great design leader. Highly recommending reading for my creative brethren. Enjoy!

Work in Progress: Thoughts on Design Leadership

View more presentations from frog design.

Leah Buley at Adaptive Path references this presentation here:


UX Design Leadership Model

UX Myth #3: People don’t scroll

People will indeed scroll to find what they want, and scrolling is more usable than breaking content up into multiple pages. Just be sure that content spans the fold, so readers know there's more below.

Read more, including a bunch of research links, one of which mentions a friend of mine Milissa Tarquini:

UX Myths - Myth #3: People don’t scroll

Great iPad Apps for Web Designers

Here's a great collection of iPad apps for designers, including sketching tools, analytics, web development, and one of my favorites, Air Display, which turns your iPad into a second monitor. Great for OmniGraffle palettes:

Read more:

10 Best iPad Apps for Web Designers | Tools

Social Networks at Work

Clearspring CEO Hooman Radfar (also my boss) appears on a Silicon Valley panel discussion about social media, security and the workplace. Is social media beneficial to the organization, or a risk? A bit of both?

My two cents: everyone in an organization is a brand champion, and social media can be a valuable resource to a company both as a communication channel and research tool. Organizations need to be smart about setting boundaries and expectations about the use of social media in the workplace, and embrace their power as official and unofficial opportunities to give an organization a face to its customers. Trying to block, or worse ignore, the enormous investment of time and social capital employees have in social media is not only futile – it's counter-productive.

What do you think?

Here's part one of Hooman's session; you can check out the other parts of Hooman's session at the link below:

See more at:

Social Networking at Work

Big Bang Wall Painting. Amazing.

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

A Fresh Visual Identity for the Girl Scouts

New visual identity for the Girl Scouts organization by Jennifer Kinon and Bobby Martin.

Read more:

A Fresh Identity for the Girl Scouts of America | Co.

Mobile Internet Use Surges To 59% Of Adults

Recent Pew report results; here's an excerpt. 

Breakdown of mobile activities:

• 54% have used their mobile device to send someone a photo or video.
• 23% have accessed a social networking site using their phone.
• 20% have used their phone to watch a video.
• 15% have posted a photo or video online.
• 11% have purchased a product using their phone.
• 11% have made a charitable donation by text message.
• 10% have used their mobile phone to access a status update service such as Twitter.

Read more:

Mobile Internet Use Surges To 59% Of Adults -- InformationWeek

Are humans the new Google?

Can human-driven search from companies like Facebook and Amazon beat algorithmic search giant Google? Interesting reading:

How Facebook Plans to Kill Google (GOOG)

UX Myth #2: All pages should be accessible in 3 clicks

Ease of navigation and maintaining the "scent" of information – am I closer to what I'm looking for? – is much more important than requiring all pages to be within an arbitrary number of clicks.

More info and links to research:

UX Myths - Myth #2: All pages should be accessible in 3 clicks

Foursquare vs. Gowalla

There are some impressive numbers in the analysis below:

• Foursquare Is Five Times Larger Than Gowalla And Growing 75 Percent Faster Every Day

Here's an analysis from back in June which provides a differentiating (ok, somewhat obvious) insight – Foursquare better integrates with social networks:

• Checking In on Location-based Services: Foursquare vs. Gowalla vs. Brightkite

Do you use one of these services? Why? What makes it a compelling experience for you?

UX Myth #1: People read on the web

As many of you already know, people scan rather than read the content on a page. In fact, one study estimates that people see less than 20% of the content on a page.

More info and links to research:

UX Myths - Myth #1: People read on the web

Foursquare Launches Location Layers

Imagine visiting Washington D.C. As you walk around the city (not recommended today, as it's over 100 degrees...) an application like Foursquare offers tidbits about movies that were shot on location at the tourist attraction where you're standing.

"In a perfect world... location-based social networks would act like browsers, able to see and post interoperable location-based data from and to any platform."

Even though there's a lot of technical work that would need to be done to make this idea a reality, it's exciting.

Foursquare Launches Location Layers

Evri's Evolution From Search to Real-Time News Curation

Lots of interesting ideas, lots of challenges from a business standpoint. Read more at:

Evri's Evolution From Search to Real-Time News Curation

The Usability Testing Process

More at:

The Usability Testing Process (diagram) » Cone Trees- User Research & Design

World's First Flying Car Cleared for Take Off

I know some friends at work that would have a lot of fun with one of these.

Read more:

World's First Flying Car Cleared for Take Off