Designing with Purpose

Bill Buxton, a software design specialist at Microsoft, talks about product design and innovation.

He asks creative folks to think about focusing efforts on improving the human experience, and not just creating the next whiz-bang technology. He describe "renaissance teams" composed of computer scientists, social scientists and industrial designers.

Today's question: where have you found greater purpose in design recently?

Read more at Technology Review:
Designs with a Deeper Purpose - Technology Review

Where did my tax dollars go?

And now the winners of Google's "Data Viz Challenge"! The Grand Prize went to Anil Kandangath for the visualization above. Here's a description of the competition from the site:

"Every year, Americans fill out income tax forms and make a payment to the IRS. It’s an important civic duty, but it is also a lot of money. Where does it all go? Using data provided by WhatWePayFor.com, we challenged artists, coders, and the general public to create data visualizations that would make it easier for U.S. citizens to understand how the government spends our tax money."

Try out Anil's winning entry and the rest of the competition here:

Google Data Visualization Competition Winners

Web Design Evolution

Infographic from KISSMetrics exploring the history of web design over the last 20 years.

Read more:

Web Design Evolution: Two Decades of Innovation [INFOGRAPHIC]

No, The Check-In Isn't Dead

Blog post highlighting the argument whether check-ins are an important component feature going forward, or a passing fad (I'd argue the former.)

The author proceeds to posit that a check-in feature is just that – a feature – that exists to tell the app you're doing something, and to share that something with your friends. I suspect there's an affinity component as well – I'm going to be less likely to check-in to a place I don't like, or with which I don't want to associate myself.

Thus, the inverse is true: if I check-in, I'm expressing at least a neutral and more likely positive regard or relevance to me for the "brand" of that place.

Do you agree? Are check-ins a passing fad or here to stay? Do you think checking in means more than just passing along information?

Read more on Business Insider:  No, The Check-In Isn't Dead

Adobe's New Photoshop Touch Apps for iPad

Today, Adobe announced upcoming apps and updates to Creative Suite all aligned with the iPad. Check out this video of Adobe Senior Vice President John Loiacono discussing the updates.

Read more on AllThingsD:

Adobe Recasts the iPad as High-Tech Palette for Photoshop

Why Apple Succeeds: Users, Not Designers, Have the Best Ideas

Frog Design writes about creating ecosystems in which users and developers can grab the reins and be creative – and why that's a better strategy than trying to control the design yourself.

Read more:

Why Apple Succeeds: Users, Not Designers, Have the Best Ideas