Ivan Walsh of klariti.com spells out the basic three components of good online writing:
in his introductory article reprinted in webdevtips.com.
Our CEO, Roger, suffered an alarmingly serious injury while riding a mechanical bull in one of his World Presidents’ Association events. His injury was extremely scary, his need for urgent and emergency surgery was unexpected, his recovery was slow and painful.
In an eye-opening memo and in his annual Christmas thank you to each employee, he again revealed to all of his constant focus on the important things in life. Continue reading
Blog is the Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2004, based on online lookups.
In the one year since my first blog entry in January 2003, I’ve gained several observations about blogging:
If you follow a process, writing all comes together quickly. Here’s just one process I follow.
In this brief, yet concept-rich article, information architecture guru Peter Morville goes beyond the infamous three-circle diagram of content, context, and users.
His article in Semantic Studios summarizes the honeycomb seven facets of user experience.
"I realized some time ago that while "information architect" describes my profession, findability defines my passion."
So, what's the buzz on your site's user experience? …getting stung by poor UX?
Have you:
Another interesting meme…
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
My entry is from "All Dressed Down and Nowhere To Go," a Dilbert compilation.
"Please leave."
Dilbert is caught in an endless conversation in a meeting from h3ll. That sentence is in his thought bubble, wishing that he could say out loud: "We're done. Please leave."
Previously posted at peterme
If you care at all that your readers get to it, get it, and get on with it, then post this list on your cubicle wall.
It's one of the best "list of ten" I've seen.
Now, write like you mean it.
While celebrating the US Postal cycling team’s Tour de France triumph, I discovered parallels I could apply to a major project at work. We have formed a cross-divisional team, whose team members come with different experiences and skills. We bring different processes but are learning one new unifying process, and have different personal goals to accomplish but have one over-arching unifying goal: the success of the project.
Take heed to the US Postal’s team success.
Without boring those who aren’t cycling fans, the US Postal team assembled a team of specialists with specific roles: Continue reading
I didn’t create the title of this entry. It was generated for me.
The latest software features meant to aid us often end up vexing us instead. Take the automatic filename generating feature of word processors. Intended to “save time” by reading our mind, it takes more time to undo, and can lead to ludicrous filenames.
Try this:
1. Start with a blank document in Word.
2. Type something for a few lines, like: “Gee my editor is a dork. I wonder if he has a life outside of this blogworld…”
3. Save As.
4. Notice the filename generated by Word.
Eloquently posted by Geoffrey K. Pullum at Language Log.
“Filename Generation Idiocy.doc”
Take a simple design project.
Ask these questions:
What is most important: the message or the look&feel?
What does your work boil down to: communications or cosmetology?
Binell and Bielenberg’s lengthy but insightful article “How to Build a Gre nade ” in Communication Arts paints a compelling argument that some designers get lost in the cosmetology and forget the communications.
The order is inward to outward: bones, guts, flesh, clothes.
Content first.
Always.
An interview with Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu, holder of 2,300 patents
from Creativity at Work
reveals his path toward creativity.
From memorization to free-association, from thought regimentation to freedom, Dr. Nakamatsu explains early learning through creativity. He then takes us through the three-step process of creativity.
Learn what “ikispiration” is and how he reaches that point.
2 seconds is all you ge*
.
.
.
In the online message world, your attention is gained or lost in the first two seconds.
Either you stay to read more or you’re gone.
According to a Nielsen Norman report,
“people are throwing away most of your information, and you can’t fight the trend. Craft your email newsletters to sum up your message in [what they call ‘microcontent’:] subject lines, opening lines and headings…”
Apply this to your e-mail messages, your e-zines, your online newsletters, your blog, your ads.
Thanks for staying with me beyond the first two se
.
.
Ask these questions about the CEO that you work for:
With the number of business ethics violations appearing in the news, do you have faith in your CEO’s motives?
Does he weigh difficult decisions based on a “passion for people?”
Do you see his face on a regular basis, in the lunchroom, spontaneously at your table of friends?
In this business article, “Valine runs VSP on respect and innovation” see why I have the confidence to answer yes to all three questions.
A positive working environment stimulates creativity. A company’s corporate culture and environment nurtures creative problem solving.
By the way, “passion for people” is part of our company tag line.
I’ll leave you to ponder which came first: his passion or the company’s tagline.
"geeWHIZ" 