May 02 2013

Designing Information Presentation

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Communications, Creativity, Design, Visual Thinking

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May 2, 2013

amandacox“There’s a strand of the ‘data viz’ world that argues that everything could be a bar chart. That’s possibly true but also possibly a world without joy.”

—Amanda Cox, 2013

There’s a great interview with Amanda Cox from The New York Times on visualization, some of the skills required, and where the field is headed. I like the tidbit on design below.

Meanwhile read the whole article here.

Design and typography do matter. It’s about hierarchy of information and how people perceive information. Done properly, that clean up work really matters. On the other hand, it’s easy to believe that it matters more than it does. If you make a fantastically interesting chart and some poor design decisions, the data will still come through. If you make a bad chart with a beautiful design, what have you done, really?

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Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2013/05/designing-information-presentation/

Apr 29 2013

EMail – Don’t Underestimate It

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Communications, Design, Futures, New Thinking, Technology

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April 29, 2013

email-marketingWe all have a love/hate relationship with EMail. Go on. Admit it. We all want it to go away, but no matter how much we keep going on about how bad it is – we don’t disconnect. This is not to defend EMail. It does have serious problems. But if your car or phone has a problem – you fix it. You don’t just throw it away and / or stop using it. And you know that this isn’t the first time I have written about this.

Is EMail Broken was my first official post, back in August last year – even as I was getting into my stride on this blog. And then this one asking whether EMail is broken - and there is more….

I guess it started when I kept hearing the line that EMail is dead and broken – Social Media is the way. How people would say that the “First thing I do each day is ‘check my linkedIN / Facebook / Twitter”  Facebook Messages is EMail by another name. And really – SMS / MMS – more messages that use a different protocol to reach you.

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Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2013/04/email-dont-underestimate-it/

Apr 27 2013

Gorgeous Mobile Designs

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Communications, Creativity, Design, From The Internet, Marketing

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April 27, 2013

good-designI am not a designer – but I sure do appreciate good design. I like typography that works, frameworks and infrastructure that allow you to convey information clearly and consistently.

Downside is that as the bar has been lowered to allow pretty much anybody to write, publish and sell and app, roll out a web site or push out a product and in parallel it is amazing how little attention is paid to the user experience.

In my world of software – it also seems to me that there is more and more complexity for those developers to think about in the ever increasing variety of form factors phones of infinitely variable sizes, pads likewise. Computer monitors. TV monitors. And then all of that has to be wrapped up with more and more browsers and app guidelines and different code sets.

Delighted therefore to point you to this article – providing a veritable cornucopia of great design aesthetics in the mobile world. Enjoy.

 

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Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2013/04/gorgeous-mobile-designs/

Apr 24 2013

The Most Interesting Man In The World

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Communications, Creativity, From The Internet, Marketing

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April 24, 2013

most_interesting_manThis one’s a little different, but I have always like the Dos Equis ads featuring ‘the most interesting man in the worl’d. So when I saw this – well – had to share….

To give you a clue – some of my favorite lines ….

- He lives vicariously through himself.

- He once had an awkward moment, just to see how it feels.

- The police often question him just because they find him interesting.

- In museums, he is allowed to touch the art.

- His business card simply says “I’ll call you.”

- He has won the lifetime achievement award, twice.

- When he drives a new car off the lot, it increases in value.

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Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2013/04/the-most-interesting-man-in-the-world/

Apr 24 2013

Poacher Turned Gamekeeper

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Communications, Creativity, From The Internet, Futures, Marketing, New Thinking

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April 24, 2013

danlyonsDoesn’t matter what you read, where you read it, what the topic under discussion is – if you are absorbing mainstream media – the question you need to ask more and more is – can I trust them? And if you think you can … why?

I read a lot about tech, futures, sales, customers, politics, religion, music …. And in each of those disciplines, there are favorite writers that I checkout regularly – and the list keeps growing. The really good ones cross over between my silos of content interests – and the more they cross over – the more I hope one day I will meet the people – because I just feel that we will ‘get along’.

Now notice – writers – not media. The media has the agenda. Grant you – so does the writer – but it is more obvious, easier to track IMHO.

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Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2013/04/poacher-turned-gamekeeper/

Apr 24 2013

Context Matters

Categories:

Business Models, Communications, Design, Marketing, Observations

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April 24, 2013

JP-RangaswamiAnother blinding post from JP

He starts off with Music, transitions into the context of music – disappears into album art – talking of which if you want to see two master modern musicians waxing lyrical on album art – ONE DAY check out Steven Wilson and Mikael Akerfeldt duelling over great album covers in Akerfeldts album collection. (This isn’t that link – but I love how often the place themselves in front of album covers to talk about their music.)

His (JPs) point on album covers and packaging is spot on even of itself – I for one love the album art of the past and mourn it’s passing …. But I also believe that packaging continues to be one avenue that musicians can use to differentiate and offer something special to their listeners, fans, customers …. But that’s another story.

From then he moves into the death of the artist Storm Thorgerson – another loss of a master – and whilst talking of packaging, wanders over to David Byrne’s book How Music Works - and yes I do need to go get that one – looks fascinating.

Not connected to the Wired Article he wrote back in 2007 – and which my good buddy John Parker brought to my attention through this post on our Just Good Music blog. (And yes – far too many JPs !) – but that man Byrne does think a LOT about music. Love It.

And then from there, JP moves onto the point of his story – that indeed Context Matters. Well – of course it does – but we do seem to forget. Still – don’t take my word for it – pop over to JP’s site now and read it all … and if nothing else – get to the last 4 paragraphs.

That’s All.

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Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2013/04/context-matters/

Apr 15 2013

Finally – Sales Moves Through The Full Circle

Categories:

Business Models, Futures, New Thinking, Productivity, Sales, Social Business

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April 15, 2013

The_Doors_-_Full_CircleYears before sales methodologies and the “industrialisation” of the sales process emerged, good sales people understood that to know your customer, to engage with that customer, to bring value to that customer, to be their trusted advisor, their ‘always on’ expert – all of that – and so much more – was what made for a good business relationship. And with a good business relationship – balanced – win/win business was done.

On our journey to 2013, so much of that got lost. Companies in their never ending desire to automate and their insatiable appetite to ‘scale and expand’ have increasingly focussed on …

….

….

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Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2013/04/finally-sales-moves-through-the-full-circle/

Apr 01 2013

My New Workflow

Categories:

Communications, Creativity

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April 1, 2013

writing-kitYou know it goes. I have had ‘Writing Kit’ on my iPad since it came out. Wrestled with it. Love the Markdown – once you get the hang of it. Well, I will let you decide that one. That all said, once I had created a document … then what ? They were abandoned. Cast aside – without n’er a thought.

Now Fixed

You see my copy of Writing Kit is auto connected to my Dropbox – as is Draft In.

During the day, I write away into Writing Kit. Make notes, form thoughts. And it doesn’t matter if I don’t have an Internet connection. I write – and when I connect, it all synchs. Thats’s why Draft.IN doesnt QUITE do it for me – it just isn’t ‘always’ there.

Once synced, I then decide what to do. I can use DraftIn to publish to the blogs.(That process is interesting even of itself …. Since I am only connecting blogs as I need them), so far – out of god knows how many I apparently write to – just two are connected.

Anyway – my point is that using Writing Kit, as my daily note taker (an my notes – I mean meaningful notes) … I can then funnel the content wherever I wish. Blogs, EMail, Evernote or just leave it there – until the next time.

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Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2013/04/my-new-workflow/

Mar 31 2013

NetNewsWire Just Might Be My Salvation

Categories:

Business Models, Creativity, From The Internet, Marketing, Observations, Start Ups, Technology

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March 31, 2013

Brent Simmons

I was sorting out some old ‘notes to self’ and came across the quote at the bottom of the post. No attribution – but I liked it – and obviously I liked it at the time – which is why I saved it.

Thanks to the power of the interwebs – I found the source … and it was written when Brent Simmons sold NetNewswire to Black Pixel back in 2011.

I still track Brent and his writings – part of the cadre of thinking ‘renaissance people’ that I trip across as I wander through life.

Funny – looking at the date, it will be 2 years – very soon – and just a month later Google will be shutting Reader down. So it got me to wondering what NetNewswire will do at that point.

Here is the start of the answer

Of all the many, many things I’ve learned in the past nine years, it’s that the best part isn’t money or winning awards or the small fame that comes with a successful app, it’s when people write to say they love the software.

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Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2013/03/netnewswire-just-might-be-my-salvation/

Mar 28 2013

Why I Am Pumped

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Communications, Creativity, From The Internet, New Thinking, Personal Marketing, Productivity, Social Business, Start Ups, Technology

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March 28, 2013

natekontnyOK – so with a switch here – and a switch there, I think I have managed to introduce a new part of my workflow – “just like that” – as Tommy Cooper used to say.

Here’s the deal – I have discovered this amazing online resource called ‘Draftin’.

Why am I excited ? Well – for a long time now I have been VERY disappointed with myself with regard to my use of Facebook. I drop a lot of stuff in there – mainly because it is soooooo easy. Then even just a week later – try finding anything – close to impossible. Facebook is ‘for the moment’. Sure – fun – but totally impractical.

I have the wordpress app on my pad and phone, i use Mars Edit, I have Blogsy – all great for ‘proper’ posts – but for quick ‘comments into the stream’ – over kill. No longer. Sign up to Draftin - post my comment – submit – and it drops right into my blog stream, complete with tags and categories.

Just some of ‘the bennies’

  • It uses HTML and Markdown
  • You can collaborate with it
  • You can publish to blogs – hidden and public
  • It hooks into dropbox, box, evernote …

In fact – what I have done is set up a new tag in the blog called ‘Journal’ – so that everything coming through this channel will be flagged – and though it is part of the timeline, it wont appear on the main blog – where more (ideally) thought provoking pieces will appear.

Anyway – now you know why I am excited – and now signing off as I move on with my ‘Great Experiment’.

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Permanent link to this article: http://beyondbridges.net/2013/03/why-i-am-pumped/

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