Hi there,
Last weekend, I was in Guangzhou, China. I visited my friend’s vocational school and we discussed different ways to teach web design students. I’m constantly doing experiments on different teaching approaches. I got some ideas during the trip. Hope I will execute the idea into solid project and share to you later.
So here are the 10 things I read and enjoyed last week:
1) 7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility
This can include people who are blind, color blind, or have low vision, those who are Deaf or have hearing difficulties, people with mobility impairments which may be temporary or permanent, or people with cognitive disabilities. Design for people who are young, old, power users, casual users, and those who just enjoy a quality experience.
Please design the web for every one.
2) Infinite Scrolling vs. Pagination
Infinite scrolling is like an endless game — no matter how far you scroll, you feel like you’ll never get to the end. When the users know the number of results availablethey are able to make a more informed decision, rather than be left to scour an infinitely scrolling list. According to the David Kieras research Psychology in Human-Computer Interaction: “Reaching an end point provides a sense of control”.
Pagination gives the sense of Control. I never feel comfortable with infinite scrolling.
3) Pagination Best Practices
Following up last link, here are the best practices for good pagination.
Safe option for search results is to display 25 to 75 items per page. Also, In most cases, Previous and Next links are very useful for users.
4) How fast should your UI animations be?
200ms to 500ms seconds is a good range to start with for interface animations.
I always starts at 300ms. This is the “Golden Number” I learned from an animation artist. 300ms isn’t long enough to be distracting, and it is not short enough to make things feel sudden.
5) When words are not enough, gestures or images can say more
It is easy to believe that languages are the pinnacle of human expression, but this is a mistake.
It is in these ways that art has advantages over language. Realist or abstract, art can show, and at the same time, it can invite and allow open-ended interpretation in a more unbiased way than words typically do.
I recommend Dan’s book in Issue 3, which further discuss the techniques to express things visually.
A few years ago I took a self-defense class. At one point in the class, we worked with fake handguns. We each had a partner and we had to work on scenarios where a gun might be involved.
The instructor repeatedly said, “When your turn is over, do not hand the gun to your partner. Instead, they’ll turn their back, and you’ll just drop it on the ground so they can pick it up and start the exercise over.”
Why? Because “when humans are in stressful situations, we tend to fall back on our practice.”
7) This 10-Minute Routine Will Increase Your Clarity And Creativity
Take a few moments before you go to bed to meditate on and write down the things you’re trying to accomplish.
In his journal, he thought-dumps for several minutes. Thus, rather than focusing on input like most people who check their notifications, Waitzkin’s focus is on output. This is how he taps into his higher realms of clarity, learning, and creativity — what he calls, “crystallized intelligence.”
I learned to thought-dump every day since 2013, and I recommend it to every one.
This feature is implemented at a low level, and works on the command line.
Can’t wait to use it. I have 2TB Dropbox account on 512GB Macbook. It will elegantly replace the inconvenient “selective sync”.
9) LiliLite
I love reading books on bed before sleep. I stuck to find a good bedside lamp. This LiliLite looks elegant.
10) Lose yourself in videos of people burning things they shouldn’t
I like the art in the last video of the post.
That’s what I enjoyed most last week.
p.s. I’m trying to send the email on Monday and see how it would make a difference. Since my links are most work related. Maybe sending them out on weekday has better outcome than sending them on Friday.
Until next week,
Thomas Mak