Writing
Design Practice

Big design up front

Like most designers and developers we've come to the conclusion that big design up front doesn't work. Six month requirement gathering exercises which result in thousand page specifications don't work. In the time it has taken to produce these requirements the business landscape has almost certainly changed. So new requirements appear and designers and developers are forced to battle scope creep and keep these documents alive while at the same time trying to build something that is ever shifting and changing.
Design Practice

Stop trying to design experiences and start designing products

The architect Frank Lloyd Wright famously told a customer to move their table when they complained that water was leaking from the ceiling when they ate dinner. This is almost certainly apocryphal but hints at the ego of the experience designer. W tell our users and customers what experience they are going to have (sometimes based on research) but they have to live with the results.
Speaking & Events

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love SXSW

I've been coming to SXSW for 7 years and I've seen it change from a small and intimate event to the tech sector's equivalent of Glastonbury. Back then bloggers were king and CSS2.1 was the hot technology of the day. Today the conference has gone from 2,500 people to an astonishing 25,000. Blogging is considered old hat, and the new tech superstars are the start-up founders, the professional publishers and the best selling authors. Think Gowalla, Mashable and Shirky rather than Zeldman, Bowman and Veen.
Tech Culture

Stop the press! Design costs money?

The most recent guardian technology podcast opened with these headlines!

"On this week's podcast, we're looking closely at why a 32x32 pixel digital icon designed for the UK Government's Information Commissioner's Office cost £585 of public funds!"
Personal

Is there a right way to use Twitter?

There are a handful of people who follow me on Twitter who continually moan about the way I use the service. Some complain when I tweet about what I've eaten, who I've met or what I've done that day. Others complain when I use Gowalla or Foursquare to announce my location or post a stream of consciousness on a topic that is currently bugging me.