Getting My Bearings

Joe Lamantia’s Designing Post-Humanity

jamesmelzer — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:33:18 +0000

I just finished reading Joe Lamantia’s excellent post Designing Post-Humanity: Everyware in the Far Future. I don’t have anything brilliant to add – just pointers to other stories that explore similar issues. The most thoroughly realized examples of trans-human/post-human futurism are Masamune Shirow’s Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. Cyberpunk forerunners like William Gibson relied on [...]

We Can Critique Information Architecture

jamesmelzer — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:16:35 +0000

On the IAI list yesterday, David Malouf asked about the aesthetics of information architecture. I don’t claim to have a competent answer but the question got me thinking. What language do we use to critique an IA? All the material I have read focuses purely on utility, not elegance or satisfaction. This goes way back. [...]

Patterns Resources

jamesmelzer — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:26:48 +0000

I have recently been placed in charge of a project to design and manage a pattern library for my organization. The library will contain high-level interaction patterns, components, and style guidance from a range of internal and external projects. I plan to reference existing patterns wherever possible, particularly the work from Yahoo! The biggest part [...]

A Partial Refresh

jamesmelzer — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:41:09 +0000

In an effort to inspire myself to write here more, I am doing a bit of a code refresh. I have simplified the style considerably and thrown away a lot of odds and ends. No more bookmarks. No more sidebar. Practically no navigation at all. I even ditched the polar bear. As I start using [...]

Delicious Finally Lets Us Tag the Way We Want

jamesmelzer — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:31:27 +0000

I started using Delicious again after a one-year hiatus. I am impressed with the new interface. At first, I though they just reskinned the old design – lipstick on a pig, if we are still allowed to use that phrase. After using it for a week, I see that they have made a number of [...]

I am back on Delicious

jamesmelzer — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:40:49 +0000

When I left Delicious a year ago, I had two simple reasons. First, Delicious was painfully stupidly slow. Second, Delicious had obviously been abandoned by its developers, since it remained stagnant for the previous year despite all the problems. So I moved over to Ma.gnolia which was bright, speedy and engaged with their community. I [...]

A Crash Course in Organizing Your Email

jamesmelzer — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:00:49 +0000

One of the unavoidable features of modern professional life is a never-ending stream of email. Over the years I have come up with a few tricks that really help me stay at email nirvana: “inbox zero.” People around here tease me about it, but I have a very tidy inbox. I thought I would share [...]

A Rant About Application Customization

jamesmelzer — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:10:16 +0000

Okay, new rule! If I select the same preference customization when an application starts ten consecutive times, that application must remember and execute that customization permanently. If not, I get ten dollars from the manufacturer for every subsequent failure. It should remember it on the first try. But ten! Ten is insulting. I think this [...]

NBC Pulls Out of iTunes Deal

jamesmelzer — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:21:51 +0000

I apparently missed this news back in December. I have been re-watching seasons 1-3 of Battlestar Galactica in anticipation of the fourth and final season. I went to iTunes to sign up for the season pass of downloads… and it’s gone. Apparently NBC wanted $4.99 per episode and Apple said no. In fact, Apple said [...]

On Tagging (from the archive)

jamesmelzer — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:22:20 +0000

I taught a class on tagging for Vera Rhoads at the University of Maryland Graduate School back in 2006. It was an introductory-level presentation, aimed at covering the basics. Last year, I presented a similar presentation on classification, tagging and search. | View | Upload your own