Better Elevation

Iterate 15

Dave Wiskus — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:55:24 +0000

My thanks to Marc Edwards, Seth Clifford, and Rene Ritchie for having me on the show. Be sure to check out the older episodes, too. They’ve had some pretty remarkable guests.

MoneyWell 2

Dave Wiskus — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:23:48 +0000

No Thirst has released the long-awaited update to their personal finance software.

Full disclosure: I worked on this.

How Designers Can Help Developers

Dave Wiskus — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:00:46 +0000

Matt Gemmell delivers again, this time with a thoughtful outline of how designers should think about the way their work gets handed off.

The creation of any kind of software is (or should be) a partnership between graphic design, interaction design, and implementation. None of these disciplines is any less important than another, and all are vital.

Less Than Perfect

Dave Wiskus — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:40:02 +0000

Video of the Macworld Live panel I did with John Gruber, Guy English, Paul Kafasis, and Glenn Fleishman about what we dislike in our favorite apps. Hosted by the bizarrely tall Lex Friedman.

Some Assembly Required

Dave Wiskus — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:35:53 +0000

An oldie but goodie from my friend (and employer) Daniel Pasco about perspective:

Unlike other hobbyist computers of its day, which were sold as kits, the Apple I was a fully assembled circuit board containing about 30 chips. However, to make a working computer, users still had to add a case, power supply, keyboard, and display. An optional board providing a cassette interface for storage was later released at a cost of $75.

Sometimes a first attempt can be a hit. But ask yourself: do you want to get lucky, or do you want to be sustainably great?

xScope 3

Dave Wiskus — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:36:43 +0000

If you use a Mac to design or develop software or websites and you aren’t using xScope, you’re doing it wrong. I’ve been beta testing version 3 for a few months now, and I don’t think I could do my job properly without it. The perfect tool for the pixel-obsessed.

Minimal Patterns

Dave Wiskus — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:40:26 +0000

I love stuff like this. Bonus points for presentation.

Morality and Persecution

Dave Wiskus — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:00:06 +0000

The impossibly attractive Matt Gemmell rants about gay marriage and religion:

Indoctrination of children into religious belief systems is one of the great unpunished intellectual and social crimes of human history, and it continues almost unabated to this day.

Powerful, well-written stuff.

As an aside, I propose we start referring to militant atheists as “ghostbusters”. Who’s with me?

Slender

Dave Wiskus — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:27:34 +0000

For the app makers out there, Kyle Richter has put out a thing called Slender that scans Xcode project files and helps you make them smaller. It also finds problems with mismatched retina assets that could lead to blurry half-pixel lines. All in the name of lighter, more attractive software.

I contributed interface work. The app icon was done by the talented Jordan Langille.

It’s only five dollars on the Mac App Store through the end of January.

Social Networks

Dave Wiskus — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:20:25 +0000

Justin Williams breaks down how he uses the various social networks :

Twitter: I use Twitter as a smaller, creative outlet. I share links, write bad jokes and occasionally troll my followers for fun. I also obsessively delete replies after I am sure the person it is directed to has read it. When someone visits my Twitter profile for the first time I want them to decide whether to follow or not based on the content I produce, not the conversions I have with other users.

I do the same thing, and for the same reason.