chacadwa.com

Communications Shift

micah — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:03:00 +0000

I just read The five year lag, a good post about church and technology by @wezlo. While this wasn't his main point, a bit of what he said jumped out at me because it's been on my mind this week. I had to move back a couple of paragraphs to find the connecting statement, because - honestly - I'd skimmed right past it.

We are seeing a significant social shift in the ways people connect with each other that is literally re-mapping our brains. It also further blurs the line between 'urgent' and 'important' because all of our data seems to demand immediate attention.

Making it hard for users to fail

micah — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:30:00 +0000

The success of a website is often measured by how frequently users do what you want them to do. A lot of UX design effort goes into making it easy for them to do things right, but how often do we design so that users can do no wrong? This morning, I discovered that Kroger has applied this principle in a very effective way.

Repurposing Print Media For The Web

micah — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 17:31:45 +0000

I was recently asked about using issuu.com as a tool for publishing print media on the web. While I found only a couple of minor things I didn't like about Issuu, mostly regarding zoom control, this question roused my general dislike for the practice of dumping printed material to a PDF file and slapping it on a website.

Lessons Learned on My First Podcast

micah — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:58:11 +0000

Last Monday, we released the first episode of the Geeks and God Podcast since I became one of the hosts. There were a lot of lessons to be learned in the process. Here are a few of the things I discovered.

A Night of Different Perspectives

micah — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:17:55 +0000

Tonight's rehearsal of our annual musical drama, A Christmas Tale, was a night of different perspectives. I wasn't really thinking when I snapped this photo with my cell phone, but it fits.

When we started out tonight, neither of my lighting guys were there, so I stuck my teenage daughter on the light board, where she did a great job of being mature and attentive, following cues without error. She worked backstage last year, so she saw a new perspective on how lighting tied in to the portions of the show where she'd had to move props on- and off-stage in the dark last year.

Clickin' It Old School

micah — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:25:43 +0000

It's sometimes hard to remember that "instant" text messaging has been around for a long time, and that text messaging is far older than voice technology for long distance communication. The difference today is that text messaging devices are wireless, and don't require intensive training and study to be used.

My great-grandfather, Rush Webner, was a telegrapher for various railroads, including a 36 year stint as agent-operator for the Wheeling and Lake Erie station in Smithville, Ohio.

Where do we go from here? (A look at Web n.0)

micah — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:06:05 +0000

There's a lot of talk about version numbers and the web these days. It seems that people are getting tired of talking about Web 2.0, and want to move on to new versions. I've started wondering if the whole bit about numbering web versions is keeping us from seeing how short-sighted our vision actually is.

If it's too loud, you're too old...

micah — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 19:20:59 +0000

Photo by Vaughan Nelson, found on flickr.