Flat Hatter Collaborative

Search Boxes are Big In Japan

Posted by Bryan Zug - 2008/03/26

Nice post from Cabel Sasser on how Japanese ads are dropping URL’s in advertisements in favor of search boxes with keywords.

Lots of back and forth in the comments on how regular folks don’t use the address bar like they’re “supposed” to — money quote from the comments –

I don’t think us web geeks have any idea of the heinous crimes that the average user is committing out there.

10 Best Intranets of 2008

Posted by Bryan Zug - 2008/01/10

Had coffee with Drupal aficionado Gregory Heller over at Top Pot in downtown Seattle on Tuesday and he pointed me to Jakob Neilson’s new article on the 10 Best Intranets of 2008.

Design seemed to figure directly into business results. Here’s a short money quote –

The productivity gains from polishing the user experience are well worth the cost of going beyond the first design that comes to mind.

New Job as a Technical Director at Methodologie

Posted by Bryan Zug - 2008/01/10

Started a new job on Monday. I have joined the wonderful team at Methodologie in downtown Seattle as “Technical Director, Interactive Manager”.

Methodologie is an incredible brand design firm with a great specialty in Corporate Social Responsibility communication and Annual Report design.

I get to work with an award winning interactive team and am looking forward to a great 2008.

Also to note — I’ll probably be posting less on elearning specific topics (when I post right :) — will be moving more toward the identity of the blog becoming “Bryan Zug’s Flat Hatter Collaborative”.

My Chumby Just Arrived

Posted by Bryan Zug - 2008/01/07

My Chumby just arrived — here it is (except mine is black) — and yes, this is a realtime reflection of what it is showing –

Way cool physics engine for the iPhone

Posted by Bryan Zug - 2007/12/06

A physics engine for the iPhone — just play the vid –

Make My Logo Bigger Cream

Posted by Bryan Zug - 2007/11/09

I wish they had embed code for this video, would go wider much faster. Since they don’t, just go visit the site — Make My Logo Bigger Cream — so funny because it is so true.

Mike Wesch discussing “Web 2.0… The Machine is Us/ing Us” video at Web2Open 4:00

Posted by Bryan Zug - 2007/04/17

So when I saw this video, I just about peed my pants. It’s a Ken Burn’s-esque animated screenshot/text/typography video that tells the story of the web up to today.

Just found out that the guy who made it, Michael Wesch, will be discussing the video at the Web 2.0 Expo today today at 4:00 pm.

It all takes place at the Web2Open gathering that is an unconference running in parallel (and in conjunction) with the main conference.

This is the kind of loosely coupled teaching/training that is going to take us into the next “age”.

Web 2.0 Expo Notes: Building Social Applications

Posted by Bryan Zug - 2007/04/16

I really enjoyed Stowe Boyd’s 3 hour workshop at the Web 2.0 Expo yesterday AM on ‘Building Social Applications‘.

He really helped me get my head around some of the foundations of designing these next generation online social experiences.

Highlights quotes were:

• “Social apps is the world that IM has made”
• “I am made greater by the sum of my connections, and so are my connections”
• “I give up personal productivity for network productivity. I sacrifice for the group.”
• “Fashionista recommendation is a different UI than a feature lookup (size, color, etc)”
• “What happens when the money gets serious? Well, what happened to the blogs? TechCrunch is no longer a blog per-se, it is a media property.”
• “Reputation is fragile both online and offline. Squander your rep and CBS may fire you.”
• “I often play psychologist for social apps. I set them on the couch and ask about their childhood.”
• “Find people who tag items the same way you do and you will find a social group based on shared ways of thinking and speaking.”
• “To understand social apps, you have to be in the flow, not outside. You can’t get it unless you are using them and you can’t explain it to people — you’ve got to do it. You can’t learn Karate by thinking about it”

Took notes in MindManger — here’s the .PDF or the .MMAP files.

Have arrived at Web 2.0 Expo

Posted by Bryan Zug - 2007/04/15

I am at the Web 2.0 Expo at Moscone West in San Francisco this AM. Got here early to scope out the power and do a Sightspeed video call with Jen, Thomas, and Ruthie back in Seattle.

If you are here for the conference, shoot me a note or twitter me (bryanzug) and let’s hang out.

Am looking forward to Stowe Boyd’s 3 hour workshop this AM on ‘Building Social Applications‘. I hear he know his $#!7.

Also — the first Ignite session outside of Seattle is happening tonight at the Expo. Brady has put together an excellent lineup — including Justin.tv — should be interesting.

Whitespace: 34% More Retention in Half the Time

Posted by Bryan Zug - 2007/03/14

Cool article this AM from the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review. It’s a review of an eyetracking research study called “Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design“.

Best quote –

“What if you could engage users in a story for about half the time, yet have them remember about 34 percent more of the content?”

Visit the article for cool screenshots of the noted before and after design. Main takeaways are that retention increased with a redesign that emphasized –

• Increased white space
• Concise main idea
• Removal of unnecessary images
• Shortened lines of text
• An added graphic for each restaurant ranking

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