→ Startups, This Is How Design Works
Wells Riley sets out to explain “design” to non-designer entrepreneurs — and makes a great job:
It’s so much more than that. It’s a state of mind. It’s an approach to a problem. It’s how you’re going to kick your competitor’s ass. This handy guide will help you understand design and provide resources to help you find awesome design talent.
The key takeaways for me are that:
- Design is part of solving the problem — just as finding the right business model and the technical solution are.
- Design should now be built into any venture from the start, not something to plug “on top” of an MVP.
→ Principles of User Interface Design
Joshua Porter offers an interesting list (… at least for a beginner like me) of principles of UI design. For example:
01. Interfaces exist to enable interaction
Interfaces exist to enable interaction between humans and our world. They can help clarify, illuminate, enable, show relationships, bring us together, pull us apart, manage our expectations, and give us access to services. The act of designing interfaces is not art and they are not monuments unto themselves. Interfaces do a job and their effectiveness can be measured. They are not just utilitarian, however. The best interfaces can inspire, evoke, mystify, and intensify our relationship with the world.
See the 19 other principles here.
→ The Cult of Amazon Prime
Jason Calacanis describes the world that Amazon Prime is enabling:
All of these malls and choices seemed fun for a while, but Prime cult members have now won their freedom. They are opting for a simpler and more efficient form of consumption.
After the Cult of the Mac — the Cult of Amazon?
→ Nobody Goes to Facebook Anymore. It’s Too Crowded.
It’s just a little satisfying to see veteran blogger Michael Arrington say something I’ve blogged about almost a year ago :-). Admittedly, recent moves such as the controversial frictionless sharing haven’t helped lower the noise volume either…
→ This Tech Bubble Is Different
Jeff Hammerbacher, former research scientist at Facebook and now founder of Cloudera:
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.”
Great piece showing why it may be time to move past ad-based business models.