Reducing product and enhancing result in design

Design, Development, Tech, Thought Provoking, Web

Fanstastic post by Goran Peuc in Smashing Magazine about design in information products.

Some highlights are mentioned below but read the whole article.

One of the main problems in product design:

I still find a lot of products today, be they digital or physical, to be too complex and feature-driven. Shouldn’t we as designers instead be looking to remove complexity for users as much as possible or as much as allowed for by current technology, by making our products fit more seamlessly into their daily lives and routines? I feel that we simply don’t and, more worryingly, that we still haven’t learned lessons from the past.

The desired process:

Figure out a way to remove such complexities. Figure out how to remove entire pieces of your product or interface, while keeping the user on the path to the desired result.

Finally:

Theoretically, the ultimate goal for any product is to be completely removed from the user’s perspective. Work towards that goal because nobody wants to use your product.
People just want the benefit of using it.

10 year anniversary of the blog

Tech, Web

It’s ten years since I started this blog. Guess what? Yes, I’m moving to another new hosting company.

Most of the work has been done today and I waited for this blog to transfer over before writing this post. Most websites are wordpress based. Moving them is straightforward, ftp down, ftp up, sql export, sql import, change server settings.

Have a great 2016!

The case for planting trees to prevent flooding.

Thought Provoking

I missed this article when it came out in 2014 but it makes fascinating reading in light of the flooding in Ireland and Britain at the moment.

Water sinks into the soil under trees at 67 times the rate at which it sinks into the soil under grass. The roots of the trees provide channels down which the water flows, deep into the ground. The soil there becomes a sponge, a reservoir which sucks up water and then releases it slowly.

Read the article for the full context. I wonder why more action on forestation of hills isn’t being done.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/flooding-public-spending-britain-europe-policies-homes