Here is a little knowledge nugget that Jack and I picked up during our time at An Event Apart: Seattle (more on that to come). We learned about this handy little site called caniuse.com that was created by Alexis Deveria. The site lets you look up HTML5, CSS, JS API, SVG, etc. elements to see what their support is across browsers. Then you can assess.. Can I use that?

We are freshly back from the conference and I have already started using and benefiting from it. Give it a look and find out what you can use. (Turns out you can use the first-child pseudo-element in IE8!)

Good article that ties user experience to front end performance.

My old early-Rails adopter friend, Tobias, of Shopify shares how they the share their reporting metrics with the organization.

We helped out one of our fellow local businesses raise the funds to get a new marquee. We’re big fans of this historic Portland landmark and glad that we could do something to help shape the neighborhood for (we hope) many decades to come.

“People don’t hate progress, they just prefer inertia. This stops them from buying your product even when it’s the logical choice.”

An interesting piece on the other factors going on in a potential customers head.

Luke Wroblewski writes on his blog

Passwords on the Web have long been riddled with usability issues. From overly complex security requirements to difficult to use input fields, passwords frequently result in frustrated customers and lost business. The situation is even worse on mobile where small screens and imprecise fingers are the norm.

I couldn't agree more. With mobile devices, the vast majority of the time the device is being viewed by only one person. Having them suffer through the password masking feature is a UX failure.

Mobile app frameworks should incorporate controls that let the user decide when to have the extra security of password masking.

It is the first ever Design Week Portland and I stopped by Fullscreen PM last night, a “casual creative show and tell meet up” and one of the multitude of nifty DWP events. There were a bunch of cool projects that artists, designers, and developers showed off, but I particularly liked Kaleidoscope, made by the folks at Instrument. It’s a beautiful javascript-based physics toy with which you can generate revolving clouds of customizable particles and then split it all apart into a lovely fracturing kaleidoscope. Hypnotic on large screens, engaging and interactive on handheld devices, Kaleidoscope is definitely worth exploring.

The folks over at appfog have put together an extensive argument for why Portland could be the best city in the United States for developers…. and covered a lot of compelling things related to the local developer ecosystem.

Having said that… they missed everything around Portland that makes me stay in the area. All the hiking within 60 miles of Portland (there are even several trails within the city limits!), all of the rivers for kayaking, windsurfing, the snow resorts, all of the camping and backpacking that we can explore… etc.

Outside of getting immersed into your craft, it’s nice to get out of the city to ponder those technical challenges while on a hike.

What a novel idea: Put a ton of effort and creativity into the task of advertising an open position, and I guarantee that the caliber of the applicants will be higher. And man that penguin is cute.

I’ve been fascinated by some recent blog articles (like the The Best Interface is No Interface) that force you to step back and think about what you’re really doing. What are you really designing? And why?

This article in UX Magazine takes a look a the impact of designing for the experience vs. designing a memory.

Awhile back one of our clients asked us to review and audit their checkout process. While I agree with the writer’s sentiment at the end that forms can be dull design work, it was still a fun and interesting process to go through and provide some possible solutions for the future.

This article would have been perfect timing back then as support, but I suspect that it will come in handy in the future, as well.

With all of us focused on our work and striving to making the best interfaces, I found this post by Cooper’s Golden Krishna refreshing. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in making this amazing digital experience and even be wowed by some of the ideas, that we fail (or I fail) to step back and say “wait…why do we need this? And does this really make our lives easier?”. It’s not just about slapping an interace on it (like us Portlanders like to birds on things) and Krishna provides some really great examples in this article.

As a bonus, if you’ll be in the San Francisco care on September 19th, Cooper is holding a round table to discuss this. So you should go.

“We used to graduate two or three women CS majors per year, around 10%–12% of the total. Then one of our faculty members, Christine Alvarado, looked around and said, “Let’s do something about this.”

“Agile proponents, and oponents, get hung up on the issue of architecture—to develop architecture up front or to evolve architecture over time. This isn’t a problem, it’s a paradox. There isn’t a single solution to the question, but a series of balanced resolutions that depend on the specific organizational and project or product context. Ultimately, the architecture issue requires a balancing of early skeleton work combined with evolutionary updates. Balancing early versus evolution makes management more difficult than a black and white problem solution, but balancing resolutions over time will deliver far better performance.”

“User experience designers must speak the language of marketers in order to have a chance. They must understand the dynamics of their business, and the metrics used to measure the business’ success. In other words, the designer must not only embrace the technology of their medium but the economics of it.”

As Republicans gear up for their big hooha tomorrow (thanks Isaac!) and the countdown towards November continues, Brad Frost of Smashing Magazine wrote an interesting blog article, not about the candidates’ stances on the economy or healthcare, but on their differing mobile strategies.

Who wins? You decide.

When you’re under pressure, what investments are you making into your skill-set?

2/3rds of Americans connect to the internet via mobile device and 34 of the top 100 sites are using HTML5.

There’s an app for that

For all the talk of a 7" iPad coming from the tech press, NetworkWorld found evidence of an early iPad prototype that was revealed during the Apple/Samsung court proceedings. This one is much bigger than the iPad we know today. With the plastic back, it almost looks like something Apple might come up with for the education market.

Via Daring Fireball