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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