I am a New York-based user experience designer. Here you'll find my musings on everything digital (and some things that aren't).
Last Nabakov Novel to be Published
Dmitri Nabakov, my favorite author Vladimir Nabakov’s son, has finally decided to publish his father’s final manuscript, against his dying wishes. I know it’s insensitive, but I am completely ecstatic about having a new Nabakov novel to read.
LA To NYC In Four Minutes - Michel Gondry, I love you.
Ranked from childhood to parenthood. I’m in the neighborhood of 14-17, myself.
Via kottke.org.
Awesome use of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service. This project paid 1 cent to 10,000 people to draw 1/10,000 of a $100 bill. The result is fascinating.
The web and ecommerce sites for Stella McCartney are live! I worked with createthe group on this site last summer, and the results are lovely. I particularly like the navigation among the runway looks in the Collections section. Yay!
Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Premier
Can’t wait! Too bad Aaron’s fam is visiting this weekend, which means we’ll have to wait until Sunday night to watch the season premier.
Todays iPhone Users are Young, Rich, and Technically Savvy
Well, now don’t I feel special.
Via aaronrutledge.com.
The Legend of Zelda Movie Trailer
Okay, so normally I hate April’s Fools’ jokes, but this one seriously gave me goosebumps of excitement (yeah, I’m a nerd, I realize).
Damn, I wish I’d seen this before I bought my new couch.
Abandoned Amusement Park Photos
Gorgeous photos of an abandoned amusement park on Flickr.
Via Kottke.org.
Social Networking Will Become Ubiquitous
Excellent article from Logic + Emotion about the role of social networking online. I completely agree that social features are best suited to be supplementary to a site’s primary purpose, as opposed to being stand-alone apps.
I have never been a fan of Jackass or any of the dudes on it, but this letter from Steve-O on why he is now in rehab is absolutely heartbreaking (and surprisingly well-written). An excerpt:
All you fucking things [drugs] are good for is dying. I’m not
ready to die. I’m ready to live. I’m ready to breathe (properly, even). I’m ready to fall in love. I’m ready to become ready to start a family. I’m ready to be happy, fulfilled and meaningful.
Good luck, Steve-O.
I had the opportunity to design the user experience of the new e-commerce site for CUSP, a Chicago-DC-LA fashion store with createthe group. The site went live recently, and it looks great. I’m very pleased with how the "carousel" navigation for the Looks section came out. There were some other cool interactions we designed that it looks like didn’t make it into the final cut; maybe a future release. Anyhow, both the design and the clothes look great; go check it out!
How Crayons Are Made
This video had me swearing for years that I wanted to work in a crayon factory when I grew up.
Via NoahBrier.com.
Lovely templates for creating comic-style scenarios from Sun.com’s user experience team.
Why we’re powerless to resist grazing on endless web data
I shall be using this as an excuse from now on.
Gorgeous site navigation.