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Archive for March, 2008

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SXSW 2008 Panel - Everything I Know About Accessibility I Learned From Star Wars

Everything I need to know about accessibility I learned from Star Wars by Derek Featherstone.

Small band of rebels versus the unfeeling evil empire :)

A good motivational, conceptual overview of Accessibility. Not much by way of example or technique, but still good. Check out my notes below.

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Posted March 9th, 2008 in Web Design by Matt

SXSW 2008 Panel - A/B Testing: Design Friend or Foe?

A/B Testing: Design Friend or Foe?

  • Corey Chandler Lead Interaction Designer, eBay Inc
  • Jake Cressman Producer, Electronic Arts
  • Chris Maliwat Sr Dir of Prod Mgmt, Vuze Inc
  • Micah Alpern Design Dir Social Search, Yahoo! Inc
  • Elliot Shmukler Principal Prod Mgr, LinkedIn

Very valuable panel on testing design changes to determine their business outcome before unleashing it on the public at large. Check out my notes below.

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Posted March 9th, 2008 in Web Design by Matt

Efficiency: Getting Things Done.

The last year has seen a massive shift in the amount and type of work that I have to do, both at my job, and the rest of life. No longer am I able to simply get up, turn on the computer, push a few pixels in Fireworks, write a few lines of code in TextMate, shut down, go home, practice a little music, and hang out with my wife. I now have a near constant flood of e-mail coming in from my blackberry, phone meetings scattered throughout the day, lingering support contracts from my freelancing days, three bands (and a number of prospective musicians) to manage for a 500 member church, and a 1.5 year old daughter (’nuff said). Life is a little more… complex (crazy? hectic? scattered? neurotic?). It’s hard to get my stuff done.

Today in a conversation with Victor, the concept of GTD came up. Something I’ve toyed with in the past, but never really took seriously. Now, I’m convinced that a GTD system is the key to my continued sanity. I don’t think my problem is that I have too much to do, my problem is that I don’t know how to do it efficiently.

I have a collection of tools and systems that seem interesting to me. Using them correctly and efficiently, and with discipline is another matter. I don’t have that part figured out yet. Some things I’m starting to use and do:

  • Action Pads by Behance - for recording notes during meetings (trick here is processing the notes)
  • Things by Cultured Code - for brain dumping to-dos (trick here is consistently entering… things)
  • Basecamp by 37signals - for assigning and tracking tasks to my team
  • Inbox Zero - for managing email and generally remaining sane
  • 43 Folders and Lifehacker for continued education on GTD.

Any other recommendations? What do you do? Any other good resources you check regularly.

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Posted March 8th, 2008 in Getting Things Done by Matt

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