If you don’t have budget to fly around the world and witness how people use mobile phones in emerging markets, this may be the next best thing: Adaptive Path’s Mobile Literacy project is complete with photos, anecdotal reports, and video interviews (scroll down to see the videos, which are also on Vimeo).
A Vision of Business Design Curriculum in 2012 (PDF) from Ryan Jacoby, business designer at IDEO.
“YouTube is soaring towards the future like a pigeon towards a plate glass window…. Credit Suisse estimates YouTube will manage to rake in about $240 million in ad revenue in 2009, against operating costs of roughly $711 million, leading to a shortfall of just over $470 million…. YouTube is adamant that ultimately they’ll find an advertising solution that will enable the ungainly behemoth to reach profitability. Looking at the math, it doesn’t seem likely.”Silicon Valley Insider, YouTube is Doomed
iWard is an iPhone app for LDS members that conveniently pulls in your ward directory and calling information using your lds.org login.
“Someone reprogrammed two city construction road signs near the University of Texas early Monday morning in an attempt to warn Austin of an imminent zombie attack... ”
Michael Bierut: 26 Years, 85 Notebooks. “Only twice have I lost notebooks and never found them. One was left behind somewhere in the sprawling corporate headquarters of United Airlines in Elk Grove, Illinois. The other, #45, disappeared at Heathrow Airport. That particular loss was extra sad since it contained a drawing my then 13-year-old daughter Liz did that she claims is the original sketch for the Citibank logo. (She changed the t in Citi into an umbrella; of course, Paula Scher may have already had that idea.)”
“At Zappos, we either think one year ahead or ten years ahead. We don’t really do anything in between. For ten years ahead we think about what our long-term vision is, which is definitely very important both for employees and the company. It’s important to take a step toward that vision every day. And then in terms of one year ahead it’s more about executing on the short term. I think a lot of companies like to put together three or five years plans and I have yet to meet anyone who has done that where things turned out as they expected.”Tony Hsieh, CEO of the venerable Zappos.com
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination…. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.” –Jim Jarmusch
New to Google Earth, you can now browse a selection of famous paintings from the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain: Rembrandt, Bosch, and others.
Congrats to the entire North Temple team: The poster designed to promote last year’s First Annual Design Review is featured in this month’s HOW In-House Design Annual. (Also, kudos to those of you who own a limited edition print of this poster.)
House Industries redesigned.
A prototype iPhone case for blind users. “The silicon[e] case has debossed, tactile logos, icons and characters, yet is still thin enough for the screen to register touches. Used in conjunction with text-to-speech features, it opens up a world of possibilities for those without sight.”
“20. Client wants the best. Once you tell him what the best costs, he asks if you can scale back. You craft a scaled-back proposal, but, without disclosing a budget or even hinting at what might be viable for him, the client asks if you can scale it down further. After you’ve put 40 hours into back-and-forth negotiation, client asks if you can’t design just the home page in Photoshop.”Jeffrey Zeldman, 20 signs you don’t want that web design project. If only these weren’t so familiar…
Numbered Type’s Seeing Eye Calendar.
“Forvo is the place where you’ll find words pronounced in their original languages. Ever wondered how a word is pronounced? Ask for that word or name, and another user will pronounce it for you. You can also help others recording your pronunciations in your own language.” What a great idea. Via JSM.
Impressive work from iLK, which is comprised of “two very cool guys, Ludovic Prigent and his cat, Pitou.”
Golden Ratio Calculator (Dashboard widget). Sample calculations: 24 columns = 15/9. 960px = 593/367.
A rather unique layout for a signup form.