the polarization of design (or, the bowman effect)

Following is a list of links related to the "Doug Bowman Leaves Google" media circus going on right now, and what seems to be turning into a game of "Who's more evil?" Bowman? Google? Design? Statistics? But more than that, it's also turning into a heated debate that is reaching outside of the borders of our industry about the importance of the art/science of design. Or lack thereof, depending on who's talking.

Anyhoo, the links are in chronological order, so Doug's "Goodbye Google" post is not first. News travels fast, to Valleywag at least. As more appears on the topic, I'll add to the list.

• Twitter Claims Valley Crown by Poaching Google's Top Designer | Valleywag
• Google Smothers Designers | Joe Clark, fawny.org
• The center of this firestorm: Goodbye Google | Doug Bowman
• Google designer leaves, blaming data-centrism | CNET
• Google's Data Fetish Drives Away It's Top Designer | Valleywag
• Bowman Leaves Google | IxDA.org discussion, With comments from Dan Saffer, Robert Hoekman, Andrei Herasimchuk, Jared Spool...
• Yes it's true... | Buzz Anderson, Sci-Fi Hi-Fi
• Douglas Bowman leaves Google | John Gruber, Daring Fireball
• Hello Google | Graham Jenkin (Manager, Google Ads UX Design)
• Google's Designer Drain | Adam Howell
• Measuring the Design Process | Scott Stevenson, Theocacao
• Bowman vs. Google, Why Data and Design Need Each Other | OK/Cancel (related comic)
• Google design: The kids are alright | Kevin Fox, fury.com
• Google's Lead Designer Doug Bowman Leaves for Twitter, Cites "Paralyzing" Lack of Design Focus | FastCompany
• UPDATES:
• The Case of Google and the Surly Ex-Designers [redacted] | anne k. halsall, random [non sequitur]
• Design and Google | John Battelle's Searchblog

Now, the following aren't directly related, but I think there are bits and pieces in here that may provide a little insight into UX at Google:

• Google's Irene Au: On Design Challenges | Business Week interviews Google's Director of User Experience, Irene Au
• Google 'Legend' Marissa Mayer Tells Lesley Stahl What's Next | wowOwow interviews Google’s Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, Marissa Mayer

design is...

FFFFOUND! | YouWorkForThem | Sans Serif | Hannah

I want this printed on an enormous banner to hang above my cube.

amazon: frustration-free packaging

Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging

We currently offer a selection of Toys and Consumer Electronics products in Frustration-Free Packaging. It will take many years, but our vision is to offer our entire catalog of products in Frustration-Free Packaging.

Essentially, it's being done to reduce packaging waste, box-in-box shipping waste, and "wrap-rage".

Bravo, Amazon! Bravo!

quake quiz

Thanks to Brett for tipping me off to an article on design-milk about a cool, really well-designed interactive site with good info on earthquake safety: Quake Quiz SF.

More disaster preparedness info:
http://www.72hours.org
http://www.sfgov.org/site/oes_index.asp
http://alertsf.com

generic & disposable april design

Yes - you may have noticed the temporary design for April that finally went out yesterday. I figured I should post that I did it, for all you RSS readers out there. I considered not doing one at all, with only 8 days left in the month and all, but I said I'd do a design for every month, and I'm gonna stick to that.

I thought of going all grey, or all white, or 404, but I settled on the barcode because I've always liked the aesthetics of the barcode (I don't know why.) So enjoy for the few days you have to enjoy it.

the favicon has changed

You may be used to looking for that good old purple and chartreuse "V" favicon in your bookmarks, so I thought I'd let you know it's changed. Now look for a 16x16 version of this:

You may need to clear your cache to see it.

TA-DA!!!

Well folks, it's official - at 2:18am on January 24, 2008, I rolled out the new site design for stuffthatbugsme.com. You thought it would never happen, but there you go - it's staring you right in the face.

I am very happy, and look forward to giving you fresh designs and schemes monthly. "Monthly?!?!" you say? Yes - I have built a flexible framework that will allow me to change out some graphics here and some colors there, and... voila! Next month's design. So look forward to February. Seeing as how it's only 7 days away and all...

Woo hoo! I can check off my New Year's Resolution of rolling out a new design for 2008 in January.

changes afoot

I've decided to make some changes around here - I've added the Google custom search engine so if you have a favorite post of all time you can now search for it. I mean, I've only needed to do that for years, and I work for the damn company, so... it was about time. I also just went ahead and removed that pesky year graphic rather than replace it. Yes, I am that lazy.

Before I forget, I added an addendum (is that right?) to what I'll just call the "meow meow meow" post - it's at the bottom of the post. As Paul Harvey would say, "And that is... the rest of the story. Good day!"

Soon to come:

• Collapsible tree navigation for the archives! So you don't have to look at a link in the sidebar for every month of every year since I started this blog.
• An RSS standard graphic because I can't believe I haven't already done it.
• Random other fixits and whatnot so I'm in good shape to slap a new look on this puppy. (Just kidding - this redesign will be way more than that!)

Happy 2006?

It is not 2006, as the graphic in my header brazenly states. It's 2008! In fact, it was not 2006 for all of 2007! Yet, I led you to believe that it was 2006 all along! Ha HA!

To be fair, Shannon (wildtexas) pointed out the defect long ago, and I still haven't gotten around to changing it, because I keep thinking my redesign is "right around the corner", so why bother? Well, for her eagle-eyes (ha! get it shannon?), I award her the Detail Oriented Reader Keepsake award. I have yet to decide what the DORK award is. Man! I'm killing myself today! (wiping tears of laughter from my eyes, clutching my side.) Too funny.

SEED conference

A One-Day Conference on Design, Entrepreneurship & Inspiration, by 37signals, Segura Inc. & Coudal Partners.

"On Monday, October 29, 2007 in Chicago, Jason Fried, Carlos Segura and Jim Coudal will lead a presentation and discussion on design, entrepreneurship, and inspiration."

The price is $399/person and is limited to just 135 attendees. I'm not exactly sure why it's called "SEED".

it's design week on AVTV!

Tonight, after meeting other designers for drinks at House of Shields, we're going to go see Helvetica. I am very geeked about this - I tried to go see it at SXSWi, but the theatre filled up way too fast. They could have had 2 other showings at the same time and still not handled everyone in line.

Last night, we joined BayCHI and went to the meeting/speaker series. Christina Wodtke (IA expert, founder of boxes and arrows, eleganthack fame, etc.) gave a presentation about Going from Designer to Founder that was very entertaining and enlightening.

Tomorrow night, it's either SFlickr or a class at TechShop, we haven't decided. One of the things that was so appealing about SF was the flickr community here, and we've been here a YEAR and have yet to make a meeting. By Thursday we're both so tired. But we're determined to fix that.

Friday I get my cast off, which has nothing to do with design, but THANK YOU JEEBUS!!! I'm at the point where I don't think I can take another minute of it. And JR offering to saw it off himself isn't really helping.

So that's this week in a nutshell. I have so much back-blogging and back-flickring to do... So you'll be getting a little traveling back in time for a while. You'll take it, and like it!

say what again!

This is an incredible version of Pulp Fiction's "Say What Again!" clip expressed through typography.

Say What Again! by Jarratt Moody.

Thanks to Susan and McD for the heads up!

sxswi 2007

Well, we're back. Great panels, great schmoozing, got to see some of my own personal internet rockstars, and drank til the wee hours. Incredible parties. Check out some of the photos:

Flickr Set: SXSWi 07

So far, I've only uploaded the ones from my powershot. I still have to upload the ones from my Rebel.

After the conference was over, JR and I headed for San Antone to see family and friends. I got to see my dad's new house (amazing!). My sister Karolyn came down from Houston one night. And we had such a great time with our friends! Hi friends! :)

That's all for now. I'll tell you how I torqued my back while crashing to my knees (busting my right knee for the THIRD time now), but it'll have to wait.

SXSWinteractive calendar by google UX

The UX Team at Google has put together a public Google calendar with all of the daytime panels and nighttime events (the map link even goes directly to that nightspot): SXSWi 07

You can copy the events you want to see to your calendar (Gcal or otherwise), subscribe to the feed, etc. I've already found it handy to keep track of everything going on at once and see what I've chosen to attend.

It's kind of wonky being in a different time zone, as the events currently appear in my calendar as 2 hours earlier than listed, but it will be right when I change my time zone to CT on arrival in Austin.

If you get a chance, check it out - it's a useful tool I'm pretty geeked about having helped create. :)

sxsw interactive 2007

I'm gonna be there, are you? If you are, let me know in the comments or if I don't spot you there, swing by the Google booth and say hi!

JR (of McAfee) will be there too. As will Lee, of frogdesign.

Funny... first time I get to go to SXSW Interactive (in Austin - an hour from San Antonio, where I lived and worked for 6 years) is when I move to San Francisco. All I'm sayin', you know, is ... makes you think.