These are the links

Interesting article. Table striping is a pain to wireframe, so I'd be happy to agree it's not needed. I took the survey for her follow up study. Looked like she was comparing zebra striping to using thin rules between rows. I actually felt like I did much better on the tables with the thin rules. I hope I hear about the follow up.

Looking at the author's site, I saw she's speaking at convention organized by the BFMA -- the Business Forms Management Association. It had never occurred to me there would be a 50 year old field devoted to form design.

We just got the 2nd photo of the year, too. Luckily our school's photographer doesn't make you return the proof - that sounds like a real money maker for them! Talk about setting a trap.

I do want the full class photo when it comes, I think my son will enjoy that over the years. I only want one though, not a whole package. What a pain.

We're back from vacation. We had a wonder ful time, you can see the full photo set on Flickr.

One thing I was wondering on the trip - "cyber cafes" are so ubiquitous and useful in other countries, why not in the US? Our memory card got full on our camera, so I walked into a cyber cafe and got the photos on burned on a CD for $2.50. What a great service! I guess public libraries do some of this work in the US, but usually not as well.

I feel like the TV show Lost has found it's rhythm again this season. I think the reason is that they have now scheduled and ending. In the previous season it wasn't clear how long the show would go on, so some of the episodes just seemed to go nowhere. The same thing happened with the Sopranos. It was meant to be a 5 season show, but it was so popular they stretched it to 7 seasons. The pacing was thrown off and you got many filler episodes, which didn't seem to move the plot forward. I think one reason reality TV shows are often compelling is that there's a clear end goal, and as contestants get knocked off we feel anticipation for the grand finale.

So that has me thinking that more blogs should use this approach. When I did the couch-to-5k page in 2006, it was fun because I knew it would be over when I ran the 5k. I wasn't going to blather on about my running schedule for ever. I'd like to see more of these, bathroom renovation blogs that end when the bathroom is done, web app development blogs that end when the app is released, etc.

I think this blog gets an out, because for the most part it's a linkblog which is a separate species. The average visitor to this website spends one minute here. And that's the way it's supposed to be, there is no story. But I'm on the lookout for stories I could read and maybe for stories I can tell as well.

By the way, my family and I are off to Mexico later this week. Despite the story potential, I don't expect to be blogging from the beach. So things will be quiet here for a while.

This made me squirm I felt so embarrassed. I hope Bruce Springsteen doesn't see this. The moment when the Clarence Clemons stand-in hands the saxophone over to the business executive made me nearly vomit. In happier Bruce Springsteen related news, the Boss endorsed Barack Obama.

I am linking to this site not so much for the wine as for the Information Architecture. They have a fun, accessible way to categorize wines. For example I could see in a few seconds of looking that I like "Fresh" and "Smooth" wines in general. What a difference form having to try to remember all of the different varieties of wine I've tried in the past. Thanks to Stacy for the tip!

I often think of the term "the power of defaults" when I am designing forms. It's often a great to set default values to make life easier for people. But there's a risk, too. People tend to leave defaults as they are.

Here's an example of a rating input. It used to rate articles on FundAdvice.com (a site I really appreciate, btw) and just happens to have a default value of 5 stars. The articles are excellent, so it may just be a coincidence that they all tend to be highly rated. But I wonder what would happen if that default was set at 3, or even one. I bet those high ratings would start to deline pretty quickly.

Interesting article on why people are interested in other peole who have the same name. My favorite factoids:

In studies involving Internet telephone directories, Social Security death index records and clinical experiments, Brett Pelham, a social psychologist, and colleagues have found in the past six years that Johnsons are more likely to wed Johnsons, women named Virginia are more likely to live in (and move to) Virginia, and people whose surname is Lane tend to have addresses that include the word “lane,” not “street.”

I've been contacted by other Ben Brophy's. Tow of them have expressed their irritation at my swiping the domain name. But it's pretty clear according to Google that I am the world's foremost Ben Brophy, so I think my claim is fair. One of us laid claim to ben-brophy.com but benjaminbrophy.com is still available for one of you guys.

This screen cast of the brand new release of WordPress shows what I'd consider some of the best interaction design for content management around. It starts off with the dashboard, which is nice, but the magic really starts when he shows how you create a blog post with a gallery of images.

I was very proud of City Councilor Sam Seidel for proposing that Cambridge residents be able to opt-out of receiving the Yellow Pages (click here for more on the vote).

I see piles of unwanted yellow pages moldering on porches as I walk to work. I'd love to see an opt-in policy instead of an opt--out policy. This "YellowPagesGoesGreen" outfit seems to have the same idea. You can go there to opt-out of the yellow pages. Not that it will actually work, but maybe it will help mobilize support.

American currency is so embarrassing.

Episode 2 of the opinionated UI designer is now broadcasting from YouTube.

The Cambridge Chronicle blog posted a story criticizing the Cambridge Public School System for putting the superintendent's photo and a banner about the school's statistics on the homepage. I am happy to see web design as part of a conversation about local politics.

First I have to say, they are being ridiculous. Its the school department's site not "a school Website" as their headline suggests. The School websites are separate entities. I've been volunteering on team helping with the Amigos School website so I really feel there's clear division between the school websites and the department websites, maybe more so than in other cities. They have a full time web mistress, so they did not spent extra time or money creating a "a fancy banner ad." It's not an ad (or that fancy) and it's like they are trying to imply an ad agency was hired or something. And why not trumpet some statistics - they should be proud of the school system.

But the method is interesting, they are taking a an approach that we use in design patterns. They've looked at 4 school system websites and done a comparison - 3 with pictures of kids and Cambridge with a picture of the superintendent. I don't totally dismiss their conclusion.

But you can't just use that tool - it's also important to think about the intended audience for the site, and I'm guessing the school department's site has different audience in mind than a school website. It looks to me like they are addressing parents who are considering whether to use the Cambridge public schools, move to another town for their schools, or use private schools. That’s an important audience to reach - people should know the schools are doing a good job.

This new feature for back-dating emails through Gmail is just what I need. I forgot my Friend Suzana's birthday last Friday, but now I can send her an email and back date it to Friday morning. Then I'll call be like, "What didn't you see the birthday email I sent? I totally remembered." I'll be using this one all the time.

Great public domain images form the Boston Public Library - this set of World War II posters are especially interesting. (More info on Spinstah)