Alexandria — Issue #018: If The Data Doesn’t Exist, You Don’t Exist
Featured Article
Finding the Blank Spots in Big Data — eyeondesign.aiga.org
As our data becomes an increasingly valuable commodity — usually profiting others, sometimes at our own expense — to not be “seen” or counted might seem like a good thing. But when data is used at such an enormous scale, gaps in the data take on an outsized importance, leading to erasure, reinforcing bias, and, ultimately, creating a distorted view of humanity.
More Amazing Reads
Your Life is Driven by Network Effects
What city you live in. Who you date or marry. Which job you choose. What clothes you wear. We all think we make these choices ourselves. It certainly feels like we’re in full control. But it turns out that our choices — both in our startups and in our lives — are more constrained than we think. The unseen hand in them all is the networks that surround us and the powerful math they exert on us.
Magic vs Configuration
Magic: These are features that “just work.” Users don’t even know they exist. Suppose you build a photo sharing app. By compressing image uploads, users will see images faster, and perhaps spend more time in the app because the experience is smooth. The more time they spend in the app, the more advertisements they see, the more money you make. Image compression is a magic feature.
The Design Squiggle
thedesignsquiggle.com
The Design Squiggle is a simple illustration of the design process. The journey of researching, uncovering insights, generating creative concepts, iteration of prototypes and eventually concluding in one single designed solution. It is intended to convey the feeling of the journey. Beginning on the left with mess and uncertainty and ending on the right in a single point of focus: the design.
Top Tips to Polish a Product Design Case Study
This past year, I helped teach a class called Intro to Digital Product Design at Cornell University where students work on a final case study for an app they choose. I created these tips on how to polish a Product Design Case Study based on what I have seen in past student’s work and my experience going through recruiting for Product Design roles.
Solving Design Problems: Finding UX Tools, Methods & Activities
In many organizations, UX Design is unfortunately still often seeing as a One Person’s job, but it should not be that way. Involving users, audience, stakeholders, partners, internal teams and developers from the start will help us build better products and services. I am going to share with you my list of seven resources I use in my daily job to find the right UX method and tool.
My Product Management Toolkit: Managing Time
marcabraham.com
“Time Management” comes up in lot in conversations that I have with other product managers. The concern is about their ability to be a good product person, managing a product end-to-end while being short on time and fighting lots of different, and often conflicting requests. We’re busy* all the time but are we busy working on the right things? Are we able to focus on the things that really matter? How much control do we have over our own calendars? If not, are there ways to regain some of that control?
Marketing Lessons Learned Over More Than a Decade Growing Startups
kyletibbitts.com
There are no shortcuts when it comes to great marketing. “Growth hacks” for products that don’t deliver real and lasting value are a waste of your and everyone else’s time. Remain laser focused on the customer and delivering the best experience possible. This is the north star.
The Memory Palace
The memory palace is a technique to improve your memory to superhuman levels1 average people can memorize 10,000+ digits of Pi, recall hundreds of objects, and remember pages of poetry lines using it. while often used for silly feats like these, I use memory palaces almost every day, in my personal life & work, to keep a virtual notebook inside my head. On this page I explain the technique, tips to improve your use and many handy ways to apply it.
Resources
Roam Research — A Note-Taking Tool for Networked Thought
roamresearch.com
As easy to use as a document. As powerful as a graph database. Roam helps you organize your research for the long haul.
Design Password — Easy to Remember Password Generator for Designers
This generator leverage two advantages that we designers have: 1. Field-specific knowledge. We know typefaces names, css color names and adjectives. 2. Good visual memory. Where someone sees just text, we can see Helvetica in Royal Blue color and 12px size!
