January 2019 | You're never done, and that's okay
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UX WRITING, DISTILLED
The goal of this essay on UX writing – Perfect Is the Enemy of Done – is to showcase the infinitude of writing, the endless (sometimes crippling) possibilities. In most forms of writing, you’ll find multiple legitimate, excellent ways to say the same thing, and when you get stuck trying to perfect your writing, rather than working at it, reworking a few times, distilling it to its key elements, and then publishing it, you may get stuck forever, never sharing your work.
True, yes, perfect is the enemy of done, but my favorite part of this essay? It describes UX writing (the simplification of complex ideas, presented to the audience in a way that’s right for them) and how to do it (ask all the questions, get everything on paper, then distill, edit, and distill again). And it doesn’t make it sound easy (because it’s not), but it does make it sound fun (which it is).
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HUSH
We need more quiet than we’re getting. That makes sense. We live in an attention economy, no? Time is our most valuable asset. People are buying books about how to disentangle ourselves from our screens without being a total Luddite. We’ve all told someone else how busy we are. (Honestly, I always feel like such an ass when someone asks how I am, and I say, “Busy.” So uncreative.) And when people ask what we want, we answer, “Time.”
I’ve been more intentional about taking breaks from my desk (read: laptop) during the day, which includes recognizing the validity of taking mental breaks during the work day. My work invariably improves after a little break, especially if that break is taken in nature.
Give yourself a break. Depending on your situation, a true break can be hard to fit in, but they’re worth it. And I mean a break away from digital connection. You’ll be happier, more relaxed, more creative, and you’ll bring more to your relationships. Fill your cup first.
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AI STARTED CHEATING
Would you consider it cheating if the computer did what it was told to while hiding its work from its creators? I’m teetering between super-impressed and creeped out by the AI that learned how to do something more efficiently than expected … and kept that info to itself. But go you, AI. Get it. (Also, eep!)
Regular blog readers know I’m fascinated by data collection, privacy, and the intersection thereof. As facial recognition becomes ubiquitous – faces collected by individuals on their Ring doorbell feeds, retail stores profiling customers while they shop, corporations building troves of photo databases to organize in our clouds, and countries cataloging the populace in search of “bad guys” – I think about it every time I see a surveillance camera, every time someone shares a photo, every time someone points their phone toward my face.
And now there’s this cute Facebook challenge where you show yourself today and ten years ago. No biggie, right? Right. Except. There’s always an exception. Governments, companies, and individuals the world over can scrape such publicly posted photos and use them to add age projection to their facial recognition software. Depending on how much tinfoil you wear on your head, this could be cause for concern.
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WHAT’S 10 YEARS?
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MILKMAN, 2.0
So we all know that the US recycling system is a bit of a mess, right? The countries that have taken our trash and recycling aren’t so interested in it anymore, which is a problem given that we’re all generating so much waste with our online shopping habits – boxes that take airplane trips, followed by truck trips, that are delivered to our door, full of items in plastic bags; our love of individual plastic trays of seaweed chips, enclosed in plastic packaged together with 12 other packages inside a bigger plastic bag (wasteful, yes, but so delicious); and our love of body wash stored in thick plastic bottles (remember bar soap? In paper? Yeah, choose that one). Plus, we’re terrible at recycling, filling our bins with cans and bottles sticky with food, which renders them trash in the end.
I’m so delighted to see companies attempting to mitigate packaging waste by offering refill systems. I get milk delivered to my door, which evokes 1950s porches, bottles filled with fresh whole milk replacing the rinsed empty bottles drunk the past week. I’ll sign up for more programs like this, both to alleviate my fear of contributing to the demise of our planet and also because I love the luxury of goods I want arriving at my door. Yes, I’m an environmentalist and a voluptuary. What of it?