One may be wondering how that can be, since I write a design related blog, and a self-claimed fervent design blog reader. You see, that’s the thing. I read and write about design, but I haven’t done nearly as much actual “designing” as I would like to. I’m talking about doing creative things in my own time outside of work. In a way, I think I’ve become a pundit, or a mere enthusiast. Looking back at my more productive years(late 90s to mid 00s), I didn’t read too much design blogs or write anything on design. My inspirations mostly came from tweaking my own work, or reading a few good print or photography magazines.

With design inspiration sites being so abundantly available these days, it’s hard not to look at what wonderful work other designers or artists have done. I’m grateful for those who maintain sites showcasing quality work. Sites like these were so few in between when I first started web design. However I have to ask myself why I even seek for inspirations to begin with? To aid my own design of course. But if I spend most of my time only being inspired and not doing anything myself, then what purpose does it serve besides a mere nerve stimulation?

My thoughts on this subject can pretty much be summed up by my friend Jeff’s article, just simply replace the word “programming” with “design.”

At the point when I spend all my time talking about programming, and very little of my time programming, my worst fear has been realized: I’ve become a pundit. The last thing the world needs is more pundits. Pundits only add ephemeral commentary to the world instead of anything concrete and real. They don’t materially participate in the construction of any lasting artifacts; instead, they passively observe other people’s work and offer a never-ending babbling brook of opinions, criticism, and witty turns of phrase.

Even if you’re not a designer, you probably can still relate reading this. There are a lot of “inspirational” books, articles in life that help you to achieve things you want. It’s very easy to get sucked into reading them, instead of practicing what they advocate.

It’s time for me to make my creative life more balanced. I’ll continue to read, but in moderation. As far as blogging, I’ll keep the same pace. Writing in a way, helps me to be creative as a writer. I’m not a very good writer (in fact English isn’t my first language), and more importantly, I always had trouble sticking to one thing without giving up. So writing this blog has helped me to convey my thoughts into words more effectively. Also keeping up with a consistent post rate has helped me to overcome my weakness.

I plan to dust off my Wacom for digital drawing; take more creative photography; and finish some long over due web projects. Hopefully one day I’ll post my finished work here.

Why are you still reading this? Go take a photo, draw a sketch, play a tune on guitar, write an article, fire up Photoshop, or simply go for a nice jog. :)

/cheers

8164

• Natural Talent vs. Hard Work - Working in the creative industry, I’m often amazed at the work of some artists. I can’t help but wonder if such great work is due to natural talent or hard work, or both.
• Air & Space Museum - A post of photos I took while visiting the National Air and Space Museum this past weekend. It’s becoming one of my favorite museums in DC area.

Blogs from Elsewhere

• Is CSS3 RGBa ready to rock? - An overview of the new CSS feature, RGBa(”a” as in alpha). This article also contains useful links to other CSS3 related sites.
• Lessons Learned while Building an iPhone Site - A very nice article from Ross, a developer for Flickr. He talks about what to watch for when developing a site for the iPhone, or mobiles in general.
• Seen It All Before - Seth makes a few good points about assuming, or anticipating what your audience may or may not know.
• Dutch Government Introduces Corporate Typeface - A good through review by Sanders, on a new typeface Rijksoverheid Serif / Sans. Very pretty indeed.
• Saturday Bulletin - A very funny blog I discovered this week. The blogger, Jerry Tracy takes clipart he finds and adds funny captions.
• Equivocality - The personal blog of Jeff Ngan. You can definitely tell that Jeff is a creative person from his clean site design and candid photography. However he doesn’t blog about design much, just honest personal writings. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to his blog.

Fun Stuff

• Cambridge Face Memory Test - I scored a 93%. But I gotta say, those faces creep me out.
• Ocarina iPhone app - I really want this, for no particular reason except to annoy people on the subway :)
• Super Obama World - Replace Mario with Obama…
• Peering into the Micro World - I love boston.com’s “the Big Picture” section. This latest release features some amazing microscopic photography.

Rodrigo y Gabriela

• 
  Rodrigo y Gabriela ‘Diablo Rojo’ from David G Wilson on Vimeo.

I am currently reading Serious Creativity by Edward De Bono. It’s a great book by the way, I’ll write a review once I’m done reading it. In one chapter on misperceptions about creativity, Bono wrote:

CREATIVITY IS A NATURAL TALENT AND CANNOT BE TAUGHT

This misperception is actually very convenient because it relieves everybody of the need to do anything about fostering creativity. If it is only available as a natural talent then there is no point in seeking to do anything about creativity.

[...]

That some people are naturally creative does not mean that such people would not be even more creative with some training and techniques. Nor does it mean that other people can never become creative.

Natural talent vs. hard work is a topic that has been debated by people of all professions throughout history. It’s also known as Nature vs Nurture, the difference between one’s innate ability vs. ability affected by personal experiences.

The term “talented’ or “gifted” is often mentioned in the artistic field. The achievements of artists, both in fine art and performing art are more obvious and visible. I have yet to find the reason why people have the need for such debate or self-awareness. Perhaps for some, it’s to gain self assurance, while for others it is to be hopeful.

I read a lot fables as a kid. Many of them touched upon this topic. For example, the race between the rabbit and the turtle. As a fan of the anime Naruto in recent years, my favorite character is Rock Lee (pictured above). He has no natural talent that other ninja students posses, but he makes up for it with his tenacity.

But fictions are fictions, they teach us the moral of being humble and diligent. Reading Bono’s excerpt, I can’t help but to consciously wonder if there’s such a thing as natural talent, especially when it comes to creativity. Last year I read an interesting and passionate discussion regarding this topic on Conceptart.org, and supporters of both sides raised some good points.

Here’s my opinion on natural talent vs. hard work: (P.S. as redundant as it may be, I’d like to point out this is just my opinion. Agree or disagree, that’s what the comment section is for).

Of course there’s natural talent, it’s not a myth. My statement comes from the achievements of people like Mozart , Michelangelo, Einstein, Michael Jordan etc. and my association with some very smart people in real life. I believe some people have more natural aptitude than others in certain areas. This is what I call natural talent.

However, the verdict of someone being naturally talented is often skewed. For example, when we see a fine piece of art or music, we often conclude that the artist must be really gifted. We come to this conclusion because we’re judging the end result - the art work itself. We tend to forget about the process and the journey of getting there. The artist may have been practicing for many years to get to that point. In which case hard work plays a huge role, regardless of whether he/she is naturally gifted or not.

In many discussions I’ve seen, talent and hard work are often talked about in a dichotomical way. E.g., Gifted people are perceived as complacent and lazy; while non-gifted people work harder to make up for it. In reality, talent can only carry you so far, the rest is hard work. The two are not mutually exclusive.

I also believe tenacity itself is a form of natural talent. It’s not something everyone is capable of. Being able to work hard towards a goal, consistently, despite hardship, is a gift. It’s easy to judge talent by a painting, photo, music score or fanbase because they’re more conceivable.

Another factor that’s often ignored in such discussions is Passion. Passion makes us strive for excellence. Talent + hard work + passion is a winning formula for success.

My views are formed based on my personal experiences, I’d love to hear yours.

Below you’ll find some of photos I took from the trip. You can see all the photos from my Flickr set. Enjoy.

8164

• XOR - We don’t live in a black or white world. But sometimes we say black or white things. I examine the harms of dichotomical thinking that may affect our professional and personal lives.
• Anthropomorphism - User friendliness in web design isn’t limited to the form and function. Language is important too.

Blogs from Elsewhere

• 6 Steps For Building Successful Websites - Dmitry of the Usability Post wrote this great article on Smashing Magazine this week. It covers several key points web designers should be mindful about when creating a website.
• WordPress 2.7 Feature Preview - A very interesting video of Mark Jaquith showing the new features in WP 2.7. I say interesting, because of the attention paid to details in usability.
• The Role of Metaphor in Interaction Design - This presentation was created in 2005. I found it while looking at Dan Saffer’s other presentation, Interaction as a Material.
• What Marketers Can Learn From Obama’s Campaign - Obama ran a superb campaign. This article explains the details.
• Electioneering08.com - A comprehensive archive of screen-shots of all the major sites’ coverage of the election results, by the hour.

Inspirational

• 10 Reasons Why You Are Rich - During tough times, think about those who live in dire conditions.
• Unity - a photo is worth 1000 words. In this case, 4000 words.
• Cost of the War - A great movie of typography, symbols and icons.

Funnys

• Why I Will Never Have a Girlfriend -Now I know, the odd is so against me. Oh and the fact my wife won’t let me.
• Helium Vs Sulphur Hexafluoride - Adam Savage of the MythBusters demonstrates and explains why helium makes you sound funny. He also inhales some other gas I can’t pronounce.
• The Original Photoshop - Kids these days are so spoiled. This is what I had to work with!

As I was flipping through my notes of 1s and 0s and occasional doodles, one page in particular caught my attention. It was a page on the logic operator Exclusive Or (XOR). If you’re not familiar with computer science terms, you may be wondering what this term means. What is Exclusive Or?

p	q	xor		Exclusive Or is a logical connective combining two statements, truth values, or formulas P and Q in such a way that the outcome is true if either P or Q (but not both P and Q) is true.
0	0	0
0	1	1
1	0	1
1	1	0

In plain English, XOR = dichotomy, or false dichotomy. In even plainer English, black OR white.

What was so special about this page in the notebook? Nothing. However, seeing the XOR truth table reminded me of recent events and some of my personal experiences.

“You’re either with us, or against us.”

Are you a black or white type of thinker? Whether we admit it or not, at one point or another, we get caught up in it.

Those who know me well can attest that I’m a pretty logical and mellow person. To get me upset about anything is harder than milking a cat. But I wasn’t always like this. I spent years engaged in flame wars dating back in the BBS days, then eventually on usenet, web forums and blogs. I argued to win, and it felt good to win. I didn’t care what the others had to say, they were wrong. I was very much the same in real life too.

It wasn’t until recent years that my personality got an overhaul. The change was attributed partly to life humbling experiences such as becoming a father, or maturity as I grew older (although I still believe in the saying, “aging is inevitable, maturity is optional”). Booger.

The true moment of clarity came to me, when I studied Lao Zi’s book Tao Te Ching. Through reading the chapters, I learned about objective thinking, the key of balance, and most importantly, humility.

The world we live in is not black or white. Why do we get caught up in dichotomic thinking at times?

The Cause

• Pride. Do you remember the last time you argued with someone until your neck turned red? Looking back, were you arguing to get the points across, or to simply get the last word? When we argue to shut the other person up, we’re no longer contributing relevancy to the conversation, except for boosting our ego.
• Ignorance. We simply don’t know everything, and that’s OK. That’s why it’s important to listen carefully what other people have to say, without automatically taking a defensive stand.

The Harms

• We stop learning. If we only view things from our own perspective, then that’s all we can see. We’ll be forever trapped on the mentality of “I’m right, you’re wrong.” This leads to narrow mindedness and ignorance.
• We’re less pleasant to be around. When people know we’re not open to suggestions and compromise, they’re less likely to want to associate with us. This happens in personal and professional life. No one likes a stubborn person.

How to Overcome

• Put yourself in others’ positions first. When you view and think from a different perspective, you will discover new things. This helps you to either effectively set up pre-emptive counter points, or to simply admit your own flaws. There’s no “winning” an argument between two opinionated individuals. It’s rare one can totally switch his/her view. However, the point of a debate or argument is to let the other person see things from your perspective, and you should do the same too. My 6yr old somehow mastered this art form. “Daddy, I know I just got a toy. But if you buy me this Batman Lego set, I won’t ask for anything for Christmas.”
• Actively expose yourself to opposing views. I read a lot of articles. About 10% of the articles I read are of authors I have strong opinions against. I don’t do this because I’m a masochist. Reading their views helps me keep my own in check. When dealing with someone you strongly disagree with, it’s important to be objective and not make it personal.
• Define black and white, then find gray. If you find yourself feeling strongly about something, it’s good to set up arguments with yourself. Create an opposite persona if you can. You don’t always have to arrive at the dead center, but chances are you’ll reach a more objective conclusion.

Humility

The U.S. presidential election is finally over. I, along with many others, are looking forward to the rebuilding of America. During the past months of election coverage, I saw some of the best and some of the worst in people. Media coverage was full of extremism from both sides. When one person holds black or white views on things, it hurts him or her as an individual. Furthermore, when people think that way collectively, it divides a nation.

Our country has increasingly becoming argumentative as a society. People are being judged, not only by their views, but by their associations or labels. If you’re a conservative you must be a religious hillbilly, if you’re a liberal then you’re automatically a weed smoking hippie. I hardly saw any intelligent, unbiased debates that were focused on the essence of the issues, instead of personal, political or commercial gains. Some of the most ignorant things I heard came out of the mouths of those who appeared to be most self-righteous.

None of us are perfect. That’s why it’s important to constantly improve ourselves, to broaden our horizons. Humility comes from humbleness.

An·thro·po·mor·phism (ān’thrə-pə-môr’fĭz’əm)
n. Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.

Anthropomorphism is around us everywhere we look. From the talking animals in children’s books to the GPS in automobiles. We often interact with objects as if they were human. When was the last time you described a car as “sexy,” or cursed profusely at a computer screen?

Why do we have an innate ability to personify non-human things? I can think of several reasons. We do it to invoke imagination and to be entertained in literature and movies; To reduce stress and to raise comfort level in product interface design. After all, we’re human. If an object possesses human characteristics, then it becomes relatable and familiar.

Hailed by many as the Father of Computer Science, Alan Turing developed the Turing Test in the 1950s, a method for measuring a machine’s ability to converse like a human. This was the first attempt at anthropomorphic computing, outside of the science fiction realm.

Anthropomorphism is becoming an important factor in design in modern years. I first heard the term being used in conjunction with product design in an excerpt from Steve Kemper’s book Code Name Ginger, describing Steve Job’s reaction to the Segway, as Tim Doerr was giving a presentation:

“What does everyone think about the design?” asked Doerr, switching subjects.

“What do you think?” said Jobs to Tim. It was a challenge, not a question.

“I think it’s coming along,” said Tim, “though we expect—” “I think it sucks!” said Jobs.

His vehemence made Tim pause. “Why?” he asked, a bit stiffly.

“It just does.”

“In what sense?” said Tim, getting his feet back under him. “Give me a clue.”

“Its shape is not innovative, it’s not elegant, it doesn’t feel anthropomorphic,” said Jobs, ticking off three of his design mantras.

“You have this incredibly innovative machine but it looks very traditional.” The last word delivered like a stab.

When we apply anthropomorphism to a design, the end product invokes a feeling among our users. Ultimately, the persona we create interacts with our users through the product. Treating it as if we were interacting with the users directly, how would we behave? Common sense tells us that if we’re friendly and helpful, then users will love us. Conversely, if we’re tactless and uninformative, then users will reject us.

Since I work mostly on web application interface design these days, I tend to pay extra attention to how the instructions or messages are worded. User friendliness isn’t limited to usability and accessiblity. The copy can also have an impact. I’ve noticed more web sites/apps have started to adopt an anthropomorphic approach in their interactions.

By using a natural language interface for its system messages, Twitter comes off as very approachable, instead of machine-like.

There are three types of message styles being used in web applications.

• Telegraphic - originated from the telegram days. The messages are short and concise, but machine like. e.g. <input>: “First Name”
• Fluent - More natural than telegraphic style. Addresses the user as “you.” e.g. <input>: “What’s your first name?”
• Anthropomorphic - “Converses” with the user, identifies the system as “I” or “We.” e.g. <input>: “Tell me your first name please.”

Telegraphic and Fluent are the most commonly used. Each of the three styles has different an effect on users’ psyche.

Designing a personality takes a lot of forethought. If it becomes overly friendly, the user may feel smothered. If it’s too eager to help, then it becomes pesty. If it tries to be too humors, then the user may not take it seriously.

There are other considerations as well. For example, when designing for international audiences, we need to be aware of the cultural differences. E.g. some Asian countries prefer “overly apologetic” while Western users may prefer something more straight forward.

I feel we’ll see more anthropomorphism in how web sites/apps communicate to their users. It should, however, be used where it applies.

“Oh? Give me the good news first…” (I never like the good news+bad news type of situation. 9 out 10 times it’s just a bad news wrapped in a cushion.)

“Your pumpkin has a fan. It’s a cute squirrel.”

“So what’s the bad news?”

“It ate your pumpkin.”

8164

• Familiarity & Learnability - Two design principles I think that are very important when creating a usable site.
• Hypertext & Print.css - Usability issue isn’t limited to screen when it comes to web design. In this entry, readers and I talk about when to or not to print out URLs using CSS2.

Blogs From Elsewhere

• JavaScript and Screen Readers - Aaron Cannon and Aaron Barker did a great job explaining how major screen readers(Jaws 9.0 and Window Eyes 7.0) interpret javascript events.
• CSS Implementations of the Rich and Famous - A very comprehensive comparison of CSS implementations of major web sites out there.
• Live Remix of the 2008 Presidential Debates - If you’re a fan of politics and infograph, this is a very neat presentation.
• If It’s Too Social, You’re Too Old - Does social networking have anything to do with age or level of commitment? I believe it is whatever you make it to be. It’s different for everyone.
• Subway Architecture - A nice collection of subways. Working in Washington DC, I’ve become a fan of subway tunnels and escalators. There’s so much geometry and clean lines involved in the architecture.

Time Killers

• The Eyeballing Game - Good practice on your… eyeballing skills. Time to brush up on geometry too!
• Sheep Dash! - How fast are your reactions
• Mr. Picassohead - You too can be Picasso.

Totally Random

• Don’t Harm the Eggs - I swear this happens to me every morning.
• FaceBook Fail - Can’t tell if this is real. But regardless it’s funny.
• Bar Code Diagram - Now I understand what the bars mean. Check it out if you’re curious too.

Gheorghe Zamfir

• 
  Close your eyes, and let Gheorghe Zamfir’s masterful pan-flute performance take you to another world. The Lonely Sheperd is my most favorite piece of music. It has so much emotional and yet so calming. When I wrote about Kill Bill this week, I just had to listen to it again. Quentin Tarantino has good taste in music.

I’ve been meaning to add URL printing in my print.css and I finally did it tonight. Before, my blog printed like this:

Here’s the URL printing code I added tonight:

#content a:link:after, #content a:after, #content a:visited:after {
    content: " » " attr(href) ;
    font-size: 80%;
    color:#EEEEEE;
}

I only limited URL printing within the DIV #content. (btw, I noticed “color” attribute only affects Safari, not Firefox. URL printing is not supported by IE, shocker). Here’s the after screen-shot with URL printing on.

At first I thought it looked good. Then I realized the post I took the screen-shots of is one of my Friday recap posts, which is consisted of mostly of links. In other words, it’s not a true article. So I print previewed a normal article, and here’s how it looks:

As you can see, it doesn’t look pretty when the URLs are long. (no, I’m not going to tinyurl every link in my blog!)

My dilemma is if I should keep URL printing or not. My philosophy on print.css is: when on paper, make it look and read like a magazine or book. This means eliminating the elements that are interactive when on screen, or those that are not relevant to printed content. For example: navigation menus, breadcrumbs, footers, background images etc. I use this rule for my site only since it’s a blog site where it’s heavily content driven. However, there are times when we do need to print out navigation or bread crumbs, so users can revisit the website and find the source of the printout easier. (yes, browsers print the URL of the page source, but sometimes it’s too long for people to re-type it).

When it comes to hypertext, URL printing in CSS is beneficial because the reader can use it for reference. The downside is, as shown in the screen-shot above, makes the reading experience less desirable.

In my opinion, the application of URL printing is situational. For a page that primary resource based, AKA link lists, I think it’s good to print out web addresses. But when contained in paragraphs of an article, it should be turned off. If the user is interested in finding out the source of the links, chances are he/she will go back to the site and click on them.

As of now, I turned URL print off again. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this.

I’m a big fan of Quentin Tarantino’s film Kill Bill, since I grew up with the Hong Kong flicks it pays homage to. I’ve watched it countless times. Recently, I watched it again. This time I noticed something I never consciously thought of before.

On her journey to vengeance, Bride, the main character played by Uma Thurman is seen carrying a katana blade on the airplane and roaming freely in the airport. How come no security guards stopped her? How did she get her sword on the airplane to begin with?? I quickly answered myself those questions as fast I raised them. Kill Bill is set in a fantasy world created by Tarantino. Fans of his movies are used to the screen violence and devices he uses. Those who are seeing Kill Bill for the first time, are quick to adapt to the reality he creates and see what’s abnormal as logically sound within the boundary of the movie. He does this well because he establishes the consistent rules and visual cues early on in his movies.

Conventions are being used everywhere in our daily lives, from film to design, to help us adapt to something we are seeing for the first time. We know how to brew a cup of coffee with a new coffee maker without reading the instruction book; we don’t need to learn how to drive again when getting behind the wheel of a different car. In fact, very little thinking is involved because they are things we’re accustomed to, thanks to conventions and standards.

What about once in a while when a revolutionary product comes along that we have very little experience with? Its success will be determined by how quickly people can learn how it works. When it comes to using a new product, we like things that are intuitive.

Familiarity and learnability are two important design principles used when creating products. In my case, making usable web sites.

Familiarity

The degree to which a user recognizes user interface components and views their interaction as natural; the similarity of the interface to concrete objects the user has interacted with in the past. User interfaces can be familiar by mimicking the visual appearance of real-world objects, by relying on standardized commands, or by following other common metaphors.

Take Apple for example, it’s known for its polished products. Apple’s success in product design isn’t entirely due to its visual appeal. Every single element from how it looks and how it functions, is consistent throughout all platforms from OSX desktop applications to Apple’s website, from iPhone to iPod and even the buttons on the hardware. This consistent use of conventional elements help the users to use any Apple product effortlessly, therefore the brand loyalty is created.

Now let’s take a look at popular news/blog sites on the web. Long before the web, we were used to reading in print format and knew how to operate a mouse with a point and click on desktop applications. This makes migration to the web easier. Then newer conventions were created. Most news/blog sites share the same layout and navigation. Layout is heavily influenced by newspaper, and navigation is placed similarly on the left or top. Article headers are typically in bigger font size. This helps the readers not having to think too much about where to click, therefore spending more time to focus on the content.

Familiarity is created by the use of conventions. Steve Krug explains it best in his book Don’t Make Me Think:

All conventions start life as somebody’s bright idea. If the idea works well enough, other sites imitate it and eventually enough people have seen it in enough places that it needs no explanation. This adoption process takes time, but it happens pretty quickly on the Internet, like everything else.

This is very true. Look at the web sites we frequent, especially those of the same genre, we probably will find strong similarities among them. After all, why re-invent the wheel?

But if we, the designers, follow conventions all the time, then how will innovative designs ever be created? To create something new, there’s a risk for alienating the users and make our product less usable. This is where learnability comes in.

Learnability

A measure of the degree to which a user interface can be learned quickly and effectively. Learning time is the typical measure. User interfaces are typically easier to learn when they are designed to be easy to use based on core psychological properties, and when they are familiar. Familiarity may come from the fact that it follows standards or that the design follows a metaphor from people’s real world experience.

Again, let’s use Apple’s iPhone as an example. When the iPhone was first introduced, most people had never used a touch interface like it before, but it didn’t take anytime for people to learn it. In fact, most people didn’t even read the instruction book. Before the iPhone launched, Apple bombarded the TV with commercials. They not only served as advertisements but also training videos. This significantly reduced the learnability once people started using the iPhone. Of course, the iPhone already possesses many familiarities people are used to from using other Apple products.

Quoting Krug again:

Sometimes, though, particularly if you’re doing something original or ground-breaking or something very complicated, you have to settle for self-explanatory. On a self-explanatory page, it takes a little thought to “get it” - but only a little. The appearance of things, their well-chosen names, the layout of the page, and the small amounts of carefully crafted text should all work together to create near-instantaneous recognition.

Most blog sites have an established convention. The layout is pretty standard, with slight variations. This is a newspaper column influenced layout. When visiting a new site with such layout, it takes readers almost no effort to find where everything is, since they’re used to seeing them on the other sites.

When I started designing this blog site, I wanted to do an experiment. First, I wanted to start from scratch without influence of any kind. Anything that’s not absolutely essential was eliminated. The goal is to give each article as much focus as possible. With this in mind, I decided to fix the navigation menu on the bottom of the screen. I felt this was a unique design. However, this design is very unconventional, therefore it may make it harder for the visitors to find or even notice the navigation bar.

As I predicted, the first two months since the site launched, I had a high bounce rate of 70% among new visitors. It was evident that people had a hard time locating the navigation. If people can’t find what they’re looking for on a web site, they quickly leave. (edit: I’d like to stress, this part of the article is not about teaching people how to design a layout. I feel this layout works for my site, with my intention. Thanks, Mark Aplet for bringing it to my attention).

I started the next phase of my experiment at beginning of this month. I added a simple one-time-only pop-up box near the footer, instructing people how the site works. Since then, my bounce rate went down to 57%, an 18% decrease from before. There are still more changes I plan to do in the future.

Don’t Make People Think

The reason Don’t Make Me Think is my top favorite web design book is because it has so many applicable lessons in it, despite being written eight years ago (which is a hella long time in internet time).

Applying familiarity in our designs helps people to embrace the site; attention to learnability allows us to innovate without alienating new users. The two principles have opposite denotation, but compliment each other well.