The Kitten Covers

One night many years ago, I had this amazing idea to recreate album covers with kittens. BUT, someone else did it and did an amazing job with it.

Kitten Covers by Alfra Martini of aymvisuals

Here are some of my faves:

  

Let's Just Taco Bout It

I find this absolutely hilarious.

 
"Two Chips" / An Animated Short from Adam Patch on Vimeo.

21 things you might not know About Product Design

21 things you might not know about Product Design... from Etienne Garbugli @egarbugli has some great gems that are often overlooked in Product design and Product planning. The presentation transcript is below:

• 1. 21 things you might not know about Product Design... ...and if you do, please pretend like you don't.Etienne GarbugliWeb & User Experience Strategist
• 2. Me meme.
• 3. Montreal, Canada raisedComms / Marketing backgroundFirst (Geocities) Website in 1998Founded 3 businesses (1 startup)RecognizedUsability / UX / IXD / IA expert with 7+ years of experience
• 4. 1.Ideas are nothing withoutproper execution
• 5. }Ideax Execution________ResultBoo.com
• 6. 2. Most people only really use 5 to 7 services
• 7. }Whywould I addyouhere?
• 8. 3. You can’t easily change user behavior
• 10. 4. Understand your meaning
• 11. Company name is for market segmentwho are dissatisfied with problem being solved. Our product name or service offering provides companies with benefits. Unlike our competitors, we have proprietary advantage.}What are yousolving? How do you know?
• 12. 5. Challenge the Status Quo
• 13. Reverse engineer designs. Find patterns and improvementopportunities.}
• 14. 6. You may not need a signup
• 15. Tripit.com
• 16. 7. Perceived value is key
• 17. Moof.com}It’snever about the tool; youneed to focus on value. Askyourself, doesthis help anyonereachtheir goal?
• 18. 8. You don’t have to build everything
• 19. Iteration1SchedulingBoard, Progress Reports, Job Status Reports, Profitability Reports, Customer Tracking, Call-back Scheduling, Dashboard Customization, SharedAppointments, PurchaseOrderContract, Workflow Management, SchedulingBoard, Reminders, Invoicing, Billing, Search, Signup, Login}Build theminimum needed to launch. Builditverywell.Iteration 2User Ratings, Social Media, PrintViewEh…Iteration3
• 20. 9. Others have done it before
• 21. }You don’tneed to re-do whatalreadyexists.
• 22. 10. The longer it takes to develop, the less likely it is to launch
• 23. W1 W5 W10 W15 W20 W25 W30 W35 W40Great ideaTeam Setup ThinkingDebatingArguingPlanningExecutingOut of Money…}Buildmomentum, not projectplans.
• 24. 11. Typing is a barrier to entry
• 25. }Newslettersignup. Pleasekill me…
• 26. 12. Content actually matters
• 27. }Great content is simple, scannable and purposeful.
• 28. 13. Visual flows convert
• 29. }What do younotice first? Second? Third?
• 30. Alignment+ Color+ Contrast+ Shape+ Size+ Whitespace___________ Visual Weight}
• 31. 14. The blank state should not be blank
• 32. Whatnow?! Blankscreens are communicationopportunities.}Dokdok.net
• 33. 15.People love overviews
• 34. }Always look for ways to provide an overview. Most of your favorite Websites do it!
• 35. 16.(Great) UX can create word of mouth
• 36. }« Wow »moments helpedmakeMintfamous.Mint.com
• 37. 17.Copying can be dangerous
• 38. Amazon.comTarget.com}Same design, different reality.
• 39. 18.Good designs feel natural
• 40. Design is a reductiveprocess. You need the right options at the right time and the right position.}ABtests.com
• 41. 19.You need metrics to survive
• 42. }Trackeverystep of the funnel. Understandthe issues.
• 43. 20.Features are best introduced one at a time
• 44. Batch Import and Export of catalogue Product comparisons Product Reviews Layered / Faceted Navigation for filtering of products in Search Results Shopping Cart ReportProduct Image Zoom-in DownloadableProductsCapabilityAbandonedShipping to multiple addresses in one orderOrderTrackingfromAccount A/B and MultivariateTesting Google Base IntegrationMeta-information for products and categories Admin Dashboard for Report Overview}Introduce one feature at a time to be able to identify issues and roll back if necessary.
• 45. 21.You can’t know everything
• 46. POST analysisHeuristic evaluations Lean startup methodology5 second test Scrum A/B testing SWOT analysisAarrr metrics 4Q surveys Cost-benefit analysis Conversion funnel Analysis Price Point Analysis Personas}What do you know? What do you really need to know?
• 47. +1 Bonus
• 48. “Progress is not the number of features, it's user behavior changes.”- Dave McClure}Spend 80% of your time optimizing features, 20% on creating new ones.

Haut California Soul

Forgive the messiness in some parts and squishness at the end but this is my first mix, Haut California Soul.

Track listing

California Soul - Marlena Shaw
Nice to See You - Las-civ-i-ous
The Ordinary People (83 West Remix) - The Legends
Angel (Killer Club Mix) - Tarantulaz vs Pharrell
Addiction (Terry Hunter& Kenny Dope) - Kanye West
I Might Do Something Wrong - Tortured Soul
That Night (Wahoo) - Jazzanova with Vikter Duplaix
Would That Make You Love Me (Harness) - Thicke
Stormy Weather - Jus' Dope - The Deep Roots
Change For Me (Joey Negro) - Erro 
How Do I Let Go - Dennis Ferrer feat. K.T. Brooks
Restless Soul - Zanzika
Fini Dolo - Blow (Restless Soul Peak Time Mix) - Joey Negro
Runaway (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix) - Jamiroquai
Put Your Back Into It  - Peven Everett
Live On - Wookie Feat. Lain
The Cure & The Cause - Fish Go Deep feat. Tracey K

Tokyo Bladerunner: Android Dreams

One of my all-time favorite movie is Bladerunner and I stumbled upon Samuel Cockedey's time lapse movie, Android Dreams, which is a homage to Ridley Scott's film. A breathtaking beautiful moving photograph.

"Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before." "Well, Now that we have seen each other." said the Unicorn. "If you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you."   - Lewis Carroll

android dreams from Samuel Cockedey on Vimeo.

Bon Voyage, 2012! Thank goodness you've arrived, 2013!

Well folks. It's that time again. Time to bid bon voyage to 2012. The minty fresh scent of the new year is wafting in and it makes me think about my resolutions for 2013. 

In retrospect, I think I did pretty good with crossing off items on my list for 2012. I didn't do a full 10k, but ran 2 5ks, which adds up to 10k… so to me that means a dotted line that crosses off #2. :) It was a rough year but with some amazing milestones and happenings peppered throughout. One of which is adding a new family member. Meet Nico. 

My 2013 new year's resolutions are: 

1. Get fit enough to run a 10k
2. Learn how to sew
3. See my family (especially the new niece and nephews) in San Francisco
4. Clean up my financial house
5. Be a better friend to my peeps

This year, I want to do something a little bit different by calling out a new month's resolution, each month. Maybe this will boost my chances of making it happen and get closer to the newer, hotter, more fabulous me. 

1. Month of January: Get organized with personal and work stuff

Bring it on, 2013! 

X♥X♥

Skip the movie, watch the titles!

"Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Title Sequence by Blur from Motionographer on Vimeo.

In an alternate life, I would have grown up to be a movie titles designer (or more accurately, both a movie titles designer AND music video director). Imaginary Forces, the brainchild of one of my design heros, Kyle Cooper, blew my mind with the title sequence from "Se7en", back in 1995. Every since, I've always paid more attention to the titles than the feature film. Sometimes, I've skipped the film entirely if the title sequence is lacking. Yes, I admit, I'm a nerd.

When I stumbled upon the titles for "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Title Sequence by Blur at a friend's house, I literally ran home and put that movie in my Netflix queue. Mesmerized by the beauty of these 2 minutes, I watched it a dozen times before I watched the rest of the film. Check out these articles to get a more in depth look at Blur's process: 

An exclusive look at the making of "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Jezebel
Oily Secrets of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s Title Sequence by Wired