Labour attempt to do ‘an Obama’
Labour are attempting to engage fully with the web with LabourList - an ‘independent’ network of blogs and social tools. It feels a little bit forced or fake, but it is the right strategy for them to try and counteract the potent force of online Conservative opinion (such as conservativehome.com). More about the initiative at The Guardian.
Uncanny valley and interface design
Bill Higgins talks about the danger of web designers trying to create online applications look and act too much like their regular desktop-based cousins. This is an interesting point, but regarding an issue that is still very much in flux. Web design needs new metaphors for getting things done, and what happens to the tools that are a natural mix between web-based and desktop apps, such as the iTunes Store, Twitterrific, Evernote, RSS readers, etc.?
Memes
Nice couple of articles on The Guardian and The Moderate Voice about one of my favourite websites, Memeorandum. The website scours the web for the most ‘live’ news stories of the moment. These articles are partly interested in how Memeorandum is completely driven by a clever computer-driven algorithm, but intriguingly the company has just decided to start using people to help discover news as they feel it didn’t quite work well enough without them. (Found via Andrew Sullivan)
Time to restructure your business?
“…online sales have simply been bolted on to existing businesses, but retailers need to start from scratch and use the lull in sales in 2009 to restructure their businesses.” from The Telegraph, talking about the collapse of Woolworths and MFI, and whether this is the end of the high street? Note: it is probably not.
The Story of “O”
Steven Heller interviews Sol Sender in the New York Times about the design of the “O” logo for Barack Obama. A striking thing about the campaign was how it concurrently had a strong grip on the identity internally, never letting the wrong colours or typography to be used, but also the way it benefited from how it was constantly reinvented externally by supporters, whether in viral videos, handmade banners, cake designs or any other form imaginable.
Politicians will learn from Barack Obama, but probably should not do it like this
Benjamin Netanyahu, the right-wing Israeli politician has been inspired by Barack Obama. Many people may find this inspiration slightly ironic considering the differences in fundamental world views, but learning from his successful campaign techniques makes sense. That said, what Netanyahu really shouldn’t do is copy wholesale the brand design and general look and feel of the whole campaign.
Twitter Vote Report
Take a look at this great Twitter-based website that lets people report problems and issues with voting in the US today.
The problem with virus detection…
Mike Davidson from Newsvine talks about how anti-virus software regularly can create more problems than they solve. We have even had issues when users simply click on a regular drop-down menu – and then nothing happens.
Finding this week too depressing?
Depressed by the credit crunch? Find Facebook too intrusive? Bored of iTunes? Like being lost without Google Maps? Drop back in time to 2001 with Google and remember the good old days of the internet (before it became really really useful).
YouTube’s finest design and advertising movies
If you have some time to spare (we don’t), then these are a great set of design and advertising clips found on YouTube by Creative Review.
The design of the Olympics through the years
The Colourlovers website does a great overview and history of the brand design for the Olympics, from 1896 through to the ever controversial 2012 games. Via Daring Fireball.
Designing for good
“For some, bringing environmental responsibility to the design table was all a bit earnest and joyless. The mooted idea that the iPod might not be the most ‘green’ of products, and therefore was hardly an exemplar of modern design, did not go down well. People do not buy something because they like the virtuous value system it embodies, said one designer; they buy it because it is stylish, of the moment, gives intense pleasure.” Patrick Butler in The Guardian on the nowadays unfashionable idea that design can be a force for doing good in society – not just about selling stuff.
Sexism and blogging
“Women get dismissed in ways that men don’t” – is there a ‘glass ceiling’ to be overcome for women bloggers? More at the New York Times on the BlogHer conference.
Global grinning: Acme Climate Action in the news
The Telegraph newspaper on Saturday had an article about the forthcoming Acme Climate Action book. We’re working with Provokateur on the accompanying website.
Poetry and spam
We get endless amounts of spam here at FoxLand, and we all hate it – but sometimes, rarely, we come across something so surreal and odd that it comes across as some artist’s bizarre project. In fact, there is now a whole movement in poetry inspired by spam, the unfortunately named ‘spoetry’.