On buzzwords and mainstream culture
21 Apr 2010 by céline
Is the brain lazy, or simply overwhelmed? And is there a different between these two states? As they both appear to put the brain on stand by. One does so, out of exhaustion, and the other: out of, well… laziness, motivation perhaps..
When mainstream culture picks up words like: “amazing”, “curating”, “ninja” or even “web 2.0″ like it is the case over here in Montreal, it can only mean 50% of the fundamental understanding of these words got lost somewhere in between the reader and the author. Or between the broadcaster, and the audience. And the conversation going back around can only be again divided by 25% of the understanding again.
So where does this leave us?
Well, it could be that it makes it harder to explain the culture to lazy adoptions of buzzwords, makes it also harder to work with quality as not everybody seems to understand the goals, or the meaning of the actions. But when we press the big PAUSE button, and take the time to take time, and explain calmly. Only then, can we hope the message was fully assimilated. And the buzzwords can finally die.
Amen.
On serendipity
21 Apr 2010 by céline
Trying to describe serendipity, Wikipedia says: “Serendipity is the ability of making accidental but fortuitous discoveries, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated. The word has been voted as one of the ten English words that were hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company.[1] However, due to its sociological use, the word has been imported into many other languages.[2]”
…making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them discovered that a camel blind of the right eye had traveled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right—now do you understand serendipity?
I’ll try my own humble explanation of the word serendipity:
Serendipity is looking for a book you have long lost, and find an unexpected notebook you completely forgot about, and be happily surprised about it.
Jeff jarvis says: Serendipity is unexpected relevance
Serendipity is not randomness. It is unexpected relevance.
What is serendipity for you?
searching for serendipity… what can you find? Never what you are looking for.
How to design something that offers this kind of surprise, magic, and stickiness..
Designing social interactions
20 Apr 2010 by céline
I have been working on a project for over 6 – 7 months non-stop.
We worked in a small team, using Agile process, small iterations, 3 weeks between each launch. I personally have learned a lot.
I’ve learned more about people, and dynamic between them.
I’ve learned how to deliver the best I can in 3 weeks
I’ve learned how to collaborate better with dev
I’ve learned how to keep it cool
I’ve learned how to solve solutions real fast
I’ve learned how to focus on the goal, and keep on going
I’ve learned how to communicate calmly (even if very excited) my ideas, and present our work with enthousiasm but clarity
I’ve learned how to say No
I’ve learned how to design in French
I’ve learned how to clear a bad situation with a coworker
I’ve learned how to keep up the faith no matter what
The best memory I have is when all the dev guys working on the project were gathered around my computer and were all playing with the visual design, Photoshop was On, and they’re ideas made this search bar:
These are some snapshots of the original wireframes, as a record, archive of a memory, of that time we all sweat over something we believed in.
Archives dans la mémoire of designing social interaction in Québec, Montreal.
Finally Lefil.ca goes live one last time on April fools day.
Authenticity
12 Apr 2010 by céline
This inverted photography of Jesus, explains how he was crucified, showing blood stains on the wrists, head, etc…
It is a historical evidence, documentation, relic.
“It is something very peculiar. The shroud is some kind of negative of the body it’s wrapped up. So you can ask ‘Was that the moment of resurrection?’ That has to be speculation.”
It’s perhaps the most controversial religious artefact in the world. The Shroud of Turin cloth that supposedly wrapped Jesus’s body after the crucifixion and became imprinted with his image, has intrigued millions of believers and sceptics alike. Having gone on public display for the first time in a decade, the debate over its authenticity is set to resume.
Unshrouding the science of the Shroud How is this article in the Europe category? SHouldn’t it be in Middle East?
yamli
5 Apr 2010 by céline
“I love Yamli so much, this product is so useful to me as an ex-patriot lebanese canadian. I use it often, as I know how to speak arabic, but not read or write. I use Arabish instead to chat with my family. Yamli is awesome, but I think it is still at an early age of design. Maybe it was never even touched by a designer before
I know because it’s too geeky talk: Rich editor, and like Simplified editor) Whatever! my Mom would never be able to understand what that means. I know for sure that no Ux has been on this project yet 
So… I took the initiative to play a little with the homepage design, I’ve been doing some thinking first 
and came up with this idea/drawing…
