Dispatches From The Internets

This is an excellent breakdown of general “ethical” philosophies with a solid example of their concrete application in software.

“Treat personalisation as progressive enhancement,” Chris recommends. “Start with good content and a good information architecture that works for all of your audiences. Then start with basic personalisation and build up from there.”

It’s easy to get upset when we feel like the things we care dearly about—accessibility, translations, etc.—don’t seem to register with others. But appearances can be deceiving, as Tom Cochran—a former director of digital for the White House—points out with respect to the changes to WhiteHouse.gov:

It’s no secret that my political allegiances lie with Obama’s administration, but I can be very objective with this. First off, I think that the media is reading a little too much into the digital transition. You have to think of it in terms of moving into an apartment: The previous tenant moves out, and a new tenant moves in. When the previous tenant moves out, he or she will take his or her possessions, furniture, and paintings, and the new tenant comes in and starts over and hangs their stuff up wherever they want to. Someone who had been in that apartment before would go in and say, “Whoa, wait, where did the couch go? There used to be a couch here.” Well, yeah—but there’s a completely new tenant in here.

Excellent piece from Andrew Smyk:

We are starting to live our daily lives in the post screen world. The advent of smart and contextually aware devices have changed how we interact with content. Data is a snapshot of our contextual connectivity to our physical and digital environments. Designers will need to build screen-less experiences that leverage data and algorithms to create value for users.