I didn't read Jeff Atwood's article about cat feeders right away, because it really is 90% about a cat product. It's also a terrific demonstration of what he's saying above. The first version of the product, a cat feeder, served a core need well enough for him to satisfice with its shortcomings because the net return in time savings and improved quality of life, for him anyway, was absolutely worth it.

Bill Buxton has been collecting input and interactive devices whose design struck him as interesting, useful, or important. In the process, he has assembled a great collection spanning over 30 years of the history of pen computing, pointing devices, touch technologies, as well as an illustration of the nature of how new technologies emerge.

A month ago, Brad from JetPens contacted me to tell me that he started supplying a sketchbook from Maruman that I might like. What I really liked is how closely it resembles the one I made. Some of my Instagram friends have been seeing pics of me using the Maruman Mnemosyne Inspiration Notebook, and a few like it as I do. The one I'm using is the A5 (5.8" X 8.3"), which has a 5 mm X 5 mm pale gray lined grid, title line, and 70 perforated Sheets.

I'd like to talk about the one thing that's been consistent over the years—the genesis and power of creativity. ... It’s all about how you’re putting what you do together. The elements you’re using don’t matter. Purity of human expression and experience is not confined to guitars, to tubes, to turntables, to microchips. There’s no right way, no pure way of doing it—there’s just doing it.

Screenleap is a free service that lets you share your screen from any device with a browser, including tablets and smartphones. No software downloads, installs, or sign ups are required. May come in handy for people doing customer support or testing sessions where participant software installation could be an issue.

Responsive.is is a clever tool. Enter a URL or append one to http://responsive.is to view how the layout presents itself on the Desktop, and in tablets and mobile phones.

"When discussing any product, technology, or idea, it’s easy to focus only on its value, what problem it is trying to solve for the user. This is a good start, and has historically been the only consideration. Recently however, people have started to realize that it also has to be well designed; it can’t be painful to use. ... What’s most important is their relationship: as long as value is greater than pain, you’ll be ok. ... Just because value > pain doesn’t m

About This is a guide for creating your own sketchbooks using wire binding machines. I started making my own sketchbooks and sketchpads a few years ago. At the time there weren't many options for interface design-specific sketching and for storyboarding. So I began buying different types of notebooks and journals, started researching simple bookbinding, and prototyping. I wound up liking wirebound sketchbooks best. You can see pictures of all the notebooks I made for myself, and some of the sk

NU Hotel On Smith Street in Cobble Hill, which is full of restaurants and Bklyn shops. Modern furnishings, and bright looking rooms. Cool looking options, including quirky rooms with bunk beads or hammock. I lived in this neighborhood from about 93-98 and love the hood. Funny to me that there's a jail across the street, but you won't even notice it there. Not very convenient to our house, about 1/2 hour walk to Park Slope. Near F train and a 5 minute walk to 2, 3, 4, 5, N, R trains.

Tom van Beveren re-launches We are Colorblind. The site is restarting from scratch with new articles and examples of good and bad uses of color in terms of how those design decisions affect people with colorblindness. When you mouse over the examples, the screenshots allow you to compare the example with normal vison and simulated colorblindness. He also presents excellent examples for how these interfaces can be improved to become more accessible.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a

I admire Jason Fried's recent blog post, "Give it five minutes." In it, he writes candidly about the issue of pushing back on ideas, starting from an exchange he had with Richard Saul Wurman, where the two had given talks at the same event. Wurman approached Fried to congratulate him, and Fried replied by telling Wurman what he disagreed with about his talk. The take away from that exchange was that Wurman taught Fried to stop and think, to give ideas a chance before challenging them with little

Usabilla Discover is like a mashup of Pinterest and LittleBigDetails. Or maybe it's a social LittleSnapper. Whatever the hollywood pitch becomes, it's pretty awesome to share screenshots of designs you like. Now to figure out how to get my over 2,000 screenshots into it.

Originally designed by Nick Bowmast as a filming rig for iPad usability testing, Mr Tappy lets you capture or share user interaction with mobile devices during user experience research, product demonstrations or classroom presentations. Attach your webcam and any type of mobile device, set the camera height and angle, and record.