Four short links: 6 September 2017
Flat UI, Essential Knowledge, Haunted Hardware, and Late-Stage Capitalism
- Flat UI Elements Attract Less Attention and Cause Uncertainty (Nielsen Norman Group) — On average participants spent 22% more time (i.e., slower task performance) looking at the pages with weak signifiers [flat UI].
- Every Programmer Should Know — even if you disagree with some/all of this list, compiling your own is a useful exercise.
- Demon-Haunted World (Cory Doctorow) — In the 21st century, we have come full circle. Non-human life forms—limited liability corporations—are infecting the underpinnings of our “smart” homes and cities with devices that obey a different physics depending on who is using them and what they believe to be true about their surroundings.
- Rochester vs. Cupertino (NY Times) — really interesting piece about the difference between Kodak then and Apple now: fewer workers, fewer of them permanent, and no opportunity for those on the bottom to up-skill and grow. But as more companies have outsourced more functions over more time, a strong body of evidence is emerging that it’s not just about efficiency. It seems to be a way for big companies to reduce compensation costs.
