ThoughtBlog

Writer River [UPDATE]

2008-08-04T17:26:20Z

After Writer River was brought down by a hacker, Tom Johnson moved it from Pligg to Prologue. Read about Tom’s experience, and then visit the new, hacker-free, Twitter-like Writer River.

Writer River

2008-07-11T17:17:03Z

I’m very behind on keeping up with my regular listservs and writing-related web sites (hey, it’s summer), so I haven’t checked out Tom Johnson’s I’d Rather Be Writing in quite awhile. There are so many interesting posts there, but the one I found most intriguing today is his announcement of the new WriterRiver.com site, which he recently created.

“WriterRiver.com is a social news site for technical communicators, which means you can both submit and vote on news stories”

This is really useful idea. Thank you, Tom.

The Boys and the Subway

2008-07-11T16:26:59Z

I love absolutely everything about the July 1, 2008, Christopher Niemann column in the New York Times: the writing; the blocky yet somehow warm illustrations; the idea of the children’s’ love for the subway and the way they’ve integrated the maps, routes, colors, and schedules into everything they do; the at once painful and funny part about Gustav’s heartbroken wail, “Local…I want the local.”

This is design getting it just right.

[via kottke.org]

Musical roller coaster

2008-06-04T15:28:34Z

Check out this great melding of music and info design - a commerical for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. As you ride, you “feel” the notes - it gets especially clear as you reach the end of the piece where you can anticipate each note as you see it come over the horizon.

[via VSL]

Info design patterns site

2008-05-15T18:28:32Z

Information Design Patterns is the web site supplement to Christian Behrens Master thesis “The Form of Facts and Figures”. For each pattern (tree diagram, sparkline, slider, scatterplot, etc.), he includes a description, a sample layout, and a real-world example. This seems like a nice start. I can’t wait for the book!

[via coudal partners]

Same sky

2008-05-13T12:32:32Z

There are too many fun links and ideas on Michael Surtees’ DesignNotes site, but the one most compelling to me this morning was his Same Sky, Different Places post (from May 1 2008). I’ve had plans for two long-period photo projects: a nearby field, every week, for a year; and a beautiful tree, every month for a year. Neither has happened — yet — but I imagine I could take a picture of the sky overhead once in awhile.

More TOCs

2008-05-12T20:22:00Z

Releated to my earlier post on Design Observer’s TOC booklet, Kottke today has pointed folks to a flickr group that posts pictures of interesting or well-designed tables of contents. I don’t see a book index group yet.

Data visualization blogs

2008-04-23T10:46:59Z

A list of Data Visualization Blogs You Might Not Know About.

[via kottke.org]

The Map of the Book

2008-04-15T18:35:59Z

For a little inspiration, see Design Observer’s beautiful little booklet, The Next Page: Thirty Tables of Contents, which showcases table of content design. Is there something similar out there for indexes? hmmm. Maybe I’ll create one.

Press F1

2007-03-30T18:36:19Z

I have many, many things I want to write about on this blog these days, but all that will have to wait until the paying work is done.

Today, though, I saw this McSweeny’s list and couldn’t resist posting it:

Possible
Titles for Future
Sue Grafton Novels
After She Runs Out
of Letters.

BY CHRIS STECK

- - - -

”/” Is for Slash

”:” Is for Colon Cancer … or Is It?

“F1” Is for Help

”,” Is Almost for Coma

”#” Is for #27

”^” Is for Caret-id Artery

”~” Is for Tilde-ath

“Ctrl+X” Is for Cut