1. More with Less
2. It's the Game, Not the Result
3. The Flip Mino
4. Get a Job, Nerd!

As we head into 2009, I've been reflecting on the past year and gearing up for the new one. With the arrival of our third child this month (it's a girl!), I've divided my time into smaller chunks to get tasks done. Diaper changes, burps, emails, cleaning—the list of tasks and responsibilities continues to grow. I've thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, but I still wonder if this is manageable over time. I'm not complaining—just trying to figure out how to do more with less time and energy.

It's virtually impossible to stay up on everything. There's more information published every day on the Internet, TV and radio than you could possible consume in a lifetime. With the all the chaos of a newborn in the house and the need to stay connected, more with less seemed like an appropriate newsletter theme. And yes, I know the saying is less is more, but I'm not particularly interested in less—just easier ways to consume more. I'm simply not willing to let go of all of my interests and I'd prefer to at least stay engaged in a small way. Interaction design will continue to play an important role in helping people visualize massive amounts of information. There is so much great information buried in databases—it needs to be set free with intuitive interfaces!

More with Less

I use a dozen applications on a daily basis, but every one of them falls short of simplifying my life. I'm not interested in spending a ton of time with each one—I'd prefer if *they* just let me know what happened while I was gone. And I don't want an end result. I'd like to see how things unfolded. Great interaction design can make this possible and fill in the gaps of time.

While most desktop and web applications fail to provide relevant, up-to-date summaries, there are still promising interface elements that have emerged over the past few years. Here are a few that really shine:

Flickr and Google analytics both utilize spark lines. Spark lines are small thumbnail graphs that show graphical data inline with text—in this case it's the last 30 days of traffic on my web page. There are no numbers, but the graph shows general trends. Viewing less than 1% of the screen area in a tenth of a second, I can understand thirty days of traffic!

A screen crop from my Flickr homepage showcasing the spark line.

It's particularly useful for quickly assessing spikes or dips in traffic without loading a web page. It's so powerful, why don't more services use this element? Imagine if your bank used it to show interest earned on statements, stock sites used it next to the ticker name in articles, or sports websites used it for player stats. It would help you see the bigger picture in a very small space without having to invest too much time.

Facebook was one of the first applications to show a news feed about your friends. It's a great way to view the stream of online happenings without having to be aware of everything they're doing. What makes this more useful is when you click on the options setting it allows you to increase or reduce the amount of information you see from each friend. There's still an upfront time investment, but eventually it adapts to my liking. If Facebook could figure out how to summarize this information over the course of a week I'd be a happy camper! Still—in less than thirty seconds I can find out what one hundred thirty people are doing on any day.

A screen crop from my Facebook newsfeed showcasing the options.

Google's Picasa is still one of my all time favorite applications. I use Adobe's Lightroom for editing, but I still find Picasa incredibly useful for scanning though my entire library of images. I recently backed up 18,315 of my photos from the past eight years and was able to view and scan every thumbnail in less than a minute by using the scrubber tool. That's an incredible amount of information with just a small movement of the mouse. Picasa automatically indexed every image on the drive without me having to do a thing!

A Picasa screen crop showing the photo album scrubber.

It's the Game, Not the Result

Jeremy's blog post last month, How do I catch up on all the sports I missed?, highlights how basketball box scores don't utilize the volumes of information collected during games. The NBA has a huge staff of statisticians, but they fail to engage fans who enjoy following their teams. While most people are only interested in the final result, there are just as many fans who would enjoy a recap of how the game was played—without having to read through an article. A win is a win, but how the game was played provides great insights of how a team is really playing. And when it comes down to it, sports are soap operas on testosterone—the more ammo you have, the richer the conversation/debate/argument becomes with your coworkers.

The Flip Mino

This year ZURB employees received a Flip Mino for Christmas. It's a simple little device that allows you to record an hour of video with the press of a button. Video loads onto your computer with a flip of the USB adapter and click of a few buttons. It's a clever little device that puts the fun back into capturing "moving photo moments". What makes this device enjoyable is that it takes all the difficulty out of dealing with technical issues and allows you to have fun capturing moments. Less interface elements equals more footage.

Check out a team video compilation from our Christmas party.

Get a Job, Nerd. We're Hiring!

We might be small, but we offer cool benefits that big companies can't provide. We're a hard working group that makes a big impact for every company we work with. We're looking for these great people to join our team:

Junior Designer

A strong visual designer with XHTML/CSS chops. Should show a passion for interaction design.

Senior Designer

Someone with proven leadership to work directly with our clients. Needs to be confident with their work and capable of selling ideas.

Web Developer

A Rails developer who is happy to brainstorm in a team environment. Iterate quickly on prototypes and build a product out in the wild with customers.

Marketing Intern

A outgoing and fun junior that want's to learn in a dynamic environment.