All posts by timebarrow
Writing to a “General” U.S. Audience
As a follow-up to my last post, which addressed how to determine the level at which you are writing, I thought I’d give a few tips on how to write at the goal (8th Grade) reading level. Most of these points are ones you already know. So, you might consider this some form of refresher….
A Little Logo Fun
So, a few months ago, I came across this video of a 5-yr-old’s perspective of some famous logos. It is, of course, very cute, and some logos she knows or mentally connects with person events. However, it got me thinking about how That video lead me to
What reading level is your text?
We often hear that the average American reads at an 8th grade reading level (shameful, that). Most newspapers, I believe, are even written as low as at a 4th grade reading level (painful statistic). But, what does that mean, and how can you know the level at which you are writing? You could
Lego Calendar Syncs Automatically With Smartphone
As a child, I was an extreme Legomaniac, extreme I tell you. i’d spend hours and days building intensely detailed and large vehicles, structures, creatures, etc. When I got more into my teens, I still had my Legos and ended up making more functional things: phone holders, bowls, a guitar stand, etc. So, what more…
10 Self Motivators for Writers
I’m thinking most of my readers of the “new” blog are writers to some capacity. That is to say, I’m betting you’re sitting on an incomplete draft of some novel, article, story, academic paper, etc. While it’s relatively easy to get (re)motivated by some conversation, epiphany, read, etc., I’m a firm believer in applying that…
DIY Animated Videos
I came across goanimate.com, a cool site that lets you make your own professional animated videos. There are a ton of backgrounds, characters, themes, etc., and you have much freedom to change how it all looks. It’s all drag-and-drop for storyboarding, and then you
Bar Jokes Involving Grammar and Punctuation
Here’s a bit of Friday grammar humor for ya, care of McSweeney’s. Enjoy!
Come to the Dark Patterns
Dark patterns are intentional content and design decisions in UX that tend to employ deceptive practices to trick you into taking some action. There’s actually quite a bit of psychology that goes into such design decisions. I recently came across this website and presentation that details what dark patterns are and how to use them. While…
GoDaddy Purchases Media Temple
DISCLAIMER: I will generally not comment on the happenings and decisions of my employer, here. More so, the thoughts and opinions on this blog are my own and do not represent or, necessarily coincide with, those of the company. However, I wanted to speak out on this one. Yesterday, GoDaddy purchased MediaTemple, the premium domain hosting and…
Don’t Confuse Engagement with User Experience
Substantially more Android phones are sold than are iPhones (about 5:1 in 2012). However, iPhone users do much more shopping, browsing, and app-downloading. So, what gives? This Harvard Business Review article, by Michael Schrage, discusses it. The key point is: