Play by your own rules

Listen to your users more than the press. Don’t get sucked into the gravity hole between you and your competition. Ruthlessly run your own path, not someone else’s. @jw

An honest behind the scenes of the Gowalla vs. Foursquare check-in battle by Gowalla founder Josh Williams.

When Plays Replace Products

“I want to save my hypothesis on what the next “music industry” product will become for future posts, but I think it helps to think about some of the more creative tiers of support you’re starting to see from artist Kickstarter projects. Think tiered, high margin products that emphasize some sort of direct, relationship-based access to artist. These are the types of authentic “experiences” you can sell online, without worrying about piracy (short of cloning the artist). It’s this sort of fan based patronage that may fund a veritable renaissance of artistic creativity in the 21st century.” - @freshbreakfast

Focus on the in-between

“Optimisation points are just one way we can start thinking content-out. And thinking content-out is what we need to be doing to create truly native experiences on the web – wherever the web is.” - @markboulton

Mark refers to ‘Breakpoints’ as ‘Optimisation Points’ and I like the notion of focussing on content-out when planning a responsive design. He recommends watching how the content adapts as the viewport changes.

  • Type size and leading. Does it need to change?
  • White space (macro and micro). Do you need to adjust margins and padding?
  • Vertical space. Do you need to reduce it and make the content more or less dense?
  • Flow. How is the readers eye movement going to change as you change these elements?
  • Words. Are there now too many on one line? Or too few?
  • Source order. Are the right things in the right place?