http://patricksmith.org development, products, marketing, strategy Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:44:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Everyday, we answer small business customers’ questions on how to “show up” in search engines. David Mihm has done an extensive survey of local SEO experts and distilled their responses into a fantastic summary of local search engine ranking factors David doesn’t provide a summary of all of them listed in rank ... http://patricksmith.org/2008/06/18/great-summary-of-local-search-factors/ Laura Alter analyzes how to make an app compelling using game-design principles: Collecting things Earning Points Getting/giving feedback Exchanges/Gifting User Customization Syndication Competition Tipping Point What if we applied those to designing jobs? Collecting work one is proud of – give folks a way to show off good work to co-workers Points – measure performance metrics that an individual and team ... http://patricksmith.org/2007/08/29/making-work-compelling/ I did a short presentation today at the Washington DC, BarCamp. I briefly reviewed eight applications that can be used to manage your to-do’s according to the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. (This is the first presentation I’ve done in the very cool S5 format. You can view it online or ... http://patricksmith.org/2007/08/11/from-dc-barcamp-eight-gtd-applications/ Google, as one of the most powerful companies in the world, has an obligation, and a tremendous opportunity, to be a force upholding the right to free speech that we take for granted in this country. In an awful step backward, however, they have agreed to remove videos on YouTube that ... http://patricksmith.org/2007/03/10/google-how-is-censorship-not-evil/ Great quote from Steve Wozniak in Founders at Work: So Mike was going to finance us, and then one day he said to me, “You have to leave Hewlett-Packard.” And I said, “Why? I designed two computers [Apple I and Apple II] and cassette tape interfaces and printer interfaces ... http://patricksmith.org/2007/02/26/wozs-amazing-creative-output/ Adpative Path has a thought provoking post about using design to communicate otherwise hidden social and environmental costs. Jennie Winhall’s talk at MX on Designing for Social Good has made me think about ways that we, as user experience designers, could use our understanding of psychology and behavior to develop creative ... http://patricksmith.org/2007/02/26/making-hidden-costs-visible/ I just added a couple of new pages to this site based on 30boxes very cool calendar mashup widget. One is what I’m calling my “lifestream”—it’s a compilation of my flickr photo stream and the rss feed from this blog. The second is flickr sailing, a combination of photos from flickr in ... http://patricksmith.org/2007/02/24/calendar-view-of-life/ I’m digging MarsEdit. I never realized that going to the site, logging in, and posting via a clunky web interface was as frictional as it turns out to be. I’m enjoying knowing that posting is just a command-tab away. http://patricksmith.org/2007/02/23/desktop-blogging-client/ I started looking for a desktop blog client today—and lo and behold it’s the day that MarsEdit got acquired by Red Sweater Software. I also checked out: MacJournal ecto Between John Gruber and other mac luminaries saying they use ME for the vast majority of their posting, I thought what the hell, might as ... http://patricksmith.org/2007/02/22/test-post-using-mars-edit/ Jonathan Korman’s Where Do Product Managers Fit? presents a case for product development with interaction designers, marketing and engineering working in concert for product success. His approach is summarized in his diagram: Importantly, he advocates that the product be significantly defined by interaction or user experience designers, an approach that’s very ... http://patricksmith.org/2007/02/19/the-narrow-horizon-of-product-management/