stellargirl returns

inspired by TEDxMidAtlantic

This past week, me and some great Philadelphians headed south to Baltimore to check out TEDxMidAtlantic. The event was held at Maryland Institute College of Art, aka MICA, which was the perfect setting for a day of inspiring, humorous, thoughtful, and engaging speakers.  Dave Troy did an excellent job organizing and hosting the event. I'm in awe of the focus and care he put forth!

TEDx events are independently organized TED events. TED originally started out as a conference bringing people together from the Technology, Entertainment and Design fields, but has expanded in so many directions that they are now devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Any time you want, you can visit the TED website and watch any number of their 18 minute TEDtalks.

TEDxMidAtlantic was a jam-packed full day of programming with a wide variety of speakers.  It was requested that audience members shut off their phones and keep their laptops packed away. I have to admit, I was a little resistant about hiding my iPhone, but in the end, I was grateful. It's too easy to want to share everything that's happening with the whole world and get distracted (and distract others) by wanting to stay connected. 

I savored the words I was hearing by jotting down notes in my moleskine notebook. I had a slow start with the early speakers, but as the day wore on I wrote more and more. Below are some of my notes, key phrases and quotes that jumped out at me. I recommend that you visit the TEDxMidAtlantic website to watch videos of the speakers.

Sandy Wiggins
"Ideas are the paint, technology is the brush..."
entropy

Marcus Ranum
"Be aware of the consequences of tiny design decisions"

Scott Simon
"Stories are art not instruction."

Joel Salatin
the essence of egg, chicken-ness, personal ministry, nature's template, nobility, legacy
"find sacredness in your vocation"

Naomi Natale
visual movement based in civic engagement, the story of human potential
one million bones

Aneesh Chopra
global connectivity -> reverse innovation
the spirit of commonwealth

Peter Agre
"It's important to have heroes in life"
science is adventure

Ico Bukvic
aural focus, aural conduit
laptop orchestra = arts & engineering
"Walk away with a greater awareness of what your ears are trying to tell you"

Tony Geraci
Fruit has become a flavor, not a food anymore
local

Sonja Sohn
reWIRED for Change (and for Life)
empower, uplift, educate most high-risk youth
make self-actualization hip
1) poetry 2) family & community 3) trust public institutions 4) civic engagement
make a sacrifice, make an investment

Will Noel
make the inaccessible accessible
creative commons

Mark Walsh
"the internet is broken"
"promotes false conviviality but generates isolationism"
privacy is dead

Rebecca Hoffberger
"Nothing is too wonderful to be true" -- Michael Farraday
the power of illusion and suggestion
"sell your cleverness and purchase wonder" -- Rumi

Tyler Cowen
people use metaphor to describe their life
we tell ourselves too many stories

John Forte
wonderful and amazing performance peppered with a humorous take on his life's challenges

Karen Kasmauski
on the front lines of global health
bearing witness
presence of photographer changed health treatment in 3rd world country
human contact is the key to good health
listening is healing
culturally appropriate
the quickest way to eliminate disease is to educate women

Aris Melissaratos
knowledge economy
invest more in R&D
the real power comes from deomnstrating your value system

Bob Duggan
listen
words have physical affect on body
words = partnership
harvest - acknowledge the abundance

Roland Griffiths
spiritual experience under psychotropic drugs
unity, oneness
experiences are biologically normal
open a spiritual window

Ana Vidovic
guitar virtuoso, stunningly beautiful end to the day

vacation all i ever wanted

I've been singing the lines to that Go-Go's song all summer, but it wasn't until the very last gasps of summer until I finally took the plunge and got the hell out of Dodge.  For those of you who don't live in Philadelphia, it's probably one of the worst places to be during the month of August and I really thought I was going to lose it this year.

Thankfully, my very old and dear friend Christine convinced me to visit her in Los Angeles, California for a few days to get some good old fashioned sun and fun. She was looking for a reason to take a staycation, so it was a win-win situation!

We spent every single day in LA either hitting the beach or hiking up mountains and through chapparals.  We drank pints of Guinness at a pretty damn near authentic English pub, drank margaritas on Marina del Ray, and sipped lattes (soy chai for me) in some of the coolest coffee shops around.

My favorite parts of the trip centered around staring out into the horizon of the Pacific ocean, looking out into the mountains and valley and seeing for miles, thinking about life, thinking about nothing. Never before have I been so grateful to just unplug.

Our big night out was seeing Pink Martini play at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday night. Their music is a blend of jazz, vintage, lounge and really, just a plain old good time. The Hollywood Bowl is all outdoors and pretty huge. We sat way way way far back, the concert shell seemed a million miles away, but it didn't matter. There were moments that I couldn't believe I was really there, tucked away in the Hollywood hills among thousands of people, perfect southern California weather, the outline of mountains against the night sky.

Sometimes I forget about that nature stuff, here in this dirty old town.

It was an awesome trip and a HUGE reminder and kick in the pants that it's really important to get away if you can. 

You might be surprised what you find.

everything but the girl - missing

Everything But the Girl's Missing is one of my favorite songs to listen to as I walk around the city. It has the perfect cadence to match my steps and enough synth to drown out urban sounds.

When I hear it, it makes me miss living in NYC where walking is like swimming -- fluid movement through millions of people and places. On the train, up the stairs, avenue by avenue, street by street.

Russ Unger visits UX Book Club Philly!

Last night, UX Book Club Philly had a very special guest -- Russ Unger (aka @russu), co-author of our most recent book selection A Project Guide to UX Design, visited us all the way from Chicago.  Russ regaled us with stories about the making of the book, how he came to the field of user experience design and how he handles all the design problems that come his way. 

In typical UX Book Club fashion, an eclectic group of designers, web geeks and other curious folks had lots of questions and perspectives to share.  Some may have even called it 'UX Therapy'.  Everyone had a great time, and we're thrilled that Russ shared his time with us. Thanks Russ!  We'd also like to thank our friend Kevin Hoffman of Happy Cog Studios for hosting our fourth UX Book Club Philly event!

If you're interested in joining our next UX Book Club Philly meeting, please plug into the follow sources:

UX Book Club Philly Facebook Group

UX Book Club Philly Google Group

@uxbookclubphl on Twitter

We're hoping to get a website together for you soon, so please stay tuned!

the two scoop conundrum, SOLVED!

Remember a while back when I was completely befuddled by the double size scoop in my protein powder?  I figured since the scoop was twice as big, I'd only need to use half as much. Makes sense, right?  Well, the directions stayed the same, two scoops!  I didn't want to run out of protein powder twice as fast, so I went with one big scoop instead of two.

Fast forward to yesterday morning when I crack into a new can of protein powder and there's a scoop that's half the size!  Guess I'm back to the two scoop plan.

Here's a better idea, Biochem Whey Protein Powder (Vanilla flavor), why not just make the scoop size a standard measurement, like a quarter of a cup? That way your customers can just reuse their own measuring cup -- and if they do the math right, have four times the fun!

a proposed solution to displaying deleted tweets in search results

The other day I tweeted out a link to the first government-sponsored TED talks, a story I was pretty excited to share. In my regular pursuit of crafting the perfect 140 character tweet, I rearranged some of the words to give due credit to the original tweeter (@whitehouse) and to also add my own reaction to the story. In doing so, I mistakenly overlooked that the word "via" was stuck right up against the url for the story.  URL FAIL.

I deleted and retweeted to make sure that people got the correct link, since the link was up for retweet and was already breaking for people.  Seems easy enough,  but like any tweet that gets deleted on twitter, there is a permanent record in the search results found on search.twitter.com. 

Now we could get into a lot of arguments about whether these deleted tweets should stay or go. They are part of the fabric of twitter, and you can call people out on some crazy stuff they put out there that they can't take back. i.e. If you send an email you regret, well, there's not really any turning back, now is there?

In the interest of keeping information correct, however, removing typos, updating links, giving due credit, these are all benign reasons to remove and update tweets.  That's the power of the internet and websites, the ability to be reactive and always have the most current information. Check out any wikipedia page during a current event -- things change!

So if twitter is not willing or able to remove the deleted tweets from the search results, I propose that they use a little bit of CSS to show that they've been deleted. I'm assuming that clicking the trashcan icon through the web interface must add a "marked for deletion" piece of data, so give those tweets a style that indicates clearly that they're deleted tweets. See my screenshot below for an example.

View the actual results page on twitter

What do you think?

i have a lot to say!

I have a TON of blog posts that are just waiting to happen. Having trouble finding the time, but just wanted to drop in and say they are coming soon...

walk or don't walk, you have this much time to decide...

I had an amazing day yesterday in Washington DC for Redux DC, an event bringing together regional speakers from the IA Summit and the IxDA Interaction conferences of 2009.  After an educational day of great presentations, a Rhodia filled with scribbles, and a brain full of ideas, how could I not stop and ponder this walk/don't walk light that I encountered on nearly every block of Georgetown?

What stood out to me the most was the high number of seconds on the clock. I stopped at this particular corner and observed it for a few cycles, out of curiosity and also because I had to find the correct ISO on my camera to capture double digits instead of single (they must alternate at an undetectably high speed). I passed a few corners and commented to my companions before I committed to watching it begin, count down, and reset again.

Here in Philadelphia, our walk/don't walk signs have changed slightly in the last few years.  Basically they work like this (from memory): The light turns green for cars, and pedestrians get the "walk" sign, the white outline of a person walking.  Once the traffic light turns yellow, you get the blinking hand and a countdown on the clock, starting at about 10 seconds.  That always signifies to me, you better HUSTLE if you want to get across this intersection (they're usually at larger intersections in center city).

In Georgetown, the clock begins the second you get the walk signal and the traffic light turns green.  It starts at about 48 (or 45?) seconds, and down goes the clock.  From a pedestrian's perspective, seeing that high of a number actually helped me plan earlier on whether or not I was going to make that light.  I'm not sure it's as effective to a driver, who may be distracted by the countdown, especially because it was on the same pole as the traffic light, instead of the traffic light hanging from a central point above the street.

Being a city dweller for upwards of 13 years, I rely on my feet to get me mostly everywhere. They're my single most reliable form of transportation.  Living in NYC for over four years, taught me how to move quickly and weave through crowds of people moving at varying speeds.  Walking is something that can be leisurely or determined, depending on where you're headed... and where you're going.  There must have been some reason why the urban planners of Georgetown deemed this a necessary design change. I'd love to hear their reasoning.

On a final note, I'm glad I got to spend a small part of yesterday wandering around Georgetown, a lovely area.  Many thanks to the organizers of RedUX DC for inviting us down.

Read more about RedUX DC from the twitterverse.

saving for later on amazon.com

I have this habit on Amazon of constantly throwing things in my cart and then bumping them to "Saved Items--To Buy Later" (there's no move to wishlist option). I used to be masterful at cultivating my Amazon wishlist, which would actually be rather fruitful around birthdays and holidays, and sometimes for no occasion at all. Somewhere along the line, I stopped sharing what I wanted and decided to shuffle it around behind closed doors. Periodically, I go in and delete things that I know I am never going to buy, but I have a weird curiosity about watching the prices rise and fall.  Generally, the increases and decreases are pretty minimal, but I have seen items drop 50% or more.

I'd love to see this data broken out a bit more. What if the increases were separated from the decreases?  Show the price decreases first in the list so the user can spot deals quickly.  How about including a percentage with that dollar amount? Sure it may seem like an insignificant number, but it's still a number. Who doesn't love a deal?

Do you ever read the unit price at the supermarket?  I actually base a lot of shopping decisions on that.  If I have to decide between Brand A or Brand B, small size or big size, sometimes the deciding factor is actually a difference of a few cents on the unit price.  I'm not even that thrifty!

Having a limited background in ecommerce, I'm curious to know if "saved for later" equals abandonment, or if hanging around in a stagnant cart somehow carries more weight.  What if my items expired after X amount of time and I got some kind of messaging to quickly move them to my wishlist, which is searchable and viewable by others, which could lead to actual purchases?

I also wouldn't mind seeing an item's price history. They seem to ebb and flow so much, that I might actually act quicker to make sure I get it while the gettin's good.  There's nothing worse than mulling on an item and viewing your cart to see that it's gone up quite a bit.

These are all nice to have features, but I think for some people, it will make the difference between a sale and a save.

why i'm done with PhillyCarShare

The truth is, I don't want to be done with PhillyCarShare. I don't have a car. I haven't had a car since high school when I drove a beat up rusted out 1984 Jeep Cherokee that my Uncle Bill passed down to me. The thing had vinyl seats, was in bad need of a paint job, and once almost killed me by doing a complete 180 on suburban black ice. I thanked my lucky stars aplenty that there were no other cars on the road. 

I really do wish I had a car, but I don't want to make the financial commitment and I also don't want to watch it get beat up by bad parallel parkers (of which I am one myself) or by the general wear and tear of city living. I've got a monthly transit pass that serves me very well, in addition to a large collection of comfortable shoes that I trek around the city on. 

My PhillyCarShare trips have been rare. They're usually tied to need as opposed to want. I need to go to Home Depot and buy X for my house, I need to buy a new X at IKEA, I need to haul something big that won't fit in my friend's trunk. It's unusual for me to sign out a car because I want to have a car for the day. Why? Because it's damn expensive!!!

When PhillyCarShare first started, they offered two plans. The Basic Freedom plan, which has no monthly fee, and the Advantage plan, which was $15 a month and recommended for those that regularly signed out cars (at least 2 trips a month).

I was content with my Basic Freedom plan, because I only signed out cars every few months, for those days when I would bundle a few necessary (i.e. need-based) trips in one day.  Without fail, each of these days was always stress-inducing because I'd try to reserve a certain amount of time and I'd typically cut it really close, to the point where I'd either have to extend my time in 15 minute increments or race back to the parking space as though I were running from the law.  It was not uncommon to return the car in the exact same minute it was due, leap out of the car and slap the fob onto the windshield with mere seconds to spare.

I might also mention that I was willing to pay a higher hourly rate on the Basic Freedom plan because my trips were infrequent, and being able to walk a few blocks in any direction and get a car was pretty darn convenient. 

Just a week ago, I took a car out for a want-based trip. I drove to the shore for the day and had a blast, it was nice to just get out of the city.  But it wouldn't be a typical PhillyCarShare trip without needing to extend the reservation, which I did at least once.  You might ask, why not just commit to more time up front? Well, if you decide to come back early, your money stays with PhillyCarShare as a credit towards your next reservation. That's not that big of a deal, but maybe you just want your money to be ... well, your money.

I am glad that my last PCS trip was a fun one, because unfortunately, I am now cancelling my membership. This past Friday at 5pm, all PhillyCarShare members received an email that the Basic Freedom plan was being discontinued and all members who normally pay 0$ a month, will be automatically bumped to a new plan (now the only plan), the Philadelphia Plan for $15 a month. Customers were given one week to cancel their membership.

Maybe $15 a month isn't all that much money, but if you're not making those two trips a month, it's not really worth it. Many months, I'd be paying $15 for nothing. The truth is, I need that $15 to go towards the cab fares I spend every month. 

Maybe I am just upset about PhillyCarShare's failure to make me feel like a valued customer. Clearly one can assume that they really need a stronger financial commitment from their customer base, but if you read anything on twitter, most of their customers feel pretty disappointed and let down right about now.

PhillyCarShare, we liked having you as an option. We liked the way you reached out to us for so long with your happy hours and movie nights.  We liked your little green men and your use of hybrid cars and the opportunity to test drive Mini Coopers and Audis.  I know $15 isn't a lot, but for some people it is, and you just took away our Basic Freedom.

This has been a post for @weeklyblogpost, topic: failure.