Obsession has never been so cute.

CNN: All the content, none of the ads.

Last night I went to the monthly UI/IA cocktail hour, a gathering of information architects and people in associated positions or bents. We did a lot of talking about the iterative cycle and how in reality it's not "iterate, iterate, iterate" but "iterate, obliterate, iterate."

The problem tended to boil down to the perception of the web as a media, and thus any web project is something that grows stale and needs to be redone, just by virtue of it being media, like an ad campaign or a movie. Of course that's not the only problem, user needs, business goals, and functionality changes, so that the house that was build to fit the needs of the time becomes inadequate, and a house that is constantly being appended with additions becomes ungainly and difficult to navigate.

Basically, these projects shouldn't be seen as houses: when designing a project, we should realize that half the functionality will be obsolete in a year, and new functionality will be required, so designing a house isn't the best way to go. Instead, create one unifying layer, a design paradigm that sits above the functional layer, a look and feel that could be used for any number of purposes and modalities. Then, with that 'interactive style guide' in place, design functionality into modules, so that as some functionality is obsolete, it can be removed, and new modules can be brought into play, without leveling the house and 'doing it right this time.'

The main thing is to realize obsolescence is that building the 'perfect site' (or application) isn't about making a functional work that will endure through the ages (if your functional needs don't evolve over time, then you should be worrying about the stagnancy of your business more than your website), it's about creating something that can evolve bit by bit, instead of revolve every 18 months into something 'new and this time perfect.'

Of course, in a practical sense, this means abstracting content from display, in general abstracting front-ends from back-ends, and creating small, tightly focused mini-houses and shaping them into a neighborhood. Like a real neighborhood, some houses will get torn down and new ones may be built to replace them, but since they're small segments, there is never a jarring time when everyone has to learn something new.

In a sense, it reminds me of company earnings statements. Some companies always seem to show a quarter-by-quarter net profit, but only after you disregard certain 'one-time restructuring charges' which is fine, except that every quarter seems to have these charge, either because of layoffs, acquisitions, or other 'extenuating circumstances.' Similarly, if you're spending most of your development cycle waiting for those 6 months when the system perfectly maps to user and company needs (of course, those are the same 6 months when people aren't making full use of the system because they're still learning how to take best advantage of it) then you're riding a jump-and-stagnate bleeding-edge curve that keeps IAs happy, developing new metaphors, architectures, and design and evaluation processes, but at the expense of an actual usable and perpetually adaptive product. Better to drive a car and keep it on course by making minor corrections every second than to point it in a direction, let it go for a while, then see where it is when it runs out of gas, fill it up and point it again, and repeat.

Okay, enough with the metaphors, I'm late for work!

Hmm... So you're a president with mediocre approval ratings, especially on targeted issues like heath care. An issue like stem cell research comes up. It's not huge, like repealing the ABM treaty, but something the press is milling about on. 64% of the public is in favor of federally funded research. You think about the issue for a few weeks, and decide to make a nationally televised address to state the White House's position. Do you do this if you're going to tell people you're going against the poll?

Just thinking...

I love organic handwritten and sketched fonts, and Tom has the most diverse and original collection I've seen in ages. And they're all free!

Just wanted to give props to Ernie, who got laid off for the second time in 5 months yesterday. Here's hoping you find something new ASAP. It's also a testament to how many people care about him that his post yesterday on the subject already has 57 comments from wellwishers! Talk about 'blog as support structure'!

Seriously though, Ernie's really great and while I'm sad he's unemployed again, at least I get the feeling he wasn't in love with his job there (feeling, heck! read his blog! :-) ) Here's hoping Ernie finds a great job, and fast enough that he gets double-pay from severance and his new job!

Okay, so I try not to be a little spout of Yahoo! propaganda, but there is one thing worth sharing today:

Yahoo! and American Airlines are having this big one-day sale on tickets within the continental US. No ticket to or from anywhere is more than $314 round-trip if you buy it through the site today, but at the end of the day, the site goes away. Tickets can be purchased for travel between August 22 and December 13.

Just thought it might be useful to ya! Now back to our pimp-free weblogging...

Just released in Japan, the 'Bow-lingual' is a Dog->Human translator. You put the microphone on the dog's collar, and when said dog barks, it beams a dog-voiceprint via IR to a handheld remote, which will translate the bark into one of 20 categories of emotion, such as 'happy', 'frustrated', or 'inquisitive.'

Better yet, the collar-microphone can log barks over the course of the day, and you can download them to see your dog's mood while you were gone at work, or when they were with the dogwalker, etc.

It doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to write a handheld-web interface so the dog's mood could be compiled into a daily dogblog.

What's next? Cat-talker? Babybabbleblogs? Translators that work the other way, so you can talk to your pets in their language?

Sometimes the truth is stranger than Simpsons...

Anyone else find it amusing that Lucasfilm waits until the day scientists announce they will attempt to create 200 cloned humans to unveil the name of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones?

Coincidence? The 200 women 'host volunteers' will be impregnated in November, just in time for a July gala premiere with 200 identical babies to drive the point home.

It's funny how times change. 20 years ago, Star Wars was the inspiration for entirely new realms of military funding, and now it's a harbinger of things best banned (according to the gov't).

Turning on the radio for the commute home from work: "-eavy and backed up through the pass. All lanes should be clear by 7, depending on when the coroner arrives, and that's it for traffic! Beat the heat and save $2 when you buy two pints of Ben & Jerry's this week at Safeway!"

We really do take it all in stride now...