Hi!

It's a cold November in London and a busy week. Here is the list of random things from my fuzzy brain. I hope you enjoy it!

Department of Random and Cool

Songs to energise a room

I facilitate meetings and workshops every day. One of my professional mantras is that I don't do boring meetings. I frequently use sounds and music to unsuck meetings. A few months ago, a co-worker joked with me about one of the songs I played. It was Bossa nova, and she said it was "restaurant music". Since that, I've been exponentially more interested in music curation.

In the First Edition of this newsletter, I shared my first playlist with jazz and Bossa.

This week I have 13 instrumental songs for you—a perfect playlist for warming up a room and providing some momentum for creativity.

Road Runner Design principles

The list of Road Runner design principles has been shared repeatedly by the design community over the years. Chuck Jones, an American cartoonist, wrote it. Chuck invented Marvin the Martian, Pepe Le Pew and was a core contributor to Bugs Bunny. He was a prolific creative. I admire the coherence and simplicity of his work. It's visible on Road Runner. My fave rule is number 8:

Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy.

Interestingly, the lead writer and co-author for the series dismissed the rules, saying they were just post-production details.

On the other hand, Chuck Jones was adamant about this. In his biography, he used the term Creative Discipline. Jorge Arango writes about him and the power of constraints in his blog.

To wrap up this story, I recommend this short fiction from the New Yorker Coyote sues Acme.

Things I am studying

Digital Gardens

While working with teams at Lloyds Banking Group, I learned the concept of Working Out Loud. It inspired me to think about the power of learning in public. One of the hottest ideas in this topic is Digital Gardening. Maggie Appleton's definition is excellent:

A garden is a collection of evolving ideas that aren't strictly organised by their publication date. They're inherently exploratory – notes are linked through contextual associations. They aren't refined or complete - notes are published as half-finished thoughts that will grow and evolve over time. They're less rigid, less performative, and less perfect than the personal websites we're used to seeing.

Maggie's website is beautifully illustrated, with the right balance of content and visuals.

Experience Design

Experience Design and Data

Data may sound very technical and outside of the realm of experience design. As designers, we are more connected with content and information as essential components of our craft.

I think data is the kind of wicked problem designers should be more mindful of. The way we store, share and curate our own data is becoming a complex challenge. Mark Hurst envisioned this issue in 2007, in Bit Literacy:

As bits accumulate, the user gradually feels out of control, never quite caught up. More bits demand more time and attention: more e-mails to scan, more websites to read, more files cluttering the desktop.

We must consider that leaks, privacy issues, and information overload will not go away without a thoughtful approach.

All major tech companies now provide ways to download (part) of your data. Mainly due to the GDPR. It's a start, but not even good. I've recently exported all my data from Facebook and Twitter. Frankly, it is a terrible experience.

Obsidian, a personal knowledge management app, is an excellent example of innovation in this space. Obsidian provides a rich, powerful interface to manage your notes with complete transparency about storage and focus on privacy. They don't shout about this, but it's one of the aspects driving the app's popularity.

Project IF created Data Patterns Catalogue to share some examples of interaction design that helps the users on this.

Experiences that put the users in control of their data will win in the long term. Privacy will be the differentiator soon.

The early majority is happy now putting everything in the cloud without overthinking this.

But some are already making jokes, like the one above about Spotify Wrapped.

Awareness of personal data governance is growing fast among early adopters. In 3 years, this will change drastically for many reasons. Design that ignores this will be irrelevant.

Your feedback is valued and needed - please email me your comments and questions.

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely weekend!

@danielsouza