Culture | Doodlehaüs

July 7, 2012 By Mark Anderson Leave a Comment

Go to UXMad. Seriously. It’s gonna be awesome.

UXMad is coming. Some of the greatest minds in User Experience will be descending on the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin on July 19 through the 21st. If your product, application or service has any room for improvement you owe it to yourself to attend.

The conference is single-track, so you won’t miss a thing. It’s put together by the same folks who organize Madison Ruby, which was mind-meltingly awesome last year and promises to be again this summer. There are twenty-one sessions from some of the smartest folks in UX, with backgrounds ranging from application development to healthcare to the music industry. That’s a whole lotta smart to pack into one conference.

Conference aside, Madison is a great city to visit. Lakes, restaurants, the University of Wisconsin, an abundance of craft beer and legions of smart, friendly people make Madison a great place to visit (or live, for that matter).

So, there you have it. There’s still time to register. If you don’t come, I’m totally not inviting you to my birthday party. Details are at UXMad.com.

Filed Under: Culture, Design, Doodle Tagged With: Doodle, UXMad

December 14, 2011 By Mark Anderson Leave a Comment

Please Don’t Read Me Your PowerPoint Slides

Remember, your slides are there to support your talk, to make it more interesting. Find some great images or dynamite illustrations to burn your story into my brain. They are an (and usually hate this word) opportunity for you to turn a boring old talk into a multimedia event akin to the U2 Zooropa tour. Okay, that may be a stretch.

However, if you must read to me, please bring milk and cookies and offer a nap time afterwards. Or during, for that matter.

P.S. I’ve perpetrated this odious deed myself. Let’s all get better together.

Filed Under: Culture, Doodle Tagged With: hair-brained scheme, photoblog, PowerPoint

October 31, 2011 By Mark Anderson Leave a Comment

Beware Pep Tse, Ancient Master of Product Placement

Pep Tse, master of the ancient art of product placement

This is a post about Gurus, with a capital G. They have books, they have accessories and they have the answer to everything. If they’re a big enough Guru, they can become a lifestyle choice in and of themselves. They will sell and resell their “5 Secrets to Better Pancakes” or “12 Simple Steps to a Nutmeg-Free Life”.

But the real secret is that there are no secrets. The Guru makes money off those who want to buy a book instead of doing the work.

If you ever find yourself in a position where you think the only thing standing between you and your dreams is writing a check to a “Guru” to unlock the secrets of the universe, do yourself a favor and don’t. Save your money. Remember that success is very closely bound to hard work and is accelerated by God-given talent. A positive attitude is also a nice-to-have.

Chris Brogan talks about being an overnight success. It only took about ten years of non-stop speaking, blogging, writing, networking and entrepreneurship. Chris is no “Guru”, he’s a smart, humble, hard-working guy. It’s a grind. So you better love what you do, and you have to be willing to do it and do it a lot.

Remember that the mighty Beatles started as a gig band a the Cavern in Hamburg. From 1961 to 1963 The Beatles made 292 appearances there (see Wikipedia). So instead of climbing the mountain to find your guru, find yourself a cavern. Go hone your talent, eventually people will seek you out.

Filed Under: Culture, Doodle, Manifesto Tagged With: Doodle, gurus, manifesto, photoblog

April 26, 2011 By Mark Anderson 9 Comments

unGEEKED Superfolk

I’ve had the rare opportunity to put my work in front of oodles of people. unGEEKED e’lite conferences are for the superheroes amongst us who are comfortable both with storytelling and with technology. They may wear business-casual, but underneath their mild-mannered exterior lives a child of Krypton or someone who got a paper cut from a radioactive TPS report.

I’d love to hear what you think. Bonus points to the person who can guess my secret concern about these doodles.

Filed Under: Culture, Doodle, T-Shirts Tagged With: photoblog, unGEEKED

April 4, 2011 By Mark Anderson Leave a Comment

Badgers? We don’t need no stinking badgers!

What a stinking badger might look like.

Illustration for an article by Troy Janisch (@socialmeteor) on SmartBlog over at SmartBrief: Badges? We love those stinkin’ badges!

Filed Under: Culture, Doodle Tagged With: badgers, photoblog, stinking badgers, we don't need no stinking badgers

February 3, 2011 By Mark Anderson Leave a Comment

Mandatory Renaissance Mondays

For those of you in Pittsburgh and Green Bay enjoying your “wear your jersey to work” day, remember that management is setting a precident. One that can (and probably will) go horribly, horribly wrong.

Filed Under: Culture, Doodle Tagged With: photoblog

January 16, 2011 By Mark Anderson Leave a Comment

Don’t be a social automaton

I doodled this for a post by Troy Janisch for SmartBrief

Jargon and biznospeak has no place in social media. Social media was designed for human interactions. You know, stuff like LOLCats and pictures of that omelette you’re about to eat. Here’s a link to the post, Social Pro Files: Considering the human costs of social currency and here’s a shameless link to my Zazzle store where you can buy a t-shirt of the angry rampaging robot.

Filed Under: Culture, Doodle, T-Shirts Tagged With: photoblog, robot, t-shirt

April 3, 2009 By Mark Anderson Leave a Comment

Twitter in Action, Fanboy Tweets, Entrepreneur Re-Tweets

twitter_logo

I just had a powerful experience with Twitter that has cemented it in my mind as a powerful marketing tool.

In preparation for a meeting on a site UI this morning, I revisited An Introduction to Using Patterns in Web Design on 37signal’s site. It’s a fantastic overview of Christopher Alexander’s approach to design based on “chunks” or patterns.

After I read the article, I tweeted about it. I was sure that any number of my followers might have an interest in it. If not for their personal use, then for a reference if and when they work with me.

Here’s the tweet:

Doodlehaus tweet about Designing with Patterns by Ryan Singer

Here’s where it gets interesting. Minutes later, Jason Fried, owner of 37Signals tweets about the same article. He noticed someone was revisiting some older content produced by his company and saw it as an opportunity to promote 37Signals’ expertise on the issue.Check it out:

Jason Fried of 37Signals tweets about Pattern Design

From a random shout into the Twitter void to nearly instant recognition from the owner of one of the Web’s most innovative companies. Now that’s cool.

There are other halo effects from this exchange. Ryan Singer gets props for his article. 37Signals gets more exposure as a leader in clean, usable interface design. Christopher Alexander sells some more books. Hey, I write this post that references all these things.

All because of one little tweet.

Filed Under: Culture, Strategy Tagged With: 37Signals, Christopher Alexander, Jason Fried, Ryan Singer

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