Really enjoyed Conversational Design by Erika Hall, it illustrated very clearly how digital design, in order to be truly personal, has to be relatable. It’s also the new frontier. If you’re still focused on optimizing keywords and navigation, it might pay to step back and look at the holisitic picture of the journey and how you’re having a conversation with your customer, and what you’re saying.
Here’s a good Google video talking through conversational design in 90 seconds.
For someone so embedded in the digital world, it’s a shame I’ve left this so long. As I’m embarking on a new journey into ai, thought it a good time to start a new chapter.
Been doing a lot of reading and would recommend
As you can see from the reading list, also changing gear and working in an agile way as well. Only 2 weeks in so only just getting started, very exciting and all new. That said, exhausting too.
Vigils for John Lennon, road trips with Annie Leibovitz, portraits of Dennis Hopper … Wim Wenders took thousands of Polaroids while making his classic films. He shares the stories behind them Wim Wenders reckons he took more than 12,000 Polaroids between 1973 and 1983, when his career as a film-maker really took off, but only 3,500 remain. “The thing is,” he says, “you gave them away.
Source: Wim Wenders on his Polaroids – and why photography is now over
Today, I read about Wil Wheaton’s rebooting of his life and realised I’ve been doing a similar thing without realising or labelling it. So, in line wth my general oversharing, here’s how I’ve changed the day-to-day things in my life for better (generally).
Only 2 x coffees a day – the downside has been pretty minimal and I’ve substituted all those black coffees at work with Green Tea. The upside has been less jitters in the afternoon and much better concentration, so winning!
More exercise – ah yes, we all talk about this one. My approach has been to make it part of the general running of my day. So, spent a few $ on a new bicycle and researched on where I could park for free at a reasonable distance from work in the centre of Auckland. A double bonus here – free parking saving me $300 a month + exercise, not as dumb as I look! So, about 3-4kms from work is Auckland Harbour Bridge and Point Erin Park. So, started parking under the bridge and regardless of the weather starting cycling in and out from work. That’s worked out pretty well as some weight has fallen away but more importantly the brain is fired up by arrival time. This week, I’ve shifted out a little further to Point Erin Park, which is about 1km further out and has, gasp, a hill in the way. Free parking has paid for the bike a few times over and cycling in along the waterfront is actually a real joy, so a very good win here.
Steps – yes, I monitor everything in a sad geeky way – steps, sleep, exercise, coffee etc. So, moved up to 10k steps a day. This is proving tricky but does push me to walk every lunchtime, or most of them. Upside, fresh air and chance to take more photos – see Instagram – the fact that winter and spring has been pretty mild has been a real bonus. Getting close to hitting the target every day but work required here.
Eating/food. Now this is trickier as there is so much conflicting advice – breakfast good/bad; lunch good/bad. Additionally, I love my food. So, again, starting simple and seeing where it goes from there. Breakfast now consists of coffee #1, smoothie/juice and porridge (slight cheat with sugar on that) and this is working well. Skipping lunch doesn’t work – afternoon heartburn, grumpiness and excessive evening eating is the result for me.
So, lunch is lighter, mainly salads with one ‘cheat’ day, yesterday was Mac n Cheese (blue cheese and walnuts) and it was GOOD. This has been easy, given the good food places nearby – recommend alternating between Habitual Fix and Tank Juice Bar and plenty of nice spots to sit, eat and watch the boats nearby. Burgers at the weekend a weakness but I don’t give myself a hard time on that 🙂
Dinners – WOOP NZ is my friend here. Variety, portion control, good ingredients and fun times with mrs and I joint cooking. Mrs does amazing cooking in-between and rather than sweat the small stuff we’re focused on eating earlier in the evening, breaking my bad habit of late night eating.
So, I’ll see how this all goes and what else I can add to the routine – maybe get back into swimming but the day is pretty full already!
