Jeff Johnson, Designing with the Mind in Mind, (p.69):

• In alphabetic scripts, patterns of characters form morphemes, which we learn to recognize as packets of meaning—for example, “farm,” “tax,” “-ed,” and “-ing” are morphemes in English.
• Morphemes combine to form patterns that we recognize as words—for example, “farm,” “tax,” “-ed,” and “-ing” can be combined to form the words “farm,” “farmed,” “farming,” “tax,” “taxed,” and “taxing.” Even ideographic scripts include symbols that serve as morphemes or modifiers of meaning rather than as words or concepts.

An intriguing psychological introduction to user-interface design. The chapter on how we read alone is worth checking out. Although the design of the book could be better, real-world illustrations and practical guidelines make it an essential read for web and interactive designers.

Dao had his first tooth extracted on Friday. The process went surprising well thanks to the amazing pediatric dentist. She distracted him by talking about Ninjago, one of his current favorite shows. She gave him some numbing medication and yanked the tooth out in less than ten minutes. Dao cooperated the entire time, which was unexpected. His previous visits he wouldn’t even let the dentist look at his teeth. Somehow he trusted this one particular dentist. It was a relief.

He will have another major work on his teeth, in which he will be sedated in the hospital. Before committed to this project, we had gone through two pedestrians and consulted my cousin who is a dentist. They all agreed that it has to be done. He was scheduled to do it two weeks ago, but his pediatrician would’t approved because I have Vonwillebrands, which means that he could have it as well. He had to get his blood test, but the result didn’t come back before the schedule date. He does have a mild case of Vonwillebrands and we had to reschedule it two months later for his dental work.

A couple days before his original schedule, he had abscess in his gum and had to have antibiotic. After his tooth was taken out, I could see a big cavity eating up his tooth.

As a parent, this has been a sign of failure on my part. I have been worried and stressed out the entire time. I let this happened to him even though I have done my best to brush and floss him everyday day and night. I am now being very conscious of Dan’s teeth as well. I don’t want to make the same mistake twice.

The following note is taken from an UIE seminar presented by Steph Hay.

• Users are skeptical: So how do we build trust with them?
• Build Trust First: Trust makes users happy.
• Gaining trust takes time: This is why it’s so valuable
• Building trust isn’t easy: It’s not really free, either.
• Building trust is awesome because it costs time and energy.
• Trust comes from setting realistic expectations, then meeting them: Over and over again to infinite and beyond.

Set real expectations

Using words people actually say

Know yourself

You’re real. People trust real.

4 techniques for writing real-person content

1. Test message in AdWords: Write user-oriented messages to test for clicks (nor conversions)
   • Specific: “Eating out too much? Learn how to budget”
   • Generic: “Know your finances. Save money. Worry less.”
2. Embrace the unsexy words used in organic searches: Being found isn’t about selling or educating or being clever—it’s about being found
   • Toutapp: Write your Sales Email faster & know what happens after you hit “Send.”
3. Look at entry points and top content in Google Analytics: Write more of what visitors are looking at…be proactive
   • Tealet found that its blog posts draws customers.
4. The mom test: Your personal bullshit meter
   • If you’d feel like a tool saying it to your mom, you probably sound like a tool.

4 techniques for meeting expectations

1. Don’t be abrupt: Be helpful even when you fail. After all, you set their expectations in the first place.
2. Make your forms fail-proof: Be explicit in microcopy and specific in validations so the user always “wins” upon submit.
3. Anticipate the gaps: Sweating the details of error messages or 404 pages shows
   you’re there even when stuff goes wrong.
4. Ask users two questions:
   1. Why did you [sign up]?
   2. Why [do] you keep coming back?

This morning when I dropped him off at daycare, Dan gave me a hug before joining his teachers and friends. At 22 months, he has reason for everything. When we walked to our car after I picked him up from daycare yesterday, I asked me to carry him. His reason was that he’ll “fall and hurt himself if he walks.” When grandma asked him to share his jelly beans with his cousin Khoi, he told her that Khoi can’t eat it because “he’ll throw up.” When he doesn’t want to eat his food anymore, he told me that the food will make him throw up. I am so tempting to let my kids starving for a week in order for them to understand how fortunately they are. I haven’t been able to do it yet.

Since kindergarden, Dao has picked up some big words. While we were dining at a restaurant on Saturday, he kept on crying because he wanted his cousin Khoi’s train toy. I commanded him to stop whining and eat his food. He said to his mom, “Daddy is embarrassing me.” In another incident, he called us several times to sanitize him when he was done pooping. When I finally came to him, he said, “I am so disappointed.” Two big words in two days.

My client and I launched Le Mekong Vietnamese Cuisine’s web site almost five years ago. While the design stands the test of time, the codes are outdated. When the client asked me to optimize her site for mobile, I took the opportunity to rewrite HTML and CSS from scratch. The markups are now up-to-date and the layout is now responsive across all devices.

I also made some visual changes. The slideshow and banner images are now taking up the entire browser’s width, which makes the images bigger and more enticing. This site is still a fine example of how a small business owner could have her own brand and design rather than using the same template from Squarespace that millions of other businesses are using. Take a look at the new Le Mekong Vietnamese Cuisine.

Writing web content is hard. Writing clear, useful, and friendly web content is much harder. Fortunately, Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee’s Nicely Said, a concise, practical writing guide, will help you to accomplish that with ease. Whether you’re a designer or content strategist, you’ll learn finding your voice and writing how you speak. Required reading for anyone who works with content.

The first project in Experiential History of Graphic Design took us all the way back to ink and paper. Each student had to write a quote in Gothic and the challenge was to use illustration to illuminate the quote.

Although I am a graphic designer, I am horrible at drawing and writing with my hand. For this project I had to practice quite a bit. By the time I had to write the quote, I actually felt comfortable enough to do it.

The quote I selected was from Nas’s classic Illmatic: “I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death.” For the illumination, I went from using Nas’s portrait to NYC (city that never sleeps) to a simple drop cap using the eye of horus to a tombstone with a cross made up of eyes of horus.

For the final design, I stripped the illumination down to just using the cross and eyes of horus. I also replace the first letter I with a more fancy drop cap. I made the I red as well as the eye’s iris red. I am happy with the outcome. I’ll definitely pick up calligraphy again just for fun in the future.

A thorough and illustrative guide to book design. Andrew Haslam starts with the origins of the book and offers his own definition: “A portable container consisting of a series of printed and bound pages that preserves, announces, expounds, and transmits knowledge to a literate readership across time and space.” Then he delves into design principles including grids and typography. He even provides technical tips such as paper engineering, printing and binding. It’s both a practical and inspirational reference for book designers.

A breezy yet comprehensive reference for book design. Clear fundamental principles, brief categorization of different types of book and beautiful selection of design by Jost Hochuli make Designing Books by Hochuli and Robin Kinross worthy of any designer’s desk. The book itself is elegantly in Monotype Baskerville with strong complementary of Univers 75 Black.