DPL Reading List – July 15, 2016
Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.
Creative Office Design Won’t Make You Better At Your Job, But This Might – “And as it happens, there’s a plenty of research on open offices that not only answers longstanding questions about productivity, but also sheds light on the other elements of our work environments that impact how we work—and one in particular.”
Crafting The First Mile Of Product (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “In a world of moving fast and pushing out a “minimum viable product,” the first mile of a product’s user experience is almost always an afterthought. The welcome/tour, the onboarding, the explanatory copy, the empty states, and the defaults of your product make up the first mile.”
Bluetooth Gets Turned Up To 11 (Thanks to Chris Apple for recommending this article) – “Location used to rely solely on GPS radios. Then Apple and Google added Wi-Fi to the mix, which boosted indoor coverage and improved location granularity. Now, thanks to two big innovations, Bluetooth is about to become the king of indoor location.”
8 Books Stanford MBAs Recommend You Read This Summer (Thanks to Brian Zimmer for recommending this article) – “Thanks to generous grads, several of the top insights you learn from a Stanford MBA have made it into the public domain. And a recent Insights by Stanford Business post offers a little bit more free Stanford magic. The school helpfully solicited super successful grads for their top summer book recommendations in order to help other professionals read like some of the country’s top MBAs when they hit that sun lounger this year.”
10 Reasons Why Placeholders Are Problematic (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “Since placeholders arrived on the scene, they have been rapidly adopted to provide hints and instructions to help users fill in forms. Whilst this sounds good, it is actually problematic due to the way the placeholder behaves — there is one ‘space’ containing two values: the hint and the value. It pretty much comes down to the fact that the valuable information put in placeholders is not always available.”
HTTPS Is Not A Magic Bullet for Web Security – “It’s critical for users to understand, and unfortunately HTTPS advocates sometimes present HTTPS as synonymous with “security.” The phrase “secure Web” gets used a lot in discussions, but as those three retailers illustrate, using HTTPS does not mean a website is necessarily secure. In fact, HTTPS says nothing about the website, the server it resides on, or what happens to whatever data you might give it.”
7 Problems Growing Design Teams Face (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “I once thought that the challenges I faced as a design leader were unique to my situation, but I know now after interviewing many design leaders they’re common to almost every team. I find it comforting to know I’m not the only one who has struggled, and not because misery loves company (though it does). If these problems are common, then chances are we can find solutions.”
