DPL Reading List – September 9, 2016

Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.

And it’s Gone -The True Cost of Interruptions (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “People need roughly 23 minutes to go back to their tasks after a major interruption, but the plot deepens if you’re a programmer. Add at least 10 minutes to the forced break (the minimum amount of time you need to start editing code again) and there you go — that’s a solid half hour you lose whenever someone approaches you. It gets worse if that interruption is planned.”

To Be a Better Leader, Learn this FBI Hostage Negotiation Tactic (Thanks to Brian Zimmer for recommending this article) – “When Voss analyzed the transcripts of his most unlikely hostage negotiation victories, he discovered that the turning point frequently occurred right after his team took the time to listen to the captor’s argument, summarized that argument back to the captor, and then got the captor to say, ‘That’s right.’”

Research on the Timing of Security Warnings (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “A new study from BYU, in collaboration with Google Chrome engineers, finds the status quo of warning messages appearing haphazardly – while people are typing, watching a video, uploading files, etc. – results in up to 90 percent of users disregarding them.”

The Ideal Design Workflow (Thanks to Brian Zimmer for recommending this article) – “As designers, we are constantly experimenting with tools and processes in an attempt to find the one that works best. After a great deal of experimentation, I’ve discovered the perfect design workflow, and I’m going to share it with you now.”

Notifications for Mobile Apps (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “We all experience the annoyances of poorly designed notifications. The worst offenders get their notifications turned off, their apps uninstalled, and worst of all, horrible reviews. But thoughtful, interesting, and actionable notifications that are closely coupled with users’ needs, can add real value to your application.”

Google Finds That Successful Teams are About Norms Not Just Smarts – “What interested the researchers most, however, was that teams that did well on one assignment usually did well on all the others. Conversely, teams that failed at one thing seemed to fail at everything. The researchers eventually concluded that what distinguished the ‘‘good’’ teams from the dysfunctional groups was how teammates treated one another.”

How to Design Words (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “As you write your words, you might find that your design needs to change. If you can’t explain an action in a few words, it’s a sign that your design is probably too complex. To put it another way: You shouldn’t design with lorem ipsum. You should design with words.”