DPL Reading List – March 30, 2018
Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.
Why writing is the most important skill in design. – “Like designers, great writers understand their audience. They do their research, because the plot and character development has to be believable, complete, and without gaps. They develop empathy for the main characters, fiction or non-fiction; understanding not just who they are, but how they became the way they are.”
Deep Thinking In The Age of Distraction – “You can’t do your best work while moving from one jam-packed day to the next. Life is lived at such a pace today that thinking — quality, intentional thinking — doesn’t just happen. Like an artist creating an oil painting, you must take a few steps back from the canvas of your life, to assess all of your activities and accomplishments — the individual brush strokes of your life — from a wider, more holistic perspective.”
AI Will Change Health Care Jobs for the Better – “Accenture Research recently concluded a study of future workforce trends, including in health care, and the data point to significant growth for the industry, both in terms of jobs and revenues, as AI moves beyond rudimentary automation and enables greater collaboration between humans and machines. The data predict that, from 2018 to 2022, employment in health care will increase by 15% while revenues will surge by 49%.”
Smartphone Battery Life Would Suck If It Weren’t For These Guys – “Your phone’s battery life could always be better, but it could have been much worse. Decades after John Hennessy and David Patterson invented the technology that made high-performance, low-power gadgets possible, they have received the ultimate honor—the $1 million ACM A.M. Turing Award, billed as the “Nobel Prize of Computing.” You can thank them quietly whenever you pull your phone out.”
Why You Need an Untouchable Day Every Week – “On the actual Untouchable Day itself, I picture myself sitting in a bulletproof car surrounded by two-inches of thick impenetrable plastic on all sides. Nothing gets in. Nothing gets out. Meetings bounce off the windshield. Texts, alerts, and phone calls, too. My cell phone is in Airplane Mode all day. My laptop has Wi-Fi completely disabled. Not a single thing can bother me… and not a single thing does.”
UI/UX case study for the New York Times app – “This project gives me an understanding that how difficult it is to introduce the small new feature into a reputed company. The touch points we need to consider before changing a small button on a screen.”
Taming the Epic To-Do List – “Accomplishing several simple tasks can build a sense of momentum and keep you moving forward. For more complex projects, create a list of the critical success factors you will need to complete them and tackle them one at a time. Breaking a large undertaking into small, bite-sized tasks can help reduce overwhelm and the resistance that often goes along with that feeling.”
