DART Commission
I completed this commission on the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission for American Scientist, May-June 2021, Volume 109 Number 3.
Read MoreEuropean Solar Orbiter Commission
This is an illustration created for American Scientist for their March-April 2020 issue. This is the first commission I’ve completed using a completely digital workflow; no physical media used at all, just a combination of the iPad and Photoshop.
Read MoreHow to tell if you're a crank
I’ve referred back to this article often enough (and had enough difficulty finding it every time) that I’ve finally decided to post it here for easy reference. In the Age of the Internet in which there are no editors and everyone regards themselves as an uncredentialed expert, this profile of crank psychology is a good guide to keep handy.
Read MoreYou're responsible for "web updates"!
Writing is a skill. Communication is a skill. Communicating on behalf of the organization you work for is a serious responsibility, yet tremendous communications power is often delegated to the lowest reaches of the organizational structure. Would you let junior staff write the CEO’s blog? Would you let your administrative assistant design the company’s annual report?
Read MoreKJ Technique
I had a recent project where I needed to work with a larger than normal group to reach some quick consensus on where we should be focusing our time trying to improve their website. In the recesses of my brain, I knew that the KJ Technique was a good way to handle this. What I found in my googling was that no one does a really good job of explaining it succinctly.
Read MoreLSST Infographic
I've been approached by American Scientist magazine on two previous occasions to produce infographics. Here's a third they asked me to do highlighting the science mission of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a 3.2 gigapixel camera mounted in a massive ground-based telescope in Chile that will produce unprecedented views of the cosmos when it goes live in 2020.
Read MoreVisualizing Data
If I'm given free reign to deliver a product on a topic of my choosing, there's a good chance that astronauts will be involved. There's a lot of readily available data on the topic and it fits the general pattern for data that makes for good visualizations.
Read MoreLights, action, camera(s)
Apropos of absolutely nothing, here are pics of my antique camera collection. I've got a thing for Polaroids. Mostly included here because if I don't archive them somewhere, they'll be lost.
Too Much Content
This is a reminder (via @smashingmag) that you have too much content. Even if you think you don't, you probably do. Tack this to your door.
The Law of Proximity
In design, the Law of Proximity states that objects that are near, or proximate to each other, tend to be related. Users inherently expect things that are related in theme or function to be grouped together in space. When this expectation is violated, confusion and/or frustration results. This is a classic example of bad user experience.
In this case, I spent a mere ten seconds updating my Twitter profile blurb...then spent way too much time trying to find the control that would allow me to commit the change. Couldn't find it, couldn't find it, couldn't find it...oh, wait. It's on the opposite side of the page, nowhere near the part of the page I was working on.
Don't do this to your users. It makes them feel stupid. When you do that, the service you're offering suffers.
