It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen. – John Wooden
It is March Madness time here in the U.S. when lots of people are focused on basketball. If that’s not your thing or if you need something to make you feel better after your team loses, here are a few of the best things I’ve found from the intersection of learning, design, and technology this week.
Have you found anything particularly good lately? I’d love to hear about it.
Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra
If you don’t know Kathy Sierra, stop right now and go watch this. Seriously. Everyone can learn about building experiences in a way that makes them “magical and extraordinary”. The best part is that this is easier than you think. Be sure to catch here point about reducing “cognitive leaks”. In short, it’s all about focusing on making your users awesome.
If that leaves you hungry for more, check out her book “Badass: Making Users Awesome”
Half-Life: The Decay of Knowledge and What to Do About It
I’ve really been enjoying the Farnam Street newsletter by Shane Parrish (@farnamstreet) lately and this article is a great example why. It takes a look at how understanding the concept of a half-life will change what you read and how you invest your time.
https://www.fs.blog/2018/03/half-life/
Slide Lizard
This new SlideLizard (@SlideLizard) PowerPoint add-in enables you to interact with your audience on a new level. Share your presentation with one click, gather audience questions, distribute supporting links, documents and more.
Julie Terberg’s Slide A Day
If you’d like a daily dose of slide design inspiration, go follow Julie Terberg (@JulieTerberg) and her #SlideADay work. It is amazing and I guarantee you’ll find design inspiration.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/slideadayproject?f=images&vertical=default&src=hash
A Training Design Lesson My Daughter’s Basketball Team
If you’re coaching a basketball team what would you teach? How to run an offense or how to make baskets?
A Few Automation Tools to Help You Work Smarter
Pete Brown (@PeteBrownSays) and I snuck into the studio this week to talk about some ways to rid yourself of time and soul-sucking manual online work. Check it out and see if you might benefit from what IFTT, Zapier and/or Microsoft Flow have to offer.
Miscellany
With inspiration from Tim Ferris’ “Five bullet Friday” I’m experimenting with this new section. What do you think? Keep it? Nix it? Jury still out?
- Recently added design resources:
New Old Stock – a collection of vintage photos from public archives - Conference News:
Newly added: Work:olution Conference by @ZPEurope - App I’m interested in trying out
Arrangedly – This one seems like a Trello-ish collaboration platform with some nice integrations. - What I’m listening to today:
80’s Remix – I’m a product of the 80’s and love new versions of old songs, especially when they’re done is a totally new style like this remix of Gin & Juice.
Interested in the things that didn’t make the cut here? Follow me on Twitter or even better, subscribe to my newsletter.
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Mike Taylor 