Friday Finds: The Best of Learning, Design & Technology | May 28, 2021

“Talent is a pursued interest. In other words, anything you are willing to practice, you can do.”

Bob Ross

School is out, school is out – teacher let the monkeys out. The vibe around here is as you would expect at the beginning of a summer break. Staying up later, sleeping in, and taking a well-deserved mental break. I am very much looking forward to returning to some version of a normal school year in the fall. #FingersCrossed

Thanks for reading!

What I’m Listening to: I like working to music that stays in the background and today I’ve put together a “Jazzy Work” playlist for that very purpose.


Last week’s most clicked item:
Animation in eLearning: PowerPoint Tips and Tricks


Presentation Plugin for Adobe XD

Adobe has come out with a powerful new plugin for XD that makes presenting design work easy and beautiful. Professionally designed themes, slides & elements right within XD to speed up and enhance presentation making. Lots of goodness here to like – check it out.

https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2021/05/26/presentation-plugin-for-xd-create-easily-present-beautifully.html#gs.1un9kh


Finding the Needle in the Learning Content Haystack

Donald Taylor writes about how the amount of content in the world is only ever going to increase, and existing search methods are straining to cope. Fortunately, it looks like a combination of artificial and human intelligence is providing an answer.

https://donaldhtaylor.co.uk/insight/finding-the-needle-in-the-learning-content-haystack/


Cracking the Code of Sustained Collaboration

When most organizations strive to increase collaboration, they approach it too narrowly: as a value to cultivate—not a skill to teach. Companies that excel at collaboration, in contrast, realize it involves instilling the right mindset: widespread respect for colleagues’ contributions, openness to experimenting with others’ ideas, and sensitivity to how one’s actions may affect teammates and outcomes. Learn about the six types of training techniques used by such programs identified by Francesca Gino.

https://hbr.org/2019/11/cracking-the-code-of-sustained-collaboration


It’s 72% Cheaper To Answer A Question Via A Community Than Via Other Support Channels

Forming, growing, and maintaining brand communities can be expensive endeavors. To understand if the cost is worth it, Richard Millington convinced a client to hide their community for four months. The result? Learning that it was 72% cheaper for the client to answer a question via the community than support. They also found that during the experiment, when the vast majority of customers turned to customer service instead of the community, the satisfaction scores of customers plummeted to one of the lowest levels on record.

https://hbr.org/2021/05/the-real-value-of-your-brand-community


The twisted psychology of browser tabs—and why we can’t get rid of them

New research out of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) found that 55% of people surveyed had trouble closing tabs, not because they couldn’t find the tiny X to click and close them, but because those tabs contain information they might need or want. Mark Wilson looks at why browser tabs are scientifically terrible. (How many browser tabs do you have open right now? I have 28)

https://www.fastcompany.com/90635776/the-twisted-psychology-of-browser-tabs-and-why-we-cant-get-rid-of-them


Podcasts


Tools & Tips

  • PhotoKit is an impressive free, online photo editor with some surprisingly powerful features.
  • Images for Designers is a collection of 100+ handpicked resources for designers to get images.
  • Lunacy is a great free graphic design tool with built-in resources from Icons 8.
  • The Post-It app is a digital version of the world famous Post It notes that merges analog & digital and integrates with other apps like Miro, Trello, Dropbox, iCloud, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, and more.
  • Circular Docs lets you create a knowledge base from your Google Drive & Docs content.

Where You Can Find Me


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Published by Mike Taylor

Born with a life-long passion for learning, I have the great fortune to work at the intersection of learning, design, technology & collaboration.

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