Links for 2012-06-22
- Design Patterns: When Breaking The Rules Is OK [Smashing UX Design – Jun 06, 2012] – I started wondering when breaking a pattern in favor of something different or better might actually be OK. We all recognize and are quick to call out when patterns are misused. But are there circumstances in which breaking the rules is OK? To answer this question properly, let’s go back to the beginning.
- 20 lines of code that will beat A/B testing every time [Steve Hanov’s Programming Blog – May 28, 2012] – In recent years, hundreds of the brightest minds of modern civilization have been hard at work not curing cancer. Instead, they have been refining techniques for getting you and me to click on banner ads. It has been working. Both Google and Microsoft are focusing on using more information about visitors to predict what to show them. Strangely, anything better than A/B testing is absent from mainstream tools, including Google Analytics, and Google Website optimizer. I hope to change that by raising awareness about better techniques.
- Etsy’s Winning Secret: Don’t Play The Blame Game! [Business Insider – May 15, 2012] – 3 Tips from Etsy on adopting a blameless culture:
-Assume good will. “Employees are making decisions based on what they think is right for the company,” said Allspaw.
-Identify causes, not culprits. Accountability happens naturally as people learn the facts. Focus on exploring what happened – and recognize that in complex systems, there’s rarely one root cause.
-Take your time. People used to blaming cultures may take time to come out of their shell and share mistakes and learnings freely.