tag: best practices

Dave Snowden introduces the Cynefin Framework with a brief explanation of its origin and evolution and a detailed discussion of its architecture and function. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/ )

7 Rules for Creating Gorgeous UI The Rules: Light comes from the sky Black and white first Double your whitespace Learn the methods of overlaying text on images (see Part 2 ) Make text pop— and un-pop (see Part 2 ) Only use good fonts (see Part 2 ) Steal like an artist (see Part 2 )

Agile Is Dead (Long Live Agility) – PragDave Back to the Basics Here is how to do something in an agile fashion. What to do: Find out where you are Take a small step towards your goal Adjust your understanding based on what you learned Repeat How to do it: When faced with two or more alternatives that deliver roughly the same value, take the path that makes future change easier....

#GamerGate [Online] Survival Guide | Jon Jones, smArtist Here is a quick, streamlined guide on how to keep yourself safe online and make harassing you and tracking you down much more difficult. Two-factor authentication on everything. Password manager for unique, difficult passwords. Install PrivacyFix. Lock down old Facebook posts and adjust your privacy settings. Domain name whois guard. Delete old accounts. Check the internet for your personal information. Use a VPN....

Not all technical debt is born the same, because A Mess is not a Technical Debt . (via TechnicalDebtQuadrant )

for each desired change, make the change easy (warning: this may be hard), then make the easy change. Kent Beck

The philosophy of great customer service | Derek Sivers (Actually, I prefer the term “client care”, since “client” implies a relationship, instead of “customer”, which is transactional. But I’ll use the normal term instead of confusing things by using mine.) You can afford to be generous The customer is more important than the company Customer service is a profit center Every interaction is your moment to shine Lose every fight Rebelliously right the wrongs of the world

10 Surprising Pricing Strategies That Can Boost Sales Similarity can cost you sales Utilize price anchoring The secrets of Weber’s Law Reduce pain points in the sales process Reframe the product’s value Bundle commonly bought items Sweat the small stuff Appeal to utility or pleasure It’s either free or it isn’t Try out an old classic: ending prices with the number 9 Emphasize time spent vs. saved Never compare prices without a reason Utilize the power of context Test different levels of pricing Keep prices stupidly simple

There is, however, old wisdom — perhaps from an earlier version of the Mac HIG — that says how to create error messages: they should be of the form “Can’t x because of y.” They may optionally include additional detail and/or recovery steps. “Can’t x because of y. Something is true. Try a thing.” A similar form is this: “Noun can’t x because y.” (As in “‘Downloaded.app’ can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer....

The Ultimate Guide to Solving iOS Battery Drain — Overthought How to Test Your iOS Battery Drain Head on over to Settings > General > Usage and check out your times. The key to look for is that your Usage time should be significantly lower than your Standby time (…) So here’s the test: write down your usage and standby time, press the sleep/wake button (…) to put the device to sleep, and set the device down for five minutes....

Propaganda and Marketing – Are we still persuading? Copywriting by Copy Hackers Moral of the story: You can create powerful messages using the words your prospects use to complete these phrases: I want ________ I wish someone could ________ If only there was ________ And be careful not to veer into “Don’t you want…?” territory. … because being only plausible and not really truthful means you’re defrauding your audience. [call to

Uncle Bob Martin walks through the “Prime Factors” kata in Java (29m06s) to illustrate the concept of Transformation Priority Premise as a way to address the common complaint about TDD: the brainlessness “As the tests get more specific, the code gets more generic.” … and “here’s the list of transformations” (47m53s): So what are these transformations? Perhaps we can make a list of them: ({}–>nil) no code at all->code that employs nil (nil->constant) (constant->constant+) a simple constant to a more complex constant (constant->scalar) replacing a constant with a variable or an argument (statement->statements) adding more unconditional statements....

How to craft your Elevator Pitch: So, what do you do? [WOW] What do you mean?!? [HOW] [NOW] , for example… Verbal Ping Pong video (by Brian Walter (Extreme Meetings) ) ( Source: https://www.youtube.com/ )

Favicon Generator – Generate favicon pictures and HTML Generate the favicon pictures and HTML code that work on all major browsers and platforms.

The number of patterns available to communicate information between objects can be overwhelming at first. The choice of which pattern to use often feels ambiguous. But once we investigate each pattern more closely, they all have very unique requirements and capabilities. (via Communication Patterns – Foundation – objc.io issue #7 )

How to Create a Business that Prints Money | Forever Jobless Step 1: How can you create something of value in a market better than what’s out there? Step 2: When you do that, how can you reach your potential audience? If you can answer “yes” to both, do you have something you think you’ll enjoy, and can make an amount of money that may be interesting to you? Cool. Jump in....

Starter’s Guide to iOS Design In this guide I’ll describe the deliverables you’ll be expected to produce, outline the constraints of the medium and introduce fundamental iOS and UI design concepts .

Richard Feynman, the Challenger Disaster, and Software Engineering : Gustavo Duarte With respect to software, I take out four main points: Engineering can only be as good as its relationship with management Big design up front is foolish Software has much in common with other engineering disciplines Reliable systems are built by rigorously tested , incremental bottom-up engineering with an ‘attitude of highest quality’

Type-System Criteria · ongoing by Tim Bray Cri­te­ria Let’s call them the Bánffy-Bray cri­te­ria for se­lect­ing be­tween sta­tic and dy­namic type sys­tems. Sta­tic typ­ing’s at­trac­tive­ness is a di­rect func­tion (and dy­namic typ­ing’s an in­verse func­tion) of API sur­face size. Dy­namic typ­ing’s at­trac­tive­ness is a di­rect func­tion (and sta­tic typ­ing’s an in­verse func­tion) of unit test­ing work­a­bil­ity.

How to Change the World: Guy’s Golden Touch “How can I get people to evangelize my product?” The short answer is called “Guy’s Golden Touch.” You might think this means, “Whatever Guy touches turns to gold.” If only this were true. The actual definition is, “Whatever is gold, Guy touches.” “What are the characteristics of a great product?” Think: DICEE Deep . A great product is deep. It doesn’t run out of features and functionality after a few weeks of use....