Hello All
More great links this week. As with the arrival of Spring every year, so do new ideas, products, and technologies. Conducting more user research is always a good idea for us also we may improve our products. WordPress, which powers 27% of the sites out on the internet, is maturing. Several sites like Guggenheim.org, USTWO.com, and Vocativ.com are all using WordPress as a backend and React as a front-end. The results of this approach yield super-fast, responsive websites built with a mature CMS that is easy for content authors, editors, product owners, designers, and developers to use.
Lastly, there are a few links centered on jobs in the US Economy, dumbphones, digital detoxing, and keeping a healthy balance with the ubiquitous and pervasive technology that surrounds us. Sometimes, shutting off your tech is a very good thing to do.
Have a great weekend.
M
1. What the Repeal of Online Privacy Protections Means for You
“Congress on Tuesday moved to dismantle online privacy rules created during the Obama era. The rules, which were scheduled to take effect this year, would have required internet providers to get permission before collecting and selling a customer’s online information, including browsing activities. What does this mean for your privacy and what can you do? Here’s what to know.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/technology/personaltech/what-the-repeal-of-online-privacy-protections-means-for-you.html
2. 12 Tips for Conducting Effective User Interviews
“I wrote about the importance of doing research in my last article, Research Driven Design. One of the types of research I’ve had the most success with is user interviews. Talking to people in person, over the phone or in a video chat gives me the chance to ask more in-depth questions than what I would be able to inquire about in a survey. I like being able to target my audience and find out what their problems are. After all, the goal of design is to fix people’s problems.”
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/12-tips-conducting-effective-user-interviews-zach-fichman-klein
3. Most Dreaded Technology from StackOverflow 2017 Developer Survey
From Kwan: “TLDR; Cordova + Xamarin is at the top! Get more insights into the state of developer composition (those that visit SO that is, which is pretty much everybody)”
https://stackoverflow.com/insights/survey/2017/
4. Microservices – Please, don’t
From Joe L: ” Here’s a good article I ran across re: microservice architecture. Like most blog posts, the title is intentionally hyperbolic (i.e. “please don’t” doesn’t literally mean “never” but rather “think very carefully about why you’re doing this”) but it does a offer a good perspective on why the current hotness of microSOA isn’t necessarily the holy grail of development patterns.”
http://basho.com/posts/technical/microservices-please-dont/
5. The Story Behind the New WordPress.com
“Our existing codebase and workflows had served us well, but ten years of legacy was beginning to seriously hinder us from building the modern, fast, and mobile-friendly experiences that our users expect. It seemed like collaboration between developers and designers was not firing on all cylinders. So we asked ourselves the question: “What would WordPress.com look like if we were to start building it today?””
https://developer.wordpress.com/2015/11/23/the-story-behind-the-new-wordpress-com/
https://developer.wordpress.com/calypso/
6. Evidence That Robots Are Winning the Race for American Jobs
“Who is winning the race for jobs between robots and humans? Last year, two leading economists described a future in which humans come out ahead. But now they’ve declared a different winner: the robots.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/upshot/evidence-that-robots-are-winning-the-race-for-american-jobs.html
7. Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets
“As robots and other computer-assisted technologies take over tasks previously performed by labor, there is increasing concern about the future of jobs and wages. We analyze the effect of the increase in industrial robot usage between 1990 and 2007 on US local labor markets. Using a model in which robots compete against human labor in the production of different tasks, we show that robots may reduce employment and wages, and that the local labor market effects of robots can be estimated by regressing the change in employment and wages on the exposure to robots in each local labor market—defined from the national penetration of robots into each industry and the local distribution of employment across industries.”
http://www.nber.org/papers/w23285
8. At BlackRock, Machines Are Rising Over Managers to Pick Stocks
“Score one for the machines. At BlackRock, Machines Are Rising Over Managers to Pick Stocks. The initiative is the most explicit action by a major fund management firm in reaction to the exodus of investors from actively managed stock funds to cheaper funds that track every variety of index and investment theme. ”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/business/dealbook/blackrock-actively-managed-funds-computer-models.html
9. Cost-cutting Leads to Turbulence in the Airline Industry
“Is it possible to retain brand value after cutting costs and services dramatically just to stay alive? The airline industry has struggled with this question since deregulation in 1979 in the face of economic downturns, changes in market structure, and shifting clientele.”
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/cost-cutting-leads-to-turbulence-in-the-airline-industry
10. None of Us Are Safe From Getting ‘Owned’
“In the escalating rhetoric of public shaming, being embarrassed online is tantamount to being wiped from the face of the earth. Whenever a late-night host upbraids a public figure in a monologue or a pundit bests another in a Twitter fight, onlookers crowd around to declare the loser DESTROYED! or EVISCERATED! or ETHERED! or ANNIHILATED! But alongside these symbols of destruction has risen another, more apt metaphor for the dynamics of the modern media power play. In this one, the defeated party wasn’t killed, but possessed: They got OWNED.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/magazine/none-of-us-are-safe-from-getting-owned.html
11. The Story Of Why Humans Are So Careless With Their Phones
“Consumers act more recklessly with the products they own when better versions become available, according to research by Silvia Bellezza, Joshua M. Ackerman and Francesca Gino. This comic by Josh Neufeld explains.”
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/the-story-of-why-humans-are-so-careless-with-their-phones
12. Review: Punkt’s MP01 is the ultimate minimalist dumbphone
“Punkt’s MP01 is a minimal treat for people wanting a simple but flawless phone—and willing to pay top dollar for a few details done very well.”
http://boingboing.net/2017/02/21/review-punkts-mp01-is-the-u.html
13. Punkt MP01 Mobile Phone
“Distracted? Focus. The more our phones do, the more they demand of us. Sometimes it’s good to take a break. But until now, the only alternative to hyper-connected smartphones has been the kind of phone you find at the back of a drawer. The Punkt. MP 01 is a stylish, well-crafted mobile phone which focuses on modern simplicity, inside and out. It makes phone calls and sends texts. That’s all.”
https://www.punkt.ch/en/products/mp01-mobile-phone/
14. Meet the Fairphone 2
“We’ve created the world’s first ethical, modular smartphone. You shouldn’t have to choose between a great phone and a fair supply chain.”
https://www.fairphone.com/en/
