Watching people use the prototype proved…

1. This idea — using real-time multiplayer mini-games to facilitate technical acuity of practical web development skills — has merit
2. Concepts like wheels and decks of cards are foreign but exciting. Short, just-in-time instructions are of utmost importance.
3. Early adoption of a product like this will depend upon the system’s ability to match similarly-skilled players. Failing to do this will cause beginners to feel terribly unskilled compared to other players, resulting in mass avoidance.
4. There is not explicit demand for this sort of product, but there is excitement after players are aware of its existence.

The first mini-game offered the most delightful moment for players

Try the game now

Play Jamstack Attack!

Day 1 — Nov. 27

• App idea: Learn Jamstack by playing with and against other people
• Name? Jamstack Attack!
• Preliminary Mini-games: Pair programming, Debugging Duel, Clear the stack, What’s missing?
• Comparisons: ‘Fall Guys’, ‘Gogogo!’, ’You Don’t Know Jack’ for Web Developers

Day 2 — Nov. 28

• 10+ funny phrases as possible ‘You Don’t Know Jack’-style category names
• First action for player: Pick a category!
• Short mini-game intros: Find the error faster, Help them write this, Clear the stack faster, Find what’s missing faster, Fill the blanks faster
• Fighting game UI: Health, indicators for rounds won
• Duels or group play? 1-on-1 or last man standing?
• Principles: Competitive and…

Lessons learned after helping a friend publish her book, Power Switch Parenting

Great news first

• If you can write a book — and preferably hire an editor — then you can publish it yourself without paying a publisher.
• Most publishing platforms provide the tools needed to produce the files needed for anyone to purchase, download and read.
• If you do the necessary formatting work in your original document — preferably Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) — then the rest of the publishing process will go much smoother.

Bad news

• Each platform will likely require you to start from your original document, instead of playing nicely…

The password is: 4o.!.4d0

I can teach you how to

• Solve Rubik’s cubes: 2x2 and 3x3
• Tie one of over 100 knots
• Cultivate living yeast from flour and water

I can teach you how to

• Write semantic HTML
• Write smarter CSS
• Write self-documenting JavaScript

I can teach you how to

• Be better prepared for an interview
• Get more job descriptions based on your resume
• Identify the right places to apply for a job

I can teach you how to

• Find an answer using Google
• Find the error in your program or web application
• Find the point you want to make with your chart or graph

I can teach you how to

• Pick the right chart for your presentation
• Highlight the right value(s) within your data
• Summarize your argument based on that data

I can teach you how to

• Test your…

This graph appeared in my LinkedIn feed early this morning

What I see in order

1. Contrast creates interest: I notice the dark right-hand bars are sorted descending, making me assume a negative trend
2. I hone in on the first bar, notice 50%…of what?…see the slightly smaller 45%…then find the label at the bottom of the pillar
3. I start reading the labels, glancing at each pair of vertical bars
4. Consumer engagement catches my eye: its pair features the most prominent difference in height
5. I spot the legend, telling me the left bar is pre-Covid and the right is post-
6. I then read the headline and subhead of the chart
7. Lastly, I’m left to do rough visual…

Levvel recently published their Legacy Modernization Report

It features roughly 20 charts. For sake of exercise, I redesigned three of the first four that appear in the text.

Let’s inspect the first chart

Chart outlining a breakdown of companies by their reliance of legacy systems

• The percentages associated with each bar sum up to 100
• It is sorted oddly: largest group, instead of amount of reliance
• The bar labels are uncomfortably long and centered beneath their bars (plus margins)
• The biggest takeaway is buried in the left-hand paragraph, starting with “Research indicates…”

My redesigned chart

Chart outlining a breakdown of companies by their reliance of legacy systems

My collection of data visualization redesigns, case studies and exercises

What I used to study data visualization

A timeline as table

Calling attention to the spikes, not the trends

Hundreds of fewer squares makes a lot more sense

Waffles, bells and dots beat bars-bars-bars

A slope graph shows before-and-after most effectively

https://medium.com/@rmion/redesigning-marketing-charts-graph-about-the-biggest-challenges-to-creating-a-positive-customer-d2cca49e5256