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Occasionally the argument about the affect of aesthetics or beauty on usability seems to come up in UX discussion, and this CHI short paper from 1995 is referred to. This is an article by members of the Design Center, Hitachi discusses the team's research on determinants to apparent usability, based on tests of design and psychology students.

These results show that the apparent usability is less correlated with the inherent usability compared to to the apparent beauty. ... This suggests that the user may be strongly affected by the aesthetic aspect of the interface even when they try to evaluate the interface in its functional aspects and it is suggested that the interface design should strive not only to improve the inherent usability but
also brush up the apparent usability or the aesthetic aspect of the interface.

ACM members can download the short report at the ACM Portal.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=223680

ClickTale makes observations about scrolling based on their research of users' browsing behaviors around "the fold." Their report on scrolling makes the following conclusions:

[I[t appears that visitors scroll in a relative way - about the same percentage of page views will reach the middle of a web page regardless of the actual page height in pixels.

Visitors appear to be using the location of the scroll bar but not the size of the tracker when scrolling, since the scroll bar location is a relative indicator and the scroll tracker size is an indicator of page height.

View their 2 part report.

http://blog.clicktale.com/2007/10/05/clicktale-scrolling-research-report-v20-part-1-visibility-and-scroll-reach/

Kickstarter is a brilliant idea for creatives needing funding for projects. It's a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, bloggers, etc. It works much like fundraising sites you may have used if you've ever had to raise money for events for non profit organizations. A few years ago I used a similar one for Team In Training.

You set up a page stating your mission and the need for funding. On this page you state the monetary goal, and a form allows users to pledge donations at different levels of support. The charges are made via Amazon payments. The project gets 100% of all proceeds minus Amazon's fee for credit card processing.

A filmmaker I recently became acquainted with is shooting a documentary film and set up a fund raising page for the project with levels of support that include special bonuses as an incentive, from tickets to the premiere to inclusion in film credits. I remember Jill Sobule also did something similar to this a few years ago to fund an album, giving people bonus gifts and liner note credit for support.

Seems like a great way for artists to empower themselves by raising funds through peers and fans without the hassle of going to banks or finding angel investors and VCs. I would bet some investors will be watching this space if web app designer/developers start using it.

http://www.kickstarter.com/

Jeff Veen announces Typekit, a solution for providing foundry-approved font embedding on the web. More info below from the Typkekit blog.

We’ve been working with foundries to develop a consistent web-only font linking license. We’ve built a technology platform that lets us to host both free and commercial fonts in a way that is incredibly fast, smoothes out differences in how browsers handle type, and offers the level of protection that type designers need without resorting to annoying and ineffective DRM.

As a Typekit user, you’ll have access to our library of high-quality fonts. Just add a line of JavaScript to your markup, tell us what fonts you want to use, and then craft your pages the way you always have. Except now you’ll be able to use real fonts.

There's a sign up page for the release announcement.

http://typekit.com/

http://fosat.tumblr.com/post/114567959/typography-is-the-user-interface-the-new-zune-hd

90 Percent of Everything's collection of Dilbert on UX comic strips. Via Nick F.

http://www.90percentofeverything.com/2009/05/26/dilbert-on-user-experience/

Design Observer points to the 1999 ABC Nightline program that took an inside look at IDEO.

How does the process of designing a better product work? To show you, Nightline went to Palo Alto, CA to the designers at IDEO, and gave them the toughest problem we could think of. Take something old and familiar like the shopping cart and completely redesign it in just five days.

IDEO's unique brand of brainstorming is called ''Deep Dive,'' a sort of total immersion into the problem at hand. It's one company's secret weapon for innovation.

There is a great quote in video 2 that I took away with me. "Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the plans of the lone genius." This was a reaction to the question about why a team vote on brainstorming trumps a boss's opinion. There's also the adage, "Fail Often To Succeed Sooner" that's often referenced at IDEO, regarding their prototyping process. It's great to see the process of ideation, refinement, organization and focusing, and prototyping in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6z-3ejvvGE

Based on demand to use the wireframe icons on web sites, and to use them in Adobe Illustrator and Visio, I've created EPS and PNG versions that include a Royalty Free license agreement. You may use them in your UX documents, but the license also permits you to use them in web sites.

There are restrictions for use on commercial products or commercial applications that offer products
or services for sale or for fee-based usage, however. For details on the license and prohibited uses, please see the Royalty Free License Agreement.

//konigi.com/store/product/wireframe-icons-royalty-free-eps-and-png

Hugh Dubberly of ddo does some nice concept maps, poster-sized infographics to model ideas. Their description:

We create concept maps, a type of model, to explore and learn about complex information spaces. By showing everything—the forest and the trees—in a single view, concept maps help people create mental models and clarify thoughts. We create concept maps to share understanding—with our clients, peers, and others interested in the subjects.

Their gallery of downloadable PDF posters include the creative process, play, innovation, and much more.

http://www.dubberly.com/concept-maps

Joshua Porter's "Designing for Sign Up" presentation from Webstock, 2009, does a great job of focusing the task of sign up on user motivation and anxiety, and thinking through scenarios that help remove barriers to entry. As he says, the form itself is the least of your concerns. Porter describes the entire experience leading up to the call to action, providing excellent examples that ease users into sign up.

http://www.slideshare.net/bokardo/designing-for-sign-up