Writing
Design Practice

Designing the User Experience Curve

I've been interested in how the lessons learned from game design can be used to improve online experiences for a while now. I guess this interest started when I started learning about the concept of a "flow states". Flow is the state of being where you lose all perception of time and you flow from one successful task to another with seeming ease. It's great if you can get into this state at work as you feel "in the zone" and can get a lot done in a short space of time. Sadly the number of distraction in the modern work place, combined with the fact that we're perpetual multi-taskers, makes entering into the flow state at work a rare occurrence.
Personal

The Real Tao of Deadlines

The beauty of Taoism is that it's a very holistic belief system. Rather than setting down rules and doctrines, Taoism focuses on the natural order of the universe. Nature has it's own pace, so rather than struggling against the flow, Taoism teaches us to move with it. After all, a young sapling will bend with the wind while the mighty oak gets torn from its roots. Sometimes nature is an unstoppable force and the only way to survive is to understand it's core essence and be flexible. The same could be said of many a web design project.
Personal

Freediving at the SETT

As some of you already know, I'm a qualified PADI dive instructor, and spent a good part of my twenties travelling around Asia, teaching people to dive. During the surface intervals, me and some of my colleague would jump off the side of the boat to practice our breath hold diving. We started just by finning down, but quick progressed to variable weight diving where we'd grab hold of a weight belt to pull us down, and then haul it up afterwards. We weren't very good, and I've later found that this practice was also quite dangerous, but it was fun and killed some time.
Personal

5 Things You Didn't Know About Me

# I can eat and breathe fire # I was flying planes solo before I was old enough to drive # I've dived on an active, underwater volcano # I lived in a tent for a whole summer while surfing in Devon # I helped set up a dive shop in Thailand when I was 27
Tech Culture

Whither W3C?

I've been a strong proponent of web standards since first being introduced to them "back in 2000 by Jefrey Zeldman":http://www.zeldman.com/com0100b.html. I started discussing standards on my "local mailing list":http://www.brightonnewmedia.org/, then on my blog, and finally at conferences and events. I even "wrote a book":http://www.cssmastery.com/ on the subject.
Speaking & Events

Rebooted

Ever since hearing about "Reboot":http://www.reboot.dk/ three years ago, I've wanted to attend this Scandinavian conference. I was supposed to speak last year, but fate conspired against me. However Jeremy went, and by all accounts knocked their socks off with a love letter in praise of the hyperlink. Jeremy came back all enthused, so I set a reminder iCal as well as a mental note to attend.