If you do any kind of design or development, you’re constantly needing to match colors (or you should be).

Nattyware’s Pixie and Apple’s Digital Color Meter (if you’re using OS X Lion, which you should be, be sure to see the new way to get Hex values) are what I rely on. Both free. Both easy to use. Launch, roll over the color you want to match, and you get your RGB, Hex and other values.

I use these almost daily for web design and elearning development.

Enjoy!

Congratulations Typekit

Please Don’t Call Them Avatars… Unless They Are Avatars – Word.

Can I Use – Great resource. Thanks Judy!

Learning 2011 Conference Backchannel – David Kelly does a great job with these collections

Omnifocus and Siri

Human Centered Design Toolkit – For years, businesses have used human-centered design to develop innovative solutions. Why not apply the same approach to overcome challenges in the nonprofit world? (via Jason)

Designing the Invisible

How To Think And Communicate Visually

Team Treehouse – What do you want to learn today?

Now Entering the Decade of Learning – Great link from Chad

Kurt Hanks – Paradigm mapping. Awesomness (via The Beard)

Nest does use Time to Temperature – which is based on your home’s thermal profile — to approximate how long it’ll take to warm or cool your home. So, yes, if Nest knows, for example, that you want it to be 72 at 6PM and that it’ll take 40 minutes to get to that temperature, it’ll start heating up the house earlier.

I’m in for two sometime in 2012.

Instagram 2.0 – Massive update. Instant filters. Instant tilt-shift. High-res photos.

iTunes Skip Feature – Exactly the solution I was looking for. I’m creating a smart list for these so I can remove them from my library entirely. (via DF)

“While some people might find it distasteful to pay taxes. I don’t. I find it Patriotic.”

The Yoda Pie Chart – There is no try.

Hip-Checked — “For the past year HP has looked like a dog being tempted on opposite sides of the room by two treats. Constantly rushing back and forth so as to not lose either of the treats, but never actually getting either of the treats.”

Welcome to Macintosh

Charge money for your work. Don’t be a jerk to people. Repeat. (via Ben Brooks)

Memorable Speakers Blend Stories, A Connection to the Audience, and Takeaways

The Dude – I love Devour

Thanks for Teaching Us – So cool (via Michelle)

Driskill WordPress Child Theme – Beautiful and Responsive

The 10-Minute Instructional Design Degree

“Also – instructional design and visual design are different things. Visual design is just as important (and it isn’t about making things “pretty”), and it needs to be done before the development phase begins.” – Jane Bozarth

Overcoming Objections to eLearning

“Adopting eLearning is a cultural change as well as a technological one, and all of the changes required to make it accepted and expected can take time.” – Judy Unrein

When I Think of the Future of Online Learning – great insight from Ellen Wagner

Project Tin Can Moving Right Along – great news

30 Places to Find Creative Commons Content – goes well with this video on Copyright

eLearning Storyboards – some wonderful resources

Good marketing may get people in the door the first time, but good product design gets them in the door the second (and third, and fourth, and fifth) time.

- Shawn Blanc

Apple isn’t dominating because of clever marketing. They’re dominating because they make awesome products that people can’t wait to use. And when they roll out a new version, existing customers will wait in long lines again to upgrade, without thinking about it, because they know it will be great. They can buy sight-unseen because they trust Apple to deliver what only Apple can deliver, the perfect harmony between hardware and software.

And they know they’ll be able to simply turn it on and start using it.

…the goal shouldn’t be to overlay rewards and achievements, the goal should be to get people more involved in experiences in meaningful ways.

Koreen Olbrish – “Reflections on LEEF 2011″ – eLearn Mag

Couldn’t have said it better myself. It’s not about the game. It’s about the experience and the outcome. Games are just one type of immersive experience. This doesn’t just apply to learning, either.

…you end up killing the intrinsic motivation to do things you didn’t need to be rewarded to do before.

Aaron Silvers – “On Education, Badges and Scouting”

Both Koreen and Aaron make similar points. Don’t do something (like trying to gamify everything) just because you can. Do something because it will give your users great experiences that lead to meaningful outcomes.

It’s simple, really:

1. What do you want your users/learners to DO?
2. How can you make a great experience that gets them to a point where they CAN?

Remember, it’s always about the user. It’s never about you.

- Zeldman – “But What I Really Want to Do is Direct”

Enough said. One of the reasons I started Remember The User was simply to remind designers and developers, and anyone else who will listen, it’s ALWAYS about the user.

According to the Information Design Network, “Wherever relatively complex information needs to be made easier to understand, or tailored to the needs of a specific ‘specialist’ or cultural community, the ‘user-oriented’ methods of information design can be employed.” I’d say that eLearning, job aids, participant manuals and other instructional materials can benefit from the best practices of text-based information design.

- eLearning Coach – “Designing Text-based Information.”

These are best practices for the web and any other form of text, not just in learning. Great resource links at the bottom, too.

(via Kay)

Coldplay: Strawberry Swing

(via Shawn Blanc)

The discussion focused on Creative Commons (CC), fair use and copyrighted material in learning (and anything else).

Quick Notes

• When is your work copyrighted? As soon as it is created.
• Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.
• Creative Commons works in conjunction with copyright. Basically, the licenses allow you to specify how and when people can use your content.
• Copyright.gov is a good, user-friendly site.
• Teachingcopyright.org is instructionally sound and geared towards kids, so you can get the info quickly.

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons has six types of licenses: three core licenses, each of which has an additional Non-Commercial Use version. All require attribution in some form.

Important note: if you change your license, anyone who used your content before you changed it can legally use it per the license that existed when they used it.

Three core licenses:

1. Attribution (BY): You can modify and use freely, as long as you give attribution to the original.
2. Attribution-NoDerivs (BY-ND): You cannot modify, but you can use freely in original format, as long as you give attribution.
3. Attribution-ShareALike (BY-SA): You can modify as long as you give attribution and license under identical terms.

The other three are each of the above licenses + non-commercial: basically, you are not allowed to use it if you will make money off it.

When Can Non-commercial Be Used?

This is a common question as it relates to internal training. Technically it’s use cannot PRIMARILY be intended for profit. This is a large gray area.

The safe answer, and the one Michelle and I both recommend, is to ALWAYS ask permission. Most content owners are okay with it as long as you offer attribution.

Finding Content

In the second half of her presentation, Michelle covered several resources for searching for commercial-use Creative Commons content:

• CreativeCommons.org has a great search engine. You can search for commercial-use with modification. You can use all of the returned content, as long as you give attribution. This makes it easy for you to keep it legal! The CC engine scours Google, Flickr, blip.tv, and other sites for available media: images, graphics, videos, and music, all in one place.
• When using Flickr, the CC licenses are clearly marked. If you use Flickr’s site directly, use the Advanced search and check the boxes for the type of content you need.

How Do You Give Attribution?

In a presentation, you can give attribution directly on the slide, or at the end (bibliography-style). The two requirements are a link to the source and a link to the CC license it uses. Do this for every piece of content you use.

If you use bibliography-style attribution at the end end, you must reference the page or slide on which the content appears.

Additional Information and Resources

• The Commons on Flickr
  These are images that have no known copyright. If you know anything about the photo, please submit info (tags, descriptions) so they can have more data about the images.
• The Life Magazine archives
  Wonderful photos. If your use is non-profit, you may use these images freely with attribution. If there is any chance of profit, you cannot use these images. Acceptable: your kid’s book project. Unacceptable: compliance training or blog posts.
• Morguefile.com
  For writers, the morgue file is the drawer of stories you never used. This is like that, but for images. Use anything, any way you want; no attribution required whatsoever. However, I’d at least reference the source as good practice.
• Stockvault.net
  You must give attribution, but you are allowed to use commercially.

Video

• Flickr, Vimeo, blip.tv and other sites all have CC licensed content that you can use.
• YouTube has no real licensing. Be smart, don’t use stuff that is obviously copyrighted. The only reason it’s still on there is just that YouTube hasn’t gotten to it yet to take it down. You don’t want to end up with the black screen message: “this video has been removed for violation of copyright” in your training course or on your site.
• While there are ways to download from YouTube, Vimeo, etc., it is illegal. Period.

More of Michelle’s resources can be found here.

Section 508 compliance is important, but we’re doing this because equal opportunity is simply the right thing to do.

via Fresh Ink.

Excellent. That’s how it should be. Don’t do it to be compliant. Do it because it’s the right thing to do for EVERYONE.

“My work is like a black hole of perfect Jesus wizard sauce.”

Enter Instapaper. Integration with Twitter apps and all my browsers, and a iPhone app. Brilliant and simple. If it’s worth reading, I’ll “read it later.”

My other favorite tool is Readability, which makes most websites 20 times better by cutting out the sidebars, ads, Flash, and other crap and just giving me the article I want to read, in a wonderful typeface of my choosing, at the size I prefer.

I’ve set my father-in-law up with Readability, because he, too, hates the crap on websites that disturb good content. It’s good stuff. Arc90 deserves a medal.

So here’s how I read the internet:

1. Twitter to Instapaper (to read later) or to Safari/Readability
2. Safari to Instapaper or Readability (depending on time)
3. Google Reader in Fluid with Helvetireader
4. Email – I still prefer some email newsletters and Feedburner because it, again, is just the content.

More goodness:

• Give Me Something to Read – a list of the most “Instapapered” articles.
• Netvibes – was my primary for a long time. Works well with Fluid.
• Instapaper Restyled

Right now, you can get FOUR of their themes for the price of ONE. Sweet!

They have spectacular designers on their roster, and they provide great and timely support. I highly recommend them.

Get in before October and two things happen.

1. Use my affiliate link and I’ll get a kickback, 100% of which goes to charity for the rest of October. (and 50% after).
2. WooThemes is donating a portion of October proceeds to charity, too.

It’s win-win-win. You get great themes, I give to charity, and WooThemes gives to charity. Awesome.

** All of my October affiliate revenue is going to charity (because I love boobs), so feel free to try out some of the other service and resource providers in my sidebar!

However, part of the reason I haven’t posted is because my setup is in a bit of disarray at the moment. When we moved earlier this year, I was stoked about the 10×10 ft. office built into the oversized garage. It was perfect for me.

Unfortunately, I found out in July that it was not properly insulated, and the windows were horrible, so, even though there was a portable AC unit pumping air into the room, it was unbearable in the Texas heat, so I moved inside, with plans to upgrade before next summer.

After spending the summer with a tiny desk that’s not a good ergonomic fit for me, I’m very ready for the cooler temps so I can move back to the real office.

When I do so, I’m in the market for a new chair. The one I have now is an old OfficeMax managers chair I bought for about $75 10 years ago.

I’ve heard pros and cons of spending a lot of cash on a good ergonomic chair, like the Aeron (including this hilarious review on Dack). I wonder if anyone reading this has any advice, or recommendations based on what you use, or if you’ve gone through my experience in the recent past, and what your solution was. Tim Ferriss has a decent review here as well.

I’ll hopefully be back in the outside office in less than a month, with a new chair, and then I will finally start – and, hopefully, finish – the series.

The new morning routine. So true.

The Missing Windows Disc – nope, not that simple…

Driver Side Auto Management Site – Nice, clean interface and a great resource for car owners

Working through video-editing backlog – I so need to do this.

ALA – Redesigning your own site: “Designing for your worst client: yourself” – Good read

Learning Objectives and Salsa Dancing

How to pick a barber

(via Brad)

I’m probably going to be in Chicago in May for the SkillSoft Perspectives conference. I’d love to go back in June for WordCamp Chicago. My Cubbies won’t be in town, which makes it a little less enticing, but I love Chicago and it’s another reason to go.

Very tempting, but I’ll have to hold off to see about the DE finances before I make the commitment.

If you’re interested, however, registration is now open. They’d like to get a fairly accurate headcount before choosing a venue, so register today if you know you’re going!

Take the survey here, and I’d also love to hear in the comments what you asked for.

Some of my wishlist:

1. more built in customization to the admin interface
2. more user levels
3. more CMS features (specifically #s 1 and 2)
4. built in automatic backups
5. better feed options