Death by Screens: the newsletter

Education, fables, game design, astrophysics, writing, story structure: they’re all connected by a useful principle you can use to improve how you communicate. Deliberate failure Our schooling has really internalised the idea that the correct answer is the only one that matters. As I write, my twelve-year-old son is being tested again on some topic he told me that he already knows. As teachers in the UK like to say - you can’t fatten a pig by measuring it. As an adult, I learned that failure...

Today's tip is about how you go about helping to facilitate good feedback from stakeholders. Let's go! We teach children something that we often don't stick to in our adult lives: think before you speak. I'm as guilty of not following this rule as anyone. I'm from an outspoken and (sometimes brutally) direct Dutch / Welsh family, and the son of a radio presenter. I didn't have any trouble offering my opinion until I got a bit older and considered the true impact of my words. We can't make...

In your long, creative, and prosperous design career, you'll end up explaining particular topics to your colleagues over and over again. What we'll cover: finding the right story to tell about a topic so that you grab their attention at the start. In Pacific Northwestern Canada, there's an archipelago of islands called Haida Gwaii. The indigenous people there tell of their ability to speak the language of ravens, recently lost to the effects of colonialism. Ravens are a central part of the...

There's no one perfect way to create a presentation, or indeed, any kind of content-based work. But there are approaches we can borrow from other disciplines. In the world of fiction writing, there's the idea of 'planners' or 'pantsers' (as in, flying by the seat of your pants). Planners meticulously plan the structure of their work in an outline before they start writing (Will Self is one example); pantsers are those who just go for it and write (George RR Martin). Both approaches have their...

Hey folks. Yesterday I got to the final proof of the book. So close! In preparation I've improved how these articles appear on the web, do take a look and share (if there's anything you've enjoyed reading, that is!).​Anyway, this week... useful lessons from Breaking Bad, Southpark, and what not to do, courtesy of Game of Thrones. Read on the web The showrunner of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan, knew that there's a really easy story-telling trap you can fall into. He would begin with a very...

A guilty gap in-between emails... OK, I’ve been really lax writing to you over the past few weeks, with good reason. The process of finalising the book to go to print was much more work than anticipated, if book_interior_final_final_final_v1.345.pdf is anything to go by! Anyway, I think it’s done. The final proof copy is winging its way over; more on the book launch soon. No really. Underscore_really_v5_really. Read this on the web Selling without sales I’ve never been one for sales. I’ve...

OK folks, it’s a short one this week; I’m busy working with a new startup. Some good news about the book - the design of the print edition layout is 99.99% done! Let’s talk about some tools I’ve found useful, starting with the gentle option. Read and share this on the web​ Transcribe it: Otter.ai (easy) In Death by Screens I cover the importance of writing out your rationale. But it’s not an easy thing to get beyond a blank page, so improvise your first draft and transcribe it. Our devices...

This week’s update is a heady mix of gardening, learning from Japanese business culture, power phrases for UX people, and to finish, my trip last week to Japan to keynote UX Days Tokyo! Sāikō! Read and share this on the web​ Failing about failing Within about fifteen minutes of starting the meeting, I could tell it probably wasn’t going to end well. I was there to present the results of service design research, and a senior stakeholder started to get annoyed when I began talking about how...