Design Matters (or does it?): Why are Certain Things Certain Colors?
Why are barns red? Bubble gum pink? Why do doctors wear white coats? The reasons vary.
Hypnotic Pencil Manufacturing
It’s Friday. Time to zone out with a film of pencils being manufactured in Japan.
The Size of Things: Time in Context
What does the timeline of human existence look like when physically laid out to scale? How does that compare to the timeline of the universe?
The Best Optical Illusions of 2023
The winners of this year’s Optical Illusion competition.
Design Matters: Critiquing US Flag Designs
How well-designed is your state’s flag?
Guest Post — Why Interoperability Matters for Open Research – And More than Ever
Rebecca Lawrence discusses how connections across all aspects of the system are needed for open research to flourish and deliver upon its promise.
SXSW Interactive: Slow Down To Speed Up
Back to SXSW this year! Hear about the conference, the speakers, and the themes. Tell us what resonates with you the most!
Guest Post — Modern Comments and Their Discontents: When an Update Isn’t an Improvement
Modern “word processing” programs can do everything from check spelling and grammar to finishing your sentences for you. This might be convenient for the creator, but some “helpful” upgrades can wreak havoc for manuscript editors. In today’s Guest Post, Bruce Rosenblum and Sylvia Izzo Hunter explore the pitfalls of making the comments features less editor friendly.
Guest Post — Advancing Accessibility in Scholarly Publishing: Recommendations for Digital Accessibility Best Practices
Part three of a three-part series aims to discuss the topic of advancing accessibility within scholarly communication with the focus of digital accessibility.
Ending the Year with Beautiful Books
We’re off through the New Year. Here are some beautiful books to tide you over….
Books Are For Use and What That Means
We don’t talk very much about physical production values for books. What message does that send to readers of scholarly titles?
Standards for Road Signs and Why Signs in the US Are So Different from the Rest of the World
Why do US road signs look different from those seen in the rest of the world?
Making Hard Candy: Non-Newtonian Fluids
How do you make a candy cane and how does candy behave as a non-Newtonian fluid?
Design Matters: Why Are Company Logos Simplifying?
A look at recent trends in brand logo design, and why things are becoming simpler.
#ProTip for Authors: There’s More to Writing Your Manuscript Than Just the Text
Authors need to understand more about producing web documents, particularly accessibility, if they want to forgo traditional publishing.