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Articles By:

Kevin Hoffman

An Interview with Jeffrey Zeldman, First SXSW Hall of Fame Inductee

Posted on 3/13/12

The Happy Cog team could not be more thrilled that our founder, mentor, and good friend, Jeffrey Zeldman, has been selected to be the first inductee into the SXSW Hall of Fame. We thought it might be fun to sit down for a fireside chat, and ask a few questions that he hasn’t answered before in other interviews. Our User Experience Director and karaoke raconteur, Kevin M. Hoffman, spoke with Jeffrey about his long relationship with the SXSW conference, his career inspiration, and a few things you might not know about the man behind Designing With Web Standards, A List Apart, An Event Apart, A Book Apart, and more.
Holiday Gifts For the Young Web Designer Who Doesn’t Have It All

Posted on 12/22/11

The field of web and application design is deep into a fantastic and complex evolutionary stage. Browsers have adopted more support than ever for the same standards, yet the bleeding edges of those standards are constantly staining our screens with new approaches to the ways we interact with information. Platforms, frameworks, methods, and opinions about them are myriad. It can all be a little intimidating for someone just getting off of the school bus.
Jared Spool: The Cognition Interview

Posted on 10/20/11

Jared Spool is one of the most influential design research professionals working in the field of user experience design today. I first saw Jared speak about his work at the SXSW Interactive conference five years ago, and I haven’t thought about my work the same way since. I’ve seen him speak at dozens of events and I find myself rapt with attention every single time. His brilliant insights have transformed the way many think about designing digital experiences and his ideas always seem to occupy a jovial environment that balances sound research with a sharp wit. He is a one of a kind mix of entertainer, academic, and pragmatist. I’m incredibly grateful for his contributions to the field and consider myself very fortunate to enjoy his company from time to time.
Attack of the Client Services Zombies

Posted on 8/18/11

Khoi Vinh recently shared some inspiring insights on the evolution of opportunities for design professionals in the digital realm in a post entitled The End of Client Services. He has, as of the time of this publishing, since revisited and revised his thoughts. If you haven’t read these posts, you should, because it’s good stuff. I’ll wait.
An Open Letter to 37signals

Posted on 1/27/11

Good day to you, Signals!

Basecamp has greatly enriched our work life. It deftly reduces the incredibly complex noise of a large, busy project with many moving parts into exactly what each of us needs to get our jobs done. It has allowed us to isolate and document critical conversations, and therefore collaborate with our clients and each other more effectively. Smooth integration with e-mail makes it possible to respond at the speed of thought. And the recent integration of accounts makes hopping between the many different Basecamps in the Happy Cog universe a breeze.
Wish Upon a ★

Posted on 12/23/10

The year 2010 was a wild one for the web. It saw the release of the iPad and all of the subsequent great ideas and discussion about flexible design approaches. HTML was cool again (the cinco!). Twitter got a major overhaul and Facebook got between 35 and 268 small facelifts. It was as if millions of bookmarks cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced when rumor had it delicio.us was disappeari.ng. In fact, someone apparently took the web’s pulse and pronounced it DOA!
Raw Taste Brokerage Power

Posted on 11/11/10

The summer of 1991 was fast approaching. I needed a source of income to pay my rent over the summer or I’d have to live at home with my parents and little brother. No self respecting college sophomore would willingly choose to do this. I had worked in a chain record store in high school, so I figured I’d go down to my favorite independent record store and see if I could get a job. As “luck” would have it, they needed a janitor-slash-lackey. Thus began my romance with the nearly extinct species of business known as the independent music retailer.

Kevin Hoffman
@kevinmhoffman
User Experience Director

Articles By:

An Interview with Jeffrey Zeldman, First SXSW Hall of Fame Inductee

Holiday Gifts For the Young Web Designer Who Doesn’t Have It All

Jared Spool: The Cognition Interview

Attack of the Client Services Zombies

An Open Letter to 37signals

Wish Upon a ★

Raw Taste Brokerage Power

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