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kadavy's comments

kadavy | 13 years ago | on: Minimum Viable Movie: How I Made a Feature-Length Film for $0

As I was editing this article, I was thinking the same thing myself. My guess is, it would be pretty tricky to turn a profit: movies like Primer are going to be rare.

But maybe you could get the formula right? Find filmmakers with collaborative attitudes, and put them together to coach them on film making (and marketing).

kadavy | 13 years ago | on: 37signals invests in The Starter League

Great move by both of these companies. I had dinner with Mike McGee (one of the co-founders) a couple of months ago, and could hardly believe my ears when I heard his story of bootstrapping Code Academy. These guys generated serious revenue with nothing more than a static website, then figured it out from there.

kadavy | 13 years ago | on: Why you can't be anything you want to be

> "Want" is not picking a warm-fuzzy-inducing phrase off a list because you feel compelled to make a choice. "Want" is "get the he11 out of my way" compulsive drive which permeates your being.

To many faced with "you can be whatever you want" don't want to do anything; all they "want" is satisfaction of basic urges and amusements.

I think you're articulating perfectly the "delusions" that those in the "me" generation have.

There's a big difference between "wanting" to be, say, a famous singer because you want adoring fans, and "wanting" to be a famous singer because you truly love music to your very core, will sacrifice anything short of your own life to do it, and because you really have a unique point of view to share.

But, even for those in the latter camp, they have to have at least some sensitivity to their audience, and the market forces that enable them to pursue their passion as a livelihood.

kadavy | 13 years ago | on: The effect of typefaces on credibility

Yeah, Verdana is fantastic on screen (this was especially so before anti-aliasing was standard), but looks awful in print.

EDIT: also, didn't know about IKEA's Verdanagate (from your link above). Fascinating!

kadavy | 13 years ago | on: Design Tip: Never Use Black

Avoiding black definitely causes you to make color choices that add more dimension and realism to your interfaces. Interfaces, after all, are representations of reality.

One helpful tip: "warm" colors jump out at you, and "cool" colors recede away from you. You can use this to your advantage when designing buttons, or even when working with typography.

More detail in this article, "Why Monet Never Used Black": http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-color-theory/

kadavy | 13 years ago | on: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes

I actually have found QR codes to be effective when used in presentations at tech conferences. At the end of each talk, I have a QR code on the final slide that points to a page where attendees can get more info.

About 1/4 of all people who visited that page at my SXSW talk this year came in through a QR code. This is kind of an anomaly because a SXSW talk is probably the perfect place to use a QR code.

My one complaint is, of course, that they are hideous. It would be nice if there were a central database where you could upload your own symbols and assign them to URLs.

kadavy | 14 years ago | on: Building It Is Not Enough: 5 Practical Tips On User Acquisition

> "The rise in A/B testing and other analytics tools have created fairy tale stories of changing a button color, or moving the CTA from the left to the right and suddenly you have game changing improvements. Once again, these stories are the exception, not the rule. It typically takes 10 A/B tests to find one that produces any improvement at all. And when you do have a positive improvement, it is typically incremental instead of game changing."

Amen!

kadavy | 14 years ago | on: How I Wrote and Self-Published a Book: Step by Step

After publishing a book through a publisher ("Design for Hackers"), I've had some other smaller ideas rattling around that I've considered self-publishing. Scrivener looks like a useful tool.

I'm pretty sure I would hire an editor, though. Unless you're a trained writer, it can be difficult to keep grammar and sentence structure correct.

kadavy | 14 years ago | on: Design for Developers

"There are very little fonts in Google web fonts currently that are worth using." Amen!

I like this multiples of 6 thing, too. Most attempts to get a baseline grid going (like on Blueprint, for example) just look wrong.

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