links for 2011-01-05

Lots of stuff today from the 'if you missed it over Xmas files', but this dates from even earlier: "In this article I argue why you too should ditch wireframes and embrace rapid prototyping."

"There’s a hundred reasons not to do a straight port like this, and I’ve only touched one of them here. The extra limitations imposed by Fitts’s Law on 'traditional' computers mean that touch UIs typically simply don’t work in mouse-driven environments. AppKit and UIKit are different frameworks for a reason. The designers of your target platform are smarter than you, and have already thought all this stuff through — work with the native controls and design elements and your UI will be usable. Once it works, then make it pretty."

"This is a remix contest – you must use the sounds form the Large Hadron Collider as the basis for a remix."

This, although slightly technical in places, is a brilliant brilliant post for anyone non-techie who would never otherwise think about the URL design of their website to read. It is the kind of thing that IAs and technical architects take care of without anyone even noticing, and you end up with a better, more usable website as a result.

"That’s the challenge in 2011 for journalists: The data’s coming, are we ready to use in context and find the stories which still mean something?"