We work in an open concept work space, the lack of privacy is a negative agreed, but it really facilitates the expression of opinions — whether they are requested or not. The thing about spouting your opinions within your peer group, you best be ready to hear how much your thoughts sink or soar.

In the middle of our ‘pit’, we installed a ginormous whiteboard, it’s intended for brainstorming sessions, working out silky smooth code, drawing obscene doodles and other collaborative exercises. Now every week, starting last week, it will also house the 76 Top Five. What is the 76 Top Five? I am glad you asked. A theme is picked, and people (participation is optional) list their all-time top five (usually under a barrage of comments such as, ‘Are you serious?’ and ‘Nice choice pointdexter‘).

Think of this whiteboard as a window into the plethora of personalities who fill out the 76design corps.

So without further ado…

Week 1 Theme: Cinema

Brett:

1. Donnie Darko
2. Gimme Shelter
3. Almost Famous
4. 28 Days Later
5. High Fidelity

Jeff:

1. Goodfellas
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
3. And Now For Something Completely Different
4. Rollerball
5. Cable Guy

Jordan:

1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Dumb and Dumber
3. True Lies
4. Pulp Fiction
5. Ocean’s Eleven

Julie:

1. Blue Velvet
2. Kill Bill Vol.2
3. Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain
4. Lost in Translation
5. Adaptation

John:

1. Seven Samurai
2. The Night of the Hunter
3. Rhapsody in August
4. The Last Picture Show
5. Kill Bill 1 & 2

Rob:

1. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
2. Fubar
3. American History X
4. Forrest Gump
5. Pulp Fiction

Dom:

1. Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
2. Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo
3. Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
4. Rushmore
5. Jing wu men

Tune in next week for…76 Top Five: Music Videos!

Speakers: Patrick Keenan and Alan Smith from The Movement

This talk is about design, people, and meaning. Let’s call it “Creative Sustainability”, or maybe “Sustainable Creativity” ?

I care about the big picture and care about making great work. The folks at the Movement have started to put structure to ideas and concepts around what they call sustainable creativity.

The presentation started off with the question: "What have you done that is meaningful?"

The underlying theme of the talk is about a philosophy and concept that, as stated, is sustainable creativity. Its about solutions and an approach to problem solving. Its about how to change relationships. It means doing things that make a difference. To me it means doing work and working in a way that matches my values of creating meaningful work, engaging in mutually beneficial relationships and have a positive influence on the environment around me.

This is the creation of meaningful wealth.

The second question to the crowd came as this: How much do you make? …How much what?  Money isn’t our only currency. Is there an accounting for non financial things.

Time as currency: Banking time. See Timeraiser to pledge time against a good cause.

Task as currency: trading tasks.

Non profit margin: distribute profits from centres that can afford to others that can’t but require attention. See good magazine - 100% of subscription fee is directed to the non-profit of your choice.

Next question: What is the victory condition for how you spend your time at work?

See Wiser Earth  to connect with other groups.

Spread the word - action and reward. A cause based design camp. (Can’t find any further information though, anybody?)

A 12 step program to make change:

• take note of impact
• consider what to preserve and what to change
• draw the line, what won’t you do?  have a to don’t list
• set priorities, what matters most? Urgent and important
• share the worst deed you did for an evil client
• tell somebody you’re about to make a change in your professional work
• implement a system to help you out
• make an ideal client list. don’t let this list just sit there, contact them.
• join something
• meet-ups and serendipity
• do. then talk. then do more.
• try these, then try something else.

For the past couple years, and this year included, 76design has sent a small contingent down to Toronto for FITC. FITC is a design and technology festival and the only one of its kind. We’ve been attending for a number of years now and always found it to be an inspirational and engaging conference. Last year we documented a few of the sessions and this year we’ll do the same.

Always looking for the right candidate. 76design is looking for a full-time web developer with a minimum of 3 years professional experience to join our talented team. We need a smart and responsible individual who is ready to be a key contributor to several exciting new projects. Our ideal candidate is equally comfortable talking to computers and to people. He or she is proficient in multiple programming languages but is also deeply engaged with the social aspects of web culture.

Our ideal candidate knows what’s happening today and what’s coming down the pipe tomorrow, and can’t wait to get there. He or she is driven to achieve but is also comfortable working in a collaborative environment, and is bursting with ideas and skills, just like we are.

The core technical skills we need are expertise in:

• PHP, mySQL and HTML

Knowledge of one or more of the following is also necessary:

• ASP.net, CSS, JavaScript, WordPress, Ruby on Rails, Ajax, SEO, podcasting, advanced web metrics

If you think you’ve got what it takes to join our team, tell us now! Email your CV and a cover letter to: jobs@76design.com

During the post-presentation free-for-all of a recent Third Tuesday Ottawa, I had my mind blown by smart cookie, often shift+control linked and former 76er, John Wiseman. We were talking about A vs B Testing and its slow and steady adoption within the web industry. We talked about the conversion of visitors into buyers via the testing of 2 variations of a site design, the evolution of focus-testing. It was the usual chatter until he drops this nugget on me.

RobotReplay — The Next Generation of Web Analytics

It’s a free web-based application where it tracks and records the mouse gestures of each visitor’s session. Did I mention that it’s FREE? Beyond being pretty damn cool, it allows clients to see for themselves where a visitor clicks first, what doesn’t get any attention at all and everything in between. The service is simple to implement into your site’s code and it records the session in tasty flash video on their servers. This is especially useful for those darn online forms that gets no love. Now you can see why.

Can it replace your current tools for collecting web metrics? No. Think of it as a beauty of a complement to your existing plan (if you have one that is). The dead-sexy kneepads to the thigh-high leg warmers, if you will.

I have yet to test it out on my personal sites/blogs, because evidently you need actual traffic for it to work.

This can help mash out those long battles over the size of buttons, where they’re placed, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn’t address the request by the client to make their logo 75% bigger. You’re still on your own for that one.

steve got the ball rolling with a couple of beauty posts documenting our new project at 76labs
it’s temporarily top secret
but our development process
is inspiring a whole lot of blogworthy thoughts…

it’s no secret that ours is a music project
so i’d like to talk about musicians
and what kind of lousy dough they make
because they make painully little
playing in cafes, bars, clubs, theatres, festivals
50 bucks sometimes
a hundred bucks a lot of the time
and for every quality gig that pays 2 or 3 hundred
another couple that pay nothing at all
which is why one of the main objectives of our new project is to increase the amount of money working musicians make!

and while it’s true that the legends are rich
there are very few of them
compared to the countless fabulous musicians
lifelong musicians
who live poor
and die
more or less penniless

and if you know how the music industry works
you’ll know that even selling a million records
or having a number one hit
is no guarantee of significant financial rewards
because there are so many predators, so many ways to get screwed
that time and again musicians get famous and go broke all at once

and so the project we’re working on is in large measure for them
real musicians who spend their lives making people feel good
we’re building an economic engine
unlike any other
based on an understanding of the real lives of musicians
and their fans
and designed for them and no one else
and when it’s ready to test (soon)
we hope you’ll give it a whirl
and let us know what you think
js