Speaking at Kscope 12
I’ve been accepted to speak at Kscope 12, the big ODTUG (@odtug) user group conference which is in San Antonio, June 24-28.
My session is called Extend Oracle WebCenter to Infinity and Beyond, and yes, you can expect lots of Toy Story references. The session is scheduled for Monday, June 25 from 4:15 to 5:15, so I’ll need to do something entertaining to keep people’s attention off dinner and drinks.
I’m hoping to get Chris Bales (@cbales) involved to talk about the WebCenter Spaces iPhone app his team built on top of the WebCenter REST APIs. We’ll see, since I think I’ve ambushed him a bit. Expect to see Noel (@noelportugal) too.
I’ve never been to San Antonio, so that will be a first. I do, however, know the Mayor, so maybe I’ll swing by City Hall and name-drop. Or not.
One bummer is that this year’s Google IO conflicts with Kscope. Google pushed the show back about a month this year and added a day. It’s now June 27-29, so I should be able to make both.
If you’re heading to Kscope this year, stay tuned for details about my session and the other WebCenter content planned for the show.
Find the comments.
Seeing Santa Hacks
My daughter is about nine months old now, and she’s thoroughly enjoying all the hubbub of Christmas.
We’ve taken her to a nearby grower to cut down our tree, to the zoo to see all the lights, and of course, to sit on Santa’s lap. That last one was an adventure, one that could have been greatly improved with technology.
It took four tries to see Santa. In retrospect, I’m sure more experienced parents have this trick down pat, but given the lines, it looks like a lot of people are just suffering in line. An old friend used to call that “building character.” I’m not a fan.
Lucky for us, seeing Santa was a treat for parents, not for baby, otherwise it might have been even worse.
Here’s the problem. The lines to see mall Santas are longer than amusement park lines in mid-Summer, there doesn’t seem to be a pattern you can exploit, and no one has bothered to use technology to solve the issue.
First, we tried on Saturday evening, and unsurprisingly, the line was long, probably close to three hours.
No worries, we figured an evening during the week might be better. It was, but only barely, maybe a two-hour wait.
So, maybe first thing in the morning, right when the North Pole opens at 10 AM. Nope, fail. We arrived at 10 on the nose, and there was already a line of more than a hundred people queued up; I swear they camped out overnight.
In each case, there was no way we were waiting. My daughter wouldn’t have done well with a 30-minute wait, let alone a two-hour one. Besides, time is money.
By this time, I was already designing a solution in my head that would allow me to spy on the line from my mobile device. I can’t believe the company that does these Santa productions doesn’t have something like this already. After all, I doubt they like dealing with parents who’ve been subjected to several hours in line with kids.
Turns out one company does have a system in place to alleviate the waiting. One local mall has a virtual line that can send manage your place in line and send you texts when you near the front.
They also show how many people are already queued and how long the wait estimate is. And even though it’s about 45 minutes before they open, there are already nine people in line. That has doubled as I write this.
Insane.
Given the length of these lines, I wonder how well people who have waited hours would react when random people cruised up and jumped the line. This seems obvious to me, but of the local malls, only this one has any kind of virtual system in place. Seems it might be unique nationally too, since it made the WSJ yesterday.
Anyway, this was my Plan E, but happily, Plan D worked. We figured the downtown mall would be sparsely populated around quitting time, and definitely not full of suburban families who would have to drive through rush hour and park.
This assumption turned out to be correct, and we arrived to find a line with two families in it. Win.
So, alls well that ends well, at least this year. Frankly, I’ll bet the Santa we saw was much cheery than the ones in the suburban malls who have to see hundreds of kids in a day.
As a footnote, the photos we bought were delivered digitally, in addition to printed on site. The process for retrieving these images online was one of the most painful I’ve ever seen. It took about a dozen steps.
Why? The company tries very hard to get you to buy crap before delivering the images you already paid for; so the design is awful and convoluted on purpose. It’s anti-design.
The process was so frustrating and obviously on purpose that it actually made me less likely to give in to the upsell.
If only they had spent resources on making the line process smoother. I’ll bet investing in a system to speed the line with technology (cams, notifications, etc.) would produce happier customers who are more likely to buy additional schwag after the visit.
So, that’s my Santa ordeal. Luckily, I’ve learned some hacks to apply in future years.
Anyone out there have hacks or nightmares to share? Find the comments.
And enjoy the Holidays. You earned it.
Helvetica, the Documentary
I recently finished watching Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica. Yes, it’s a documentary about the ubiquitous typeface. Pretty sure I heard about it first from Paul (@ppedrazzi), which makes sense, given the content.
I like most documentaries, and this one appeals to the wannabe designer and font, erm typeface, nerd in me. It’s also an interesting historical study in the evolution of typefaces over the past 50 or so years.
Aside from the fascinating (at least to me) content, something struck me about all the typographers interviewed for the film. They are all very knowledgeable, not only about typography and its history, but also about related disciplines like industrial design and art history. I’ve noticed the same about designers in the past.
This type of cross-discipline and historical knowledge comes from classic education; it’s also the kind of knowledge base that made Steve Jobs so successful. He famously aimed for the intersection of technology and liberal arts, which is only possible with a broad base of knowledge.
At some point, the history of technology needs to creep into computer science curriculum. Knowing who came before you, what they accomplished, how they failed and rebounded, who invented what and how it all went down–these are all key to understanding the human side of technology.
For example, when a luminary like Dennis Ritchie passes, it’s important to understand the significance.
Maybe I’m alone here, but I think this is key to practicing a craft.
Update: I forgot to mention this wonderful documentary can be streamed from Netflix. Add it your instant queue right now.
Find the comments.
Clara Shih Joins the Starbucks Board Of Directors
If you doubted the power of social, this bit of news might serve as a wake-up call, or it might reenforce your beliefs.
Twenty-Nine-Year-Old Hearsay Social CEO Clara Shih Joins Starbucks Board Of Directors | TechCrunch
Back in 2007, Clara mashed up Salesforce and Facebook into an unofficial app called Faceforce. Creepy, yes, but very cutting edge and way ahead of its time. A mere four years later, and Clara is CEO of her own company and now on the Board of Starbucks.
So, I think she was on to something.
I actually met Clara briefly at some point, although I can’t recall exactly when. I’m thinking it was at Charlene Li’s (@charleneli) book signing at Web 2.0 Expo in 2008. Based on that brief conversation, I’m not at all surprised at Clara’s success.
And the move makes a ton of sense for Starbucks too. At Chirp last year, Starbucks, Brad Nelson specifically, was among the speakers; they were also one of the early adopters of Promoted Tweets. Starbucks realized early that social had legs and struck early to reach their core customers.
Anyway, congrats to both Clara and Starbucks. Like it (a pun!) or not, social is a juggernaut, just ask our own Peter Reiser (@peterreiser).\
Find the comments.
The Scoop on WebCenter Evangelism
Sometimes, I write about work stuff. This is one of those times.
You may have seen recently that Noel (@noelportugal) and I joined a brand-spanking, new team called WebCenter evangelism. You might also recall that the team’s mission is:
. . . to raise the profile of Oracle in all of the markets/conversations in which WebCenter competes—social business, collaboration, portals, Internet sites, and customer/audience engagement.
WebCenter has undergone a metamorphosis recently, and it now encompasses a much larger set of capabilities than it did years ago when I first joined the team.
From the source (@oraclewebcenter):
Oracle WebCenter is the user engagement platform for social business—connecting people and information. It brings together the most complete portfolio of portal, web experience management, content, social, and collaboration technologies into a single integrated product suite, and it provides the foundation for Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Fusion Applications to deliver a next-generation user experience.
Here’s a picture to help:
Not specific enough for you, check out this Q&A with Andy MacMillan (@apmacmillan), the head of WebCenter PM, and the WebCenter strategy and product roadmap shown at OpenWorld last year. Maybe you caught the keynote announcing Oracle Social Network at OpenWorld.
Did you know that OSN is a member of the WebCenter family? Did you notice the Fatwire acquisition back in June? That’s another WebCenter family member, now called WebCenter Sites.
So, yeah, a lot has changed.
What will this new evangelism team do?
Glad you asked. We will be everywhere talking about WebCenter, answering questions, extolling virtues, instructing, building cool stuff, propagating, enlightening, researching and listening. Noel P and I will be focused more on talking to developers, but for the most part, we’ll all be out there (and here) talking WebCenter. It’s that simple.
This is new territory for a development team and for each of us. So, it’s a bit of a moving target. No worries though, we’ll get it sorted as we go. The biggest piece of the puzzle is you.
As we spin up this new team, we’re looking for people outside Oracle who are interested in learning about WebCenter, testing and extending its capabilities, discovering its features. If that’s you, find the comments, hit us up on Twitter (@cfinn, @jkuramot, @noeljaffre, @noelportugal, @peterreiser, @theappslab), Facebook, G+ or email webcenter dash evangelism underscore ww at oracle dot com.
Or we’ll come to you. We’ll be at conferences like COLLABORATE, Kscope, and OpenWorld. So find us in person if you’re interested in conversating about WebCenter.
We’d love to chat with you. And watch this space for more about what we’re doing.
The Design of Road Signs
Even though I read several design blogs, it’s not very often I come across anything about road signs, let alone two different pieces about different influential designers.
Today, I did.
First, there’s this bit on the English pair Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert, who were “the graphic designers standardised the road network, created many of its signs and produced two new typefaces, Transport and Motorway.”
If you’ve ever wondered about the unique typeface requirements of road signs, you’re my soul sibling, and if you’re a Top Gear fan, you’ll recognize Margaret Calvert from her cameo on the show from 2010, when she rode around with James May and criticized his driving.
Then, there’s this bit in the NYT about the origins of the American stop sign. Among the noteworthy bits:
By the engineers’ reckoning, the circle, which has an infinite number of sides, screamed danger and was recommended for railroad crossings. The octagon, with its eight sides, was used to denote the second-highest level. The diamond shape was for warning signs. And the rectangle and square shapes were used for informational signs.
I wonder if this had any bearing on the octagonal, chain-link fence-enclosed structure made popular in recent history by the UFC. Maybe the circle was just too violent.
The topper from this article is that there is a preeminent expert on the history of the stop sign, at least its American incarnation. His name is Gene Hawkins, a professor of civil engineering at Texas A&M University. I’d love to see his business card.
There you go. Feast on the bounty of road sign design geekery.
Update: In comments, Gary adds an amazing bit on the iconic family running highway sign you’ll see only in a few places in Southern California. Great story about a relatively rare sign whose legacy has way outgrown its humble beginnings.
The LunaTik Pen, Stylus and, Well, Pen
Apparently, I’m not alone in thinking that tablets would be a whole lot more usable and useful with a good stylus, and it’s always good to have a pen. So, why not combine the two into something awesome?
Check out the LunaTik Pen, straight from the minds of the designer who created the TikTok iPod Nano watch that took Kickstter by storm last year.
Like the TikTok, the LunaTik Pen is also getting its start as a Kickstarter project.
LunaTik Touch Pen from MINIMAL on Vimeo.
Anyone who’s tried to design, draw or take notes on tablet knows this; using your finger just won’t cut it for these tasks. I’m still a fan of drawing an idea out on paper too, so the fact that this is both stylus and pen is pure awesome.
Want.
It’s great to see successful project owners returning to Kickstarter with their new ideas. I really hope this one makes it to production, soon.
NY Times R&D Has a Sci-Fi Mirror Called Reveal
Check this out, the NY Times Research & Development Lab has a prototype of that smart mirror you see in sci-fi movies like Total Recall and Minority Report. It’s called Reveal, and it looks awesome.
Reveal Project – Personal Data Mirror from NYT R&D on Vimeo.
More importantly, the NY Times has an R&D lab?
Another Cool Design Tool, UXPin
UXPin (h/t TechCrunch) eases the pain of converting paper prototypes into digital wireframes by making the process as simple as taking and emailing a photo.
OK, there are some caveats. First, you’ll need to use their paper prototype notebooks, which look to be very nice. They have web app and an iPhone app notebooks. Then, just take a picture and mail it to the UXPin App, and your prototype is converted into a live wireframe that allows for changes and live collaboration.
Pretty sweet actually.
The big question is whether this will fit into existing design workflows. After all, if you paper prototype, you’re probably really good at digitally transforming; on the other hand, if you don’t, this might be a good way to get the tactile benefits without the annoying transfer problems.
Aside from being a cool idea, backed by neat technology, UXPin’s main purpose looks to be saving time.
Thoughts?
Update: Marcin, the CEO of UXPin pointed out another demo video in comments, if you’re interested. They also seem to have an Android app notebook too, which I didn’t mention in the original post. It appears in the second demo video, but I don’t see it for sale on their website.
Very Cool, Android Design Preview
This is just plain sweet. Check out Android Design Preview (h/t Engadget), a Java utility that allows you to preview your hi-fi Android mockups (or anything on your computer for that matter) live on the device:
Sounds like you’ll need the Android SDK too to use adb, Android Debug Bridge.
Kudos to Roman Nurik (@romannurik) for this and several other useful design tools for Android.
CEO Bans Email, Wins at PR
This smacks of a PR play, albeit a successful one.
CEO bans email, encourages social networking — Engadget
Even so, I wonder if the results of the experiment will ever see the same level of transparency. I’ve been among those who proclaim email dead, but over the years, email has become more pervasive, not less. I can’t help but think that complaints about too much email are not a function of the tool, but of the user. Hate the player, not the game.
Anyway, Jerry (@b3gl) made another key observation about this proclamation:
And don’t even get me started on the audit trail requirements and legal and statutory compliance.
This doesn’t mean that social (and other) channels are useless and can’t replace email. It just means they should work in concert with email, not against it.
Find the comments.
Developeronomics
Presented without comment, I give you The Rise of Developeronomics, please forgive the damn interstitial.
It’s six pages without a full-page version; the tl;dr version is invest in developers, ideally the 10x ones because this is the only investment that will hold value over the next few years.
An interesting read for sure. I have some quibbles, but there are certainly valid points like:
. . . software skills are the most portable high-end skills on the planet.
And this one on ecosystems:
The software talent is so valuable that you pretty much have to set up open ecosystems (based on APIs, access to valuable data resources like mapping data, and open source elements) so you can keep them hooked to your broader technology ecosystem even after they leave. An ex-Microsoft engineer is valuable anywhere in the economy if he voices support for buying Microsoft wherever he goes.
And in related news, apparently the half-life of a tech worker is 15 years.
Interested to hear thoughts about the concept of developeronomics, so I’m not sharing mine just yet in order to get unbiased feedback. Find the comments.
AppsLab News
2011 has been a year of change for the ‘Lab.
We welcomed a new member in May, Noel Portugal (@noelportugal), but then lost Rich (@rmanalan) to Atlassian in August and Anthony (@anthonyslai) to Taleo in September. Uncertainty played a role in each of their departures. For quite some time, the future of this team has been up in the air, and I’ve been scrambling to find the best fit for us, which has been challenging.
So, I’m pleased to announce that we’ve found a new home, not far from the old one, WebCenter Evangelism.
We’ll be led by Christian Finn (@cfinn), who introduced himself and the new team over on the official WebCenter blog. Christian came from Microsoft where he ran product management for SharePoint.
No other product at Oracle has a dedicated team of evangelists, which is a relatively new role in the software world, so this will be all new. The term evangelism doesn’t necessarily translate well into other languages or even other disciplines, so here’s what Christian is calling it:
Our mission is to raise the profile of Oracle in all of the markets/conversations in which WebCenter competes—social business, collaboration, portals, Internet sites, and customer/audience engagement.
For our part, the audience will be developers, which fits pretty well with what we’ve been doing here for the past (nearly) five years. We’ll be tinkering with the products that comprise the WebCenter brand, including Oracle Social Network and recently acquired Fatwire, as well as getting the word out on the intertubes and in person at conferences and such.
So, who else is on the team? In addition to Christian, Noel P. and me, Peter Reiser (@peterreiser) and Noël Jaffré (@noeljaffre) round out this small team.
Peter came to Oracle via the Sun acquisition, and his long-time experience with social at Sun makes him the perfect guy to talk about a successful social enterprise. Noël J. came to Oracle via the Fatwire acquisition, and he’s been doing web forever, building e-commerce and web content management software since the mid-90s.
You may be wondering what happens to the AppsLab. Well, nothing really. I’ll keep musing here, ideally with some periodic help from the other guys. That’s really no change. The content may change slightly to include more about WebCenter and what we’re doing as a team, conferences we’re attending, etc. Given our focus on developers, you could call AppsLab the technical arm of WebCenter Evangelism.
At some point, we hope to spin up a new home for WebCenter Evangelism that will link to here and vice versa, but that’s TBD for now.
I spent last week hanging out with the new team in Colorado and at HQ, and they’re a great bunch of guys, much like the old AppsLab. I’m stoked to work with such an experienced team on something brand new. It’s a bit scary, but exciting, like your first time on a roller coaster.
I’m realizing this is the second consecutive new job I’ve taken that is brand-new to Oracle. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, but it does make my work life interesting.
Welcome to Christian, Peter and Noël J. I need to send out some stickers and change the About page soon; it’s just lazy at this point.
As always, your input is appreciated. If you know conferences we should attend, places online we should be, ideas on how to reach out to potential WebCenter developers, really anything useful, let us know in comments.
Three Small and Useful Development Tools for a Monday
Last week, I came across a few development tools that I wanted to share.
The first is Mobilizer, recommended to me by a new friend, Noël Jaffré (@noeljaffre) from the Fatwire acquisition. Mobilizer is an Adobe AIR app that lets you preview mobile content from your desktop. Currently, it can render the iPhone 4, HTC EVO, Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm. So, it offers a representative version for iOS, Android, webOS and BBOS.
There’s also a disabled “Create new” option, teasing future functionality perhaps. Obviously missing is WP 7, but given that the Palm Pre is an option, I’m guessing there will be updates soon.
Anyway, Mobilizer offers a quick way to check out what different mobile web sites and apps look like without launching the cumbersome simulators from each mobile SDK. Of course, Mobilizer only works for mobile web, not for native apps.
Next is the User-Agent Switcher Chrome extension. I accidentally discovered that Safari 5 has just such a feature built into its developer tools, but since Chrome is my main browser, I went looking for an extension.
This extension uses Chrome’s Experimental Extension APIs to modify the HTTP headers to fool the destination site into thinking you’re using a different browser. While user-agent detection isn’t necessarily the preferred way to do web development anymore, given the rise of mobile browsers, there are still a ton of places out there that will behave differently based on the user-agent reported.
Plus, from a development perspective, this extension allows you a quick and easy way to see what your users see if they’re not using your browser. OK, it’s for seeing the world through Internet Explorer. There, I said it.
Of course, user-agents change quickly, so the extension’s list of browsers is already somewhat out of date.
Finally, I give you the “What’s the font?” Chrome extension, an essential tool if you care about typography. This extension adds an option to the right/ctrl click menu. Select some text, right/ctrl click, pick What’s the font? and you’ll get a pop-up with that information.
I’ve found this to be a very useful tool, but then again, I’m a borderline font nerd. It’s useful if you find a font either pleasing or annoying; simply knowing what font it was adds some mental meta to that font for future reference, not a bad thing.
Enjoy these tools and feel free to add any of your favorite (and similar) development tools in comments.
This USB Stick is a Dual-Core Computer
Check out Cotton Candy:
Cotton Candy: FXI technologies’ USB stick-size portable computer prototype with a dual-core 1.2-GHz Samsung Exynos ARM CPU. That’s the same processor in a Samsung Galaxy S II, by the way. Also, it has 802.11n Wi-Fi capability, Bluetooth, HDMI-out and a microSD memory slot.
This USB Stick is a Dual-Core Computer | Geekosystem
Wow. Imagine the uses for this type of super portable computing, support and ops would love this. Of course, there are also pitfalls. Physical security types will know how easy it is to infiltrate a network by leaving a random USB stick in the parking lot. We humans are a curious bunch, and people can’t help themselves when presented with a USB stick.
Computer disks and USB sticks were dropped in parking lots of government buildings and private contractors, and 60% of the people who picked them up plugged the devices into office computers. And if the drive or CD had an official logo on it, 90% were installed.
Imagine if that stick had a fully-functional OS on it.
Anyway, very cool stuff.
Interesting Take on the New Google App for iPad
Google dropped a new version of its search app for iPad recently, and TNW has an interesting take, i.e. this new app is a Chrome OS Trojan Horse.
I rarely use the Google Search iPad app, although past versions have showcased some very cool design patterns for iPad development. Not exactly sure why, but it just wasn’t top of mind.
This is exactly why the new version added in-app access to ton of Google’s other services (Gmail, Calendar, Docs, News, Google+, Reader, Photos, Maps, YouTube, Translate, Voice, Offers, Finance, Books and Blogger) in addition to search all within a native app.
And the app is slick. It uses animation thoughtfully and combines web views with just enough native controls to avoid feeling like just a wrapper for Safari. Including G+ is a nice to have for iPad too, given that there is no iPad-friendly version of G+ yet.
Plus, they call it Google now, dropping the Search, so that tells you a lot.
Love the intrigue. Your thoughts belong in the comments.
Twine Advances the Internet of Things
I do love the internet of things, and Twine looks like a simple way to add connectivity to everyday objects without too much fuss.
‘Twine’ Foreshadows A Future Where All Objects Talk To The Internet | TechCrunch
Twine reminds me of stripped down Sun SPOTs. Anyway, they’re on Kickstarter now, raising money to make these rubber squares in bulk.
And once every object in your home has internet connectivity, you’ll soon be able to use Siri to command them all. Check out this sweet car hack for Siri if you want proof of concept.
Update: Still wading through news, looks like SiriProxy can enable lots of cool hacks. Check this recap.
The future’s so bright, your shades will feature a heads up display that shows you Facebook and a proximity sensor to prevent you from walking into anything, like a fountain.
Sweet.
We Have a Google+ Page
Now that Google+ pages are open to anyone, I had to create one for us. Find it here.
This blog and my Google Reader shares are the center of my universe, and I use dlvr.it to push content to Twitter (@theappslab) and our Facebook page. The only reason I do this is because unlike years ago, people don’t visit blogs to comment. They discuss stuff on Twitter, Facebook and now G+.
So far, I’ve only dipped my toe into G+, mostly because there’s no way to push content I publish here automatically. It’s actually a bit odd to me that G+ launched with no feed import and no publishing API.
I have found some pretty good conversations on G+ so far, and it looks to be settling into a place between Twitter, where people mostly retweet posts but don’t discuss, and Facebook, where nothing happens. I still think conversation should happen here, but I like to be flexible.
Anyway, I’ll try to include G+ now, so if that’s your choice, enjoy. G+ is the one ring now for Google, given that they just sunset Google Friend Connect. Remember that? So, I’m getting with the new program.
In semi-related news, Google Reader Shares continue to work, even though the feature has been removed from the web app. I have older versions of Reeder on both OS X and iOS from which I’ve been sharing items, even after the redesign. Unfortunately, I think I may lose the thousands of shares I’ve amassed over the years when Google finally shuts off shares. This will be a huge bummer, since I’ve been using shares as a bookmarking tool for years. I hope they provide an export; ahem Louis Gray (@louisgray) are you listening?
Anyway, it’s extra work for me to include G+, but hey, you’re worth it.
Find the comments.
Focus Your Time
I’ve been missing for a while, spending some quality time away from this space, but now, I’m back and better than ever. Or something.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, this post about how Jack Dorsey spends eight hours every day working at both Twitter and Square revealed something interesting that everyone can use. Not the 16 hour day, which is impressive, but not for everyone, but the topical segmentation of his schedule. From the post:
Rather than spreading himself thinly across all aspects of both businesses, he zones in on one key area of corporate development, pushing everything else out of sight and, well, out of mind. Here’s what his weekly calendar looks like:
Monday: Management meetings and “running the company” work
Tuesday: Product development
Wednesday: Marketing, communications and growth
Thursday: Developers and partnerships
Friday: The company and its culture
This works in others disciplines too apparently, if you believe this Lifehacker post about elite-level violinists.
This is probably a lesson I need to learn, given that working from home tends to blur the lines and time spent exclusively on one or the other activity.
Anyway, food for thought. More to come as I wade through thousands of unread posts.
Change and Inattentional Blindness, I Love This Stuff
I don’t recall how I discovered You Are Not So Smart, but it’s definitely worth reading.
Today’s posts were about inattentional blindness and change blindness. I’m tempted to include the visual material here, but then you wouldn’t click through and the link love might be lost and my admiration of the blog would be useless.
Click though and take the challenges, especially if you think you’ll pass with flying colors. I’ll wait.
Tougher than you thought right, or did you ace them?
I like to be challenged, and I also have an affinity for psychology. Aside from personal growth, understand how the mind works leads to building better products. If nothing else, it helps create empathy, a critical design value.
Find the comments.
