The directors of Design for Democracy apply the easy-to-read Nutrition Facts box format to improve the readability of credit card "fine print."

David Carr argues that Newsweek's recent redesign doesn't address the magazine's real problem that...

"...the fight for its future probably doesn’t have much to do with bolder headline treatments and more white space in the print artifact. The big talents and ambitious journalists that remain at Newsweek should probably spend less time reimagining the magazine and more time imagining a future when the physical product does not exist."

“...Evolution is good at getting us to avoid death, desperation and celibacy, but it’s not that good at getting us to feel happy,” he says, calling our desire to impress strangers a quirky evolutionary byproduct of a smaller social world.

“We evolved as social primates who hardly ever encountered strangers in prehistory,” Dr. Miller says. “So we instinctively treat all strangers as if they’re potential mates or friends or enemies. But your happiness and survival today don’t depend on your relationships with strangers...."

The article includes a link to this exercise, developed by Miller:

List the ten most expensive things (products, services or experiences) that you have ever paid for (including houses, cars, university degrees, marriage ceremonies, divorce settlements and taxes). Then, list the ten items that you have ever bought that gave you the most happiness. Count how many items appear on both lists.

Via Frank Rich's column in today's Sunday Times.

Another article about Douglas Bowman, who left his job as a visual designer at Google in March to become the creative director of Twitter. Bowman's move became a business/design/tech story after he wrote a post on his blog about his frustrations with the design process at Google, which you can read here (http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html).

In brief, Google constantly tests and retests alternative designs, gauging users' responses (or lack thereof) before moving forward. And we're not talking major design changes here, but minutia like stroke width and shades of blue.

As Bowman admits, it's not like Google is suffering for its design OCD. But I guess I'm guilty of judging a website by its proverbial cover; I always assumed from Google's habit of coordinating its front-page logo to holidays and current events that the company fostered a quirky design atmosphere. I never took into account the reliable (i.e. boring yet comforting) consistency of the remaining 99.9% of the site.

Note to self: The medium might change, but the old clichés remain the same.

Hmmm... the controversy-loving art historian in me could be convinced of this.