The Patchwork Nation site uses infographics to describe 12 different community types: demographic trends that go beyond mere party affiliation.

I spent more than a few minutes looking at all of the cities I've lived in and checking in on how they are faring in the current recession.

I could use a bit more data that the site provides, actually. I like the articles that connect current events (like foreclosures and the election) to the community types, but there aren't enough of them. However, the site does a good job of supporting the premise of the book.

A hat tip goes to Jacqueline for the link.

This series of images was created by taking all of the streets in a given city and centering them on the canvas horizontally and vertically. Note the rigidness of the Chicago grid in #2.

New York City

Chicago

Los Angeles (not to scale with the others)

See—this is why Google is going to take over the world.

I ask the search engine where I’m supposed to vote in two weeks and this comes up.

Just tell Google your address and it gives you a map to your polling location. What is more, the side panel delivers timely information about how to register and vote absentee in your state.

Maybe I’m late to the party with this one, but I figured it was worth drawing some attention to a.) because people might find it useful and b.) it’s another great example of how Google gets information right. Sure, I can find the same thing on my state’s voter website, but it asks me for personal information and the interface is nowhere near as nice.

Some people say Google will be dethroned one day because their minimalism betrays a lack of design. I say, so long as the connections are this perfect (what Godin calls the architecture), they will continue to lead the way in search.

I had another post all lined up for today and then my delicious feed alerted me to a recent presentation on surface by Michal Migurski: Greebles, Nurnies, Tiles, and Flair. I thought the last section was such a good read, I just had to share it and offer some comments.

Greebles are a great little design trope that is not widely known outside modeling circles. In my earlier 3D modeling days, I used to play with them quite a bit. Sci-fi aficionados will recognize greebles as the texture that covers the Death Star, Star Destroyer, and Borg Cube.

Migurski describes them thusly:

Greebles are the parts that "look cool, but don't actually do anything". There's an entire discipline here composed of special effects artists and asset designers working to hide the plywood spaceships and simple game world polygons beneath an encrusted surface texture.

Migurski’s thesis is that while greebles themselves don’t do anything, they do serve a purpose. They are the “slight of hand” that suggests complexity and activity—which can be very important to an audience’s impressions of an experience. For example, the experience of social networking.

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