Choosing lovely fonts, non-shit roadmaps, talking to whales

Howdy! Welcome to this week’s Whiteboard Roundup.

As it was a bank holiday, and it wasn’t raining in the UK, I’m assuming that the world must finally be coming to and end so I made the most of it by visiting a dog show in Waterloo Park in Norwich.

I’m pleased to say that two out of three of our dogs are now, officially, award-winning. Aayla came third in the Furry Friend category, while Bodhi placed second in Best Paw-Giver (and has since injured said paw - sabotage?)

Hopefully, you had a nice bank holiday too. We’ve got plenty more where they came from.

Cheers.

Tom HaczewskiThe User Story

News

A lesson in type

I’m an absolute sucker for great typography. Choosing the right typefaces and configuring them in the right way to create something genuinely aesthetically pleasing is a true art and an underrated skill.

So I had lots of fun reading this article by Bryson M on some of the principles. They might be familiar, but even if so, enjoy this little exploration of type and how to choose the right fonts for your project.

Enjoy.

Make better roadmaps

I hate roadmaps.

Mainly because most businesses demonstrate a complete lack of lean, customer-first methodology - it’s a here’s what we’re going to make, despite what’s going on around us mentality that prevents us from being flexible and agile and responding to change.

That’s if they’re done badly. Really, I prefer the idea of a problem roadmap - but that’s for another article.

If you’re hell-bent on making one though, and need some ideas of what to avoid, here’s a nice little bit of writing on the 7 big fails of roadmapping.

Have a look.

Dory, can you even speak whale?

An actually cool use of AI that is something we can’t do in other ways!

Scientists are using AI to learn to speak Whale.

Yep. In Project CETI (I see what you did there, scientists) they’re gathering sound data from whales in order to work out if there are patterns of speech, that would allow us to understand better how animals communicate with each other. I feel like they could have picked an easier animal, but hey, I’m all for it.

Reeeeaaaaadddd aaaabboooouuuuuut iiiiiiit heeeeeeerrrreee.

Thanks for reading.

The anti-rain dances I’ve been doing in the garden have finally born fruit. You’re welcome.

As you’re here to the end, here’s my thought for the week to leave you on:

See you next time, friends!

Brought to you by Tom Haczewski, director of The User Story. We’re a product strategy, research and UX agency based in Norwich, working with SaaS teams and startups.