• Cross-site request forgery is dead (but browser support is needed): scotthelme.co.uk/csrf-is-dead/
• Normal accidents: in extremely complex systems the accidents are unavoidable wikipedia via Troy Hunt
• Putting the relational database model in perspective: there were (and still are) other database models
• The known and unknown unknowns: Donald Rumsfeld’s famous quote used in the context of the ratio of the browser window (a known unknown) and the yet un-discovered security vulnerabilities out-there (an unknown unknown)
• SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) – the triangle of user, service provider and identity provider: what it is, how it works and why it’s important
• Smashing Magazine is moving to static HTML, advanced JavaScript APIs, progressive web app with a service worker in the background and blazingly fast performance — served from CDN via HTTP/2: next.smashingmagazine.com

1. When bad design leads to catastrophes

The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown that occurred on March 28, 1979, in reactor number 2 of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station (TMI-2) in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. […]
The mechanical failures were compounded by the initial failure of plant operators to recognize the situation as a loss-of-coolant accident due to inadequate training and human factors, such as human-computer interaction design oversights relating to ambiguous control room indicators in the power plant’s user interface. […]
Despite the valve being stuck open, a light on the control panel ostensibly indicated that the valve was closed. In fact the light did not indicate the position of the valve, only the status of the solenoid being powered or not, thus giving false evidence of a closed valve.
Three Mile Island accident

2. How to deal with the paradox of choice

Reducing the number of choices for a user has, therefore, become the focus for many of today’s apps. This has been done in a number of ways:
1. Make the options more relevant (personalized recommendations)
2. or go a step further by making decisions on the user’s behalf, totally removing the burden of choice (ex. Google Now)
This notion of making decisions for users has been called “anticipatory design” and has become a topic of debate because of the ethics involved in making decisions on behalf of users
How To Build Honest UIs And Help Users Make Better Decisions

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The websites below have something in common: they are all modern-looking and there is a lot of attention behind every page. Most important, they are designed for emotion.
Without any other presentation, here they are:

• 10. boagworld.com – for excellent use of Museo Sans font, for the free book and for the mobile version
• 9. carsonified.com & thinkvitamin.com & teamtreehouse.com/ – because they all love the web 🙂
• 8. paulirish.com – for the bubble comments similar to the ones on the iPhone messages and for the freespace he left us for playing. Also, for moving the web forward
• 7. apple.com – for the transition effect on the iPhone page and for keeping it simple
• 6. justcreativedesign.com – for the awesome logo
• 5. reederapp.com – for the great iphone/ipad/mac CSS3 animation effect and for the simplicity
• 4. ramotion.com – for the website, icons and the sky rocket to take the user back to top
• 3. owltastic.com – for the responsive design, nice fonts, icons and overall feel
• 2. webdesignerwall.com – for the nice, responsive website and the tutorials
• 1. smashingmagazine.com – for their new responsive website, because of the books they published and because I am following them since 2008 🙂

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