What Is the Internet’s Best Ratings System?

Discovered this interesting article on ratings system design via Smashing Magazine’s Twitter feed. Personally, I love Foursquare’s venue rating system because it feels nuanced enough while also using tips for further detailed recommendations.

Poolside - Everything Goes

Poolside is back with a new song, and it sounds like an ambient escape from reality. The new track definitely evokes a dance-pop California vibe, and the strings add a dramatic touch! Check it out below.

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John Maeda on writing

Executive John Maeda argues that code is not the only important skill for designers to have moving forward.

25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going

This year’s NYT interactive—25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going—is a must-read:

This is what we talk about now, the music-makers and the music-listeners both. Not the fine details of genre and style — everyone, allegedly, listens to everything now — but the networks of identity that float within them. Maybe decades ago you could aim your songs at a mass market, but music does not really have one of those anymore. Artists have to figure out whom they’re speaking to and where they’re speaking from. The rest of us do the same. For better or worse, it’s all identity now.

The importance of the rough sketch

Really beautiful dataviz process by Adolfo Arranz on Behance.

Japan by Car Illustrations by James Gilleard

There is an incredible sense of light and movement in these digital sketches of Japan by artist James Gilleard.