It's been almost a month since I last shared the newsletter (a long break). A lot has happened in the meantime: the shocking passing away of Anthony Bourdain, the World Cup (and the discussions around it's quirky typeface), and extensions to NatGeo's Planet or Plastic initiative.

📣 For those who have asked via various channels - here's DesignUp's calendar for 2018 —

🌟Chennai Pre-event July 12th, Thu - Registrations open

🌟Hyderabad Pre-event July 19, Thu - Registrations just opened

🌟Singapore Pre-event August 14, Tue - at The National Design Centre

🌟DesignUp Conference October 25-27 ⏰Registrations will open on July 2nd, Early Bird tickets will start flying out at 8pm.

A small collection of my favourite reads - special shout out to Rasagy and Soo, thanks to whom I helped me stumble upon some of these.

The Psychology of the Call to Action

"The call to action has a fascinating psychology behind it that includes width, color, border size, copy, and cool CSS effects. Yet, at the same time, this psychology goes far beyond those elements." Incorporating all sorts of examples and diagrams of the brain, this is worth a dive-in.

Airbnb and the Unintended Consequences of ‘Disruption’

"Airbnb is a transformative travel business. But most people failed to predict the thing it would transform — for good and bad." And if you thought AirBnB hit Hotels hard - here's a fact: "Last year was the best year ever for hotel occupancy in the United States. The stock prices for the major hoteliers Marriott and Hilton are both up more than 40 percent in the last 12 months." So what did it impact most? Here's the story...

Onboarding: A College Student Discovers A List Apart — alistapart.com

"What would you say if I told you I just read and analyzed over 350 articles from A List Apart in less than six weeks?" This is exactly what a student did and stumbled upon some fun, some surprising, and for some of us - a trip down memory lane.

How to Build a Better Product with UX Writing

"Just as UX designers are creating better interfaces, UX writers are creating better copy." So, what's special about UX writing? Head here to find out more...

DesignUp Pre-event Chennai

DesignUp's Pre-event (a smaller, shorter but more intimate version of the 2 Day Conference) comes to Chennai on July 12th - head over here to register for Talks+Workshops or just Talks - followed by a networking dinner.

Invisible asymptotes

This is a little dense reading, but one of my favourites over the past weeks: "The question in building my forecast was to flush out what I call the invisible asymptote: a ceiling that our growth curve would bump its head against if we continued down our current path. It's an important concept to understand for many people in a company, whether a CEO, a product person" or even a designer focused on strategic stuff.

What Happens to the Plastic We Throw Out

A shocking retelling of the collective damage we are doing to the planet through plastics. Part of NatGeo's Planet or Plastic initiative.

Until next week (I hope to share faster),

@jdallcaps