"On one occasion he decided he did not want to eat a particular vegetable for dinner. We said that he wouldn’t be leaving the table until he did so. I said, 'now use your game theory to forecast what the outcome of this is and let me know what you decide.' He laid out his options, our reactions and everyone’s payoffs and worked out that he would do well to eat his vegetables sooner rather than later."

"11:57 AM - The first comment to put it together: “This is what happens when people use Google to enter sites instead of typing it on their address bar… Damn you all Farmville users…” This is comment number 50

Ah. So it turns out that there was a (perhaps small) present minority who, rather than using the address bar, use Google to get around on the web. Since Google put this post near the top, at least a certain number of these people had no idea the site they just entered was not Facebook. The results are this mess."

"We've lived with and loved the distinctly 'web 2.0' design for a while now and it's done us proud. However, time's moved on, and in autumn last year we decided it was time to resurrect the project."

"The trick is to figure out which details help users identify the UI element, and which details distract from its intended meaning. Some details help users figure out what they’re looking at and how they can interact with it; other details distract from the idea you’re trying to convey. They turn your interface element from a concept into a specific thing. Thus, if an interface element is too distinct from its real-life counterpart, it becomes too hard to recognize. On the other hand, if it is too realistic, people are unable to figure out that you’re trying to communicate an idea, and what idea that might be."