I have a few new secret research projects i am working on. One of them is a total secret. I cannot tell anyone. The other one is not quite as much of a secret. I’ve told my girl­friend, but that’s only because she’s going to help me out.

One of my projects explores the idea of designer as author. I know there are sev­eral great designers who are totally behind the idea of designers who gen­erate their own con­tent. And, as with any author, the con­tent must ger­mi­nate from the seeds of one’s own daily life. Some time ago I gave up on the idea that I would be a good author. I don’t think my life has had those events or ele­ments or qual­i­ties that would, as a result, make me a good author. I also realize that I don’t read enough. As a designer, you must study other designs. As a writer, you must read other work. Sadly, I don’t do enough of either. I should really work on that, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Okay, that’s a poor excuse.

Found online: The Cathay Pacific web­site. The one thing that they do that I haven’t seen other air­line web­sites do is launch flight sched­ules and fares in a sep­a­rate window. This little detail means that your orig­inal search para­me­ters are saved in the orig­inal browser window. No having to go back and hope your form fields are still filled out. And, as with Orbitz, they employ a grid inter­face to allow you to select com­bi­na­tions of depar­ture and return dates – Orbitz does this for com­bi­na­tions of air­line and number of stops. It’s a good inter­face. Some com­pa­nies never get this stuff right.