I’m not a natural runner, but I’ve gotten in the habit of jogging 2-3 miles around the track three times a week. It keeps me healthy and — once I got over the initial pain — it has become addictive.

Still, I’m no Ironman (no, not the superhero).

After a mile or two, my body wants to call it quits. I start shuffling my legs instead of taking long, efficient strides. My head sags. My feet begin flailing outward. My breathing becomes irregular and my back hunches up.

No, I’m not having a stroke — I’m just tired.

When my body is exhausted, I’ve found that I need to pay special attention to my form. Too easily, my tired body becomes a clumsy body. Clumsy movements are inefficient, and only tire me out more quickly.

So, down the stretch, I begin focusing on my running posture and breathing.

I keep my head upright and make sure to relax my shoulders and arms. I ensure my legs are compact, making efficient strides. I begin to slow my breathing, inhaling and exhaling in a deep, intentional rhythm.

Concentrating on my form doesn’t guarantee I’ll be in the Boston Marathon next year, but it gives me the best chance to complete my goal for the day and finish the run feeling strong.

I’ve found that a similar strategy works well when solving a design problem.

Say you’re designing a new web site. If you’re a competent designer, the fundamentals come naturally, and you begin the project as you should: articulating the goals of the project, letting form follow function, adhering to basic design principles like unity, balance, contrast and dominance.

But as a project drags on, even the best of us can succumb to exhaustion. You’re tired of staring at the same site over and over. You’re annoyed by your client’s barrage of uniformed suggestions. You just want to be done so you can move on to the next, more exciting project.

When you’re tired, your form slips.

With design, you know you’re getting tired when you resort to trial-and-error, or when you start creating elements without a goal in mind, or when you build something that any 8th grade art student could improve.

It’s time to double your focus on form. Stop, regroup, consider the fundamentals and let your natural talent take over.

Like a runner, designers should be in a state of constant self-assessment: How am I feeling? Am I doing my best work? What needs to change to give myself the greatest chance to succeed? How is my pace? My form?

Your attitude at the beginning of a project is often different than during those final laps. Pay attention to these changes and adjust as necessary.

When the project is finished, you’ll know you ran a good race.

Unfortunately, these blunders distract me from absorbing the information that matters — qualifications, experience and passion for the position.

Next time you email your resume to a prospective employer, make sure to avoid these mistakes:

Don’t paste your resume into the email message

All email clients render text differently, so your resume probably doesn’t look as intended on the receiving end. Plus, this makes is difficult for the employer to organize, share or print your resume.

Don’t send me a doc or docx file – use PDF

While doc format is somewhat standard in the business world, don’t use it for resumes. Sending an editable Word document means that you can’t be certain the layout and style of your resume will look the same on the employer’s end. For instance, I’ve had people use a font in their resume I don’t have installed on my machine.

The result? Gibberish.

You don’t want gibberish in your resume. Presentation is everything with a resume, so ensure the fidelity of the file by saving it as a PDF. This embeds the fonts and layout so you can control exactly what your future boss will see.

Pay attention to the file name of your resume and cover letter

Fifty-percent of the resume files I receive are titled something like “Resume_New4.doc”. This is poor form. I don’t care that this is your “new” resume and that you’ve gone through three revisions before this one. When I download these resumes to my computer, I don’t know whose is whose.

Make sure I can find your resume quickly by including your full name and the word resume. Something like “Andrew Bird – Resume.PDF”.

Put some thought into your resume design

Some of the resumes I receive are so poorly formatted that I can’t even read them. These applicants are immediately disqualified.

Other resumes are readable, but just plain ugly. You have one chance to impress me — don’t use center-aligned Comic Sans font.

Generally I tell people to avoid resume templates (you can download these in Word format) since they lack originality. But if you’re not confident in your design prowess, it’s better to use a template than build an unattractive resume.

Don’t send your resume from an awkward email address

I’m talking to you, hottgurl2002@hotmail.com. This isn’t high school anymore. You should be using a professional sounding email address for professional correspondence.

(At Idea Works you get bonus points if you use Gmail)

Don’t be too casual

I like it when people allow their personality to shine, but there’s a limit. Show off your personality while retaining a respectful tone throughout all your communication.

Avoid slang words or abbreviations like ASAP, LOL and Thanx.

Go one step beyond the standard application process

Just because the job ad doesn’t mention a cover letter doesn’t mean you can’t send one. Provide more than the job ad requests and you’ll stand out from the crowd.

For example, have an old boss email a recommendation a few days after you apply. Or, give a quick call to the office just to see if they have any questions about your resume.

The extra effort shows me that you’re genuinely interested in the position and willing to work hard to get it.

Don’t tell me you’re just looking for anything, or looking to pad your resume

I’ve actually had people say they are looking for a job that looks good on their resume. This doesn’t impress me. Neither does admitting that you’re just looking for any ol’ job.

Employers are looking for applicants who are specifically qualified and interested in a particular position. In your email message or cover letter, tell me exactly why the job description appeals to you.

Ditch the boring objective statement

I know most places recommend including a Object or Purpose Statement on your resume, but I don’t see the point when most people write a generic purpose like: “To find a position that utilizes my strengths…”

I find myself skipping over these content-less Objective statements. If you have something unique to say, go ahead and put it in there. Otherwise leave it out.

Conclusion: Pay attention to details

Employers often sort through hundreds of applicants to find a handful worth interviewing. The content of your resume and cover letter are the meat-and-potatoes of your application, but the details matter, too.

Before sending anything off, stop and think about the impression your application will make on the employer:

• Is your resume nicely formatted, named and easily opened?
• Is your email message professional and individualized for the position?
• Have you given the employer a reason to pay special attention to your application?

It doesn’t take much time to think through the details of your application, and guarantee that your prospective employer sees your value, not your mistakes.

Last week, I got a chance to journey beyond my computer screen and help lead a focus group testing a project in development, the Peer Advising System (PAS). After some brief instructions, our potential users were let loose to explore the application. And I got to watch.

While we only tested about 20 users, I collected a truckload of useful feedback. Observing someone interact with our program for the first time allowed me to specifically see how they approached the program, how we could have provided more instruction, and the overall mood of the user experience.

Most of all, I enjoyed talking with the group of testers afterward. PAS is designed to help military personnel identify a friend that may be exhibiting symptoms linked to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and many of our users related stories of friends, cousins and fathers who needed help, but never got it.

It was touching to remember the purpose behind our project and to get affirmation that our application would help soldiers and marines stay healthy and safe.

We collected important quantitative data during the week too, but as Jocelyn Wyatts in an article for GOOD reminds us:

When evaluating the effectiveness of a program, quantitative data alone does not convey enough meaning, and typically leaves us with many questions. Numbers are, of course, necessary, but shouldn’t be relied on alone. Statistics should be complemented by deep stories of the impacts on an individual, family, or a community, and we should spend as much time thinking about how to effectively craft these stories as we do focusing on how to present the numbers.

There is something comforting about number-centric, black-and-white metrics. But that’s not the whole picture.

Effectively evaluating your theory, application or product relies on connecting people’s unique perspectives and individual experiences with the data about them.

After a short wait, I was greeted by a friendly female voice from a call center in Arizona. She commented on my new card design (lazy sunset….a “beautiful choice”) and asked if my wife needed a new card. So far, so good.

Very quickly, it went downhill:

Her: “Would you like to add account protection for only $2 a month?”
Me: “No, thanks.”
Her: “Are you sure? It’s only pennies a day.”
Me: “Yes, I’m sure (I can do the math).”
(repeat 3 times)

Her: “Ah, okay then. I’ll go ahead and sign you up for card protection.”
Me: “No. I don’t want that either.”
Her: “Well, many people use it. It’s a good deal, so I’ll go ahead and get you enrolled.”
Me: “No, no. I really don’t want that….”
(repeat 4 times)

Without exaggerating, I had to say “no” about eight times. Argggg!

I understand that I am a customer and Discover is trying to serve me as best they can by offering me new services.

But there is a fine line between serving a customer and annoying him.

By using their card, I’ve given them permission to offer me upgrades. But I haven’t given them permission to bother me after I’ve clearly declined. Service is about providing relevant information at the appropriate time. Relevant. Appropriate. An example of an inappropriate time would be, say, after I just declined your offer four times.

Everyone has customers. Yours might be students, teachers, or another business. Where are you on the service spectrum? Not providing enough help and information? Or being annoyingly persistent?

It’s a fine-line, but a line worth paying attention to.

All I could think was: Man, I love shopping on the internet. Not only do I avoid the aforementioned hazards; I gain incredible shopping tools. I admit it. I’m a product review junkie. Product reviews, user ratings, price comparisons…it almost makes shopping enjoyable.

But this year something started nagging at me about product reviews. Are they trustworthy? Do the customers whose reviews I read have the same priorities as me? More to the point, what if the people rating these products are woefully ignorant?

For example, I have a friend who recently bought a new TV. I asked him how he liked it. “It’s got an awesome remote! See how it lights up?”

The remote. Really? Are these the type of people leaving reviews of big ticket items on the websites I browse? Maybe the guy who recommended my hiking boots just liked the laces, and the woman who raved about the digital camera I just bought liked the pretty blue color.

There are a few product review sites attempting to mitigate this challenge. CNET reviews pair their user ratings with a “CNET editors’ rating” to give you an expert opinion.

ConsumerSearch claims to “analyze…reviews and sources and rank them according to how credible they are, based on specific criteria we have developed for this purpose.” In short, they tend to favor professional reviews, and consider only aggregate data of consumer reviews.

Buzzillions, on the other hand, emphasizes customer reviews. They categorize reviewers into meaningful groups to help the consumer align themselves with a certain type of reviewer. For example, for shoe reviews I can view reviews by people that are comfort-oriented, stylish or conservative.

A step in the right direction, but I’m not totally convinced that the product reviews I see are accurate. But I’ll live with it. In the same way I trust contributors to Wikipedia about the Island of California or a lamp-post with a name, I’ll have to trust Epinions reviewers to recommend the best breadmaker.

After all, it’s much better than going to the mall.

To help with your transition, we have built an export tool so you can
save your content. You can find the export tool at Settings > Export.

Pownce clearly cares about their users, at least enough to add a new feature after they knew they were shutting down. Maybe I’m making too big a deal of it, but that alone is enough of a reason to switch from Twitter to Pownce. Well, except that it’s too late now.

Election night was the worst. In an effort to be super-informative, most networks succeeded only in assaulting my eyes with distracting, overbearing graphics for three hours.

The result? I actually watched Katie Couric on election night.

Now, I’m no Katie Couric fan, but I’ve got to say that CBS sported the least annoying graphics of the night. In fact, they were downright classy.

Take a look:

Even when they predictably used the huge touchscreen, it wasn’t shoving the technology in my face.

And, for the most part, their charts were minimalist and clean. They avoided the bright, “PowerPoint 95″ color scheme. And they didn’t have 18 graphs on the screen at one time.

Compare this to NBC:

Normally, I like NBC’s look. But, wow, what was going on tonight?

What was the deal with the virtual hologram images in the horribly rendered pillar-room? It made me feel like I was in a bad role playing game.

Last, let’s look at Fox:

Well, Fox is Fox. Still using five different fonts per screen.

I just don’t get why networks think that an excess of brightly colored charts is a good thing. For me, visual aids count for a lot, especially for something as important as the news. Unfortunately, things seem to be getting worse rather than better…

As a John Lennon fan and a sucker for interesting animation, I loved this short animated film “I Met the Walrus“. It’s an Academy Award Nominee for Best Animated Short Film and combines the artistic talents of director Josh Raskin with pen work from James Braithwaite and digital illustration by Alex Kurina.

A perfect example of how a great director can piece together different types of media to create an engaging experience. Kudos. I hope they win the Academy Award.