Eight intriguing articles from December.

The festive season is typically a time of celebration.

For many, it’s a time to bounce from one social event to the next, to overindulge, to have too much Christmas pudding, to have too much… Christmas. And too much of anything is never the ideal amount.

So, this year, as a balancing counter point, Andrew O’Keeffe’s December Super8 shines a light on some un-Christmassy concepts: dealing with problems, overcoming barriers, navigating challenges, and of course, the frenemy nature of Adobe’s relationship with creatives. Don’t worry though, you’ll also find plenty of optimism, insight, and inspiration once you peel back the wrapping. Season’s Greetings, it’s Super8 in December!

1. The best book covers of 2023 are the ones you’ll never see.

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• Read the full article here.
• Created by: Zachary Petit.
• Contributed by: Andrew OKeeffe.

Sometimes, the most interesting responses to a brief are the ones you’ll find in the wastepaper basket. The offcuts. The ones deemed too risky, too abstract, too experimental, or too hard to unpack. This article takes a moment to celebrate those ideas. Ultimately, when you see a book cover in a store or online, you’re really seeing the tip of the iceberg. At the end of the day, a lot of fantastic and fascinating work hits the cutting room floor. So, what does it look like? What’s the difference between the concepts and the final artwork? Take a look and discover the best book covers from 2023 you’ll never actually see.

2. Accessibility overlays often fail to improve accessibility.

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• Read the full article here.
• Created by: Bogdan Cerovac.
• Contributed by: Timocles Copland.

In an ideal world, accessible design would be the default. Inherently incorporated into products, public spaces, experiences, and everything else. Unfortunately, that’s not yet the case. For developers, web content accessibility is typically an accumulative proposition, involving many techniques and approaches working in combination. There’s really no single catch-all approach to accessibility. As people, we’re all different, with different expectations and preferences for using the internet. In this piece, Bogdan Cerovac looks into accessibility overlays—software tools that claim to detect and fix accessibility issues—to assess whether they offer any benefits and what they can teach us about broader accessibility considerations.

3. The surprising connection between after-hours work and decreased productivity.

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• Read the full article here.
• Created by: The Team at Slack.
• Contributed by: Elliott Grigg.

How do you spend your time at work and what is it costing you? Slack’s Workforce Index, based on survey responses from more than 10,000 desk workers around the world, uncovers new findings on how to structure your workday to maximise productivity and improve your well-being and sense of job satisfaction. For some teams, burning the midnight oil can been seen as a badge of honour. However, this new research suggests working after hours is more often associated with lower levels of productivity. It also highlights the surprising value of taking regular breaks, the times when you’re statistically most likely to be productive, and a whole lot more.

4. The four biggest barriers facing sustainable adtech.

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• Read the full article here.
• Created by: Marion Cardona.
• Contributed by: Mike McCusker.

The UN’s 28th Climate Change Conference (COP 28) ran earlier this month, from November 30 to December 12. With the latest UN report demanding ‘climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once’ the sense of urgency could not be more apparent. While it may not seem immediately self-evident, the digital advertising and technology industry certainly has an important role to play. What are the challenges to overcome? What are the suggestions? From erosion in public trust around sustainability claims to the need for greater political support and consistency, you’ll find the answers here.

5. If you want to avoid ‘giving away your first born’ make sure you read the terms and conditions before signing contracts.

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• Read the full article here.
• Created by: Paul Harrison & Jeff Rotman.
• Contributed by: Kurt Smith.

Picture the scene. It’s Christmas morning. You excitedly unwrap the perfect gift. Yep, it’s that piece of tech you wanted, so you fire it up before the terms and conditions pop up. Do you read them? Or do you simply scroll to the end and click ‘agree’? Be honest. If you fall into the latter category, you’re not alone. In 2019, a travel insurance company held a secret contest where they included a message in the fine print of their policy promising $10,000 to the first person who spotted it. 73 policies were purchased before the award was claimed. Alarmingly, one study found that only 0.1% of shoppers access and read terms and conditions. There are some very important reasons why you should start reading terms. This Christmas, give yourself the gift of due diligence.

6. The most valuable things you sell cannot be priced by the hour.

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• Read the full article here.
• Created by: Tim Williams.
• Contributed by: Nina Wan.

Here’s a challenging thought to positively expand your perspective: if you’re in knowledge work or professional services, time is irrelevant. That’s because the expertise you offer can’t be imagined, described, or invoiced as units of time. Time is the wrong type of measurement. It’s like placing a ruler in the oven to measure the temperature. For certain roles and types of work, the impact you create is exponentially more valuable than the time it takes to complete the task. Like the behavioural science team that helped a government department improve the collection of overdue traffic fines by $10 million by simply adding the words ‘PAY NOW’ in red letters at the top of the mail. In the new year, take the time to consider the value you create. You may never need to consider time again.

7. Career growth—lessons.

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• Read the full article here.
• Created by: Lachlan White.
• Contributed by: Sarah El-Atm.

Many people use the end of the year as an opportunity to take stock of where you’re at, where you’re going, and how you plan to get there. If that sentiment resonates, this piece may be helpful. In this piece, author Lachlan White offers ‘a simple group of tools you can use to quickly baseline against and refer back to through [your career] journey’. These tools can be tough to learn, so take a moment to make use of Lachlan’s. From acknowledging that ‘I am responsible for my development’ to the importance of the 80/20 rule, you might find something that spurs you on to greater heights in 2024.

8. Is Adobe becoming the frenemy of creatives?

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• Read the full article here.
• Created by: Tom May.
• Contributed by: Bridget Noonan.

Adobe has long been the friend of creatives. If you’re a photographer or image editor, you need to know Photoshop and Lightroom. An artist? Illustrator. A motion designer? After Effects. Work in publishing? In Design. But the rise of generative AI is putting it in a difficult position. Thus far, the mantra for AI has been ‘we’ll make the boring bits easy so you can focus on being creative’. However, at this year’s 20th instalment of the Adobe Max conference there was one contentious moment in David Wadhwani’s—Adobe’s president of digital media—speech. And it encapsulates Adobes dilemma in a nutshell.