An interview with Think Vitamin : While I was in London for the Future of Web Design conference this past May, I had the pleasure of chatting with Keir Whitaker from Carsonified about Dribbble . You can also find the audio over at Huffduffer if you happen to huff the duff stuff. … Read the rest here
Future of Web Design - New York : More about this later, but for now a brief announcement: I’ll be joining a marvelous crew of speakers at this year’s Future of Web Design in New York, several of whom I’ve known virtually for years but have yet to meet in person. Register now for early bird tickets and save $300. … Read the rest here
Trent Walton: Trimming the Fat : I completely agree with Trent’s observation about iPad influencing the way we design for non-iPad mediums: This site wasn’t intended solely for the iPad, though it is inspired by my experience browsing the web sans mouse. Many of the assertions I made before getting an iPad have been strengthened each time I slide, swipe and tap my way across the inter-web. Each change I’ve made (larger font size, less content/page, fewer columns) has been shaped by my belief that the future of web design lies in making browsing all play and no work. Hunching over a keyboard at a desk and squinting at an overstuffed page with 12px font is work you don’t get paid to do, so why do it? Lovely redesign too, Trent… Read the rest here
Wired on iPad: Just like a Paper Tiger : Oliver Reichenstein’s review of the Wired iPad app is anything but positive. Concluding with a quote from Adobe that “the future of magazines is now” comes Oliver’s closing remarks: No, it’s not. The future is never now. And the future of journalism is definitely not a stack of banners spiced with videos, exported from a paper layout program. You need to try harder. … Read the rest here
Websites that surprise and delight us : Nice overview of the perhaps unintentional theme running through much of the Future of Web Design London. … Read the rest here
I’ve never over-run on a talk. Ever. Usually I embarrasingly finish around 10 mins early, leaving plenty of time for questions. Until last week at Future of Web Design that is. When it came down to the last 5 minutes, I realised I had a lot more to go, and had to really hurry the last couple of sections. Thankfully the feedback so far has been positive, but I promise this will be (probably) be the last time I talk on this subject. … Read the rest here
Winscape Virtual Windows : When I think of my days as a boy envisioning the future, this is something I might have dreamt of. Sure, it requires the viewer to wear an IR-emitting necklace to realistically change the view outside the “windows”, but fascinating nonetheless. (And I suspect we’ll see similar concepts in the near future that do away with the neckless and rely on eye/facial recognition instead.) … Read the rest here
The recent passing of the UK Digital Economy Act has generated outrage amongst the web community. Large media business have effectively lobbied government under the spurious claim that without protection the future of the digital economy in the UK is at threat. However the future of digital isn’t locked inside a few big content companies distributing their goods electronically. The future of the digital economy is in empowering a creative class to produce new and as yet unheard of business opportunities on the web. So rather than protecting the digital economy, the Digital Economy Act will have the effect of protecting outdated business models and harming innovation in the UK and handing over initiative to more liberal and less restrictive countries. One potentially damaging aspect facing UK start-ups and freelancers is the one makes the owners of open wifi networks responsible for the traffic that passes over the network… Read the rest here
In a special edition of the revived Friday Biscuit series, I am happy to honour the save BBC 6 Music campaign by revisiting “Joy Division Oven Gloves”: Well I’ve been here and I’ve been there In me Joy Division oven gloves I’ve been to a post punk postcard fair In me Joy Division ovengloves Talk to the hand Talk to the hand In me Joy Division oven gloves Dance, dance, dance Daaaaaaaaaaaaance! In me Joy Division oven gloves Why? Because the Save BBC 6 Music campaign is trying to get Joy Division Oven Gloves to number 6 in the singles charts this weekend. So whip out your credit card and fork out 49p on a great song, and see if we can get Half Man Half Biscuit to subvert the charts (channel your inner Malcolm Mclaren, RIP ). You have until the end of Saturday 10th April for your purchase to count . At the time of writing, Joy Division Oven Gloves is at number 2 in the Amazon mp3 chart and number 57 in the UK iTunes chart. What’s all this 6 Music kerfuffle about anyway… Read the rest here
The central theme of Mobile Web Design was carefully and thoughtfully built on the assumption that the browser will always provide the most consistent, reliable medium for users of web content, and the most open and sustainable platform for developers of the same—all thanks to HTML, CSS, and web standards. Additionally, I argued that “smart clients” (lightweight apps installed on a device whose content is primarily fed by and stored in the cloud) would and should remain secondary to providing the same experience in the browser, again for the reasons mentioned above. Since the release of iPhone and now with the release of iPad, I’ve gradually found myself questioning more and more the assumption I made. Apple has consistently proven that holistically controlling the entire user experience—inclusive of hardware to software and everything in between—has the potential to yield a more pleasant experience overall. Think of Mac OS + Mac, iPhone OS + iPhone, and now iPhone OS + iPad… Read the rest here
Relink: MEX Manifesto Predicts “Multi-Platform” Experiences : With the iPad arriving at many U.S. households tomorrow, it’s an appropriate time to revisit something I posted in November 2009: Each year, MEX, the Mobile User Experience conference, publishes a manifesto to frame the content and discussion for the year’s conference. Traditionally these manifestos have focused on mobile devices, operators/carriers, and the like. However, this year’s manifesto speaks repeatedly of “multi-platform” experiences. … Read the rest here
Helvetireader², the minimal & anti-social theme for Google Reader, is now out . Sort of. It’s an unfinished and ongoing project, but it’s in a ‘ready as it’ll ever be’ state. Helvetireader is simply a hosted user stylesheet for Google Reader served via a user script. It aims to make the interface a clean, minimal experience where you’re not assaulted by an array of colours, lines, social features and buttons. As it removes these bits, and is designed for the expanded view only, you may not like it. … Read the rest here
As Jon Hicks wrote a few days ago, the House of Lords recently passed the Digital Economy Bill . The bill panders to big players in the music industry is being hurried through without due democratic process, clearly intended to be made law before the election. Unsurprisingly the driving force behind it is Lord ‘Mandy’ Mandelson, the Business Secretary; a powerful but unelected passive-aggressive imposition. Through the partly Clearleft designed 38 Degrees , I wrote to my local MP , the retiring Des Turner , to present my objections, and to urge him to speak out against rushing through the Digital Economy Bill without due debate and process. … Read the rest here
“The Future of Publishing” by DK (UK) : The original description on YouTube reads as follows: This video was prepared by the UK branch of Dorling Kindersley Books. Originally meant solely for a DK sales conference, the video was such a hit internally that it is now being shared externally. We hope you enjoy it (and make sure you watch it up to at least the halfway point, there’s a surprise!). I echo Monoscope : This is genius copywriting. … Read the rest here
On Banknote Design for Wired’s “The Future of Money” : Aegir Hallmundur: The design of banknotes represent something I find gloriously poetic — imperfect perfection — if it was perfect by our usual standards, it would be imperfect. Wonderful. So tried to capture some of that in my design, overlaying colours with an offset, adjusting the lettering a little bit to reflect the kind of oddities on real dollar notes and creating the odd layer of extra guilloche-work barely fine enough to see. I’m glad Wired is well printed and that it all came through. I read the Wired article just a couple weeks ago, not knowing the illustration was Aegir’s handiwork. I’ve been following Ministry of Type for some time now, and in my opinion, it’s one of the best design blogs to read sans RSS reader. … Read the rest here
Every now and then I look at using background-position-x and background-position-y but can never seem to find a definitive and up-to-date resource. To save myself the trouble in the future, I’m documenting it here. Positioning via separate X and Y values is a feature that Internet Explorer introduced but never made it into a W3C specification. Any recommendations to add it to the spec have been denied . Why have separate X and Y values? … Read the rest here
This just in: I’m leaving Opera. Before I go any further, I need to make this very clear. I’m not leaving because I unhappy working for them, or any such rubbish. Neither did we come to blows over 42 different shades of red. … Read the rest here
This just in: I’m leaving Opera. Before I go any further, I need to make this very clear. I’m not leaving because I unhappy working for them, or any such rubbish. Neither did we come to blows over 42 different shades of red. Opera as company, and as individuals, have bent backwards to accommodate my remote working ways, and it’s been nothing but a fruitful and joyous time. … Read the rest here
It’s been said before that web inspectors—Firebug, Dragonfly, the inspectors in Safari and Chrome, and so forth—are not always entirely accurate. A less charitable characterization is that they lie to us, but that’s not exactly right. The real truth is that web inspectors repeat to us the lies they are told, which are the same lies we can be told to our faces if we ask directly. Here’s how I know this to be so: body {font-size: medium;} Just that. Apply it to a test page . Inspect the body element in any web inspector you care to fire up. … Read the rest here
It’s been said before that web inspectors—Firebug, Dragonfly, the inspectors in Safari and Chrome, and so forth—are not always entirely accurate. A less charitable characterization is that they lie to us, but that’s not exactly right. The real truth is that web inspectors repeat to us the lies they are told, which are the same lies we can be told to our faces if we ask directly. Here’s how I know this to be so: body {font-size: medium;} Just that. Apply it to a test page … Read the rest here