Design Melt Down Go to the source
Nostalgic designs can take on many forms. Sometimes through classic typography. Sometimes through the visual language of an era like retro pop 1950’s elements. In this case the color combo forces such an appeal onto the design. Combine this with other classic elements and you have a recipe for success…. Read the rest here
(This is part of the Feedback on ‘WaSP Community CSS3 Feedback 2008′ series.) Not surprisingly, there was a lot of community feedback asking for better layout mechanisms . Actually, people were asking for any decent layout mechanism at all, which CSS has historically lacked. Floats mostly work, but they’re a hack and can be annoyingly fragile even when you ignore old-browser bugs. Positioning works in limited cases, but does not handle web-oriented layout at all well. Why do we use floats for layout, anyway? clear . … Read the rest here
The traditional approach to product development involves coming up with new idea and then driving as many people towards that product as possible, in the hope that some of them will want it. As such we adopt the language of marketing, and talk about marketing funnels and conversion rates. If our marketing department has done a good job they will have created a campaign that not only generates traffic, but creates a previously unrecognised need. Tired? Need a break? Why not have a KitKat? … Read the rest here
As soon as I mentioned I’d ordered one of these, I’ve had a lot of interested people quiz me about it, so it seems a review is in order! Apologies for the use of press photos here, as the ones I’d taken (and the video) were rubbish – I’ll hopefully post decent ones in the next few days. Quick recap: The WD TV is a device for playing your non- DRM media (Movies, Music and Photos) through your TV (via HDMI or Composite) with audio out via toslink if you prefer. There is no internal HD, you simple plug in up to 2 USB drives, making it easily expandable. It intrigued me for 2 reasons: cost and size. … Read the rest here
The new Gregorian year has brought a striking new Big Z design to An Event Apart , along with the detailed schedule for our first show and the opening of registration for all four shows of the year. Jeffrey has written a bit about the thinking that went into the design already, and I expect more to come. If you want all the juicy details, he’ll be talking about it at AEA, as a glance at the top of the Seattle schedule will tell you. And right after that? An hour of me talking about coding the design he created… Read the rest here
As one who works at an organization with nearly 3 dozen designers and websites and apps that also number several dozen, I feel comfortable admitting that the goal of striving for and maintaining visual consistency is often an elusive one. Chris Pullman, Vice President for Design at the much respected TV station WGBH, has stepped down following 35 years of service. Upon leaving, he shared ten lessons he’s learned over the years and gave Design Observer the privilege of publishing his remarks in full . The entire article is worth a read, but #7, “Variety is the spice of life”, is of particular interest to someone such as myself seeking a somewhat elusive goal. It’s worth excerpting in full. … Read the rest here
24 Ways is back again this year. Today’s article is a little something I penned called The IE 6 Equation . Share and enjoy! The design of 24 Ways has been refreshed for this festive season and it has prompted quite a varied reaction. That’s always a good sign. … Read the rest here
Before committing this past Friday evening to a flight down the west coast, I spent a bit of time preparing to try out something that I’d been curious about for a while. Could I get through US immigration and airport security both without a paper boarding pass? Of course these days it’s becoming more common to check in for a flight from a browser window and print out your own boarding pass before leaving for the airport, but I’ve been wondering why the printing part is necessary. I’ve heard reports of varying success from others who have attempted going purely electronically, so I made sure to have a paper backup in my bag for this one. Just in case… Read the rest here
We a very interesting article this week from new contributor Steve Heffernan , who brings us REST ful CSS . Our last few CSS articles sparked quite a row in the comments, so I hope the same audience takes a long look at Steve’s proposals, even if web app languages like Ruby on Rails isn’t your day-to-day forte. CSS management is a growing issue as we make even greater advances in CSS techiques, JavaScript support and enhancement and rich interactions like web apps. … Read the rest here
Jason Santa Maria Go to the source
I’ve been experimenting with this new site of mine for about five months and I’m really happy with how things are progressing. The story so far I’m posting about as often as I ever have here, mostly because I’m a fantastically wishy washy and slow writer. Writing takes up the lion’s share of my time on any given post, with design and code amounting to a comfortable reprieve. I’m admittedly being very conscious of how much time I spend on design so that I can see how viable this is for publishing. Consequently, my designs are fairly minimalistic (though I am very pleased with a few entries ). I’ve continued to improve little corners of the site since launching, usually resulting a quiet posting week here and there. … Read the rest here
Over on the IXDA mailing list, Jared Spool opened a discussion on Where that ACD thing fits in which he wonders what Activity-Centred Design (ACD) might be and where it fits into other design approaches. In the previous discussion of ACD versus UCD on this list, the focus has been defined simply: Someone practicing ACD focuses on the activities of the design, where someone practicing UCD focuses on the users. Some have said that ACD minimizes the need of doing personas (a ‘user-centered’ activity) and just looks at the underlying activities that are obvious to the design result. If one asserts that UCD is a collection of activities that go beyond ACD , looking at the goals, needs, and context of the user, beyond just that of the underlying activities, then I would say that ACD is just a lazy man’s UCD . In this context, Jared considers laziness to be a good thing, applauding ‘anyone who is creatively lazy, looking for ways reduce effort while producing more.’ Jared’s points reflect a conversation we occasionally have here at Clearleft . We say we do User-Centred Design (UCD), but ask ourselves if we really do ACD ? … Read the rest here
Here’s a feature introduced in Coda 1.5 that you many not have come across yet (after all the big focus of that release was SVN integration and global find/replace). The new books feature allows you to add new online reference and even reset the defaults if you wish. Let’s take Sitepoint’s excellent CSS reference as the example: First, Command-6 to go to the books view, and click the add icon bottom left. In the sheet that appears, enter the title and URL (e.g http://reference.sitepoint.com/css ). … Read the rest here
In an interview with Rolling Stone last year, William Gibson said: One of the things our grandchildren will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real, the virtual from the real. Bear that dying distinction in mind when I tell you that Joe ’s new book is out. It’s called Organizing Our Marvellous Neighbours (geddit?). It’s all about spelling in Canadian English. If you buy it , you’ll get the book in HTML and PDF with very liberal licensing… Read the rest here
