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
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
Photo: ©Tony Park When I last saw The National play the (now extinct) London Astoria on the Boxer tour in 2007, one person in the crowd asked for “Mr November… AGAIN !”. Such is the energy of this song live, and the presence of Matt Berninger when he belts out that he is Mr November, that you want it again and again. Last week, I saw them again at the Royal Albert Hall, and the photo above by Tony Park is from that evening’s performance of that song. In short, the sound, atmosphere, band and venue all added up to be one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to . I was utterly carried along, particularly during the chorus of new songs like Bloodbuzz Ohio… Read the rest here
I’m pleased to announce Ethan and I are bringing the Handcrafted CSS workshop to Nashville ! We’ll reprise of the one-day course we organized last September here in Salem, Massachusetts and again last November in London with Carsonified . As always, each attendee will get a copy of the book ( Handcrafted CSS: Video Edition including the DVD ) and we’ll spend the day walking through much of its content and more. This event was a great success in New England and Old England, and we’re thrilled to bring it south, to Tennessee. So join us on June 21st at the historic Hermitage Hotel right smack in downtown Nashville (steps away from the famed Ryman Auditorium and other sights). For more info on the event and to book a place (there’s a max of 100 spots), visit the Handcrafted CSS Workshop site . … 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
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
The last thing I needed was more choice in apps for keeping a ‘Design Scrapbook’, but that’s what’s happened with Zootool . At first glance, it looked like just another FFFF ound , Ember or Img Spark , but it turns out it’s much more than that. The developer, Bastian, told me to think of it as more of a visual Delicious. Once I got into that mindset it made more sense. Zootool ‘lassos’ not only images, but documents (like PDF s), videos, and pages (not complete pages yet) and stores them in your ‘zoo’… Read the rest here
The last thing I needed was more choice in apps for keeping a ‘Design Scrapbook’, but that’s what’s happened with Zootool . At first glance, it looked like just another FFFF ound , Ember or Img Spark , but it turns out it’s much more than that. The developer, Bastian, told me to think of it as more of a visual Delicious. Once I got into that mindset it made more sense. Zootool ‘lassos’ not only images, but documents (like PDF s), videos, and pages (not complete pages yet) and stores them in your ‘zoo’. … Read the rest here
This year will be a busy one in terms of speaking events. I’m currently crafting a brand new talk titled, “The CSS3 Experience”. It’ll focus on enriching the experience layer with advanced CSS and CSS3. Everyone can easily add enhancements to to their designs when focusing on the interactions and events that happen on the page. And by targeting the user experience with these new and evolving standards, you can start using these flexible techniques now, on any site, with less worry. Well damn, that sounded rather pitchy, didn’t it… Read the rest here
This year will be a busy one in terms of speaking events. I’m currently crafting a brand new talk titled, “The CSS3 Experience”. It’ll focus on enriching the experience layer with advanced CSS and CSS3. Everyone can easily add enhancements to to their designs when focusing on the interactions and events that happen on the page. And by targeting the user experience with these new and evolving standards, you can start using these flexible techniques now, on any site, with less worry… Read the rest here
As a self confirmed conference junkie I speak at a dozen events each year, and attend many more. As such I’ve probably seen close to a thousand talks over the last five years. Because of this I’ve got a pretty good idea what makes for an exciting talk and how you can guarantee your session will suck. As somebody who also organises two conferences, UX London and dConstruct I’m really keen on getting new talent into the speaking circuit while still maintaining quality. As such I’ve put together a quick guide to help both new and experienced speakers kick arse/ass. … Read the rest here
Earlier this month, Clearleft went on a company outing to the Design Museum in London. There we spent some quality time perusing the work of the influential former Braun industrial designer, Dieter Rams . Accompanying the exhibition were these design tenets penned by the man himself. Good design… Is innovative The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. … Read the rest here
Tickets for the UK ’s premier user experience conference are now on sale . The great thing about putting together a conference like UX London is that, as a user experience consultancy ourselves, Clearleft gets to set up exactly the conference that we would want to go to. And yet again I’m massively excited about who we’ve lined-up for 2010: Bill Moggridge, Scott McCloud, Peter Morville, Liz Danzico, Josh Porter, Kristina Halvorson, Whitney Hess and Jesse James Garrett to name but a few. Details of the workshops are still being finalised, but you can expect to learn more about running Agile UX teams, using comics as design tools, understanding patterns for discovery, designing to influence behaviour, using metrics effectively, applying psychology to interaction design and loads more. UX London is designed to be the conference we at Clearleft want to go to, and that’s probably why it was so successful last year… Read the rest here
Ten years ago, two of my biggest fears were: flying and public speaking. I’ve done enough of both (usually combined) over the last several years to where I’m now OK with either. At times even comfortable with it. I’ll probably always get nervous right before a talk — but the anxiety has shifted from, “crap, how am I going to get through this” to, “I want this to be good . I don’t want to let anyone down”. With that confession out of the way, the next year is filling up with some great events, and I thought I’d list them here: Future of Web Design NYC — November 17th, 2009. … Read the rest here
A tasty Flickr set of found typography – focussing on British/London Underground/Transport styles., which of course is right up my street. Comment on this … Read the rest here
My name is Jon Hicks, and I’m a stationery fetishist. I’m sure many of you are too. I love the design, feel, and most of all, smell of it. Some of my earliest and happiest memories are of walking into WHS miths and smelling the pencils and paper, looking at the pads and notebooks (and being allowed to buy a new one!). Even in an age when my work is solely screen-based, I still lust after the senses-satisfying joy of new stationery. Just recently, I’ve started using graph paper pads again, particularly for sketching interface wireframes… Read the rest here
I’m pleased to announce the super excellent folks at Carsonified are bringing the Handcrafted CSS workshop to London ! Carson Workshops will be presenting Ethan Marcotte and myself in a reprise of the one-day course we organized last month here in Salem, MA. And it’s surely going to be a blast. Just like last time, each attendee will get a copy of the book ( Video Edition including the DVD ) and we’ll spend the day walking through much of its content and more. This event was a great success here in New England, and we’re thrilled to bring it to the UK. Thanks to Carson Workshops for making this happen! So join us on November 23rd at Wallspace St Pancras in London. For more info on the event and to book a place (there’s a max of 70 spots), visit the Carson Workshops site . … Read the rest here
If you’ve got 4 minutes spare, treat yourself to this video of printmaker Paul Catherall explaining how he produced the beautiful linocut prints that were commissioned by Transport for London under the title “A new view of London”. An exhibition of his work is on display at the.gallery@oxo in London South bank’s until May 18, and the posters are available in the London Transport Museum Shop . Comment on this … Read the rest here
A few weeks ago I received the following remarks from Jeff Lin, an Authentic Jobs customer and founder of Bust Out Solutions : Just wanted to let you know that I posted a job probably two years ago for a designer, got several responses, and ultimately found one guy who I tried to hire. It didn’t work out at the time, but we kept in touch, and I finally hired him a few months ago. It’s worked out great, and we recently launched Best Buy Idea X . I’m happy with the design, and in part thanks to Authentic Jobs for helping me find great talent! Employers continue to find talented web and creative professionals through Authentic Jobs , which has been filling full-time and freelance positions throughout the globe since 2005. … Read the rest here
Last week I had the pleasure of attending @media 2009 in London, where it has to be said, I had the best conference experience I’ve had for a long time. I prefer the more cosy nature of the event – a single track, not too large and overwhelming quantity of people, and simply great talks. I can’t pick one favourite presentation, as I came away feeling really inspired and energised by everything. It was also the last @media curated by Patrick Griffiths, who is moving on to follow other passions (from next year the conference will be in the able hands of the Web Directions Team ). I want to take this opportunity to thank Patrick for encouraging me to talk, and giving the best possible environment to do it in. … Read the rest here