iPad Ready Websites : Apple: iPad features Safari, a mobile web browser that supports the latest web standards—including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Here are just a few of the sites that take advantage of these web standards to deliver content that looks and functions beautifully on iPad. They’re speaking our language. I’m listening. /via Daring Fireball … Read the rest here
Oh Joy!’s 2010 Suggested Golf Attire : Planning on getting in some tee time soon? Don’t leave home without proper attire, gents. (Speaking of tees, these wedding invitations for a ceremony at the Saratoga National Golf Club are fantastic.) … Read the rest here
HOW Conference Early Bird Discount Ends March 12 : I’ll be speaking, along with a host of incredible speakers . Use promo code CM10 and save $50 on the individual full-conference rate. … Read the rest here
One of the things you discover as a speaker and, especially, a conference organizer is this: Keynote generates really frickin’ enormous PDFs. Seriously. Much like Miles O’Keefe, they’re huge . We had one speaker last year whose lovingly crafted and beautifully designed 151-slide deck resulted in a 175MB PDF. Now, hard drives and bandwidth may be cheap, but when you have four hundred plus attendees all trying to download the same 175MB PDF at the same time, the venue’s conference manager will drop by to find out what the bleeding eyestalks your attendees are doing and why it’s taking down the entire outbound pipe. Not to mention the network will grind to a nearly complete halt… 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
Of the many things we do well as creative professionals, we often forget to think for ourselves, relying on thought leaders to determine what works for us and what doesn’t. Paramount in this failure to think for one’s self is the fact that these thought leaders often struggle to encourage others to explore new thinking without belittling their methods–or worse, ostracizing them–in the process. Whether or not the title of thought leader can be applied to myself, I’m just as guilty as anyone else. In ” 20 tips for better conference speaking “, I offer this short-sighted observation: There is absolutely no reason in the world you should use anything other than Keynote. … Read the rest here
It’s so easy to wallow in self-pity when things don’t go right. As much as 2009 sucked on all levels, it wasn’t all bad. As much as I want to sulk, the fact remains that I live a charmed life. Through some karmic luck of the draw, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for. Personal Projects This past year was a year of simplication and basically had me letting go of all my personal projects—at least for the time being. I shut down SidebarAds, I never worked on Snitter, and I never finished Haylia, FontSmack or any number of other personal projects that I wanted to work on… 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. Most of these tips aren’t new, but you’ll be surprised how few people actually follow them. … Read the rest here
I’ve been doing a fair bit of yakking lately, all recorded for posterity. First off, I had a chat with Tim from Design Critique on Ajax design considerations , mostly recapping what I talked about UI13 last year. Jeremy Keith on Ajax design considerations on Huffduffer After that, I had a natter with Ross from Web Axe , this time focusing on practical web accessibility . Web Axe Episode 75: Jeremy Keith interview, Google Wave on Huffduffer Then Andy , Rich and I paid a visit to the Boagworld crew out in the back of beyond where we had a free-for-all five-way chat about Clearleft and Headscape . … Read the rest here
This week I had the great pleasure of speaking at the 3rd Web Developer Conference in Bristol, along with Elliot Jay Stocks , Sarah Parmenter and Dan Donald . It was only a one-day conference, but I had a whale of time, meeting new folks like Elliot Kember (who shone on the 2 panels he attended), Oliver Ker and the legendary Jon Tan , with whom I’ve had emails and chat but never met in person. I also got to catch up with Ben Hostler, the creative director of Bristol-based agency Beef , who I haven’t seen since I was at Middle School with him… 24 years ago! The talk I gave was an update of one I gave at @media 2007, ‘How to be a Creative Sponge’. Back then, Flickr was really the only option for sharing design collections online, but a lot has changed since then. … Read the rest here
This post will most likely come off as a ramble of sorts, but I’m okay with that. I figure I write enough stuff carefully crafted, from punctuation to grammar to sentence structure, that I can afford a break once in a while. Even if publicly. Speaking of writing, this post is all about that. Let’s start with a question I’m asked occasionally by those of you considering authoring something of your own: Should I sell my book as a PDF or publish it in print (either via Lulu or a publisher)? First of all, if you’re considering self-publishing, I’ve already written about the ups and downs of that … Read the rest here
So, it’s been four days since rejoining the ranks of the self-employed . The transition from full-time employment to self-employment has been nearly seamless. This is probably because I’ve been through this all before, but also because the timing was right. I was ready to leap and therefore hit the ground running. I have no shortage of work right now. In fact, I’ve probably not been this busy for quite some time. … 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
This is a busy month for conferences. UX London just wrapped up. I went along on Monday to listen to the stellar line-up of speakers before the subsequent two days of workshops kicked off. It was, as expected, fantastic. Judging from the scuttlebutt on Twitter , a good time was had by all for three straight days. … Read the rest here
This is a busy month for conferences. UX London just wrapped up. I went along on Monday to listen to the stellar line-up of speakers before the subsequent two days of workshops kicked off. It was, as expected, fantastic. Judging from the scuttlebutt on Twitter , a good time was had by all for three straight days… Read the rest here
If you’ve not yet signed up for next month’s HOW Design Conference in Austin, Texas, now is the time to do so. The conference organizers have been gracious enough to allow me to publicly post the handout that will be provided in my session, “Good vs. Great Design”. This 10-page summary of my presentation is something I’ve been hoping to compile for quite some time now, and HOW has finally provided the impetus for making it happen. Download good-vs-great.pdf (PDF, 588 KB) Highlights from other sessions and speakers include: Print to Web Breakthrough The Secret of Project Management for In-House Designers Keeping Creative Control with Difficult Clients Communicating Up, Down and All Around the Organization 10 Things You Didn’t Know Fonts Could Do Craft + Activism = Craftivism Studio tours (frog design, Olive Interactive Design & Marketing, others) for pre-conference attendees DJ Stout (Pentagram), Thomas Phinney (Adobe), Cynthia Rapp (Cartoon Network), Lia Braaten Hager (Proctor & Gamble), and nearly 50 other speakers Hope to see you there. … Read the rest here
After my adventures in developing with Adobe AIR, I’ve been keeping an eye on the state of cross-platform desktop application frameworks. In the past year or so, I know of JavaFX and Titanium that have also hit the market. Not being a fan of Java, I stayed clear of JavaFX. Titanium, on the other hand, with its similarities to Adobe AIR, has been a more compelling option. Titanium is an open source platform for building desktop applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Applications can run on Windows, OSX and Linux and have access to local resources, the TCP stack, integrated SQlite support along with the ability to create standard and chromeless windows. … Read the rest here
Every year SXSW takes on a slightly new dimension so it’s never the same experience twice. Change is inevitable and I always have a good time at the event. However I always find myself harking back to years gone by. I guess that’s age for you. This year attendance had grown by around 30%, and numbers fluctuated between 6,000 and 12,000 depending on who you spoke to. One things was certain though—it was big… Read the rest here
I seem to be spending a lot of time in German-speaking countries these days. That’s good. It means I get to practice my rusty German. In a few weeks from now, I’ll be in Berlin for a DOM Scripting workshop . … Read the rest here