Designing for the User

Contrary to popular belief, there is some thought process and logic behind what I do. Yes, my job is still to make you look better; please let me continue to do my job. But in the process of making you look better I have to bear in mind that the prettiest option may not always…

The world’s ugliest websites

More, please. http://www.nikibrown.com/designoblog/2009/03/03/the-worlds-ugliest-websites/ I could add quite a bit to the list, maybe some day I will compile my own.

Cmd + Z

Remember New Coke? I was a tad young but I do remember the stirring that it caused when the Coca-Cola company decided to “update” their coke flavor over two decades ago and the fact that it didn’t take them long to re-introduce Coke Classic. It was a bad move on Coke’s part to take their…

Social networking?

I get the computer equivalent of a funny look when “Internet people” find out I don’t have a Facebook or Myspace account. In fact, I get quite a few funny looks when I mention it to live people as well. There are many reasons why I have chosen not to sign up for an account…

Bad Usability Calendar 2009

Part of my job as a purveyor of awesome for my clients is to help them treat their clients nicely through good usability in their products. The following .PDF shows some examples of just the opposite. Bad Usability Calendar 2009 (3.5MB)

TED2009 motion graphics intro

I am thoroughly enjoying motion graphics and videos like this recently. Add it to my ‘if I had 6 months to learn and a client willing to spend thousands on it,’ list of things to do. http://www.trollback.com/plus/16/TED.html It’s been a heavy dose of design this week. You’re either really lucky or I need to look…

10 things a web designer would never tell you

I think Paul Boag is stealing my clients: You need to take control of the design process. Its your site and you should get the design you want. The role of the designer is to implement your idea. Do not allow him to drag you down into endless discussions about ‘users needs’, ‘accessibility’ and ‘usability’.…

Just a sad reminder

Our mail courier is a tad bit unreliable. There are days when he delivers the mail before noon but you can count on those days being the ones he only carries a fistful of bills. More often than not, he’s a post-lunch type of worker and recently I’ve even wondered if he’s decided an afternoon…

The Wicked Sliding House

I would only actually use the word wicked if I was born and raised on the south side of Boston. And even then it’d sound much more like wick’d as in – wick’d smaht. But since I wasn’t, the title of this post is just copied and pasted from another article of a pretty wick’d…

5 Dollar Water

Like I said, quality content could flow today. This one is by a buddy of mine and fellow dotcomrade, Aaron Garcia (and yes, his hair is that cool). Beautifully done, great cause. So what are your plans for Valentine’s Day? http://www.5dollarwater.com/ V-Day ‚Äì 5 Dollar Water from Aaron Garcia on Vimeo.

My first trip to Italy

From Quips: If you have $6,500 to spend this year I would highly recommend this amazing opportunity from the School of Visual Arts MFA program, Masters Workshop: Design History, Theory and Practice in Rome and Venice. The first sentence of the description should be enough enticement: “Spend two weeks studying visual communication ‚Äî especially typography…

Yes, please

Beautiful craftsmanship in these laptop cases. No price listed which probably means they’re as much as the MBP that fits inside. http://www.rainerspehl.com/project.php?nr=59

Feltron Eight

Nicholas Feltron is the creator of Daytum – the home of collecting and communicating your daily data. A service to which I have no invite to as of yet but I hope to gain invitation in the near future. For the last several years he has tracked everything from mileage walked to food eaten during…

Bringing (clear) sight to the world

I wear contacts daily and glasses in the evening when my eyes wear out for the day. I can see without them but I wouldn’t say it would be the safest for me to operate a vehicle or similar machinery sans lenses. For some reason, as a kid (and as an adult, I suppose) one…

The Secret of Efficient Meetings

Thankfully, not being employed by corporate America resolves most of my dealings with long meetings. If it did, I would invest in some of the following. The Secret of Efficient Meetings

20 signs you don’t want that web project

Nice list from Jeffrey Zeldman. Dealt with a few of them before but #2 is far and away the funniest thing on the list: Client shows you around the factory, introducing you to all his employees. Then, behind closed doors, tells you: ‚ÄúIf you do a bad job with this website, I‚Äôm going to have…

I Am Second

It’s exciting to me to see church media and their creators starting to get it. For far too long, the materials presented to the public were sub-par. I Am Second, gets it. A ministry that concerns itself with both substance and style. One of the best presentations in any field I have seen in a…

Back in business

I noticed this evening that my feed wasn’t updating for the site. Of course it bugged me. Took me a couple of hours of code searching, bug hunting and racking my brain to think what changes I had made in the last 48 hours to finally figure out that a small piece of code I…