Entries by Category

Two potentially better ways to accomplish a long-term goal (i.e., new years resolution) and integrate a new habit into your daily rituals. I plan on trying the following two challenges.

Design Something Every Day!
"what if we spent less time surfing the Web looking for inspiration and more time creating and designing things?"

example - http://dailydropcap.com/

52 Weeks of Blogging Your Passion
"52 Weeks will give you the tools you need to journal your creative journey..."

example - http://52weeksofux.com

It's that time of year where we try to make sense of the past and predict the future. The following are a few web related examples.

10 Web trends to watch in 2010

Top Digital Trends for 2010

Google’s 2009: A Glimpse of the Web’s Next Decade

A Year In Review: 2009 Social Marketing Trends

.net magazine 2009 Web Awards

The Decade's 14 Biggest Design Moments

Picturing the Past 10 Years

Khoi Vinh shares the results of his search for "an alternative to the typeface Klavika... something similarly contemporary and similarly strong in its forms, a real workhorse of a typeface that I can call to duty during those times when Helvetica won’t do."

Read the full article - Font Hunt.

Jens Meiert outlines web development practices from 1990 through 2009 and projects what the future may hold in 2019.

Read HTML, CSS, and Web Development Practices: Past, Present, and Future (via @smashingmag)

by Tracy Brady of Modernista! and Matt FaJohn of FL2

“The Goal... the National Park Foundation needed a digital experience that could drive action and involvement—primarily in the form of email submissions and donations.”

Read Case Study: National Park Foundation micro site

View “This Is Your Land” micro site

ScreenFonts - A monthly review of movie poster typography from FontFeed by FontShop. Check out the recent edition covering District 9 which uses "All kinds of Helvetica from Condensed to Extended."

Four recent write-ups on how to use CSS @font-face.

@font-face in Depth by Zoltan Du Lac

Starting with @font-face from Dave Shea

Bulletproof @font-face syntax by Paul Irish

Screencast: Converting OTF or TTF to EOT by Jonathan Snook

Mood boards are a great way to address visual direction (look and feel) at an early stage in the design process. View Mood Boards for Designers - a presentation by Amy Lamp from Inside Forty.

A few things that caught me eye and made me think.

Browsers

Google Chrome Frame - A browser plug-in that enables HTML5 on Internet Explorer.

Why Corporations Don’t Upgrade IE6 and How Chrome Frame Could Help

Google Has A Solution For Internet Explorer: Turn It Into Chrome

Also some talk of accessibility issues with Google Chrome Frame.

A seriously humorous review of software intended to keep you from the distractions of news and social-networking sites.

"You get to your PC every morning with hours of productive time ahead of you. Next thing you know, it’s 5 p.m. and you’ve frittered the day away on Digg, Hulu, Wikipedia and your fantasy football league. And no wonder — how can anyone expect to get anything done when you’re plying your trade on one of the most distracting machines ever invented?"

Read the complete article - Taming Your Digital Distractions

I read web design related articles daily via the usual sources (google reader, twitter, etc.) and feel I have a good pulse on the community. Most of these articles are positive and say great things about a website, designer, product or service. An equal amount are negative and critical of a company or service. Rarely is an article critical of an individual website or designer.

There seems to be an unwritten rule to avoid honest opinions if they may be perceived as negative which unfortunately is at the expense of some real insight and understanding. Lets face it, there is less risk in saying nice things, following the popular opinion and sugar coating things. At the same time it's always open season for negative articles towards easy targets like Microsoft and Google. Overall everyone plays is safe - "your the best.. no, your the best" or "Microsoft is evil." So when I come across a real article that cuts through the niceties and tells it like it is I read it many times, add it to delicious and post it on my blog.

The following article by Noah Stokes is that "reality check" article. The successful Web Designers are doing well for themselves and not grumbling about bad clients and IE6. These same Web Designers are successful because they are professional - they consistently do great work, they share their knowledge, they add to the web design community and they promote the profession. No whining and excuses. They actively look to make things better rather than sitting around complaining about things that are not going to change any time soon. Prime examples are Dan Cederholm (as mentioned below), Jeffrey Zeldman and Paul Boag to name just a few.

Read The State of the Web Design Profession by Noah Stokes

A comparison of the standard corporate org chart to the Disney org chart which was based on the creative process of turning an raw idea into a film.
View the Disney org chart.

The Font-as-Service is a balanced and up-to-date overview of font delivery services (Typekit, Typotheque and Fontdeck) by Elliot Jay Stocks at ilovetypography.com.

"we are now entering the age of the font-as-service: where the font becomes synonymous with web hosting, mobile data plans, and movie rentals." - Elliot Jay Stocks

Two articles on typography that everyone interacts with daily while driving or taking public transportation.

The Road to Clarity
"Looking at a sign in Clearview after reading one in Highway Gothic is like putting on a new pair of reading glasses: there’s a sudden lightness, a noticeable crispness to the letters."
Read the full story

The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway
"Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when it created a new signage system at the end of the 1960s."
Read the full story

@issue has reprinted "10 Things I Have Learned" by Milton Glaser, and presented in 2001, to celebrate "his 80th birthday and a 60+ year career." To see his vast body of work visit miltonglaser.com.

Google Chrome is built to be fast in keeping with Google's quest to keep things lean an mean. The following are two related articles.

Chrome's Hidden Feature: Blazing Speed (Gadgetwise)
"Chrome’s speed boost over Internet Explorer and Firefox is so obvious to a nontechnical surfer"

Google Feels the Need for More Speed With Chrome 2.0 (Webmonkey)
"Google claims that Chrome 2.0 loads pages about 30 percent faster."

An overview of Futura from its creation to examples of usage. A very versatile and usable typeface.

Some interesting suggestions although the title (really rock...!) is hard to live up to. Most have been said before (drop your ego, prototype and test) but one caught my eye as something useful daily for a Web Designer - Focus on high fidelity, and making the abstract concrete (I can't find a source for "making the abstract concrete" although "high fidelity" is a term Edward Tufte has used in this context). I say this is useful because most Web Designers would benefit from showing more visuals (sketches, wireframes, etc.) to get ideas across rather than just speaking or emailing. Most people can't visualize what you are saying or writing. Our job is to help people see the abstract. (via InfoDesign)

Sol LeWitt's "Wall Drawing 422" (photo by Kevin Kennefick) is one of 105 of LeWitt's larger than life wall drawings on display at MASS MoCA.

The co-inventor of sIFR reviews Typekit - a new (summer 2009) option for displaying type on the web. Pros - More type options. Cons - Lack of info around cost and usage rules. Only time will tell if this lives up to the hype. Read the full review.

Nick Finck's process (slides from the Puget Sound SIGCHI) for creating wireframes and related deliverables. I'm extremely grateful to be able to view all 94 slides.

Universally understood. Who knew there were multiple versions? See all "Tank Man" photos. Photograph above by Jeff Widener/Associated Press.

At first glance and after viewing the demo Perch looks like the perfect solution and will quickly fill a need. "Perch has been created for those situations where you, or your client, would like to be able to edit text on a website without rolling out a full content management system." (via Simplebits)

A collection of web design related articles condensed into short summaries and sorted by do's and don'ts and rated by level of technical difficulty. (via boagworld)

"Founded in 1995, @Issue: Journal of Business and Design is dedicated to communicating how quality design contributes to business success." Glad to see this design classic online.

An argument against speculative work. Both sides of the debate are presented and the term is explained. Design by crowdsourcing (speculative work) seems to be all about getting a solution on the cheap whether or not it solves the specific problem.

Whether it's good or bad depends on the context. A well designed logo will be viewed as bad if the company it represents has a negative image. Steven Heller provides some history, examples and context in this article.

Through a comparison of CNN.com and USA Today.com Andy Rutledge gives clear examples to support his hierarchy and layout theory. Rutledge defines quiet structure as "when you de–emphasize the structural elements..." which results in "... the overall clarity of presentation is greatly enhanced."

Can traditional design principles (The golden ration and rule of thirds), that are based on a fixed area, be applied to the variable dimensions of web design? Jason Santamaria has decided to "embrace the fluid nature of the web and let go of that kind of control." Read the full article.

I'm not sure if boiling down good website design into 10 things is possible or if it gives a realistic picture. Maybe "10 Things to Consider When Designing a Website" would have been a better title. Regardless of the title there are a few good points in "10 Ways to Design a Good Web Site".

A Boagworld web design podcast (No. 160) interview with Aarron Walter, WaSP InterAct Project Lead, on teaching web standards and the new website.

"WaSP InterAct is a living, open curriculum based upon web standards and best practices, designed to teach students the skills of the web professional. Adapt and reuse our resources. Contribute your own content and ideas."

See also What Are Web Standards and Why Do They Matter?

First paradox - "01: There’s no such thing as bad clients: only bad designers"

The only part of this list I disagree with is the title as this applies to most types of design not just Graphic Design. See all 10 plus.

I visit the AIGA site (local and national) on a regular basis and only recently came across this resource.

"The AIGA Center for Practice Management provides resources to help designers with the daily management of their studios. We address a broad range of internal business and operational issues, giving creative professionals important tools for success."

Help! I can't stop reading. Interesting data and beautifully crafted survey results web pages including tables and charts. A few examples:

Job title - Developer 27.8%, Web Designer 12.7%, Designer 8.4%

Relevance of education - Not at all 19.1%, A little 29.3%, Some 35.2%

Prevalence of blogging - Yes 71.9%, No 28.1%

Making a site more search engine friendly. The benefits are many including access to a wider audience. Learn the basics of SEO.

The following examples, which involve three different types of design, all allow for the process to deliver the solution in a variety of ways.

Felix Sockwell's NYT iPhone App Icons

Insight into how these icons evolved from rough ideas, through numerous iterations, to a final set. The end is result is a clean, clear and custom solution.

Pixar's Animated Film Process

A look at the framework around how an animated film is created from "creating the storyline" through "polishing" the finishing details. Pixar's process consistently produces successful results while allowing room for things to evolve and turn out better than expected. Also see Concept art and Story boards by selecting any "Feature Film," such as Cars, then "The Full Story" and then "Learn about the inspiration."

Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain's Kinoma Website Redesign

The thinking and reasoning behind the design decisions. An explanation of how the design progressed through multiple iterations and incremental improvements to the end result which is a very dynamic layout along with some beautiful Photoshop work.

An argument for the design process being as important, if nor more important, than the final design.

A Jeffrey Zeldman video explains what web standards are and why you should care.

Boagworld

Relevant advice on "all things relating to building and running websites" by Paul Boag, Creative Director at Headscape.

Subtraction

The intelligently written design, technology and life observations by Khoi Vinh, Design Director at NYTimes.com.

Design Matters

Smart commentary on design and culture by Lenovo designers such as David Hill, VP of Corporate Identity and Design.

Why did Google build a browser and when did it all begin? Read the complete Wired Magazine story - Inside Chrome: The Secret Project to Crush IE and Remake the Web

David Hill shares his observations of three oddly familiar groups of design inspiration.

A definition, history and the beginnings of "Brand Management" at Procter & Gamble. Contrary to those who feel branding is a negative tactic this article ends by saying customers want "the ability to identify and differentiate between options in the marketplace."

Metropolis Magazine suggests ten criteria for evaluating "what is good design in the 21st century?" and how the answer has changed over time. Peter Hall suggests good design is a good argument. (via Putting People First)

Wow! Twenty years and still in its infancy. All thanks to Tim Berners-Lee and CERN. The following are three interesting links celebrating this important date.

• A video of a keynote speech from Berners-Lee and a demonstration of the original browser on a NeXT computer. (CERN)
• Q&A with Mark Fischetti who collaborated with Berners-Lee to write Weaving the Web: The Past, Present and Future of the World Wide Web by its Inventor which marked the 10 year anniversary. (Scientific American)
• A timeline showing highlights (boston.com)

I can't think of another single Illustrator that is remotely similar to Christoph Niemann. He has such a wide range of styles all showing a high level of craftsmanship. The first words that come to mind are unique, smart and humorous. It seems like he's comfortable in any Illustration style and chooses whichever style best fits the project at hand. Check out his blog Abstract City and his personal site.

Visualizing New York City's top 50 foreign phone call destinations and volumes. "Even in an era of email and text messages, folks crave the intimacy of the old-fashioned telephone." View entire infographic.

Fast Company compiled a list of 50 companies from the usual suspects (Google, Apple) to many new faces (Team Obama & Hulu). My favorite is Lego at #41. A large number are Design and Technology related and all have a strong web presence. See the complete list of 50.