June 30, 2003
Thanks and...
Thanks to everyone for the great discussions and insights over the past month. Blogging SVN has been fun. But before I go...
a: Apple breaks its own rules. When updating iTunes to 4.01, the installer automatically changes OS X Font Smoothing preferences without warning. So all your smooth fonts suddenly become bitmapped. I first noticed in Fetch, then Photoshop started thorwing errors. Whatever happened to software letting users know when it decides to change their settings?
b: Any recommendations on an affordable color printer to satisfy a picky graphic designer?
The Marketing of No Marketing
The Marketing of No Marketing (NY Times) discusses brands whose "identity is created not by their owners but by consumers." The anti-Hilfiger/Nike/etc. model. Pabst Blue Ribbon is the chief example discussed.
P.B.R. needs to stay neutral, ''always look and act the underdog'' and not worry about those who look down on the beer, presumably because they're snobs whose negative opinion only boosts its street cred. The Plan B analysis even says that P.B.R.'s embrace by punks, skaters and bike messengers make it a political, ''social protest'' brand. These ''lifestyle as dissent'' or ''consumption as protest'' constituencies are about freedom and rejecting middle-class mores, and ''P.B.R. is seen as a symbol and fellow dissenter.''
June 27, 2003
National Do Not Call Registry: How Ironic
I just signed up with the new National Do Not Call Registry, but the email they sent me to verify my phone numbers was filed as Junk by Apple Mail. Classic.
Content (Management) is King
Most every Web presence design/redesign I get involved with these days has a content management component. Long gone are the days of calling your Web Design firm to update your news page or product descriptions. Here's a nice variety of CMS I've recently applied on projects:
ASP/PHP & On-line forms (PDF) -most often a custom development job works best: more streamlined and frequently just as fast to set up as a "in the box" solution.
WebGUI by Plainblack -if you want to go with an open source solution WebGui is a good bet.
Macromedia Contirbute -features one of the best UIs for CMS, but...
Quicksilver Quickflex -an ASP solution that drops edit buttons in areas where authorized users may edit content.
Google AdSense Test
So, yeah, we're testing out Google AdSense text ads in the sidebar.I'm blown away by the simplicity of the service. You just paste about 7 lines of code into your site, and it serves up contextual ads -- no configuration required. It's really brilliant. Hopefully they'll allow people to change the look of the ads (and the number of ads served up), but until then, they'll look like they look. Click away!
June 26, 2003
Daily Kicks
EK, I mean Professor K, is back in the blog business. We knew he couldn't stay away from the computer screen... Announcing The Kicks Log, "Our daily dish on anything and everything related to the world of hoops shoes." Go get 'em EK!
Check out the original 37signals-founders connection... 37signals (Jason Fried) sending you to Kicksology (Ernest Kim) which features an advertisement for 5inch (Carlos Segura). We like to keep it in the family.
Corporate Hi-jinx
Example A: I ordered a Dell online. The price on their Web page was $616. They charged me $635. I called customer service and after bouncing around three departments, I was told 616 is a typo and 635 is the correct price. I argue with a service rep who can only repeat the phrases What do you want me to do sir? and I cant do that. I ask for the supervisor, get his voice mail, leave a detailed message and never get a call back. The price is still 616 on their Web site.
Example B: My girlfriend and I go to Sportmart. Huge signs everywhere advertising All shoes: Buy one pair get second 50% off. We spend an hour finding the right size, color, style, etc. Get to the register only to find out Nikes are not included. Read the fine print says the cashier. Sure enough Nike, cleats, etc not included is there in 5 point type. Considering Sportmarts shoe department is 40% Nike The cashiers response: Yeah people have been complaining about that all week.
Example C: I meet a fellow who works for a warranty consulting company. He tells me they advise all corporations to write in at least four steps in the claim procedure. His rationale: Most people give up after four tries.
June 25, 2003
Apple Moving Away From Traditional Tabs?
Screenshots (1 | 2) from OS X 10.3/Panther reveal that Apple appears to be moving away from traditional tabs and replacing them with centered buttons instead. Interesting move -- especially considering that tabs are pretty familiar UI controls these days (including Apple.com's nav). Thoughts anyone?
And, is mesh the new transparency (which was the new black)? Get ready for a new design trend.
Radio Baseball
Need to kill time during a road trip? In this interview, the band Earlimart suggests Radio Baseball.
It's the exact same rules as baseball, but the seek button on your radio is the pitcher. It throws a song out there and if you can get the artist, it's a single, you get the name of it and it's a double, you get the album it's off of it's a triple, and a home run is if you get the year. You buy a discography of hits and that's how you check yourself. It can suck up like seven hours of time.
June 23, 2003
macosx works, osx doesn't
http://www.apple.com/osx leads to a page not found error, but http://www.apple.com/macosx leads to the correct page. Come on, Apple. Why not have both URLs lead to the correct page? Or, is this Yahoo approach a better idea?
Update: Talk about the new G5, iSight, or Panther here.
June 19, 2003
<spam>:(</spam>
So now Microsoft joins AOL and our government in the fight against spam. Call me a skeptic, but I dont think our legislators will be coming through any time soon: if Americas army of lawyers is having a hard time getting one cyber villain, how will they stop thousands?
So I look to technology for the cure. Email filtering programs can help, but spam mutates, and filtering solutions have to get more complex to account for the new variations. The best bet is a simple solution. For instance, those pesky telemarketers can be repelled by dropping just the first note of the disconnected tone on your answering machine. When telemarketer computer programs dial you up they hear the tone, assume your number is no longer valid and erase you from their database. Soon enough you are no longer afraid of picking up the phone. Wouldnt it be nice if bulk emailers had a similar Achilles Heel?
SF/NJ, whatever
"A Blogger's Big-Fish Fantasy" (NY Times) discusses how blogs build traffic.
But Susan Mernit, a blogger in San Francisco, is actively trying to increase her readership from its current average of about 50 visitors a day.
Susan Mernit's blog counters:
Jason Blair-esque fact-checking errorL (sic) don't live in San Francisco, never lived in San Francisco, don't plan to live in San Francisco...South Orange, NJ is my current place of residence, with move back to Silicon Valley planned for later this summer.
MacDonald's Anti-Antibiotics
Sometimes big companies can do the right thing for the right reasons. McDonald's issues antibiotics policy:
In response to increasingly dire warnings that widespread use of antibiotics on U.S. farms is making the drugs less effective for treating people, the fast-food chain McDonald's is directing some meat suppliers to stop using antibiotic growth promoters altogether and encouraging others to cut back. Because McDonald's is the nation's largest purchaser of beef and among the largest for chicken and pork, its action will noticeably reduce the amount of antibiotics being used as growth promoters.
I wonder how the usual suspects will respond to this... I'm sure they'll find something to complain about.
June 18, 2003
Friendster Buzz
Friendster seems to be all the rage these days amongst hipsters.
What the network has going for it, says Friendster dater Harris, is that it is "insanely addictive." You can spend hours clicking around, cruising pictures and profiles. "I look at it every day, multiple times a day, like checking my e-mail," he says. In some circles, it seems to have replaced e-mail as a more convenient form of communication. The publisher James notes, "For a lot of us, [Friendster] is how we keep in touch. It's easier than e-mail" because you don't have to remember people's addresses - just click their pictures.
The cult certainly seems to be growing in my neck of the woods. I didn't even know what it was until a couple of weeks ago and now I hear it mentioned often. Interestingly, it's usually by non-techies that I would never expect to use such a service.
Reboot Copenhagen
If you're in Copenhagen at the Reboot Conference on Friday be sure to come by and say hi. What a great city this is, BTW. Update: Some pictures from the trip.
June 17, 2003
Logo Design 101
How to make a good logo:
1> Select a shade of Blue.
2> Add a swirl or two.
3> Make sure it communicates the right message about the company.
4> Bask in its radiance.
June 16, 2003
Kitchen Gadgets
I got my first look at a Rabbit Corkscrew in action this weekend and wow, that thing is cool. Talk about great design. Seems like a good pickup although the movement to ditch corks in favor of screw caps is apparently picking up steam.
What's your favorite kitchen gadget that others might not know about? As a garlic lover, I don't know how I survived for so long without my new fave: this garlic press. Sure beats chopping.
June 13, 2003
Jumping The Gun?
Check out this text ad from CDW (found at MacNN). Mac g5? Cube? Are they getting a little ahead of themselves, or is this an honest typo mistake? I wonder. [Thanks Richard]
3 Dimensions & Your Desktop
3DOSX is a file system browser that utilizes three dimensions to view directory hierarchies. It supports a full range of file system actions, such as copying, creating new folders, labels, and ejecting disks.
Now if it were applied to interface concepts like Raskin's ZoomWorld...
Posted by LukeW at 09:37 AM
| Comments (51)
June 12, 2003
Cellphone Feature Wishlist
A list of cellphone features that ought to be standard but aren't (again by N.Y. Times State of the Art columnist David Pogue). I think this one's a great idea:
"Please hold" message -- When a cellphone rings, you usually have two options: Answer it or send it to voicemail. But there should be a third button that answers the call but plays a message like this: "Please hold while the owner of this phone tries to find a place where answering your call won't annoy everyone else in the room."
June 11, 2003
37BetterPayPal
PayPal's important "Send Money Confirmation" screen (the screen you see right before you send someone money) could use some help. We think it can be 37Better. Feel free to discuss.
Easy E-Commerce &...
Speaking of PayPal... I have recently used (hacked) their merchant tools to create a shopping cart. Why did I use PayPal? No monthly hosting fees and they take a much lower percentage of sales than other e-commerce options. Why am I not happy? Paypal Shopping Cart always opens in its own window (i tried hacking it with frames-no such luck), I can't customize the look and feel (I can only add a logo at the top), I can't set different shipping cost for different countries, and the list goes on. Does anyone know of an affordable, e-commerce solution? I need the functionality of PayPal (processing transactions) and some control over the UI. Oh and the cheaper the better (no monthly fees, please).
By the way: Swedish bands. Discuss.
June 10, 2003
Great Contingency Design
A super example of great contingency design from OmniWeb 4.5 beta 1:
In case you can't read it, it's asking you if you want to update an existing bookmark because the URL you've bookmarked as been permanently redirected. Very human and damn smart. [Thanks Scott]
iTunes Meets Indies
Derek, of CD Baby, reports on the recent iTunes meeting re: indy music [via Kottke]. According to Steve Jobs, "Everyone is going to get the exact same deal. It's not negotiable. It's take it or leave it."
Labels will have to encode their own music (a special Music Store Encoder tool for Mac OS X will be released in 90 days or so). Independent artists themselves, not with a label, are not yet invited to use the store though. You have to go through an iTunes partner. As for non-affiliated independent artists, Derek says CD Baby will be an iTunes partner and "will be glad to do the submission and be your pipeline into iTunes, if we can."
Some other interesting bits: 3.5 million songs sold so far. Selling about 500,000 songs a week now. More than 75% of songs have sold at least once. And 45% of all songs have been bought as an album.
YahooBetterYahoo
Yahoo's current stock quote page and Yahoo's new, beta stock quote page. I like the bigger price (and automatic display of the after-hours price after-hours), but the functionality on the page feels disconnected. There's lots of functionality, but it's spread all over the place. The current design, while not as pretty or consistent with Yahoo's new section-page designs, puts nearly all of the related information and actions together in a single grouping. Maybe I just need to get used to it. Your opinions?
June 09, 2003
It's a White June in Colorado
Couloir.org has been updated to include recent ski descents of Jones Pass, Radiobeacon Peak, Mt. Bancroft, Hallett's Peak, and Mt. Eva. The site also includes a recent trip up South Arapahoe Peak via the Skywalker Couloir... Unfortunately, I left my skis behind for that one!
Be A Client
An excercise I recommend for all designers... Hire another designer to design something for you. Be the client for a change. You'll see how hard it can be. If there was ever a prerequisite to doing work for hire, this is it.
Those Darn Designers
Finally, my very own instruction manuals.
How to (and not to) Work with a Designer -In an ideal world all clients would play by these "rules."
5 Ways to Get the Most from In-House Designers
Better Graphic Design -Graphic artists vs. Graphic designers.
How Designers Work -Long and cognitive.
June 05, 2003
Searching for the Simplest Cell Phone
NY Times' columnist David Pogue challenged each cellular carrier to "send me not its fanciest handsets, but its simplest: models designed for the iconoclasts who still think phones are for talking." The grand prize winner, by a huge margin, is the Kyocera 2325, available from Verizon.
Web Creep
These projects, not to mention the experience of watching TV lately, have convinced Greenberg that Web design is seeping into the broader visual culture. - The Web Changes Everything
Its all well and good to have Flash-like animations on ESPN, but pop-up ads during the Simpsons? CNN TV looking more and more like CNN.com? The Web is influencing other mediums, thats a given. But when or where is that a good thing? A bad thing?
Public Relations
An Open Letter From Martha Stewart.
"I want you to know... I want to thank you for your extraordinary support... I appreciate it more than you will ever know... please visit the special website I have established for you... you will be able to contact me... I look forward to hearing from you.
Textbook.
June 04, 2003
Radiohead For A House
Two Radiohead tickets for a house in Brooklyn? Not a bad deal.
I got an email from a guiy looking to trade his house in Brooklyn (in Park Slope no less!) for 2 tix to the Beacon. He described the house, his mortgage, the conditions, the neighborhood, his bank etc etc. We started writing and today we met up. I couldn't believe it! Its a nice 3 story, 4 bedroom -house- on 6th Avenue in Park Slope. It has a garden, in pretty good shape. Could use some masonry work and some interior touch ups but all in all, a great deal. He's moving to Atlanta and is a wealthy eccentric, decided to hand over the house (and mortgage and other costs) to me in exchange for 2 Radiohead tix at the Beacon...This is a turning point experience in my life!
June 03, 2003
Visiting Copenhagen
Seeing how Jason and a few others I know are heading to Copenhagen for the upcoming Reboot conference, I thought I'd offer some tips/highlights from my recent stay there...
First off, Lonely Planet's Copenhagen guidebook is great. Includes a a couple of nifty walking tours and solid recommendations for food, nightlife, etc. Also, the information desk at the airport gives away free maps of the city. Grab one before heading downtown.
Bring your walking shoes. It's a great town for wandering around -- you can pretty much walk from one end of the city to another. Also, free bicycles are available throughout the city center.
What to see? The city is full of interesting Scandinavian style architecture and pretty parks. Stroll down Stroget, the "world's longest pedestrian mall." Check out the harbor at Nyhavn (boat tours available). Wander through the park to Kastellet, a 17th century citadel, head to Christiana to check out Pusher Street and the hippie-like commune there, climb the steps at Vor Frelsers Kirke (the last 150 steps of the 95m tower are located on the outside of the building).
Do be sure to go to Louisiana modern art museum located in Humlebaek (about 45 mins. away from Copenhagen via train). It's full of great pieces and the neat setting includes an outdoor sculpture garden overlooking the ocean. It's a must see. Also, I missed out on the Danish Design Museum but it seems like a great stop for anyone interested in Scandinavian design. The whole city is fascinating from a design standpoint, actually.
For food, check out the hipster hangout Pussy Galore's Flying Circus for a delicious dinner that's relatively affordable. Sebastopol next door also draws a crowd for drinks and food. Rust, a nearby club, features house/techno upstairs and hip hop below -- it's a good place to get your groove on and watch Danes dance to Biggie and Snoop.
Anything negative? Well the weak dollar makes the city quite expensive right now. Sightwise, Tivoli (amusement park) is a bit touristy but features concerts on weekends and an "authentic" viking restaurant -- the house specialty there is a spear of four hunks of meat served with cider and some sort of mullet/oat mixtue. The famed little mermaid (statue on the water) ain't really all that much to see. Rosenborg slot castle is neat to see from the outside but fairly boring inside. That said, I think it's probably tough to go to Copenhagen and not have a great time.
Pictures to be developed and posted soon. I'll let you know.
Sign Here
If this link hasn't already made the rounds, well, get ready... Too funny... How crazy would I have to make my signature before someone would actually notice? [Thanks Chuck]
Unsung Heroes of Interface Design
Though youll find Amazons UI praised in nearly every Web design book, its quite rare that you hear about the designers behind the scenes making it happen. Whos behind exemplary interface design?
Heres one: Colleen Bushell. Colleen designed the original interface for the Mosaic browser. Home, back, and forward: key components of the browsing metaphor. Navigator, Explorer and the rest of todays browsers are just bloated versions of that elegant solution to moving through information. She also came up with the spinning globe you know see in the upper right hand corner of your browser- letting users know something was happening as they waited for pages to download.
Colleen worked with Edward Tufte on the redesign on the severe storm modeling visualization that graces the cover of his book, Visual Explanations. She wrote Design Requirements for Hypermedia in 1995, a seminal piece which presented new media design guidelines based on principles from scientific visualization, cartography, and book design. These include: provide an overview that communicates both qualitative and quantitative information, provide a sense of context, show several representations of the information space, provide a method to directly interact with the representations in order to move through the space.
Colleen is still active and I have had the pleasure of working with her on many interesting projects.
So how bout it: anyone out there doing great stuff on the down-low?
June 02, 2003
Visual Impact and the Web
First: an introduction.
Second: a post.
Though most peoples idea of visual impact isnt complete without bright colors and big pictures, there are other ways to get your audience to take notice. Subtle colors, a unique layout, altered perspective, and more can often engage an audience more effectively than a barrage of focal points. Web interfaces in particular cant rely on multiple visual pleas for attention: there are too many points of interaction on your typical Web site or application. As an example: version1 (180 KB jpg) vs. version2 (220 KB jpg). What works to engage yet not distract and how important is that first impression?
Gas or Charcoal BBQ?
The classic dilemma. See, I'm a charcoal BBQ guy. I like the authenticity of flavor, the "feel" of a charcoal fire, and dirty fingernails that make me feel like I've been in the mines all day. But, here's the thing... My current charcoal BBQ is on my wood-slat roofdeck and the flying embers and red hot mini-coal chunks that are part of the pleasure of a charcoal grill are really starting to worry me. Plus, I like the idea of throwing something on grill within a few minutes of starting it instead of waiting 30+ minutes for the coals to get hot. Basically, I'm thinking of going gas. I can't believe I just said that.
Is there really a huge flavor difference? Is the convenience of gas worth what might be lost in charcoal flavor? The gas grill I'm considering getting does have an attachment that lets me burn some hardwood smoke chips to provide a more natural grill flavor. And, then, to add to the dilemma, I find out that Weber has a hybrid coal/gas grill called the Performer that lights the coals faster with gas and has an integrated bucket to catch the embers and make clean-up a snap. What to do? Help!