July 2006 Archives

• 29 Jul 2006

  Users Are Opting for More Dynamic Interaction

  Interesting study from University of Hamburg which reveals that, over time, the use of the browser's back button has decreased by half suggesting a trend toward increased interactivity and form submission...

• 29 Jul 2006

  Compute! Magazine Archive

  OMG! I just found this Classic Computer Magazine Archive: Compute! Magazine and I nearly cried. This is how I created my first (infinite) loop, my first game. This is how nerdy kids like me...

• 29 Jul 2006

  WYSIWYG Web2.0 Editor

  Just found Aptana -- a free WYSIWYG XHTML/CSS editor for those of us who don't mind taking shortcuts. It comes preloaded with a number of javascript libraries such as Prototype, script.aculo.us, Dojo, etc. Available for Windows, Mac even Linux. Via blog.wired.com .

• 27 Jul 2006

  Happy Users Oversimplified

  PingMag's article on 5 Web Design Patterns for Happy Users is attention-grabbing though somewhat presumptuous about the universal preferences of all users...

• 23 Jul 2006

  Gadgets Get Nekked

  For hackers and physical computing enthusiasts, here's a site that bares it all for you. TakeItApart.net disassembles all sorts of gadgets...so you don't have to.

• 23 Jul 2006

  German Pranks

  Dispelling the myth that the Germans don't have a sense of humor, for the past year in Germany, the police have been searching for pranksters who have been erecting flags bearing GWB's face...

• 22 Jul 2006

  Sustainable Cardboard House

  Add The Cardboard House to the list of affordable kit homes with style.

• 21 Jul 2006

  More on Baby Product Design

  Earlier, I pointed out a smart design solution for the dropped pacifier problem. Coincidentally, I ran into a BusinessWeek feature today on The New Baby-Gear Boom, a slideshow of redesigned products for babies. Except for one, the Philips DECT Baby Monitor, the products they featured were frightfully overdesigned and...

• 20 Jul 2006

  Taskonomy-Based UI

  The inimitable Don Norman on Logic Versus Usage: The Case for Activity-Centered Design. He cites the findings of anthropologists Dougherty and Keller and their observation of task-based organization, or taskonomy, for how humans structure their tools according to activity.

• 18 Jul 2006

  Innovating for the Masses, Not the Money

  Putting people at the heart of innovation: Power Laws Of Innovation via Core77.

• 18 Jul 2006

  Typographic-Speak

  So, you at least know that leading is pronounced LED-ing (you do, dontcha?), now here's your chance to really impress others at the next typographic cocktail party. Great thread on how to pronounce those typographic luminaries' names such as Ed Benguiat and Zuzana Licko: How do you say "Tschichold?" and Pronunciation Question.

• 18 Jul 2006

  Smart Design Pacifier

  About time someone solved the issue of keeping pacifiers clean every time they're dropped: Always Clean Baby Pacifier.

• 17 Jul 2006

  Client-Designer Relationships: The Abridged Version

  In this day and age, I'm surprised to find the occasional client who still thinks a designer is no more than a (insert graphical application here) monkey. Seth knows otherwise and this is one of the many reasons I respect this man: How to live happily with a great designer. I'm inclined to include this in my proposals as a guideline for client-designer relationships...some clients can really use it.

• 16 Jul 2006

  Free AJAX Online Course

  10-Week Free AJAX Programming (with Passion!) Online Course offered by Sang Shin beginning August 2, 2006. Prerequisites include...

• 16 Jul 2006

  SEO for Ethicisits

  Simple, straightforward advice on how to optimize your site for search engines without going to the Dark Side. The Power of Natural SEO

• 14 Jul 2006

  Magazine Fonts Revealed

  Font Shop goes to the newsstands and identifies the typographic mixes that make up a number of my type favorites including Wallpaper, Real Simple and Icon. Glyphs in the Glossies.

• 13 Jul 2006

  Password Exporter Extension for Firefox

  I haven't installed any Firefox extensions in a while but this one is an exception. "This extension allows you to export and import your saved passwords and rejected sites between computers. Your passwords will be exported to an XML file and can be encrypted." Password Exporter 1.0.3 via Lifehacker.

• 12 Jul 2006

  Eyetracking Forms

  Take an eye-tracking setup plus a bunch of forms and you have one set of interesting outcomes on optimal label format and position for online foms. Label Placement in Forms. My only quibble here is I don't know how long the form was that was used in the test (which is one reason why a designer may want to opt for applying labels beside their respective fields). Interesting read nonetheless.

• 10 Jul 2006

  Chopstick Design

  I'm especially fond of chopsticks as they are the embodiment of simplicity and minimalism. (I even made a circuit-based chopstick game that's a little over-engineered.) So I was delighted to see PingMag's article on portable chopsticks: Portable Chopstick Designs. I love the Muji design (natch!) most of all.

• 10 Jul 2006

  Simplicity is about focusing on fundamentals

  In Simplicity demands difficult choices, Jerry McGovern points to Apple and Google as examples of simplicity done right -- by focusing on the user experience for the most basic, common tasks.

• 9 Jul 2006

  Roll Your Own Eye Tracking Tests

  DIY eye tracking using Open Eyes, open source code: Real-Time Eye Tracking, found via Digg.

• 8 Jul 2006

  Microsoft's Vista Fonts Pose CSS Headaches

  Folks at NeoSmart Files take Microsoft's new fonts (see previous post on MSFT's new fonts) for a spin in the real world and find some prickly issues. CSS & Vista's New Fonts

• 8 Jul 2006

  Code Snippet Motherload

  Snipplr Code 2.0 is searchable community-driven database for source code snippets, similar to koders (mentioned last 11/04).

• 8 Jul 2006

  W3C's Draft Spec for Columns in CSS3

  The proposed spec outlines a more simplified approach to defining columns with new column properties such as column-count, column-width, column-rule and column-gap: Multi Column layout in CSS.

• 7 Jul 2006

  Impulsive Color

  According to a brief article from Dr. Stephen Juan for The Register, Red-orange, black, and royal blue attracts impulse buyers. Interestingly enough, when I worked in magazine publishing, red-orange covers often did outsell other color covers in newsstands.

• 6 Jul 2006

  Reading Behaviors on the Web

  Is reading on the Web really different? It's not all that different from offline reading behaviors, according to Caroline Jarrett, though, once again, context is the key.

• 6 Jul 2006

  SXSW Podcast

  The podcast for the SXSW panel I was on this past March, Does Your Blog Have a Business, is now finally available!

• 6 Jul 2006

  Security Firm Urges PC Users to Switch

  The BBC News and The Register each run stories endorsing Macs as they advise PC users to switch for security's sake. To help OS X newbies, here is a switcher's guide to Mac OS X software.

• 6 Jul 2006

  IT Support Humor

  Dave, this one's for you. The Register is taking votes for your favorite IT support anecdotes. (Found via Slashdot). For you and others out there who provide IT support, I salute you.

• 4 Jul 2006

  Hot Dates, Geek-Style

  Christian Montoya's tips for getting hot dates with CSS.

• 3 Jul 2006

  Feature Fatigue

  Gerry McGovern waxes about feature fatigue as a shortsighted strategy: Complexity delivers short-term gain but long-term pain.

• 3 Jul 2006

  How I Spend My Workdays and Holidays

  A pretty accurate pie chart of the time breakdown for web design/production: The breakdown of Modern Web Design.