August 2006 Archives

• 31 Aug 2006

  Great Typography = Design

  I really relished SvN's commentary on Penguin’s Great Ideas = great design. I love great typography and am sickened when a client (or two) look at type-only directions as being bereft...

• 31 Aug 2006

  All The News That's Fit to Air

  A publicity photo of new CBS anchor, Katie Couric, was apparently Photoshopped to make her look slimmer. Hmm, it's not like her petite frame doesn't fit in a widescreen. CBS Makes New Anchor Katie Couric Slimmer, via The Raw Feed.

• 29 Aug 2006

  Smart Letter Opener

  Epistola is no just a gorgeous sliver of a letter opener, it can also determine the weight of your mail.

• 29 Aug 2006

  You can take it(unes) with you

  It's the next best thing to an iPod: Musicast: Broadcast Your Music.

• 27 Aug 2006

  WDW Presentations

  Google videos of presentations from Web Design World 2006, Seattle includes Jeffrey Veen on Designing Next Gen Web Apps and Molly Holzschlag on Designing for Web 2.0: From Markup to Microformats, from Semantics to Ajax.

• 27 Aug 2006

  Location-Based Bus Ads

  GPS-powered geo-targeted ads: London Bus Ads Change as Locations Do.

• 25 Aug 2006

  Packaging Font ID, part 2

  Another FontShop instalment on identifying fonts used on product packaging. This time around, they roam the aisles of Target: Design Outside the Box.

• 24 Aug 2006

  Shorty: Improving URL Abbreviation Tools

  In the same vein as URL(x), Shorty produces human readable shortened URLs, but with a twist: you host it so you can track clicks and aren't dependent on someone else's server. Brought to you by Khoi Vinh and Reed Morse. Shorty.

• 24 Aug 2006

  PMS to RGB Decoder Ring

  A lookup table for converting Pantone colors to Hex values. Color Codes Matching Chart HTML (Pantone, CMYK, RGB Hex). Now if only someone would do the same for TOYO.

• 24 Aug 2006

  Six-Sided Design

  My favorite mentor calls it "six-sided design". BusinessWeek's sensible tips on package design, The Art of Boxing, applies to just about anything in a box -- not just games.

• 22 Aug 2006

  Boxes and...not much else

  A few popular websites shown with their contents stripped: Internet Soul Portraits. Sad thing is, some sites are just ugly right down to their bones.

• 22 Aug 2006

  IE7 CSS Changes

  IE has made "over 200 behavior changes" which includes fixing a number of bugs from Position Is Everything. Oh joy! Well, that is, if only folks would stop using earlier versions of IE altogether. IE Blog: Details on our CSS changes for IE7.

• 22 Aug 2006

  Today's Funny Site: 5ives

  5ives is from Merlin Mann, the guy who brought you 43 Folders. He has my sense of humor and my taste in music. (And, from the looks of his site, shares a similar minimalist aesthetic!)

• 18 Aug 2006

  CSS3 Sneak Peek

  I got pretty excited about the proposed CSS3 column spec. Here is a sneak peek at a few more proposed features in CSS3: CSS3 Preview. Especially exciting: rounded borders! But, do we really need CSS support for text drop shadows?

• 17 Aug 2006

  Infographics for Everyday People

  Indexed features a wealth of charts and visual aids for life's common conundrums. Via Core77.com.

• 17 Aug 2006

  CSS Optimizers Tested

  Blogging Pro does a great job of testing a handful of free CSS optimizers so you don't have to: CSS Optimization: Make Your Sites Load Faster for Free

• 17 Aug 2006

  del.icio.us Thumbnails

  The popular bookmarking site, del.icio.us, now sports thumbnails. Nice technical feat but I'm not sure if it helps clutter and other usability issues.

• 16 Aug 2006

  DIY Heatmaps

  Create your own heatmap based on user clicks. The Definitive Heatmap

• 16 Aug 2006

  SERPs: Placement Matters

  Most AOL users tend to click on the first page of search results according to Davor Strehar @ Europe: AOL: 90% clicks on the first page, 4% on second. Wonder how much of this can be extrapolated to other search engines?

• 14 Aug 2006

  Hilarious Error Messages

  Screen captures of error message head-scratchers: Pop-up Potpourri: Announced By God.

• 13 Aug 2006

  Google Tries to Micro-Manage Language

  Odd move by Google who recently sent legal papers to media organizations which forbade the use of google as a verb. Google, the verb, was officially accepted into the Oxford English dictionary last June -- a feat that most brand experts could only dream of. To google or not to google? It's a legal question.

• 13 Aug 2006

  Retrospective of Past Operating Systems

  The Evolution of Desktops via Room 101. Gee, even in black and white, Mac's OS2 still looks pretty darned good by today's standards.

• 12 Aug 2006

  Quotes on Design

  For those who think knowing Photoshop automatically makes one a designer then, please, read Thoughts on Design and be enlightened. For the rest of us, read on and reaffirm what you already know. As Jane Jacobs put it so beautifully: "Design is people."

• 8 Aug 2006

  More Fun in the Supermarket

  Earlier, FontShop identified a number of popular magazine typefaces. This time, they've hit the supermarket and uncovered the typefaces found in packaging. Tasty Type. Also, if you missed it last time, Typographica identified a handful of Threadless T-shirt fonts.

• 8 Aug 2006

  Free Font

  FF Milo Regular available for free this month from FontShop. Also, Charriot Deluxe bitmap font available for free August 8 only via MyFonts.com.

• 8 Aug 2006

  Ode to Helvetica

  The ultimate tribute to that ubiquitous typeface: Helvetica, a documentary film by Gary Hustwit.

• 8 Aug 2006

  AOL's Mea Culpa...Sort Of

  AOL's an incredibly rigid, top-heavy organization where nothing ever gets done without approvals from several executives. I'm not buying this. AOL apologises over search data 'screw-up'

• 6 Aug 2006

  AOL Releases Search Data from 500k Users

  Boy, AOL sure likes to piss people off...AOL Research exposes data; we've got a little sick feeling.

• 5 Aug 2006

  The "At Sign"

  In Holland it's called "apestaart" (monkey tail) and in Germany it's known as "Klammeraffe" (hanging monkey). In France, it's either "arobas" or "petit escargot" (small snail). But in English, it's simply called the rather colorless "at sign". Interesting backstory on the web's darling symbol: A Sign of the TImes and Symbols.com: the @ symbol.

• 5 Aug 2006

  Overheard at Panera

  There's a Panera (no, not Pantera) within walking distance from my house. I love their muffies (muffins without the less-favored bottoms), their asiago cheese bagels and, of course, the free wi-fi. So when I read about how Jeff Jarvis made Panera his office for a week and became an accidental spectator in the Panera theater, I chuckled. I've overheard quite a few NDAs breached while I've been trying to do some work there myself. Thank you, Panera.

• 3 Aug 2006

  IMs, Texting More Popular Than Email Among Teens

  E-mail losing ground to IM, text messaging, according to an Associated Press article, presumably because "young people [are] driving [the] switch to instant gratification communication." Huh? Last time I checked, I can delay and selectively respond to IMs and text messages the same way I do with emails. I'd say the reason IMs and text messages are gaining popularity is they're most similar to a dialog format. Once again, MSM misses the point.

• 3 Aug 2006

  Saffer's Intro to Interaction Design

  An interview with Adaptive Path's Dan Saffer offers a historical tour of the evolving field of interaction design. Interaction Design: An Introduction.

• 3 Aug 2006

  Confirmed: AOL to Lay Off 5,000 Employees

  Not quite as extensive as originally rumored in Valleywag but significant staffing cuts nonetheless: AOL to slash payroll by 5,000 employees.

• 3 Aug 2006

  Lost in the Supermarket

  While shopping for food at the supermarket the other day, I was surprised to hear The Clash's "Lost in the Supermarket" being played on their Muzak selection. I certainly appreciated hearing a tune that I could identify with but also began to wonder why supermarkets in general haven't changed in decades. First, there's the shopping cart. Certainly IDEO has considered that shopping carts can be improved upon. Then, In Austria, MPREIS, billed as the "seriously sexy supermarket" has really upended...