Found while surfing the intertubes. Via linesandcolors.com
I've recently started using the Mixel App, a social collaging app for the iPad. I did a whole Mixel alphabet, including some glyphs. It recently got mentioned on the Mixel blog. Here is one letter, and you can see the complete set on this Mixel Pinterest Board. It was also featured on Quipsologies.
University publishers sell facts. They sell information. They sell opinions and theories. Until recently, that was all packaged in a bound book, but we all know that model is changing. Now, content is consumed on tablets and screens, as well as books. While a lot of the old publishing houses are sitting on mountains of information, they struggle to change the model for delivering it.
A thread running through all of that is their online presence, or lack of it. Without a robust digital home, the struggle to sell their information gets even harder. The big retailers have poured huge amounts of money into their websites, and most have the revenue to show for it.
Websites need to be viewed as a product, not simply as a place to sell other products. The information for sale is a part of that product.
Posters by Anneke Short, a London-based designer, listing what people say to designers. I'd add "Make it pop."
A high-gloss, stainless steel, nine foot tall and two-and-a-half foot wide faceted chandelier. via @Mocoloco.
I just got done with the WebVisions NYC Conference. On Wednesday, the morning session was on Adaptive Web Design, and run by Aaron Gustafson. While some of the points about mobile first are things I already am working on, I was really intrigued by the ARIA roles section of the talk. One attendee asked who, if anyone, was in charge of defining and guiding the ARIA spec, which I thought was a great question. I think we are all a bit wary of the browser prefixes and deprecated HTML bits. Aaron quickly described how a steering committee determined the roles, how they were to be used, etc. That seemed to satisfy people, although it makes me realize I need to do more research on them.
The second day was filled with speakers. While the morning sessions seemed to be mostly focused on the technology and nuts and bolts of web design, the afternoon was much more about the philosophy and mental processes behind what we do. Russ Unger's session on Core UX principles from Jim Henson, was especially fun. I guess with a show that has been so popular for so long, you can apply its success to a variety of different fields, but the analogy did work.
The last day was lots of speakers again, with lots of topics. Crystal Beasley's talk, 13 Signs your Site Needs a UX Exorcism, really hit home. I'm not sure if it is funny or sad that the very things I was going to start doing at work, were the very things she recommended people NOT do when it came to their UX. The whole day was a lot to process, but I came away with more energy and excitement for what I do, and lots of ideas on how to do it.
I felt for a while that my site was a bit out of touch with what I wanted it to do. Although I had an articles/blog section, it rarely got touched, and lots of things I wanted to say on here never got said. I started fiddling around with code and design ideas in earnest at the end of last year, to try and fix this. I had a few key goals for this site refresh.
First, I wanted to be able to put up short, readable blog posts on the topics I love- web design, code, Nigeria, architecture, history, you name it.
Second, I needed a simpler, more streamlined aesthetic for my site as a whole. I was generally happy with the way my portfolio sections and pages were, I just needed to strip away some unnecessary bits. I think I've done that.
Third, I made the site responsive, in a way. In opting for a refresh over a complete redesign, I decided to use media queries to tweak the code, making it ready for tablets and smart-phones. It is not truly responsive just yet, but I wanted to go live and continue to work on it, rather than waiting forever to launch something.
Anyway, those are the major reasons behind this site refresh. It is a work in progress, and will require a lot more love and time, but I think I have accomplished my goals so far.
A short list of a few of the strange and wonderful names I came across in Japan.
There are 10 candy names, and 10 band/musician names. Most of them are from 2010 and earlier, so the list might be a bit dated at this point. (This was originally posted as a jQuery experiment, and is reproduced here in a simpler form.)
Which is a band, and which is candy?
- HiChew
- Arashi
- B’z
- Black Black
- Home Made Kazoku
- Ramune
- Pocky
- Xylish
- Glay
- Pocari Sweat
- Tha Blue Herb
- Crunky
- Toppo
- Rip Slyme
- Kreva
- Orange Range
- Alfort
- Bump of Chicken
