Page 27 of 33 (323 total articles)
  • August 9, 2007 in Web Design Culture

    I'm Addicted to Changing My Desktop Wallpaper

    If you’re anything like me, you are never completely happy with your desktop wallpaper. There’s always a better JPG just beyond the horizon. It doesn’t make any sense but it’s true. Possibly to my detriment, I recently discovered desktopography.net. It has a limited selection but every image is noteworthy. You’ll at least have enough choices to rotate for a few months. Here’s my current pick.

  • August 7, 2007 in Business & Process

    Stop Tweaking Your Projects: The 80/20 Rule

    A huge part of being both efficient and fulfilled in the NewMedia business is the ability to stop tweaking projects. It seems like every time we finish a project, there is always something that we think we can improve. This is a slippery slope that always ends in tears (take it from me). The 80/20 rule is a great way to put an end to unnecessary tweaking. It simply states that 20% of your effort is used to bring a piece of work to 80% perfection. So next time you are tempted to tweak, remember that once you pass that 20% mark, your efficiency drops dramatically. It will take 80% of your effort to bring the project the other 20% to perfection. If you are worried about not “giving 100%” like your high school coach told you to, don’t. You will be helping your clients spend their money more wisely by taking this attitude.

  • August 3, 2007 in Web Design Culture

    Web Design-isms: 7 Surefire Styles that Work

    This is just an interesting post on Vitamin about Web Desing-isms. It’s soooo true, yet it conjures up a feeling of pride over your industry isms.

  • July 31, 2007 in Business & Process

    Principle vs. Rule Driven Business

    I have found that creating very strict rules for how I run my business ends up having the opposite effect of what I intend. In fact I think I have actually been pretty arrogant in thinking that my rules could account for every future hurdle I might encounter. On the opposite side of the coin is a business that is run mamby pamby by fleeting whims which is just as bad. Somewhere in the middle is a principle driven business that is both controlled and flexible. It’s actually pretty easy to get into this mindset. First, lay out a very short list of principles by which you would like to run your business. Then whenever you are about to make a business decision, just ask yourself if your decision is in line with the principles that drive you business. Okay, maybe that’s an over simplification of the matter but you get the picture.

  • July 27, 2007 in Product Reviews

    Giving Your Clients Control Over Content and Forcing Them to Keep it Clean

    Of course, by “clean”, I am referring to keeping the HTML clean. One of the biggest problems I run into when giving content control to a client is that they inevitably ruin my beautiful standards compliant XHTML templates by cramming ugly code right into the middle of it. It’s not their fault. They don’t know anything about HTML and every line of ugly code they are generating is being produced behind the scenes by a WYSIWYG editor. Never fear; there may be a solution. WYMeditor claims to force standards compliant code in an embeddable WYSIWYG editor. Up to this point, I have been using the open source FCKeditor for all of my projects but I am considering giving WYMeditor a try just to see if I can cut down on the ogre code.

  • July 24, 2007 in Business & Process

    Particls: An annoying desktop version of NetVibes

    Particls is an interesting take on the whole NetVibes Phenomenon. It prompts you with real time alerts when changes occur on your favorite sites or RSS feeds. Sounds cool, huh? I don�t think so. I�m going to stick with NetVibes or PageFlakes for the same reason I canceled my Yahoo! IM account and stopped getting email on my cell phone � Sporatic and unpredicatble alerts equal low productivity. On-demand is the way to go.

  • July 20, 2007 in Web Design Culture

    A Really Bad Design Rip Off

    31Three is a design studio with a popular blog I happen to read. Recently, they came across another group�s web site with a strikingly similar design to their own. I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but this is laughable Check it out Here on Flickr.

  • July 17, 2007 in Web Design Culture

    The Semantic Web is a Utopian Dream... Welcome to Reality

    When Sir Tim Berners-Lee and W3C consortium first developed the concepts that would become the foundation for the semantic web, they were trying to address a serious issue concerning the web. Namely, that the potential of the convergence of knowledge found on the web could not be fully realized because of its organic and unpredictable nature. In other words, we had a big ugly mass of information and no easy way to index and share it. The Utopian solution of the W3C consortium essentially involves the cooperation of all web site designers in conforming to a set of rules that will make the information on their sites easy to parse, index, share, etc. For those of you heavily involved in the world of web design, this gospel is all too familiar. Of course, I do my best to design by standards but ultimately, that system is doomed to fail for two key reasons: 1. Technology is unpredictable. As soon as you settle into the standards that apply to one technology, a completely new one comes along. 2. Designers are unpredictable. Some are too new to know about standards and some are just too lazy to care. All accessibility issues aside, the point is that we are much better off preaching the cause of specific and limited information exchange in technologies like RSS. We need easy-to-use lightweight means of getting only the most pertinent information out. We don�t need a Utopian revolution.

  • July 15, 2007 in Web Design Culture

    Rising Postage Costs: Death for Independent Printed Publications

    Postage has gone up in price several times in the last few years but what you may not know is that the last increase included an additional increase for magazines. For many small independent printed publications, unfortunately, this may be the beginning of the end. However, necessity is the mother of invention as they say. So as a member of the new media community, I would like to encourage my colleagues to use this hurdle as an incentive to push failing publications to the web. An internet model will sound like a great alternative to shutting down completely. Let’s face it; we are the future and this blow from the post office may just be the shock that forces the media industry to get creative with their delivery.

  • July 12, 2007 in Product Reviews

    The "MyStickies" Firefox Extension Is an Excellent Collaboration Tool

    The world of online collaboration tools can be pretty hard to navigate especially if you are in the new media business. Everyone has a favorite and there is a new one hitting the streets just about every day. When it comes right down to it, though, the actual task they are all trying to accomplish is pretty simple: Show what everyone is thinking and doing. Right? Okay, sometimes it might be a little more complicated than that, but not often. So try using the MyStickies Firefox extension to share information about your web projects. I’ve been using it with my wife over the last week or so while she does some copy editing for me on a couple of sites. I have to say that I can’t imaging a smoother way to communicate about specific details on a web site. She adds virtual post-its to the site and I can log onto the site and see all of her comments and even leave responses. It’s always the simple ideas that work the best. This is a simple as it gets.

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