Snow in Brooklyn | Cheery Observations
Some gorgeous shots of the NY snowscape
Content design with cojones « Made by Many
Fantastic article on evolving web design in the context of the iPad; as I’ve written before, it’s really exciting to see how UX will change in the next few years, especially if the desktop metaphor dies away.
I think it’s important to point out that even in the realm of blogs / CMS, we’re already starting to see a paradigm shift in how articles are presented. One of the best examples, I think, is Jason Santa Maria’s blog . The consistent nav structure, combined with the individual page layouts and designs, is an indication of how blogs and “structured” content can easily change as we enter a new stage of web UX.
Revised Font Stack
A Way Back takes a fresh look at default font stack, first citing statistics about pre-installed fonts, then making recommendations for popular sites like Yahoo and Facebook.
Good read, and the layout of the article itself is pretty great.
As a concept, multitasking goes beyond just background processes. There’s an aspect of multitasking which is purely visual. For example, when developing a website, I’ll often put the Photoshop file next to my browser, for comparison.
In a roundabout way, this means the iPad already has multitasking. Consider apps like Mail where, on the iPad, the list view and detail view have been combined to one screen. Users can not only read an email, but also instantly see when the previous email in that thread was sent, who sent it, and delete it—all without losing their place. To me, this is a form of multitasking. Extending this split screen idea to the app level presents a difficult UX challenge, but could be a better approach for multitasking than the typical “windowed” metaphor used on desktops.
I’m absolutely ecstatic to see how user interfaces evolve in the coming years. I really think the concepts of “files”,”folders”, and “windows” will start to disappear as an app-focused, cloud-based web evolves.
Day of the Tiger: How Newspapers, Networks, and News Aggregators Played Tiger Woods on Friday | Danwin: Dan Nguyen, in short
Fascinating visualization of how major news organizations and websites handled Tiger coverage.
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I wrote that article in 2007, and I am stunned, but not entirely surprised, to hear that three years later “the vast majority” of so-called programmers who apply for a programming job interview are unable to write the smallest of programs. To be clear, hard is a relative term — we’re not talking about complicated, Google-style graduate computer science interview problems. This is extremely simple stuff we’re asking candidates to do. And they can’t. It’s the equivalent of attempting to hire a truck driver and finding out that 90 percent of the job applicants can’t find the gas pedal or the gear shift.
Coding Horror: The Non-Programming Programmer
It’s really amazing to me that the gaping market hole for talented web developers and software engineers hasn’t been plugged. It’s the only area of the economy (of which I’m aware) that has remained unscathed by the downturn.
Why I Hate Your Web App
Some interesting thoughts on how to make your web app stand out.
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When I do long division or even multiplication I don’t try to remember the intermediate numbers. Long ago I learned to write them down. Because of paper and pencil I am “smarter” in arithmetic. In a similar manner I now no longer to try remember facts, or even where I found the facts. I have learned to summon them on the Internet. Because the Internet is my new pencil and paper, I am “smarter” in factuality. But my knowledge is now more fragile. For every accepted piece of knowledge I find, there is within easy reach someone who challenges the fact. Every fact has its anti-fact. The Internet’s extreme hyperlinking highlights those anti-facts as brightly as the facts. Some anti-facts are silly, some borderline, and some valid. You can’t rely on experts to sort them out because for every expert there is an equal and countervailing anti-expert. Thus anything I learn is subject to erosion by these ubiquitous anti-factors.
The Technium: The 2-Billion-Eyed Intermedia
An answer to the question of “How has the internet changed the way you think” - fascinating reading, definitely check out the whole article. I have also found the very way in which I conceive the world, or think about problems, drastically changing of late. I’m not sure if that change is a good thing or not, but the change itself is very real.
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NBC points live video and audio on halfpipe athletes and coaches celebrating a gold medal with White and is surprised to hear some profanity? Wouldn’t it have been more of a surprise if there wasn’t any?
I’m a big advocate for big interface elements so Trent Walton’s overview of what’s to come in web design, with the shift from mouse clicks to finger taps, makes a lot of sense.
