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I saw the above trying to read an article on the New Statesmen site, looks like their PHP/MySQL combo bit the dust. Sometimes I wonder if putting a database beind a web site is like trying to fit a supermarket in your kitchen cabinets.
I’ll probably be mostly blogless for the next few days while I attend ac4d’s Living Surfaces conference in Chicago. I’m so psyched to see S. Joy Mountford speak again. Her talk with Brenda Laurel circa 1993 at NYU blew my mind and was the original influence on my information design career (along with Tog on Interface which after losing I’m happy to buy again).
I read Building Dynamic HTML GUIs recently and was disappointed. I bought it for the three chapters on information design, but those are mostly of survey of existing works, including an overly fundamental introduction to the field. The intention was great, but so much time is spent talking about command lines and ancient user interface history that it never progresses to material we really need. This may be a useful approach for an HTML book, or even an introductory JavaScript book, but I think someone diving into DHTML is more knowledgable and should be treated as such.
It’s a shame, because designers and programmers need to have a better understanding of 1) what’s possible with DHTML, 2) what the performance tradeoffs are (e.g. moving layers suck up processor cycles, loading hidden layers sucks bandwidth…), and 3) all the usual usability concerns that must be re-addressed now that stuff is flying around the screen and what not.
Funny, I go for days barely updating this blog and wonder where I ever had the time, and then there’s weeks like now where I find something relevant in everything I see.
Since time stamps accompany each of these posts, let’s hope my manager considers blogging a productive creative outlet.
eaton thinks my blog “…has a nice mix of design, opinion, and personality.” I’m blushing.
Just “met” Jen via email, with a common link that we both practice Unitarian Universalism in New Jersey.
Reading through her blog I thought it’s a shame UUs have to qualify ourselves (“No, no, really, it’s not like other religions…”). I feel the same way. I wonder if this is the effect of the religious right (‘What do you mean you’re religious, you don’t even believe in Jesus Christ!”), the relative lack of spirituality these days (“What’r you some kind of religious freak?”), or if UUs always felt this way (“What the hell is Unitarian Universalism, you freak?”) ?
Comments on eMatter at eMatter. ev also likes it.
I just tried downloading my published eMatter (Sleeping with The Enemy: Learning Windows for Mac Users ) and have these nit-pickings:
That said, the rest of the purchasing and access process is about as friendly as it could be.
I just realized it’s kinda similar to what Northern Light does in offering Special Collections of content for sale. One major difference is distribution. NL simply acts as an additional distributor for publishers, whereas Fatbrain is a central clearinghouse.
Another major difference is the visitors’ intent at the site. NL’s visitors are searching for information, and probably surprised that the search engine is returning documents for sale. Whereas Fatbrain’s visitors are in a bookstore and ready to buy content, they just have to adjust to the medium in which the content is delivered (hard copy via mail vs. download). I think Fatbrain’s is the easier sell.
I just discovered eatonweb and thought how I’d like to come back here on a regular basis, but my current method of bookmarking – an HTML page, doesn’t allow for easy updates. “Just use yer darn Bookmarks/Favorites!” my readers (aka my alter ego) berate me, but I like having all that idea/navigation stuff in one place all blended together in one happy information space. Besides, these days I’m bi-browser.
Mind fuck: I need a meta-blog! A blog composed of blogs! Update your navigation as easily as your ideas! Excuse me, I must go request this.
Ouch. Tufte is such a respected figure in the information design world, this review of his book almost hurts. But I’ve been thinking the same thing for a while, prompted by a colleague at work. Here’s some juicy bits:
“Tufte is a showman—a magician. He puts on a performance and we applaud it. What we applaud is Tufte himself, rather than the information design he presents us with.”
“You can enjoy its splendour, but you cannot see how the information artefacts he shows actually work for people in their context of use. Nor does his exhibition teach you how to do what Tufte does, any more than looking at a beautifully stuffed animal in a display case will teach you how to be a taxidermist, zoologist, or ecologist.”
“He frames illustrations with ‘instructions’ on how the illustrations are to be viewed, leaving no uncertainty for the audience. Thus primed, the audience then ‘looks’ at the illustrations and behold: the evidence for the truth of Tufte’s argument is there before their eyes! Great magic, and one is left with the conviction that the illustrations ‘work’ just as Tufte told us they would.”
Found this via eatonweb.
Train’s Meet Virginia – currently on infinite headphone rotation.
They’re compared a lot to REM, but to me they’re much more Spin Doctor-ish. It’s rare when REM is not depressing (not necessarily a bad thing) and when they’re fun it’s with this inside-joke thing happening (e.g. Shiny Happy People). The Spin Doctors are saying “let’s tell the song version of a joke and get the listener to smile and laugh with each listen.”
How to Avoid Foolish Consistency – a more reasonable and reasoned point of view on consistency in UI design than Jakob Nielsen’s do-what-other-sites-are-doing-even-though-they-suck-ass-too approach. Here’s the bottom line:
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Astounding! I just heard Geoffrey Canada at the First Unitarian Society of Plainfield, NJ (FUSP). Geoffrey’s the president and CEO of the Rheedlen Centers in NYC. His talk was about youth violence in America, tapping into his personal counseling experience. Besides being a great speaker, he is able to succeed in and bridge the gap between the world of public policy and the world of street violence in Harlem.
His main points:
Interestingly, Canada is a martial arts black belt and teaches this skill, but this is not a contradiction. He embraces power and self-expression without embracing violence. He earns respect for his strength without fighting.
I’m excited to read his book, Fist Stick Knife Gun : A Personal History of Violence in America.
Amazing! The MetaFlash: 3D system is very cool – what I wish QuickTime VR had become. They use a photographic technique to create a 3D image of real-life objects. It’s actually worth downloading the 500K plug-in just to check it out, and I normally have a low threshold for plug-ins.
bike.com’s new site. It’ll be interesting to see how this works, especially as I may be working on a similar project soon.
This is another site, like boo.com, that started advertising way ahead of launch. That may work well to generate hype for movies, but for web sites you expect it to be working when you get there. It generates the same feeling as clicking on a link only to be notified on the resulting page that it’s under construction. AAArrrgh!
Just modified my nav bar there on the right so my favorite links are on top so I can get at them more easily. In general there are lots of ways we can organize our frequently accessed information so we can get at it easier and encourage us to take advantage of this gorgeous resource of a network.