Entries Tagged 'Web Design' ↓

Dial-Up Revelations, by Meg Hourihan on the O’Reilly Network. A nice look at web standards and alternate access methods to network data from the perspective of someone away from high speed Internet access for an extended period of time.

a followup about mild upgrade notices on websites that are standards-compliant, that is, do not work well in NS 4.7 and the like. I decided against using such a beastie when I put up this design and I have had no complaints.

Jon Udell’s Telling A Story - The Weblog as a Project-Management Tool through calebos.org and CamWorld in the past couple of days, and as was the case with both of them, I found the article very compelling. I’ve frankly had enough of talking and thinking about grand schemes of leveraging heavy tech in the service of getting things done. It’s far preferable, to me, to bring things to the basic level: email and a simple website. Much more than that is overkill, and mitigates against adoption of whatever tool is under consideration - which makes it (whatever “it” might be) a no-go. As the article says so clearly, the tools are secondary, and I will add, boring. It’s the work, and more importantly the people doing the work, that are important. And the quickest, easiest possible way to help that happen is the best way to try. That’s the hidden power of weblogs for personal publishing and in this context, I think.

I went by a website that used to showcase a dozen ways that European types weren’t quite up-to-date about how to present stuff on the web. That’s changed - the Financial Times website is fantastic. All free - and no reg - the best journalism you’ll find in the world outside of the NYTimes or the Economist - it’s all good. And they toned it down - they used to use their trademark orange as the bgcolor to every page.

In related news: Looks OK, but it’s barely functional. If it looked spectacular that’d be one thing - but on my peppy little frankenstein monster of a computer on ADSL, it doesn’t cut it. Someone at Wallpaper* bought the line that goes, “web design sucks… here, use this all-flash interface.”

The brain-deadest app going. But it works, I grudgingly admit, and is pretty much a standard. All this for a big presentation tomorrow in Philadelphia. So - not much blogging today. I did, however, read that Roger Black hilarity.

On one hand, he’s right - there is a lot of crappy design around. But at the same time, it’s terribly obvious he hasn’t looked hard for the gems. Of which there are many. Or - even worse - it may be that his aesthetic and design sense are so entrenched in non-wired worlds that he doesn’t really understand modern web design.

And that stuff about “the Internet is not a venue for storytelling” is just sad.

do like to work with me, notwithstanding my putting my grubby mitts on their monitor screens. Not being a designer myself, I suggest, only, I don’t tell. I rely on their expertise.

Designer (by ICQ): Michael, how’s this mockup look?
Me: OK - I’ll come to your desk.
I go to his/her desk.
Designer: So I think I’ve added everything we need - what do you think?
Me: It’s a great start. But what do you think about moving this [smooshes finger on monitor, pointing] over here [smooshes finger on monitor, pointing], making that [smooshes finger on monitor, pointing] more curvy; ditching this [smooshes finger on monitor, pointing] frame entirely, and making…
Stricken look on Designer’s face.
Me: Oh. Sorry. I just got fingerprints all over your monitor, didn’t I? Oops.
[inspired by yesterday's Harrumph! entry.]