Category :: Design
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A funny thing happened on the way to using web standards
As you may or may not have noticed, I converted my blog over to what I believe is more in the spirit of using semantically correct, web standard XHTML + CSS code. But currently, my site won’t validate. Why? Well, for few reasons, and any answers that anyone has would be greatly appreciated.…
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An open letter to Jakob Nielsen
Mr. Nielsen, I am writing to you because I have many issues with your latest Alertbox, Why Consumer Products Have Inferior User Experience, and quite frankly, with much of what you have written in the recent past. I would like to address these points and I hope you take this letter to heart.…
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Art Center Design Conference, Part I
Last week, I was lucky enough to attend the first ever Art Center Design Conference in Pasadena, California. The Art Center College of Design, for those of you who don’t know, is a one of the more prestigious design schools in the U.S., consistently turning out some of the best designers on the planet. They recently opened a south campus, and to celebrate the expansion, held a conference similar to what one might find at TED. The conference’s inaugural subject was “Stories from the Source.” They had a large range of designers, engineers and big thinkers discussing d…
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Art Center Design Conference, Part II
The start of the day brought the MaxiMog. This is quite the cool research vehicle that can traverse any terrain on the planet, and maybe even Mars. Read more about the vehicle if you are into total and complete research and scientific geekdom. (Please refer to Art Center Design Conference, Part I for the context of this article.)…
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Art Center Design Conference, Part III
A long time overdue, but here is the final installment of my trip report to the Art Center Design Conference in Pasadena, California. (For a complete report, read Part I and Part II.) The above image is an original concept car from 1936, provided by GM Motors. The car was something to behold — pure automotive beauty.…
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Avoid results oriented thinking
There’s a concept I was introduced to while being chastised for some posts about poker a couple of years ago. The concept was something found in game theory, specifically as it applies to poker. However, the more I exercise the concept, the more I realize it can apply to a lot of design issues and what types of strategies you can use to get the job done. The concept is called “avoid results oriented thinking.” Specifically, the concept as practiced means to work using the best known process or methodology, but to not get caught up by the specific results achieved while using…
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Design Eye for the Usability Guy
Last Monday, to much fanfare, Nielsen published the second part to his guidelines on the display of links. I was as shocked as anyone by it. He actually made sense! Well, color me paranoid. I’m at loss. Beyond the awkward language, beyond the retina-burning presentation, and beyond a few misused design terms, I actually got from the King of Usability what I have been asking for all this time. Life is good sometimes. So, as you can see, I’ve implemented a few of the suggestions found in Nielsen’s Alertbox. I have added dotted underlines to my links, even though they look li…
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Design Matters
I’m not exactly sure what sparks the random appearance of articles maligning design and the job of the designer that appears from time to time in the high-technology sphere, but these types of discussions are becoming a bit much to bear. The examples that seem to appear on sites that attract a large reading audience must end. Let’s review just a few of them. Robert Scoble put himself into the hot seat recently with a rash of posts about his opinions of design. Gerry McGovern seems to put design in the backseat, placing content above all else, implying design is somehow secondary.…
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DxF Design Exercise: Google’s Search Results
I am intrigued by the CSS Zen Garden. It’s a great exercise, and a great contribution to the design community. It got me thinking about other sorts of design exercises that could be useful to folks out there looking to stretch their design muscles. So in the same vein, I’m starting a series of DxF Design Exercises. To start, the project I’ve chosen is Google’s search results page. This is a page that has become fairly ubiquitous to anyone using the world wide web. So ubiquitous in fact, that to make any changes to it you might quickly realize how hard it is to wor…
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DxF Design Exercise: Google’s Search Results (Part II)
This article discusses the second iteration on my part in the Google Search Results redesign exercise. I find that stepping away for a bit of time after a first pass on any design is a good thing to do. (That is of course if you have the time to do so.) It’s easier to see what really works, and what only appeared to work after hours of coding, design, little sleep and too much coffee.…
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Et tu, Brute?
I have to admit, I am somewhat at a loss at what to say over the recent Wall Street Journal coverage of Greg Storey’s A Better Tighty Whitey. (Maybe not given how long this piece turned out.) The first thought that came to mind was, “What a cluster[expletive].” Full disclosure: I am editing out foul language from my posts not because I am a prude, but because I prefer to make sure my articles get past overly aggressive filter software now being found in certain overly aggressive academic institutions. Anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy a few choice [expletives] as much …
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For the greater good of Design, p.1
This post will not score any points for me at home considering Donna loves Trebuchet. I want every one of you to know how much I’m sacrificing for the greater good of Design. It has to be said.…
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For the greater good of Design, p.2
I just purchased BBEdit 8.0 a few hours ago. The new tab and windowing management was enough to get me to upgrade. I’ve long hated the window management issues with BBEdit ever since I had to stop using Homesite when I switched back over to a Mac. I’m loving the new program in only a few hours of use. I applaud Bare Bones for listening to users and improving this great tool. But I have to say it. You know I have to say it.…
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Gurus v. Bloggers, Post Game Show
Just thought I’d give everyone an update on what they were saying in the locker room about the first ever Gurus v. Bloggers Design Shootout.…
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Gurus v. Bloggers, Round 1
Welcome to the first official Gurus v. Bloggers Design Shootout. What exactly is that? I’m glad you asked! I’ve gathered examples of web sites of a few well known — and highly respected — web, design, and technology Gurus, along with a few web sites of a few well known Bloggers in the design sector. What are we going to do with them? Have them duke it out, Celebrity Deathmatch Style! (Ok… without the fun claymation or witty writing. You get what you pay for.) Playing for the Gurus: Richard Saul Wurman, Bruce Tognazzi, Peter Merholz, Jakob Nielsen, Edward Tuf…
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Gurus v. Bloggers, Round 2
You begged. You pleaded. You tried to bribe me to pimp your work in this next post. (Ok… so no one tried to bribe me, but I can be bought. Hint hint.) So I’ve toiled away to bring you an all new round of the world’s leading experts in the field of high-technology design versus those down in the trenches fighting the good fight day in and day out. Yes, ladies and gents, at the risk of alienating all those folk whom I might have to work with in the future, it’s time for an all new Gurus v. Bloggers. And hey, check out the purty new logo, courtesy of master craftsman Jon…
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I get by with a little help from my friends
Well, one way to work through a problem is to live with it for far too long. Such was the case with my last design of DxF. I had many good intentions, but they just weren’t working out. The “em” based layout was creating many layout problems across browsers, to the point where I’d given up on it. Block elements were a bit all over the place. I wasn’t getting any traction organizing the grid or punching visuals. And the worst part about it all is that looking at it every day was getting in the way of my other work. My brain was locking up. So, I took the easy ro…
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I would RTFM if there was an FM to FR
This is going to be a massive rant. I kid you not. There will be much swearing in this article. Much swearing. There will be vitriol. There will be abusive language. This is going to be R-rated stuff. I’m about to let loose, so if you read this article, you have been duly warned. Do not read further unless you can handle it. Or if you can excuse my language.…
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Interface Design Issues #01: The Bloggies Ballot
It seems too often these days that cutting edge design in the high-technology arena can be set back by simple problems occurring at the interface design level, problems that are a blend of visual, information and interaction design issues. Simple problems become cumulative in their negative impact on a design. So much so that in discussions with marketing, engineering and usability coworkers, they are transformed from small problems into larger more general design problems. They become bigger than they are in reality. As such, they may cause everyone but the designer to want to perform an in-…
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Interface Design Issues #02: Consistency and standards
Consistency is one of the golden rules of interface design. There can be no question about this. It’s important on many levels. When applied effectively in a design, consistency creates a foundation for a user to interact with the product in a predictable manner. Consistency creates usage patterns, offering users the opportunity to succeed in the face of an unknown feature encountered for the first time. Consistency is one of the factors that made the Macintosh such a great computer when it was first introduced in the 80s. Users learned that Print was Cmd-P and lived in the File menu. …
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Interface Design Issues #03: The persona crutch
I’m going to go out on a limb on this one. I’m going to go on record and say publicly that I personally dislike personas. In fact, I’d have to be honest and say I really hate using them, I hate writing them, and I seriously hate how popular they’ve become. There, I said it. Shoot me. However, the reasons I dislike personas happens to be for more personal reasons as a designer than the real usefulness or function personas serve. I fully understand the value personas bring to the table on a project for many people in the entire business organization. I also fully underst…
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Interface Design Issues #04: Leave no user behind
In the span of less than two weeks, I have been asked by no less than five people how I approach design projects that require users to make large adjustments or changes to how they use a product to which they have become accustomed. What is it that you need to do to help make those types of projects successful? I have been asked this because I have been behind design efforts in the past where I had made these types of changes for products used by millions of users. What keeps coming to the forefront in my mind when I provide an answer so far is fairly consistent: Education.…
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Interface Design Issues #05: A plethora of design problems
Here come the self-checkout machines! I’m not exactly sure to the degree that any of these devices have appeared in other parts of the country, but here in the Bay Area, you can find them popping up all over. I live less than a mile away from both a Home Depot and an Albertsons grocery that employ these new monsters. Beyond any discussion on whether these machines should be used to replace clerks at the check-out line, or whether we should even allow such machines to replace people in a social context, let’s just assume these sort of devices will become an integral part of our…
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Interface Design Issues #06: The complexity principle
An issue that plagues interface designers when creating both web and desktop applications is that of complexity — specifically, an interface that is overly complex in either interaction or presentation. Overly complex interfaces significantly impact usability and must be avoided. While there are plenty of studies researching this issue and plenty of data to point to how complexity hurts a product, in order to truly address the root of problem, designers must understand where complexity originates. Consider this example. How much more complex is the second example compared to the first? …
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Interface Design Issues #07: The myth of navigation
There was an interesting point-counterpoint topic debated recently between Mark Hurst and Peter Merholz over Hurst’s Page Paradigm article on Good Experience. I thought I’d add my two cents to the discussion, in the hopes of explaining what I feel is a key concept about interface design that has a large impact on how one approaches design problems in the technology space.…
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Interface Design Issues #08: Two steps forward, no steps back
If you were an Adobe customer when Photoshop 4.0 or Illustrator 7.0 shipped, you might remember the rocky transition that occurred with those upgrades. With Photoshop, many of the keyboard shortcuts changed due to some key architectural changes made to the way the application dealt with layers and floating selections. With Illustrator, the entire palette system was reworked to use tab palettes. With such fundamental changes, these upgrades caused quite a stir in the user community.…
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Is Microsoft listening?
Apparently, Robert Scoble saw my XHTML 1.0 Strict post. And he’s made an offer we can’t refuse.…
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It’s not a matter of sacrifice
The conflict between design and technology, like the conflict between form and content, is not an either/or problem, it is one of synthesis.Paul RandFrom Lascaux to Brooklyn, pg. 41…
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Item #11
After all this time, I have yet to understand the appeal of Jakob Nielsen. His latest alertbox, Ten Steps for Cleaning Up Information Pollution, simply leaves me with an overall feeling of… uselessness. Ironic, isn’t it?…
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Liquid v. Fixed
I’ve assembled a collection of articles and blog entries on this topic for reading. Some are included just for the discussion found in it. I also feel like adding my own viewpoint on it while I’m at it.…
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Making the case for Interface Design
[Editor’s Note: I originally published this article on December 31, 2003, as the first thing I had ever written for Design by Fire. I’m bringing it back in the hopes that with a larger audience, I might be able to discuss the issues within it a bit more. It’s always been a bit buried in the site. I’ve added new comments, which appear in brackets.] Yes, this is going to be one of those “What do we call ourselves?” articles. in•ter•face, n.3. Computer Science.a. The point of interaction or communication between a computer and any other entity, such as a prin…
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Norman on Tufte
I’m a bit baffled by this interview: Don Norman on PowerPoint Usability: Interview with Cliff Atkinson Let’s look at some of the discussion points.…
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One approach to the design process
I personally dislike discussion about process. The word alone tends to set my nerves on edge. Usually, process as part of a business cycle is something that becomes overly bureaucratic and laden with busy-work, converting most intelligent people into automatons that do nothing but pull levers and switches. Yet, in everything one does on a design project, there is a process, whether informal or explicit. There is no way to avoid the thing, just like death and taxes. I find for myself there is no way to avoid discussion of it either.…
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Oops! Nielsen did it again
Like a bad pop-star filling the airwaves with insipid lyrics that stick like goo inside the brain, Jakob Nielsen is once again filling the pipelines of the internet with a chorus of inadequate design advice. At some level, I have to ask myself, “Does Nielsen really read what he writes? Does he really not understand fundamental, basic design issues to this degree? Can someone really get paid as much as he does, then time after time prove in a worldwide, published, written format how much he does not understand design, the very field he is attempting to affect with his work?” I gue…
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Personal dingbats
I’ve always been fascinated with corporate logos. I kind of always wished I could do nothing but spend entire weeks at a time creating nothing but logo marks. I find the work a peaceful Zen-like exercise in total concentration of nearly all the design portions of my brain, creating a mark that speaks volumes about a brand using the simplest of design principles. One can dream. Typographica posted a write-up on the recent FedEx Kinko’s logo. The type treatment in the new FedEx logo is clunky if you ask me, mainly in the way the modified FedEx Futura is out of proportion with what …
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Please make me think! Potential dangers in usability culture
I’m not entirely sure how serious I am about this article. On the one hand, I find myself agreeing with my more cynical side on uglier, more demanding work days. On the other, I think I’m overreacting and way off base with this train of thought. Either way, consider this entry nothing more than a philosophical meandering on the culture of usability in the high-tech world, intended only to spark conversation, not to be taken as my unwavering viewpoint on the topic. To the point: Should you, as a designer, be bound by some ethical mantra to make your work deeper, more thoughtful and…
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Random questions about CSS & XHTML
Rather than hunt and peck around the World Wide Web for answers, I figure I’d ask some general questions out loud about CSS and XHTML that have long been bugging me. Curious eyes will note that the source code of Design by Fire is not semantically correct, nor very elegant in it’s contruction. I’m in the midst of fixing that, and in trying to create a site that is XHTML Strict, I’ve run across more random questions I have about the logic used to create the standard. One of the more frustrating things about learning any new language is simply the semantics and syntax …
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Rebranding the W3C
Last week, I got an email from Dean Jackson asking me if I would be interested in potentially helping the W3C for a small job. We also discussed a potential rebranding of the W3C logo, although just for fun - not for real use. Dean even suggested I write a blog entry on the work. What an interesting idea, I thought. But is he crazy? Given the ups and downs of emotions that always come from uncensored feedback produced by an audience sitting in the ether of the internet, I hesitated at the thought of blogging how I would design a logo specifically for the W3C. I mean, after I was both roun…
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Requiem for an elastic dream
One of the first entries I posted on Design by Fire that got some traction was my take on Liquid versus Fixed. I still stand by that article, and feel it best exemplifies the pros and cons of each approach. Overall, I prefer a fixed layout for the reasons I outline in that article. However, there is a way to make everyone happy: Elastic layouts. An elastic layout is the perfect compromise between allowing a designer to effectively do their job while still giving the user some control over how the content is presented to them on the web. We can all have our cake and eat it too. That is, unt…
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The goal of interface design
I have read Tufte’s books two or three times, but this phrase finally lept out at me off the page on the fourth reading. It describes exactly what an interface designer should strive for in their work. The redesign eliminates all the assorted convolutions from the modern-day schedule and yields a graceful but unceremonious layout.Edward TufteEnvsioning Information, pg. 105.…
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The origins of poor design?
First, read this: Productivity in the Service Economy I won’t spend any time on the majority of the article — I think it speaks for itself. (You can read this interesting perspective on the issue outside the scope of the point I want to make.) However, we must in particular pay close attention to the logic in the third to the last paragraph. One positive aspect of outsourcing some programming jobs is that software development will get cheaper. Applied properly, the savings could improve usability and thus the productivity of end users. One of the main reasons for poor design is t…
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The real reason you should care about web standards
IMPORTANT NOTE: The following article is my own personal opinion, and does not represent the position or opinion of my employer. I have no idea if this has been said before, but from my reading on the subject of web standards, I haven’t seen the issue I’m going to discuss given nearly as much attention as I think it deserves. The issue has to do with what I consider the true reason why anyone should care about web standards and the role they play in the development of high-technology products and services.…
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When I grow up, I want to be an interface designer
I may not be old enough to offer sage wisdom to budding young designers (at least, I prefer to think I’m not old enough), but I do have the required experience in this field that my advice might be worth something to some of you out there. Photo Caption: Andrei Michael Herasimchuk, age 3Future Interface Designer for Adobe Systems. Dig the hair. In that vein, I’m going to offer up a thought for designers that you can choose to take or leave at your own discretion.…
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Will code for software
I had Dunstan Orchard over to my house recently to help me with some design problems. After watching him decimate my XHTML+CSS code and reconstruct it into a thing of pristine beauty, I realized to the degree I have been doing things incorrectly with regard to web standards. There were so many minor details that I had not realized I was executing incorrectly. So many that I’m almost ashamed to admit it. But hey, I’m not one to stand in silence while I continue to remain ignorant on certain issues. I’m the guy in class who had no problem asking stupid questions. I’m als…
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XHTML 1.0 Strict! For five minutes at least
I appreciated everyone’s patience in letting me rant. It was very cathartic to say the least. I’m happy to note that I’ve managed to fix nearly all the issues with conforming to the XHTML 1.0 Strict spec. (And much thanks to Eric at Gideon Design for helping me solve the undocumented imagemap issue.) For all of five minutes, I had some 95% of this site validating as XHTML 1.0 Strict. w00t! Then it started to fail all over again. Sigh. What I have learned? Read on.…
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Yes, Design matters
There’s a great set of articles in the June 2004 edition of Fast Company on the new design revolution, its importance to businesses everywhere, and on some of the business leaders who are proving just how important design is for companies. You’d have to either purchase the issue online, or grab it at the newsstand, but if you can, I highly recommend it. (Be sure to check out a similar article in BusinessWeek as well.)…
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You say toe - may - toe, I say [expletive] that
This product manager has a requirements document in his hand. Damn business requirements document to Hell. “Hey there, you got a second?” “Sure. I guess.” “Can I talk to you about this feature? When we went over this in the meeting two weeks ago, I thought we all agreed that using violet for the links and buttons was the way to go.” “We did. But that color was clashing with background and other branded elements. I sent out an email last week to change it. Everyone else was fine with the change.” “You did? I didn’t see that email.…
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re:Design by Fire 2.0 (or how I learned to feel the burn… a deep burn… deep)
If I were running for President of the United States, the GOP would have a field day with how I’ve flipped and flopped on the placements of comments in this redesign. I have put the Comments back to the right side of the articles. Will they stay there? I think so. In fact, I’m sure they will. I like the comments to the right of the article. I feel that design is much more dynamic, even useful. I think it’s kind of an interesting way to enjoy an article and it can save some space length-wise depending on variables.…
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re:Design by Fire 2.0 (or how I learned to stop sleeping and hack simple PHP code)
Ok, so I’m no Dunstan Orchard or Shaun Inman, but when I create something coded in PHP all by my lonesome — no matter how simplistic or basic — I feel damn proud. Nay! I feel like I’m king of the world. Just in case some of you out there have access to using PHP in your blogs or personal web sites using MoveableType, I decided to share with you the PHP code that I’m using for the Highly Combustible section found at different places on DxF. It’s very basic at best, uglier than hell at its worst, but it might give you some ideas on how to create more dynami…
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re:Design by Fire 2.0 (or how I learned to stop worrying and love CSS)
Well, it’s not entirely finished, but what the heck. I’m making this live. There’s a good chance the old stylesheet will screw up your presentation, so be sure to reset it with this link or clear your cookie cache. Welcome to the new Design by Fire. I’m still hard at work on it, as you can see from newly acquired G5 Mac with 23” cinema display using iSight, I’m obviously much too serious about this whole thing. It’s been a long day. Still, take a quick look around. Not everything is in place, but there’s enough here to see the new direction …
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