• Download the theme (133.zip, 34K)
• See the live demo

I had a few things in mind when writing the theme: I wanted a traditionally paginated, dive into the full content affair, and something that’s both easy to read and doesn’t make the reader think of anything beyond flicking between posts.

The 133 theme: for quick posting. Some attractive typography too.

Format and comments

From a writer’s point of view, it’s more like a Tumblog or Posterous, but with half decent markup. You could use it to post pictures, quick thoughts etc. I removed the WordPress commenting system altogether and replaced it with a simple Tweet this post link by incorporating the Simple Twitter Link plugin (NB: you won’t have to install any plugins as it’s built into the theme). There’s no archive, no navigation menu.

I’ve also added a field to User → Your profile → Extra profile information which will allow you to add your Twitter ID to the Tweet this post link (useful for tracking Tweetbacks).

Please note that the theme won’t display tweetbacks: I’ve added this functionality to my own version.

Behind the scenes, it’s built on a slightly modified version of the Sandbox theme: very few changes were made to the PHP files and the CSS weighs in at around 250 lines (including comments).

It’s ready to use now. I may add search and archives in future versions. Or maybe not.

They recently redesigned their website. It’s a brilliant effort, retaining the large, Georgia font face (it was once helvetica, believe it or not), simple typography, black/red and white colour scheme and uncluttered layout that has become their brand. They’ve also simplified the content presentation, making it even easier to read and navigate. They use some interesting copy to market themselves. There are many things to admire.

How to make nine pages easy to find

iA have taken a textual approach to marketing themselves: rather than simply presenting a gallery of their work, they’ve written several mid–length pieces on subjects such as networking, profile and method. It’s an almost unfashionable approach, but one that reflects the fact that they don’t just produce nice–looking, gallery–friendly websites.

Designers would normally present this information in one of the following ways:

• Display all the pages in horizontal or vertical menu
• Keep the top level navigation as simple as possible and allow the user to reach the detailed stuff by following a path that leads to more detailed information as s/he clicks through the site. The most obvious way to do this would be through creating a top level About page and linking to the longer texts from this page.
• Create a simple top level menu that pops out further options when the user hovers over About
• Place some “teaser” content on the front page (e.g. a customer quote) that links through to some more detailed information

Here’s what iA have done:

All 9 navigation options are available on every page of the iA site

So instead of minimising the menu options eveything is placed within reach of every page. Normally, this would result in an unwieldy, hard–to–scan list of links. What iA have done is incredibly simple: they’ve categorised the top level menu and presented the links by category. No pop out menus, fancy gradients or text shadows; just plain, well organised text that’s easy to read and a site that’s easy to navigate.

Genius: the interface as brand.

• Download the theme (scherzo.zip, 62K)
• View the live demo

Feel free to modify or use for any purpose, but please keep the footer link to my website in tact. This theme is released under the terms of the GPL license.

Installation

Install in the normal way, i.e. extract the scherzo.zip file and upload it to your themes folder. Login to your dashboard and select the theme from the Appearance menu.

Screenshot

Feel free to leave any comments, criticism or bug reports.

Hey Sun!

OK, so a couple of these maybe stretch the definition of achievement, but I’ve personally benefited from four of them: four things I and my family wouldn’t have got (and will probably lose) under the Tories.

So The Sun defected (although it’s clearly been anti-Brown for months anyway) after the speech. But, interestingly enough, it could argue against only one of the above (apparently the UK lives in a perpetual state of violent anarchy). True to type, it also declared immigration is “out of control” (zzzzzzzzzzz…)

Q: what percentage of Sun readers claim tax credits? Benefit from the minimum wage?

Dear Yahoo! UK & Ireland GeoCities customer,

We’re writing to remind you that Yahoo! UK & Ireland GeoCities, our free web site building service and community, is closing on October 26, 2009.

We have enjoyed hosting web sites created by Yahoo! users all over the world, and we’re proud of the community you’ve built. However, we have decided to focus on helping our customers explore and build relationships online in other ways.

On October 26, 2009, your GeoCities site will no longer appear on the Web, and you will no longer be able to access your GeoCities account and files.

What You Need to Do
If you’re no longer using your web site, you don’t need to do a thing, but if you’d like to move your web site, or save the images and other files you’ve posted online, you need to act now by downloading your files to your own computer.

To quickly download your published files and images, visit your GeoCities web site, right-click on each page, and choose Save Page As… from the menu that appears. Choose a location on your computer to save your files, then click OK or Save to save the HTML and images associated with your page. Learn more about downloading your files.

With your pages and images saved offline, you can re-create your site with any hosting provider you like, such as BT Web Hosting.

Please be aware that after October 26, your GeoCities files will be deleted from our servers, and will not be recoverable. If you’d like to save your files, you must download them now.

Another Way to Connect Online
As a Yahoo! customer, you can now use your Yahoo! profile as a central point to manage your identity, activities, and interests across Yahoo! and make it easy to connect and share with the people who matter to you most.

You can get started anytime by adding your picture and other personal details, then invite friends and family to connect — even start your own blog. You’ll be able to follow the online activities of your connections across Yahoo!.

Setting up your profile is easy, and it’s free! Visit your profile now.

Don’t Wait
Please save your files now. If you need assistance, please visit the help centre.

We want to thank you for being a GeoCities customer, and hope you continue to enjoy our other Yahoo! UK & Ireland services.

Best regards,

The Yahoo! UK & Ireland GeoCities team

This is what greets keen young webmasters today. Sad.

The rather lovely looking Apple tablet (image from Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5370252/apple-tablet-aiming-to-redefine-newspapers-textbooks-and-magazines)

The Tablet and (maybe) the future: download millions of different publications, navigate your way through them, save space and look good on the train.

Old, thumbed, musty. An, erm, book.

The book: tactile, musty, shelved. Looks good in rooms and on the train. The past?

The question for me isn’t whether the paper book is somehow obsolete — I can’t envisage the tablet working for long texts such as the novel, although I may be wrong — or even the different reading experiences (it’s a good thing for reading that there’s more than one way to read). It’s how different text types will fall into either format. Newspapers and magazines strike me as particularly suitable for the tablet, for example.

Perhaps we’ll simply be able to choose how we read.

So it was very interesting to read iA’s post about their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to win the contract to redesign Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. Oliver Reichenstein’s honesty is striking (how many design agencies would publish an appraisal of their failings?), but it’s the approach to the redesign that really stands out.

Online design influencing print

I can’t think of one example of web usability tenets informing the design of print materials. Sure, we may design monochrome, one column PDFs with a large point size and leading for easy screen reading, but that’s not the same. What iA have done is highly innovative and creative, demonstrating a real grasp of the importance of online media. Most people still respect the printed word more than its immature onscreen cousin; the design conversation is one way.

The iA Tages Anzeiger redesign: note the large images, font size, leading and blue 'links' that can be used in site searches

So the iA paper follows one of God’s commandments: highlight keywords for easy scanning. Graphics and images are prominent. Aside from the obvious benefits of using these techniques (and the originality), what I like is the implication that traditional ideas of how we read print and web (i.e. that broadsheet readers have the time/intellect to read and comprehend long swathes of text) are perhaps wrong. As Oliver states, the front page can be read in 20 seconds.Perfect for reading on a short train journey.

And content

Similarly, some online newspapers do refer to the online world (the Guardian’s sports section publishes a video round-up, for example), but this is often an afterthought, the content tucked away in a supplement, or down at the bottom of the page. Print and internet journalism have a famously prickly, mistrustful relationship; the iA design asserts the importance of online commentary by incorporating online comments within heart of the paper proper.

Why it could be important

While an awareness of print typography has undoubtedly benefited the readability of online texts, a slavish adherence to print rules results in inappropriate design decisions. iA have turned the relationship on its head, using some of the rules of online design to breathe life into an (apparently) moribund medium. Perhaps a reappraisal of how we design print newspapers will get people reading them again, while we finally come to respect online journalism and its possibilities.

(PS – read a more expert, print-perspective appraisal of iA’s efforts).

Comments are rubbish

The question of whether comments are valuable has been doing the rounds for quite a while now. Information Architects have been toying with new comment formats after complaining (on Twitter, naturally enough) that reading through comments is i) a chore and ii) not particularly edifying as they too often degenerate into name calling and intellectual peacockery. Twitter, on the other hand, provides them with focused, immediate feedback.

From a reader’s point of view, comments are of mixed value: Sometimes they’ll clarify or illuminate a point made in the original post, provide an alternative perspective or simply entertain. Other times they’ll miss the point, needlessly antagonise or make zero sense. When a post attracts lots of comments this becomes a moot point: By the time you get to comment#30 you’re skimming for either famous names or words that look vaguely interesting.

Perhaps it’s just The Telegraph

This reasonably amusing Telegraph post on the effects of the internet is a good example of all that’s frustrating about comments. Some are conscise:

Glad you put “The Art of Polite Disagreement” at #1. The rants that follow under your newspaper’s mis-named “Comments” section are the proof.

Others pedantic:

Which word might apply to you, and whose face has egg all over it?

Others, well…

@ DC: Shut up. Pretty much everyone here has probably seen some form of internet porn. Get over it.

The point is: What does all this stuff add to the article?

Get rid of them

I used to think that keeping comments on newspaper/expert sites might be possible if they were somehow adapted, edited or required approval before publication. I think I was wrong. The web is, of course, an inherently democratic medium, but that doesn’t mean all information is of equal value. Regardless of its politics, The Telegraph is a hugely respected publication: Why should my opinion be appended to an article on Gordon Brown’s supposed weaknesses? What would it add to the world’s understanding of this issue?

If I’m desparate to publish my opinion I could always post a blog article, or use a more appropriate, informal medium such as Twitter, where it may or may not receive a response.

But not from here

A cosy fire

However. For those of us playing in the lower leagues comments can be important. They tell us when we’re being silly, reassure us we’re being read and can even provide an encouraging nudge: I can only guess at iA’s excitement at God’s visitation (and I have to admit it was quite pleasing getting a one line visit from Joe Clark [sans e]).

Your regular visitors can be relied on to give an honest opinion of what you’ve written without having to worry about how clever they look (even if they are really talented).

And when you’re dealing with no more than 10 comments or so, it’s easy to read through and keep track of who’s saying what to whom. It’s quite cosy, even.

So come and join me for a cup of tea and a fireside chat. Leave a pithy, enlightening comment below.

(Incidentally: When you look back through blog posts what do you feel? Horror? Pleasure? Both? I kind of admire Simon Pascal Klein’s decision to ditch 260 blog posts and edit the remaining 20 into shape. A blog as a living body of work to be excised, remoulded and perhaps reinterpreted over time. How many articles would you keep?)

An example of a medieval text, complete with ornate drop cap

Anyway, I’ve changed my mind in two fundamental, related ways when it comes to paragraphs and web typography in general:

1. A minorish point: Paragraphs look better with a half line break between them. The thought entered my head when I read a recent article by Joe Clark (Mocking Design Observer (2)). A few CSS changes later and the whole text on my blog has been pulled together; it looks more cogent and interrelated. (I still think indents make a text harder to read on the screen, especially when you’re setting a real piece of writing, complete with short, non–lorem ipsum paragraphs: Format rather than technology, perhaps.)
2. An over-literal interpretation of a grid/rhythm is, well, misconceived. First, it lacks nuance: the math is more flexible than 24/48/72/96; there are fractions, gradients, contrasts et al. Secondly, it’s limiting in that it forces you to make decisions that are self–evidently bad in terms of readability, tone and appearance.

So in the future I’ll be looking at variation and using common sense more. What’s your approach? A cool, strict set of rules or something a bit more fluid?

Update at 1556 (how very exciting!) – Twitter is under attack. Man the barricades! Your country needs you!

And now (according to Twitter Status) it’s back up (at 1630). All is well with the world (assuming it does recover – dont’ like that continuing to defend).

TweetDeck displaying nothing at all

I run a couple of sites that use Twitter for news. It makes sense for many reasons: it’s immediate, takes about half an hour to develop and is really easy for non-technical users who maybe don’t want the hassle of logging into a CMS (what’s a CMS?) and don’t have the time to write full posts. If the user gets into it they may start connecting with some useful contacts.

Here’s what I’ve noticed:

1. Sites that pull in tweets from a Twitter feed have been slowed down
2. Using Twitter (or any API) comes with a risk that we (or I) perhaps don’t fully appreciate
3. The world would fall apart if Google went down
4. I want to Tweet about Twitter being down
5. Work is quieter (I spend too much time PC or laptop-bound)
6. Writing a blog post about it just isn’t immediate enough
7. Sod’s law states that your own site will be up and down at the same time
8. Although you can live blog quite easily in WordPress
9. Writing a blog post about it may get some exposure
10. I’ve lost some form of (however vicarious) contact with quite a few people I like to read about
11. Checking out spam followers is not something I miss
12. What’s the fall out going to be? Millions of blog posts, a Newsnight report, lead on the main news…Lots of high-profile people and organisations are using Twitter
13. Some people like specualting that, like, the whole internet is under attack
14. Twitter is an awesome service
15. Maybe we’ll start paying for Twitter (but isn’t this a technical rather than a financial issue – I don’t think Twitter is short of a few bob)

Still down…

Tweet me when it’s back up.