M1k3 // Michael Dick

Introducing CSSiPhone.com

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:00:00 EST

Creative web design on the mobile phone is here, thanks to the iPhone innovating the market. It can be very tough searching the web for inspiration when you need some when designing for the iPhone. It's a new market, you're not sure what users are expecting when it comes to standards (Example: where should the nav go?).

If you have tried Googling for iPhone inspiration, you know you won't get far. I tried it. The best site I found was a blog post listing 20 of the best optimized sites — it was pretty old. If you're like me, you end up browsing the web where you find yourself never knowing if a site has a mobile alternative or not. If the site has one, you either have to use your phone to find it, or take a stab at what the sub-domain is: m, iphone, i, mobile, ect..

Creative Designers have Patience

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:00:00 EST

It's very rare when I can sit down and knock out a design in one sitting. The entire world thinks that we can sit down and pump out a design in a few hours...start to finish. That means IA, wireframing, planning, style discovery, and everything else. I don't think I've been able to accomplish this since before I really understood what designing for the web was about...which is a lot more than just making things...pretty.

Quality design doesn't happen overnight; it takes time....it takes patience. It takes getting away from your computer for awhile so that you can have a fresh set of eyes when you come back.

Sure, there are some people out there that can create beautiful sites in a couple of hours and still have time to kill, but what is the UX like? How balanced is the users eye when they view it? Can you pick any element on the design at random and give a logical expression to why it's where it is, and why it's even on the page in the first place

Design it until you Love it.

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:00:00 EST

I browse css galleries before I start any design, even if I have a clear vision of the direction I want to go with. My favorite gallery to browse for inspiration is CSSMania because it showcases a ton of sites everyday, some good and bad, but it gives you a fairly good thumbnail so you can weed out the bad sites.

When I am browsing galleries I'l go through and click on the thumbnails that have potential. The first problem is almost every design looks good in a small thumbnail so when the site loads it either gets a quick close, or i stay and examine it.

Too often when I am looking through designs I see so many sites that have some great potential...but that's all. I get to looking at it closely and spot minor details that don't seem finished. It's like the designer gave up half way.

Houdini wasn\'t a Magician.

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:00:00 EST

Houdini sucked at magic, every modern magician will agree on that; it’s amazing how the entire world remembers him as one though. Why was this? Why didn’t the better magicians at the time be remembered like Houdini?

I was watching a History Channel special on Houdini, and ever since he has been great inspiration to me.

Starting out, he was an unsuccessful magician in a circus where he was only doing card tricks with only one act where he escaped from handcuffs. He realized that people only cared for his escape trick; he retired the cards, and opened a show with full emphasis on escape tricks.

He knew magic was not his trade, he knew that his knack was performance.

iDesign; design for the iPhone.

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:00:00 EST

Designing for the iPhone was a refreshing experience.

If you don’t follow my twitter than you don’t know that I released an iPhone version of my site. I rolled it out in only 2 days worth of development time. When you don’t have to worry about cross browser compatibility, and you don’t have to spend most of your time living within the constraints of CSS2, development becomes extremely refreshing. Half of what we do on the web is problem solving anyway; no matter what medium we are on. On the desktop we think past CSS2 constraints; on the iPhone we solve real estate constraints.

With the success of the iPhone, competitors are bound to catch up sooner or later – everyone will have a full fledge web browser in their pocket. So, with my experience designing for the iPhone, here are some things I have picked up along the way.

The New Revolution: Simple Frameworks.

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:00:00 EST

Frameworks are always a topic to get hot and heavy about. Everyone has their own opinions; some say they suck while others use them as a religion. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

If you don't use a framework then you catch yourself coding things that you probably shouldn't be wasting your time on. On the other hand, if you use one then you probably catch yourself feeling uncomfortable when you have to branch outside of the framework for the first time in awhile. You are either for or against frameworks, but there are some in the middle who just want something simple. They want something that won't change their style, but will give them enough to streamline the process.

This is where my new PHP Front-end framework comes in handy, Framefront.

Yea, that\'s right. Another Gallery?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:00:00 EST

I really don't have to say it. The industry for showcasing designs in galleries is heavily crowded -- much like web hosting...if not worse. Amongst the crowed are key galleries that you may consider the best for showcasing websites. For example, I may consider CSSBeauty.com for only showcasing top notch designs. However, another person's opinion may consider CSSMania.com for showcasing just about anything.

No matter the difference, there are still two similarities that every gallery in existence has in common. 1) They showcase websites. 2) They (indirectly or directly) market themselves as the best gallery. For the latter reason, is why I have launched Another-Gallery.com, which is just as it sounds...another website gallery added to the overcrowded market.

Displaying files on PE\'s front-end.

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:00:00 EST

A few people are having a little trouble over at the PureEdit community trying to wrap their heads around displaying files on a PE front-end. There are a couple of topics on this subject so instead of handling both of them separately I felt like I would just address both of them in a blog post here.

What I plan to cover in this post is how PureEdit stores files in the Uploads Center, how PureEdit matches a file to a _file field, and how to display this _file onto the front-end.

Selecting data for front-end integration with PE.

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:00:00 EST

Surprising or not, one of the most requested features for PureEdit is not actually a feature but a tutorial. More and more adopters are asking me how to integrate the PureEdit database to the front-end of their website because they have not yet reached the level of PHP to do so.

When I launched PureEdit, I was assuming that the majority of the adopters would be hybrids like me, those needing a powerful, yet simple solution to CMS development so that they could focus more on the front-end programming. However, I am excited to see that my assumptions have proved me wrong and I am glad to be able to write this tutorial in hopes of helping those in need out.

Realigned, M1k3.net v5.4.

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 1:08:45 EST

Do you ever look at your web site and just think that it feels old? I don't keep track but I am sure I look at my website on a daily basis, whether it's to answer comments or to just look at how well it is designed. Regardless the reason, after awhile your site just begins to look old. In all honesty, M1k3's 2nd version could probably still hold up today (if it followed standards), but it's just that designs get old and people, including yourself, like change. That's why last week I decided to do a little updating to M1k3...I felt like things were old and I needed to update, make things better and more efficient....read more