Pete's Scrapbook

Loved the google doodle today.Here’s the sprite map they...

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:53:44 +1000

Loved the google doodle today.Here’s the sprite map they used.

I find it interesting that they used a flash movie for the sound but not for the visuals.

Why The Valley Wants Designers That Can Code

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 11:50:12 +1000

Why The Valley Wants Designers That Can Code :

I always find these kinds of articles encouraging… Now I just need to find the time to keep up with everything.

Loving today’s Google...

Wed, 11 May 2011 09:28:00 +1000

Loving today’s Google thing.

Get started with object-oriented JavaScript code

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:22:35 +1000

Get started with object-oriented JavaScript code:

Why did I not bother trying to understand the use of prototype until now?

The Fall and Rise of User Experience - Cennydd Bowles

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:44:00 +1000

The Fall and Rise of User Experience - Cennydd Bowles:

There are a lot of words in this article… It’s a good one for sure - I might even read it again one day, but it’s long. Essentially it’s saying this:

that “User Experience” is a term being used all over the place now (agreed)
that it’s bigger than just a job title or even a discipline (agreed)
that this might create some disruption to those who have been using terms like UI/UX/IA with specific meaning (agreed but… I’m not too bothered)
that those who are passionate about the user experience discipline as it stands have a genuine and somewhat intuitive interest in creating personal value for users (agreed)
that focusing on the user experience (with discipline of sorts) regardless of your specific role or skills is generally a good thing (agreed, big time).

I enjoyed reading this link that he gave (much shorter too):

First things first: Ken Garland

I was working in Southfields Library in London for a few weeks...

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:32:54 +1000

I was working in Southfields Library in London for a few weeks in January. I love this shelving mistake.

Instant translation (The Economist)

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 21:58:00 +1000

Instant translation (The Economist):

Okay so firstly, yup that’s a pretty cool application. Amazing in fact. Instant translations, on the screen, in situ, as in right there in the camera view, of signs etc. Awesome.

Secondly, The Economist seems to be using an online application called Apture. If you highlight some text on the page, you get a “Learn more” contextual link. If you click on that you get a floating div with relevant search results from Wikipedia, The Economist and more… I’d never seen that before but I like it. A good idea well implemented.

Best jQuery plugins of 2010 - WDL

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 10:09:47 +1000

Best jQuery plugins of 2010 - WDL:

A nice looking collection of jQuery plugins.

I read about this on Drawar. A great idea and nicely done. Make...

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 09:35:50 +1000

I read about this on Drawar.

A great idea and nicely done. Make sure you scroll down the page.

http://benthebodyguard.com/

Support for some common design arguments

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 18:44:00 +1000

I think some of the most common design discussions/arguments I get into include:

People DO scroll. Put the most important stuff above the “fold”sure, but don’t worry if users have to scroll to see the whole page.
It’s more important that users know where a click is going to take them than that they can get somewhere in less clicks. Don’t reduce the number of clicks to get somewhere at the cost of being clear and informative.
Don’t be scared of space. It’s really important, makes a layout seem more confident and actually helps people read more easily. Don’t squash things up.
Don’t try and fit everything on the home page. It’s more than likely that users won’t land on the home page first anyway. Make good use of the promo spots on other pages too.
It’s important to use good language with clear instructions - to help your users as much as possible rather than just using nice icons etc.

Today I came across this lovely article on the Six Revisions website that not only supports a lot of my arguments - it even gives references!

10 Usability Tips Based on Research Studies

I’ve bookmarked it in about 5 different places so that I can call on it next time I need to present my ~~arguments~~discussions.

jQuery: Storing and retrieving data related to elements

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 18:26:00 +1000

jQuery: Storing and retrieving data related to elements:

A nice description of some ways to handle associating additional data with elements in the DOM - using html5 and JQuery. More good stuff from R Murphey - thank you.

checkmycolours

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:53:45 +1000

checkmycolours:

Was catching up on a bunch of links that I’d stored away in ReadItLater and came across this one. It’s a pretty handy tool for checking colour contrast - for readability etc.

20 Things I learned about browsers and the web

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:03:52 +1000

20 Things I learned about browsers and the web:

Very nice book from the Google Chrome team.

An interesting little ditty - some good ideas here about good...

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:19:00 +1000

An interesting little ditty - some good ideas here about good ideas - and nicely put together too.

New Adventures in Web Design Conference

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +1000

New Adventures in Web Design Conference:

I managed to swing a last minute ticket to the New Adventures in Web Design Conference in Nottingham, UK for January 20 next year. Really looking forward to it.

What an awesome idea! These calipers are not...

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:27:00 +1000

What an awesome idea!

These calipers are not mass-produced.

They’re lovingly hand-crafted by me… in my garage hammering the little brass rivets into place with a proper hammer, just like the proper Ancient Greeks used to do.

The odd bit of roughness is a stamp of authenticity. Of personality. I wouldn’t want to mass-produce them even if I could.

http://www.weirdsky.com/golden-mean-calipers/

David DeSandro's site

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:36:34 +1000

David DeSandro's site:

There’s some real nice looking stuff on this site. Great work.

I came across his post on Stacey too. Stacey looks like a nice, simple idea for a file-based CMS. I can see how that could come in real handy.

http://staceyapp.com/

Adobe alternatives?

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:05:00 +1000

I sometimes get a bit obsessed with the idea of using Adobe software less. It’s not that I don’t like them - I’m not about to start slagging them off - it’s just that I think there might be alternatives out there that are more nimble and able to push the boundaries.

I can imagine that it would be easy for Adobe to get complacent about the hold they’ve got on web and graphics software. Sometimes their software feels a bit slow and clunky - like it’s not running as well as it could. But perhaps more importantly, I don’t want to get complacent about my tools and how I use them - I don’t want to get slow and clunky. Maybe using different tools can help you think differently about what you’re doing and lead you into different directions.

Here are some of the alternatives I’ve been looking into. Some of them I’ve already started to use by preference…

Dreamweaver to IntelliJ

This is probably what started me thinking about this. About a year ago I started working on a Java-based project. I was still using Dreamweaver but my colleagues were using JetBrains IntelliJ. I made the switch and I’d never go back. IntelliJ seems so much more powerful, configurable and extendable and it integrates really nicely with a bunch of source control systems. They also have cheaper alternatives like WebStorm and PHPStorm.

Fireworks to Opacity

Fireworks is probably the Adobe application I use the most. It’s hard to imagine that anything could replace it for web graphics, layout and design. But I decided to have a play with Opacity (they have a 30 day trial download) after reading this article. I’ve not made the jump yet but there are some pretty impressive and innovative features in Opacity - like export factories and variables - and I like the way they’re going with the way they organise layers and effects. These guys are clearly trying to push things…

Illustrator to Inkscape and Photoshop to The Gimp

These are changes I’m not so eager to make. I’ve installed both Inkscape and The Gimp and I use them from time to time but they just don’t feel natural to me to use. Mind you, I felt that way about Fireworks once upon a time… These applications both seem to have their die-hard fans. Maybe it’s just about what you know.

Pixelmator

Given that the majority of work I do in Photoshop is simple tweaks and adjustments to photos, I’m pretty interested in Pixelmator. It actually looks pretty powerful and nice to use. But that’s only from a first glance so far - I’ve downloaded it but haven’t had a good play yet.

A couple of interesting User Experience reads

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 22:56:35 +1000

I’ve been reading through a couple of interesting user experience articles this weekend.

Winning a user experience debate (UX Booth)

This provides some good advice about handling critique when it comes to usability and user experience. It also provides some suggestions for formulating responses. I quite like their idea of the “validation stack”: user evidence; user research; design theory - in that order.

Can experience be designed? (Information Architects)

This is a great article! Just the right balance between scepticism and sincerity. There are some people who make me cringe when they latch on to the “user experience” buzz words. This article cuts through a lot of the hype with what is obviously a real understanding of the challenges involved in designing and building interfaces with an emphasis on usability.

In Search of JavaScript Developers: A Gist

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +1000

In Search of JavaScript Developers: A Gist:

Wow! I’ve still got a lot to learn… What a great way to go about it though.