And it’s becoming obvious that it’s a huge success: as of this writing, he has had 480+ 690+ reactions to that post in the form of comments and trackbacks, plus huge exposure on Twitter. So I might as well join in. Sorry to my English-only readers as some of these (not all) will be in German, but I know a good portion of you are in Germany anyway. I’ve added the language after each blog’s name to make your life a little easier.

 

Mareen Fischinger’s Blog (English)
Mareen Fischinger is a highly talented photographer from my hometown Düsseldorf. In her blog, Mareen posts daily impressions of her life, her job, her friends and her interests. As you would expect, it’s garnished with nice photos of her own making all the way. I’ve never met her personally, but I enjoy keeping up with her thoughts.

 
krzflm (German, but mostly English content)
If you are into short films like myself, this is a very nice stop. Michael of krzflm posts one short film a day. Most of them are in English, but there is also a variety of international movies worth watching. Since they are usually pretty short (anything between 5 and 15 minutes), a quick daily stop is recommended.

 

Designtagebuch (German)
Achim Schaffrinna’s Designtagebuch is increasingly becoming a standard read in German web and advertising agencies, and it’s understandable. Achim is constantly updating with thoughtful critiques and discussions on current relaunches, mostly of German corporate and product websites and corporate identities.

 
DesignPhrasen Bemerkungen (German)
Oliver Gelbrich of DesignPhrasen Bemerkungen follows a similar goal by keeping us updated on web design things he comes across and adding his commentary. It hasn’t been around very long, but it’s quickly filling with quality content. The blog accompanies one of Oliver’s many web projects, DesignPhrasen. You might also know his sites tapedeck.org and Webdesigners Tookit, which I have already shown here.

 

Stylespion (German)
This wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the blog that started this topic. Stylespion is the one blog that I check every day without starting up my feed reader. Rising star (he’ll hate me calling him that) Kai Müller presents a very fine mix of design, DIY culture, music and inspirational oddities, and a very popular series called 15+1 Fragen, where he interviews his readers and international stars alike about their private apartments and decoration styles. Readers are also invited to share photos of their stylish apartments in the StyleSpion Flickr group. He has also started a photography blog, Photospion.

 
Those are just 5 of the German blogs I currently read. There are more, and I am saving them up for next time.

The Düsseldorf Tweetup will be held on 27th February, starting at 19:00 at Barco. You can sign up on the event network to let us know you’re coming (please also remember to sign up for the event itself additionally), and follow @ddtu on Twitter (German language) for the latest information. I’m really looking forward to the Tweetup and I hope to meet you there!

While we’re at it, you could also follow me on Twitter if you’d like. :)

How do you go about wireframing a design beforehand?

Which apps do you use? What methods do you apply? Pencil on paper? Prototyping in Fireworks/Illustrator? Old-school table-cell copy&pasting in Dreamweaver? Or do you prefer to do a quick sketch and then jump right into Photoshop? Do you create complex work flow charts and study use-cases? Share your best practices!

Any good links you may have on the topic are appreciated as well.

Christian Moore’s [...] Lux free open framework enables true multitouch interaction in Mac OS X. In fact, he says it can work under any platform and even a web browser, enabling complex user interfaces and object manipulation comparable to Jeff Han’s magic walls or the Microsoft Surface anywhere. –Gizmodo

This is pretty amazing stuff. Ever since getting used to the multitouch feature of my MacBook Pro, it’s become an essential tool for me. It really is that intuitive. Now to find an affordable multitouch display that can work with this:

More info and a short interview at Gizmodo.

(Thanks, Stylespion)

Ecocho needs our help

Unfortunately, only a few days after the launch, Google decided to block Ecocho from access to their results.

Google chose today – Earth Day, of all days – to pull their feed from Ecocho. They claim that Ecocho has broken the adsense rules, but Ecocho has never directed users to click on ads (as Google suggests) and Ecocho has not only always respected the adsense rules but also believes strongly in them for Ecocho to succeed. We need genuine Ecocho users to make the project work!

They ask that people head over to their blog for the full scope, maybe leave a comment, and if you’re feeling really social, email Google from the email address on those pages (there are petition letters on the page also) to voice your concerns. Please tell your family and friends also if you think they would care about the Ecocho cause.

Hansson talks about founding a profitable online start-up without falling for the multi-million VC-funding hype that web2.0 companies like MySpace and Facebook have spurred. Recorded at Paul Graham’s Startup School 08. Definitely worth a watch!

Fez was a finalist at the 10th Annual Independent Games Festival, along with the wonderful Crayon Physics Deluxe that I can’t believe I’ve never presented here.

The thing that makes Dropbox so much easier than other systems is that there is no learning curve and no special handling required: just drop your files in a destined folder on your harddrive and the files are automatically uploaded to the Dropbox servers. Hook up another computer to your Dropbox and it’ll automatically download the files and sync them when you change them. The system comes along with a powerful web interface that not only offers access to your files from any web browser, but also lets you retrieve older versions of a file, or accidentally deleted files. Dropbox should feel very familiar to those who use SVN in their workflow, except that you don’t need to manually check-in and check-out files to keep them synced. A helpful feature is that before uploading an updated file, it will compare and check and only upload those bits of the file that were actually changed, saving a lot of bandwidth. Luckily, you aren’t confronted with any of the technicalities, it just “does stuff” and works and you don’t need to care.

Setup was surprisingly quick and painless. My only grief are the sometimes very slow upload rates (30kb/s when it could be much higher), but I suppose this will be improved during the beta phase. Also, I recommend that you don’t create and edit new files within your Dropbox folder, as its automatic upload does not have a delay and will start uploading before you’ve even given the file a name.

All in all I’m quite satisfied with Dropbox and I feel it will be something I’ll use regularly. Its ease of use guarantees that it won’t require your full attention or slowdowns to your workflow, making it one of those little tools you just won’t want to miss.

Check out the Dropbox screencast here and go sign up for a beta if you’re interested.

I just love this so much. It reminds me of this as well. (via)

Microsoft’s new enlightenment is very, very significant news for web developers and the future of web standards and it’s amazing that they actually listened to developers. Get more info straight from the lion’s mouth.

Today is a good day. :)

(Thanks, neckCNS)

keming. noun. The result of improper kerning.
By Ironic Sans and available as a t-shirt.