RKNet Blog... Thing

• Watching Season 1 of the Tudors. LOVING every second of it. #
• it’s going to end up being really hot today, I can tell already #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Yes, once again our first-ever contest, the Design-a-Vagina Contest (Redux), has come to a close. The results are already in and those results may be expressed with the following image.

If you can’t read that, and I don’t blame you if you can’t, it says “This Page Intentionally Left Blank” - which is to say that the second iteration of the Design-a-Vagina contest has come and gone without an entry. As such, I am somewhat grateful as it means I don’t have to shell out upwards of $150 on prizes, but I am also disappointed that I could not help the woman from North One who had encouraged me to rerun the contest in the hopes of fostering discussion on modern women’s body image issues.

Which is a subject that has been touched upon before by yours truly, although never really discussed outside of that post and mentions as part of the contest. Fun, games, and fabulous un-won prizes aside, are there any issues regarding elective cosmetic surgery and women’s body issues that anyone would like to talk about? If so, we would love to hear from you. No issues can be fixed or even identified unless they are understood, and understanding requires communication.

(NSFW for some naughty language!)

So, my brother recently released a short film into the wilds of the YouTube. It’s a brief exploration of one character’s struggle with insomnia and the memories that occupy his mind while he desperately seeks sleep. The audio and editing is a bit choppy, but as described in the short editorial at the end of the film, this was pretty much a completely “off the cuff” (improv) production. I feel like this rough cut could be honed into a really interesting small film with some more serious focus on dialogue and better control over the cuts and lighting. I felt both Eddie and Sammi did well in portraying their impromptu characters, and with the previously suggested refinement to dialogue could really make the intended exchange pretty intense.

He was very self-effacing about the whole thing but I really think it was a decent rough cut. Be sure to pop by the YouTube page and let him know what you thought about the film - good, bad or indifferent - because no film maker can grow or improve without feedback.

• @Tiki_Guy I grew up watching Get Smart, I am VERY hesitant to see a movie rendition. #
• Who do you have to sexually service at Technorati to get your authority to go up? #
• @geechee_girl It still has its uses sometimes, like showing who really links to me but whispers of obsolecence have circled for a while now. #
• http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/ OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!! #
• I wonder if I could convince smiley’s to pay me in free beer for redoing their website… http://www.smileysdover.com they really need it #
• @hak42 I mostly use it to dig the menu from the unholy depths of the site #
• totally rearranged 90% of the house. I’m tuckered out but I love the change. WIN. #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

• video camera built into the laptop is basically worthless. anybody got any fairly low-cost solutions they like? #
• http://twitpic.com/2tom OMG WTF HAX #
• going on an NH peep adding spree. loving it. who knew there were so many nerds in this state?! #
• does twhirl have a way to put people in “time out” or at least to filter out people from your stream? #
• @Rodzilla haha. not YOU. more like random followers who seem to seem to send out frequent bursts of stuff-I-don’t-need-to-know tweets #
• @bcarcio that probably doesn’t leave too many people from the web celebrity pool, huh? #
• My cousin’s going to be in town! Neat! I wish I would have known a little sooner though. :( #
• I think i’m going to drink some more crappy coffee, even though I should know better than to do such a thing #
• kickin it at the family’s place for a bit, then home to chill #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

NotCot.org strikes again. This morning they posted a blurb about a book called Fifty Designers’ Current Favourite Typefaces. The book only costs 3£ and 100% of that 3 pounds goes directly to UNICEF to help aid victims - specifically the children - of the cyclone which happened in Myanmar (aka Burma) this past May.

It is put out by a design firm in the UK called Create / Reject. You may order the book directly from their website. There are photos of the interior of the book, as well as a list of all the designers who got involved. I can think of no more enjoyable way to lend a helping hand.

Day one was fraught with challenges, up to and including having trouble finding the venue. It took a lot of wandering around, a phone call, and I think two concierge desk stops to finally figure out that the Copley Plaza Marriott was in fact through the Copley Plaza Westin and the attached mall. That said, on with the notes.

Session 1: Understanding Web Design - Jeffrey Zeldman

• Missed this session entirely. :(

Session 2: Lessons of CSS Frameworks - Eric Meyer

• Missed over half of this session. :( I blame Mass traffic.
• Hits on server vs. File size. The more hits to the server, the slower the load times. File size isn’t nearly as much of an issue.
• IE(6) does not cache 2nd tier stylesheets. (stylesheets linked from within other stylesheets)
• IE6 wants nothing to do with your fancy link styling. Don’t rely on it to convey critical information if you think you’ll have a significant amount of IE6 visitors. (Know your audience!)
• Mobile phones probably can’t handle your stylesheet (iPhone notably excepted from this guideline).
• create a grid or layout background to use for debugging.
• Create a debugging stylesheet that replaces more subtle elements with large, bold colors to see exactly how your major elements line up.
• Set default colors in the body of the document to override any CSS weirdness or absence.
• Try to avoid measurements in pixels. Percentage or EM will provide better usability and cross-browser support.
• Create a framework file. This is a totally empty stylesheet, containing only elements, classes and ids, as well as comments explaining the general purpose of each. This provides the framework for others to understand your work, and gives you a blank to start from in future work.
• Maintain clean, logical naming conventions. Don’t use .RedBigText use .Header or .CallToAction. This way if you have to make this class perform a function other than red, big text you can make those changes while maintaining your markup.

Session 3: Good Design Ain’t Easy - Jason Santa Maria (turned 30! Happy Birthday!)

• Look to be different. Be familiar with popular box models & learn what you can do to separate yourself from them.
• Print != the web. (!= is does not equal for those who aren’t familiar) Therefore, instead of innovating based on standards of print, we must look to usability standards and concepts to build a better (mousetrap) website.
• Design reinforces your message.
• Design fills in where content leaves off to create impressions.
• Referenced the storytelling power of a mostly visual chart of Napoleon’s progress.
• Pacing must be capable of including all pertinent info. Editor’s Note: I don’t remember what I meant by this note.
• Design must account for flexibility, changes, functions
• Design must be able to demonstrate depth, or give the visitor confidence that they can navigate comfortably.
• Design for your audience, not just to fit your box model.
• Take advantage of the medium, learn to apply the tech to its fullest.
• Plan before you do, and make stylesheets accordingly flexible
• Level of design intricacy hinges largely on the type of content it is meant to showcase and support.
• “Design can’t not communicate.” - David Carson, Helvetica
• The Golden Rule or other ratio is a handy reference for balancing a box model.
• Links:
• A Brief Message
• Fray
• Principles of Beautiful Web Design
• No One Belongs Here More Than You
• We Tell Stories
• “You can have it in any color you want, as long as it’s black.” - Henry Ford regarding the Model T
• Art direction should apply to the web also.
• Evaluate the saclability of unique content art direction (i.e. serious differences between pages, breaking from one standard template between pages).
• Marry your design to your code.

Session 4: Web Application Hierarchy - Luke Wroblewski

• You have approximately 1.6 seconds to make an impression on a first time visitor.
• References Steve Krug’s excellent book Don’t Make Me Think in regards to illustrating how we use the web. We don’t read. We track around the web looking for the next thing to get us to our intended informational goal.
• Great presentation on the web is comprised of a balance between information and emotion, or Visual Organization and Personality.
• Organize things in ways people can relate to. For example, organizing information in a customer lookup system like a rolodex.
• What’s front and center is critical
• Presentation should follow desired function
• Downplay non-critical information
• Create context by applying contrast, placement and seperation
• Consider the color scheme. Contrasting colors attract attention.
• Make uniquely important items distinct from the remainder of the page.
• Focus on your use of labels, whitespace, and the scanability of your page.
• Proximity of items, similarity of items, and pattern of items dictate how noticable they are.
• The more differences between neighboring items, the higher the contrast and the more likely a visitor is to focus on it.
• Orchestrate the distribution of visual weight (what’s most noticable to what’s least noticable) to influence user experience.
• Avoid too many “look at me!” items as it creates confusion.
• Avoid too few “look at me!” items as it leads to disinterest
• Information should not be distributed via firehose
• Be aware of how people access and use your site. Or how it is intended to be used at least. These factors inform how the hierarchy of information should be structured.
• Consider how people find you and what you want them to do when they get there.
• People come to your site for some kind of content. Don’t let the overhead (structural elements of your website, other navigation, etc) overwhelm that content. Give the people what they want.
• Visually prioritize the actions you want or need people to take
• Strive for a clear, logical flow of information using visual cues and standardization of content. (Hint: Centering text is very unhelpful when trying to achieve this logical flow.
• Consider your overall signal to noise ratio when displaying lots of information. Too much contrast and the data gets overwhelmed. Too little and the data itself is overwhelming.
• Luke’s site: Lukew.com

And then it was lunchtime! Will talk more about that when I get around to my travel log post. I’ll have the rest of day one in a seperate post, so keep your eyes open, and if you aren’t already subscribed to the RSS feed, by all means hit the GIANT PURPLE BOX at the top of the site to do so. :)

• hey nhwinos, what do we know about new hampshire wine offerings? i’ve seen fruit wines, dessert wines, but nothing “traditional”. thoughts? #
• @Rodzilla good call checking in with The Man (of wine) for wine in NH. might be a fun NHWino project to hunt down NH wines to send in, yes? #
• @Rodzilla it’s only 11:30, you figure a dude that energetic would be up! XD ah well. research project it is, then! :D #
• @Rodzilla not the only one! :D #
• @Rodzilla Zappa is always a good time! BS&T has some really terrific songs too. #
• friendly notice for anybody subscribed to RKNet through the WP feed: feedburner feed gets extra content, and RKNet has twitter.com/RKNet too #
• which in retrospect I could have expressed as @rknet #
• interesting way to search for twitter folks who do certain things or have certain qualities http://www.twellow.com/ #
• the first thing I notice is that I’m already following/followed by most of the first page of the category “geeks” #
• @jonathaneunice ouch. scathing indictment! I take it you speak from less-than-positive experience? #
• @sskennel after I checked out the geek category I decided to do a search for everybody from NH, and discovered about 340 NH peeps are on #
• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121443369987904939.html the days of urls like “clownpenis.fart” are upon us! #
• apparently the only web font we are ever going to use here is verdana. woe. #
• @malpertuis nice. Jonathan Richman is the MAN #
• the intertubes hate me today #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Lately I’ve gotten a really strong urge to learn how to screenprint, or silk screen as it’s also called. I’ve done some reading online, with MAKE/CRAFT magazine being particularly helpful. Still, as excited as I was I didn’t feel like I had quite enough information to really jump in and start buying screens and emulsion and inks.

Earlier, NotCot.org posted a link to a new book about screenprinting, called The Screen Printing Primer by Nick Paparone, Jamie Dillon. You can buy a signed copy directly from PrintLiberation.com for $25. Amazon also sells the book (unsigned) for about $16.

Print Liberation has some really pretty designs up on the site, featuring a lot of really elegant uses of typography. The book contains a few transparencies put together by them for people inspired by the book to get out there and do some experimenting right away, without worrying about the first big hurdle: what design could I come up with to print?

I’m really excited about this book. While it does take a little time, investment, and space to get started, I think that learning about the principles and the history could be a lot of fun and provide alternative ways to apply screenprinting that can be achieved without needing a whole big setup. But then again with some creative shopping and recycling, I’m sure there are ways to get around those issues, too.

I recently dyed my hair a solid green shade (subject to change with further whims).
This guy’s totally copying me.

~via a neat travel site Leaves and Lizards Arenal Volcano Cabin Retreat - Costa Rica