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.
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.
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.
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. :)
The Eagles of Death Metal - The Ballad of Queen Bee and Baby Duck
This song is great. It’s dripping with influence from psychedelic bands of yesteryear and it’s got the silly sensibilities which made Toni Basil’s Mickey so infectious. I really don’t know what to say about this song other than I love it. Don’t let the name fool you, they sound nothing like the Eagles, or death metal. (At least not on this track.)
Secondly, and more importantly (my prioritization skills have become rather skewed, what can I say?), it is the birthday of my esteemed co-writer and guy-I-totally-do-the-thing-with, Ian!
Wish him a happy one! Tomorrow: Ides of March. Watch out for statesmen bearing shiny objects, they might also be very pointed, and very headed for your viscera.
Aaaaaaaaw shit. That’s right suckers, Season 2 of the Venture Brothers is about to pop like a jack-in-the-box full of asswhuppin’!
For those who may be unfamiliar, there are a ton of clips over at YouTube and I know there are ways to watch whole episodes over at the AdultSwim website.
This show is the best thing to happen to TV since… TV was invented, I’d wager.
With my birthday coming up, realistically all I'm concerned about is renewing my car registration and my apartment lease. Second to that, I'm concerned with staying relatively healthy and sane. Contributions to the secondary set of concerns are always welcome.
That said, I feel as though I'll take the time this month to post a bunch of things that make me say “oh wow!” or “ZOMG COVET!”. So basically stuff I'd want for my birthday in a world where I'm considerate enough of my friends that they feel inclined to reciprocate. (In this world, my friends are also not broke.)
Thing #1: Art Prints from Gregory Euclide
http://www.gregoryeuclide.com/details/details.html
Months and months ago I got six prints from this artist, and few things were more satisfying over the summer than finally getting them framed and hung in the bedroom. They're so soft, sweeping, and colorful. The effect is at once soothing and engaging. It's a pretty remarkable balance to hit.
I signed up to be on his mailing list for future awesome print sales. Another one is coming up and it's currently on sale in the pre-order phase. A total of 7 limited edition prints for $192. Sexy. Six of the prints are 5×7 and one is 4×6.
Being intrigued, and finding out that there’s a free trial until my birthday (April 30th), I signed up. I am currently awaiting verification that I own my domain, after that I’ll be able to potentially issue some really neat little tools onto RKNet.
I’m not a total Googlephile but I’ve always appreciated the uncluttered home page (”HI! I’m a search engine! search for stuff!”), and I really like Google Talk for the same reason (”HI! I’m a chat program! Chat with people!”).
I’ll give further updates when I know more about this development. Of course I may not be able to add services and such to RKNet because my hosting level (free) doesn’t support things like PHP and the like.
Edit: A much better take on this situation, from one far more familiar can be found over yonder. At this point I suppose you could consider my post to be more of a primer for the almost equally undereducated.
So, Robert Anton Wilson died yesterday. It was also Albert Hofmann’s birthday. For those who might not be familiar, R.A. Wilson is responsible for the Illuminatus Trilogy (along with Robert Shea). Albert Hofmann is the inventor of LSD.
I went to Robert Anton Wilson’s blog and visited the bookstore at his site. The bookstore has a list of all his books, as well as books by other authors and films that he recommends reading/viewing. A bunch of interesting selections to be had, all around.
The blog appears to have been little-used but does seem to have some interesting tidbits. (AllHailEris!)
I clicked the Amazon link in the RAW bookstore and I found this! It’s a bunch of arcade cabinets and cocktail tables for sale. <3 I gotta add… all of those to my wish list. As a reminder that I need to own a swank living area and many arcade machines must fill it.
I do wish I could properly celebrate this passing/birthday and what will go on to be a double anniversary. (I think they’d both appreciate a damn good party.) One birth, and one death, timestamps are totally different except in that 01/11 aspect. Still, 01/11 is something we can remember because it’s something we do every year. That’s the nice thing about making time circular like that, it can enforce our tendency to live in the past in a positive way by giving us a memory to look forward to experiencing in a new way.
Even if I can’t party hard, I suppose I can take this weekend to do a lot of reading. There’s all kinds of ways to evoke powerful feelings, afterall.
“Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence.” ~ RAW
“Of course I’m crazy, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.” ~ RAW
“The shock of discovering that most of the power in the world is held by ignorant and greedy people can really bum you out at first; but after you’ve lived with it a few decades, it becomes, like cancer and other plagues, just another problem that we will solve eventually if we keep working at it.” ~ RAW
“At the beginning of the 1960s, here in the United States, LSD became a drug of abuse. In a short time, this wave of popular use swept the country and it became drug number one. It was then used incautiously and people were not prepared and informed about its deep effects. And then all kinds of things happened, which caused LSD to become an infamous drug. It was a troublesome time! Telephones, panic, and alarm!” ~ A. Hofmann
“In old times, and also in our time among the Indian tribes, psychedelic substances were considered sacred and they were used with the right attitude and in a ritual and spiritual context. And what a difference if we compare it with the careless and irresponsible use of LSD in the streets and in the discotheques of New York City and everywhere in the West. It is a tragic misunderstanding of the nature and the meaning of these kinds of substances.” ~ A. Hofmann
“Through my LSD experience and my new picture of reality, I became aware of the wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the animal and plant kingdom. I became very sensitive to what will happen to all this and all of us.” ~ A. Hofmann
Some kids play in the sandbox. We play in the.... litterbox??? The RKNet staff is pleased that you decided to stop by. Currently this is a multi-author project, with a rotating cast of totally kooky characters. Contact giania [at symbol] gmail [dot] com if you'd like to play here too.
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.
