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Super Tuesday 2008 Infographic Design
As I’ve mentioned before, election night is one of my favorite nights of the year. All the big media outlets pull out their infographic design “big guns.” One of my favorites for the Super Tuesday 2008 Primary results is at the New York Times: It simply describes the current situation in the largest states that…
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Civil Twilight and User Observation
You know how it feels when a song just sort of hits you? You’ve liked the band for a while, listen to their music frequently, but then all of a sudden you’re completely struck by a particular song? That happened to me tonight. Perhaps I’m just tired from the holidays, work, and life, but I…
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Experiencing the power of Java
So this evening I’m reinstalling Java. Not by choice, but because the annoying little balloon keeps on popping up in the corner of my screen. Then, while it’s installing, the installer has the audacity to say something extremely stupid like: By installing Java, you will be able to experience the power of Java…” NO WAY!…
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Seeing fewer choices
Alternatively titled: On Covering Your Ass Check out that picture on the right. That’s from my credit card’s website. My favorite part is the red link on the bottom that proclaims, “See fewer choices.” You know what that option is? That’s a designer or usability person saying to the team, “Hello team, we have heard…
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"Pretty" Software Applications
One of the most difficult expectations for me to overcome with respect to my coworkers is the idea that I’m here to simply make the software look pretty. It’s difficult for so many to understand. I do understand principles of typography, layout, color, and design in general…and yes, I do have the ability to decorate…
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Taxi-cab confessional
I almost missed my flight this evening. Nearly every Sunday for the past few months I’ve taken a flight to Raleigh, NC. This flight is preceded by a trip in a taxi from my house to the airport. Except tonight it didn’t go as planned. As routine turned to complacency, I wasn’t alarmed when the…
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On the Misleading Lexicon of Agile Development
Whatever happened to clear, consistent language? Why do we use words that have inconsistent meaning in contexts where they’ll be unfamiliar? Why, oh why? Day in and day out I work with clients in an Agile development setting. I use words that have been trained into me, that I’ve been taught over and over again.…
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Agile Design, a response to my friend’s quandary
This evening Kynthia‘s thoughts got me thinking. Among other things, she said: “[W]e design heads get in this place where, just because we wouldn’t be caught dead releasing something into the wild, we think there is nothing to learn from it.” My brain took her thoughts on a tangent and went this way: So since…
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Even Apple is not Immune
to a poor design. I stumbled across this newish area of the Apple site this morning. I won’t go into details, just because I’m lazy, but from this designer’s perspective this page is U-G-L-Y. So many gradients and colors and flashing boxes. Not to mention the fact that it has slowed my computer to a…
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It’s Gotta Start with Imagination
It’s true, there’s definitely a time and a place for getting one’s hands dirty. Sometimes there’s just no way around digging into the details and making things right. Sometimes, even as a designer, you’re going to have to play with the CSS to get the alignment right, because if not you, who will? Still, it’s…