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CSS Testing
The last few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of CSS writing. While this doesn’t necessarily fall under my job role, on many projects I end up doing it because I’m the “designer”…therefore I am put in charge of implementing style. Whatever. Turns out I kind of like it, so I let it pass, but…
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Banana = Design = Innovation = Vision
Banana = Vision Love it or hate it, Bruce Nussbaum makes some great points in Are Designers the Enemy of Design? I think I buy most of it. Is Design a specialist activity? If it’s done well, generally yes. Is that likely to change? For the most part, I don’t think so. Will ‘the everyman’…
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Hanging Blockquotes: Implemented
If you’re not looking at this entry on my site, it’s not gonna look quite right. For the best view, look here. Just wanted to let y’all know that I’ve fixed my blockquotes so that they’re hanging. You’ll notice that I not only hang my blockquotes, but list items as well. Check it out: This…
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The Design of CruiseControl.rb
If you’ve heard me talk about work lately, you have probably heard me talk about an Open Source project I’ve been working on with a handful of other folks at ThoughtWorks. Previous to now, it’s been “privately public,” existing on servers where people could get to it, but not so public that we were letting…
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The Devil’s in the Details: NYTimes.com edition
Imagine the situation: you’re reading the newspaper online. Great article. It’s filling you in on the big story that everybody is talking about over at the water cooler. In a few seconds you’re going to go over to them and fill them in on this juicy new detail. But then – wait – what was…
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On Iteration
“It’s not an iteration if you only do it once!” – Fred Sampson, in the UPA Voice Developers & designers: Please, please don’t just implement your first idea. Think about it for a few minutes. Sketch it on paper a few times a few different ways. Nine times out of ten you’ll find that your…
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Code Poetry
What a brilliant poem. Read it for yourself: StubbornSoft & MammothSoft
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Some advice from Don Norman
Just when you’re looking for some inspiration, a quote from someone famous is bound to help: The most important consulting rule that I follow is: “Never solve the problem as stated.” Why? because it is invariably the wrong problem, usually being the symptom rather than the cause. Find the root cause and solve that, and…
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Screen-placement testing tool
All sorts of automated tests happen on projects at ThoughtWorks. There are Unit Tests, Functional tests, GUI tests, and others that make sure the software we’re building runs well from the most back-end function all the way to the user’s interface. One thing we don’t test, however, is where particular elements land on a screen.…
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Creating Visual Design Options
One of the ideas that I try to progress when I join a new project is that much of my job will simply be about exploring options. If I do my job right, more than half of the options will end up in the trash bin, so that’s to be expected. Many people have a…