Design Intellection

What they don’t teach you about identity design in design schools…

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:32:07 -0400

What they don’t teach you about identity design in design schools…:

Mostly, designers get paid to negotiate the difficult terrain of individual egos, expectations, tastes, and aspirations of various individuals in an organization or corporation, against business needs, and constraints of the marketplace.

Committed to Content Strategy

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:04:07 -0400

In the book Content Strategy for the Web, Kristina Halvorson summarizes the need for content strategy.

[U]ntil we commit to treating content as a critical asset worthy of strategic planning and meaningful spend[ing], we’ll continue to churn out worthless content in reaction to unmeasured requests. We’ll keep signing up for online content initiatives without pausing to ask why. Our customers still won’t find what they’re looking for. And we’ll keep failing to deliver useful, usable content that people actually care about.
— p. 42

Earlier in the book – under the heading There Are No Shortcuts – it reads:

Creating useful, usable content requires user research, strategic planning, meaningful metadata, web writing skills, and editorial oversight. It requires people. With experience. And insights. And judgment. It requires planning. And input. And time. And money.

It will not happen automatically.
— p. 22

It’s easy to get excited about content strategy; it’s not as easy to follow through with the hard work and resources required to implement it.

" Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything. —Scott Adams, The Value of Ideas "

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:59:27 -0400

“

Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything.
—Scott Adams, The Value of Ideas

”

No credit here

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:16:36 -0400

I can’t remember when, but at some point I stopped putting credit links on sites I create for clients. You know, the small text links in the footer that read “Site by Design Intellection” or something similar.

The reason for me is twofold:

(1) If a person truly wants to know who built the site it will be discovered. Most likely he or she will contact the website owner or organization and ask them. And unless they are a web design company who had their site built by another agency, most people are happy to pass along the web designer’s contact information.

(2) The client is paying you for your services. You are delivering a specialized product that is a very valuable asset to them. To stamp your name – even inconspicuously – on every page is tacky.

What about SEO?

Some people use credit links as a way to build more in-bound links for themselves. This shouldn’t be part of your SEO strategy. Your client’s websites aren’t tools to boost your position in search results. Instead start a blog, contribute something to the design and development community, do something that makes people link to your site out of their own will. This ultimately will be better for everyone.

Frontend Pro Template

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:19:04 -0400

Frontend Pro Template:

From the README: This is a set of files that a front-end developer can use to get started on a website.

The print-specific styles are particularly brilliant. Here’s a snippet:

a:after { content: " (" attr(href) ")"; }
abbr:after { content: " (" attr(title) ")"; }

I need a design intern

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:31:39 -0400

I need a design intern:

I am looking for someone to help me with my workload for the next two months. If you’re interested or know of someone who is the details can be found on the page linked above.

Council approves redesign of website

Fri, 28 May 2010 17:30:42 -0400

Council approves redesign of website:

The 12 companies that submitted proposals ranged in cost between $18,600 and $106,418.

A great, unintended commentary on the state of web design today. (via @mheerema)

On Wired on iPad

Fri, 28 May 2010 13:22:10 -0400

I just spent lunch with Wired Magazine on the iPad. To say that it’s the future of magazines is a bit over-stated. However, I agree with Cameron Moll when he says it’s a big step in the right direction.

I read Animating a Blockbuster by Jonah Lehrer which provided a synopsis of Pixar’s process of creating a feature-length movie. The article was put together well: the videos and picture sequences complemented the story text without seeming like superfluous additions. Without going into detail and meta arguments, the “reading” experience was immersive and fun.

I’ve included several screenshots from the article.

To summarize, Wired Magazine on the iPad was definitely neat – and their hard work shouldn’t be trivialized – but there’s much opportunity for greater things.

" Once a satisfactory product has been achieved, further change may be counterproductive, especially..."

Tue, 25 May 2010 09:38:39 -0400

“

Once a satisfactory product has been achieved, further change may be counterproductive, especially if the product is successful. You have to know when to stop.
—Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, p.150

”

Messy Desks & Genius Minds

Mon, 24 May 2010 08:43:00 -0400

Messy Desks & Genius Minds:

[Get] used to things not looking good while you’re working on them.

Doing what you love

Fri, 21 May 2010 11:49:58 -0400

Today is one of those days where every mouse click takes conscience effort. I have worked non-stop this week, and will continue to do so for the next couple months. And when I’m not working I have a hard time turning off the “work mind” that is constantly thinking about all the things I have to do.

However, I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

I wrote a post earlier this year – Start Smart – which contains a small bit on being passionate that is worth repeating:

Be Passionate

Yeah, I know, nothing new here. But sometimes you need to hear it more than once. Don’t start a web design business unless you absolutely love working on the web. Because I can tell you some days you’re going to hate the internet, and you’re going to hate building websites, and it’s going to be the last thing you want to do that day but you’re going to have to do it.

That’s the difference between a job and a hobby. When you start a web design business it ceases to be a hobby and turns into a job. Make sure you love it before you do it or you’ll hate it quicker than you started it.

Findability and Exploration: the future of search

Fri, 21 May 2010 07:48:19 -0400

Findability and Exploration: the future of search:

This is pretty much the best article I’ve read regarding search.

How to Save the News

Thu, 20 May 2010 14:50:01 -0400

How to Save the News:

A comprehensive peek into Google’s ideas for the future of news.

" Use spaced en dashes – rather than close-set em dashes or spaced hyphens – to set off..."

Wed, 19 May 2010 15:45:45 -0400

“

Use spaced en dashes – rather than close-set em dashes or spaced hyphens – to set off phrases.
—Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, p.80

He continues further:

The em dash is the nineteenth-century standard, still prescribed in many editorial style books, but the em dash is too long for use with the best text faces. Like the oversized space between sentences, it belongs to the padded and corseted aesthetic of Victorian typography.

”

The Pipeline – Episode 7: Merlin Mann

Wed, 19 May 2010 10:03:36 -0400

The Pipeline – Episode 7: Merlin Mann:

The Pipeline is a podcast hosted by Dan Benjamin that bills itself as “an interview show with innovators, designers, geeks, newsmakers, and people who create things.” I have listened to several of the shows and each one is full of great content.

Episode 7 with Merlin Mann was particularly engaging. I enjoyed listening to him talk about making things and the experiences and thoughts related to that realm.

Here are a couple quotes from the show:

Every time you agree to do something you tacitly agree not to do 10,000 other things.
—Merlin Mann

Regarding email (among other things):

If you have this one place that you cant walk away from, because you don’t have a tolerance for the unknown, you’ll never do anything good. … And if you cant tolerate the incomplete, well you’re never really going to be able to make anything good. Because the patterns show that anybody who’s a great artist, or a great thinker or a great anybody, learns to tolerate a huge amount of uncertainty in that process.
—Merlin Mann

Do you like Tumblr as much as I do?

Tue, 18 May 2010 08:27:57 -0400

I would venture to answer “yes.”

What’s neat about Tumblr is it’s not only a great publishing platform but a great tool for content consumption. When blogs were mostly longer-form text posts (there were always exceptions of course) traditional feed readers provided an acceptable form of content delivery. Usually you were presented with a list of updated feeds in a sidebar with titles and excerpts in a larger content area. Each post was segmented into its own unit; and to access that “unit” routinely required a few clicks.

However as self-publishing has changed to shorter forms and varied media the traditional feed reader has become obsolete. I shouldn’t have to click a title of a post to read a quote. (Especially when the title was a truncated portion of that same quote.)

I think the way Tumblr aggregates and displays blog posts is the future of feed readers. Though I’m not aware of any standalone readers that take this approach.

Do you need a magazine theme?

Mon, 17 May 2010 13:16:00 -0400

Thinking about getting a magazine theme for your blog? Think again. Unless you publish twenty new articles a day under different topics that appeal to separate audiences you probably don’t need a site designed for a newspaper.

Yes they’re cool, and they do make you feel like your blog is important. But think about the expectation you’re setting because much of the visitor’s perception will be derived from the environment you create.

One new post a day published in a layout created for twenty new posts a day does not deliver on the design’s promise. It’s stale and it doesn’t have to be. On the other hand, one blog post created in a more traditional layout has much more of an impact. It changes the content landscape completely. Not to mention the framework established is that of a blog, not a newspaper, so the expectation is not for multiple new posts a day.

Think about your users, think about what they want and the best way to get that to them.

" Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. —Albert..."

Mon, 17 May 2010 09:53:00 -0400

“

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
—Albert Einsten (usually attributed to, that is)

The above quote came by way of the article, Metric Mania, in the New York Times Magazine. A helpful reminder as influence online tends to be measured with eyeballs, not engagement.

Switched to Tumblr

Mon, 17 May 2010 01:17:01 -0400

I have moved my blog to Tumblr. Thanks to .htaccess you shouldn’t have to change anything, all post permalinks and blog feeds should be redirecting to the proper spots.

One fun feature of Tumblr is you can now ask me questions, and if I choose (and am able) to answer them they are published on the blog alongside everything else.

You can likely expect a higher frequency of posting, although I’ll do my best to keep the noise down. As always, thanks for reading, I truly appreciate it.

Design was just a part of the process. And the process we made...

Sun, 16 May 2010 23:02:49 -0400

Design was just a part of the process. And the process we made was not about changing the look, it was about improving the product completely.
—Jacek Utko

From TED: Jacek Utko is an extraordinary Polish newspaper designer whose redesigns for papers in Eastern Europe not only win awards, but increase circulation by up to 100%. Can good design save the newspaper? It just might.

If you’re interested in viewing more “well-designed” newspapers, Google will likely lead you to Newsdesigner.com or Smashing Magazine’ post, Award-Winning Newspaper Designs. Also the Society for News Designers publishes a series of books titled The Best Newspaper Designs (here’s the latest edition).