Subjective Blog | Useful. The New Black.

“Apparently, you should pretend to like anyone who pretends to like you. This is called “networking,” and it’s why the web smells like feet.” – hotdogsladies (a.k.a. Merlin Mann)

The High Cost of Pretending

I remember when I was in a Web Design class back in 2002, I did something remarkable. The school itself was nothing great, except that I eventually graduated there in 2004, at age 22, after having some rather interesting adventures elsewhere. No, the satellite school was simply a place where you could pick up credits for high school, or learn new skills in the evenings after your job. I was doing the former.

There was one girl who sat behind me, was close to my age, and who was nice enough, but was generally not my type of person. I was polite to her for some time, because that’s just what you do.

One day, she had asked me a question that I can’t even recall but I must have replied to because she reflexively followed up my response with “Why?” I hesitated a moment, and thought, and decided to brutalize myself with my honesty. In a deliberate cadence of baritone articulation I looked into her eyes and plainly spoke.

“Because I don’t like you.”

It was one of the most liberating experiences of my life.

“Seems like it’s easier to promote other people’s stuff than one’s own stuff. You don’t take it so personally, somehow.” – Hugh MacLeod, The Gaping Void

the global microbrand riff continues

Absolutely. My wife and I have had this discussion, as artists, so many times. She believes in my work way more than I believe in my own, and vice versa. She’s told me that an artist’s worst critic is themselves because they’re acutely aware of their own flaws, and rejection is often so horrible because the artist feels that she is the one being rejected, and not the art.

“A good app has a balance of form and function.”

Absolutely.

For Chartypes, my design process has been completely iterative. Looking at one side of the app, then the other, tweaking each part, and going back and forth between design and development in order to optimize the entire experience. This is somewhat easier working by myself, as opposed to working with a separate developer, because I know exactly what I’m thinking. But design is wholly connected to development (or engineering, as your case may be) and each one compliments the other, culminating in a perfect experience.

freckle: time tracking rethought

User Centered Design is the discipline of creating an interface that provides minimal hassle to the person using the interface. In layman’s terms, that means getting the fuck out of the way.

Freckle is an inspiring example of this. I haven’t even *used* the software yet (I’ve no need for time tracking, really) and already I’m considering ways I can impress their example of usefulness upon my own designs.

Freckles User Centered Design

The first thing you’ll notice when going to Freckle’s website is the lack of the usual chuff. Instead, the first thing you see is the actual app in a bloody huge screen shot — not some weak posturing that’s been pushed off to the side. No, instead, the entire interface, which is the brand, and of which there is not much, smacks you in the face with it’s bold and cheery color palette, and inviting freshness.

Why? Because the interface is what you’re buying.

Lunch Bag Art

I think the most impressive thing about these pieces of artwork, besides the Dad doing them, which is an inspiration for all Dads, is how quickly his skills improved. Take these two Koi for example. The first was done on October 7, and the second was done November 22. That’s only a month and a half of doing (at least) one drawing a day.

Koi - October 7

Koi - November 22

The comparison is so dramatic that I’m finding myself inspired, and encouraged, to learn how to draw as well — it’s one of those things I’ve always wanted to learn, but never have — I’ve just been afraid of the time it would take to get past the suck threshold.

But, I shouldn’t be afraid. As David Heinemeier Hansson said once “Mastery is probably closer than you think.” And there’s the general thesis of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers: The Story Of Success, that proposes that the only thing separating a person from “expertise” is simply the effort they put into learning the craft.

In 15 minutes, we go from scratch to complete weblog engine with comments, ajax, an ATOM feed, an XML and JSON API, tests, an administrative interface, and much more! We strongly advise that you sit down before starting this whirlwind tour. Your head may well be spinning at the end. Come along for the Ruby on Rails ride.

Creating a weblog in 15 minutes with Rails 2

I’m impressed.

The screencast is presented by Ryan Bates of Railscasts and, as usual, his presentation is clear and informative. I’m going to be watching this again and again to pick up tips from how he’s done things.

The video does feel slightly accelerated due to Ryan pasting in snippets of code here and there, but I can forgive that for the sheer amount of functionality that he’s produced, even by the half way mark. This is what makes Rails such a pleasure to work with. The failings of PHP are so apparent when watching the debugger part, that I wish I had made the switch long ago.

Le sigh. Old Typography plus New Corporate head. It’s an improvement to be sure, and I’m glad to know that Ask was listening.

Update: It’s back! Someone, somewhere, made a wise choice to bring back the old Dictionary.com design. I’m not sure if I had anything to do with it, but someone did find this post by searching for: “dictionary.com” redesign. Either way, I’m glad that’s over.

It struck me as highly synchronistic that Snook would blog about the Shelf Life of a Website, shortly after I discovered Dictionary.com’s defacement.

I find it appalling that Ask.com fixed what wasn’t broken, but I also understand that the criteria that determines what’s broken is subjective. At this time, I see two points of view:

1. Dictionary.com was bought by Ask.com and it didn’t fit into it’s corporate look — therefore it was broken.
2. Since being redesigned Dictionary.com has lost significant usefulness, primarily due to it’s poor legibility — therefore it’s broken to me.

Granted, I loved the old site like one loves an old teddy bear, and that makes the abrupt change particularly drastic, but what did they expect? Word nerds love words and the way they are presented, the previous look was warm and inviting. It took me a little to get used to because the typography was so sophisitcated, but I completely embraced it, and now it’s like I don’t know who Dictionary.com is anymore. I’m sad.

The cold corporate exterior belies the true intentions of Ask.com and proves how unviable a search company they really are, and leaves me with even less respect for them than I ever had. They can’t play with the big boys, and I won’t be surprised to find them dead in under half a decade.

Thanks Ask… Thanks for nothing.

Google Chrome got it right. These days, putting something out there and expecting people to care is not enough. If you build it, they will not come.

Instead, you have to market yourself effectively. Google Chrome, the newest browser on the block, did this remarkably well. While I was initially skeptical, to the point of being cynical, I’ve only read half way through the comic and I’m totally reformed.

Why?

Because I understand.

Understanding is the most important part of marketing. If a consumer doesn’t understand your product, you’re going to be fucked. Hardcore. By indifference.

People cared about Firefox because of the story behind it — the underdog Mozilla team took up the open source mantle and charged full steam at Internet Explorer with the mantra “standards, or bust” — and they won a significant chunk of the market (roughly 30%). So much market was won that Microsoft had to release IE7 just to keep up, and they’re still stumbling forward with IE8 while they continue to get their asses whipped.

From my point of view, Chrome is oriented towards people who care about the work put into it. Developers and Users who appreciate the craftsmanship. Does that mean my Mom is going to use it? Hardly… But if she ever complains about IE crashing all the time, or her computer being slow while surfing the internet, I’d certainly recommend it.

The lesson to take away from all this though, is that you have to tell your story well. In the case of Firefox, the story was understood almost silently. This time, Chrome isn’t the underdog — it’s a high-class piece of well-crafted software coming from another Goliath. They’ll need to continue telling their story, continue living their story, continue being authentic, open, secure, and pushing technology along a progressive path, or else they’ll be wiped from the map.

Don’t worry, what you see is dust, not fog. I’ll be reposting some earlier articles shortly, and for now I’ve setup the About page for those interested in who I am.

If you have a question, or would merely like to contact me for any reason, please feel free to leave a comment on the blog. Further contact details are on the About page.

Thanks,
I’ll get back to you soon.