So today I am starting a new section of the site. Its called simply “Design Breakdown”. As the name implies, I will be taking a site and breaking it down and critiquing it. For the most part I will be breaking down sites that I have found trolling the web and like for one reason or another. The goal of this is not to bash a site, but rather see what works about it and what could be made better.

It is important to note that, unless specifically noted, I am not affiliated with any of these sites in any way, shape, or form. In other words, these aren’t sites that I designed and wanted to pimp them out.

On a related note, if you have a site that you own and would like it to go through the breakdown, email me and tell me about the site, what its purpose is, and why you would like the community to review it.

So with that…lets begin! Read the rest of this entry »

Just a quick reminder that there is one week left in our comment contest.

As a quick recap, all you need to do to enter is write a meaningful comment on any post on the site. On May 7th, I will look through all the comments and pick one at random to win a fabulous USB Missile Launcher.

Obviously, the more comments you make, the more likely you are to win.

To see all the “official rules” see my earlier post.

Good Luck!!

Anyone remember the whole “Where’s Waldo” fad that happened oh…10 - 15 years ago?

When I was a kid I used to babysit for a little boy who had a million of those books. I sat there for hours (kids can take care of themselves right?) and try to find that little bugger.

Well, I am proud to announce that I have finally found him, and he is now stuck to my newest t-shirt. Sweet.

What if a button didn’t have to look like a button? What if it could look like anything you wanted it to? Lets say a book that was sitting on a shelf. That isn’t too fancy…you can do that right now with images and CSS.

Ok…but what if, when the user clicked on the book, it slid forward and got larger, flipped a few pages and then showed you the content inside. That can be done in Flash right? Well…kinda. Just like you can make a 2D image look 3D, you can make Flash behave 3D-ish, but it doesn’t have a very solid 3D engine.

Yesterday I took the long view and talked a little about building UIs for a keyboard-less world. That world is coming…

However, even the comfortable world we live in right now is about to change in a big way. I have talked about it before but WPF is on the next horizon and it promises to bring a whole new slew of goodies that has the potential to impact UI developers in a big way.
Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of people have contacted me telling me that the text disappears for them when they scroll around on the site. They are using IE 6. Anyone else having these problems?

I have tested the site with IE 6, 7 and Firefox with no problems, but that doesn’t mean anything really…

Please let me know if you are having problems viewing the site.

Thanks!

When you think of the user interface, what comes to mind? Graphics, design, flow, ease of use? More concretely, when you think about developing a UI things like CSS, Forms, Javascript, Xaml, etc. are the terms you hear.

But step back for a moment…what is UI? User Interface…how a user “hooks in” and uses some form of device. This device can be a car, a computer, heck even furniture. For the computer, the actual interface is a mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

In the future…there might be something like this.
Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know about you, but I love me some rounded corners. They just give off a more casual feel than the standard “hard” corners.

I have built several sites that do the whole rounded thing, but I have always done it the hard way by using a bunch of images and such. Why? I have never found a non-image way that gave nearly as clean of a look as an image. At least not until now.

Today I found spiffy corners. Its not a new site (its actually on its second version) so many of you may have already found this little guy, but he is new to me.

For those of you who don’t know about this site, it is a CSS and HTML generator that creates really nice rounded corners that don’t have all the “jaggies” that are so common. The resulting code isn’t too shabby either (which is a feat in and of itself). I tested it on Firefox 2.0.0.3 and IE 6 today and the examples looked great in both.

So if you are creating a site and need some nice looking rounded corners, give this guy a try and send me a link of your site!

A List Apart is doing a survey about web design and development. If you are a professional designer/developer, its probably a good idea to do it. The more people who take it the better the results will be.

I for one would love to know some stats about our industry.

Ok, so since this is such a new blog, I need help spreading the word. To help with this, I am having a contest.

What is this contest you ask? Well…its a comment contest. For the next two weeks (ending May 7th), every meaningful comment that is posted on any article counts as an entry to the contest. Obviously, the more comments you make, the more likely you are to win.

Now the key is…meaningful…”FIRST” comments and the like do not count. To be entered the comment must be on topic and polite. Don’t forget to leave a valid email address, otherwise I can’t give you the prize.

Also…if you email me, that counts as well (as long as it meets the above criteria).

So what do you win? Since we are a small blog, we can’t offer a Zune or ipod like some of the bigger guys. However, our prizes go for style geek points. So in that vein, the prize for the first ever comment contest is a USB Missile Launcher. I have personally always wanted one of these, so I will be a bit jealous of the winner.

For those of you who do not know about the USB Missile Launcher…according to the catalog it is:

Take control of the airspace in and around your cubicle! Use your PC to aim and launch the 3 foam missiles to secure your borders and defend your homecube. With a 15-foot range, the USB Missile Launcher is perfect for pre-emptive shock and awe strikes of nearby cubicles. Mission accomplished! Includes 3 foam missiles and control software. Requires Windows 2000/XP.

Nothin’ says geek like a missile controlled by your computer. Awesome.

To stir the pot, I posted a discussion article earlier today. You can post there or any other article on the site. Good Luck!

Ok, so as many of you have probably noticed, there is a relatively new trend among tech and design blogs to get their members to redesign their site, logo, etc.

Personally I am a bit conflicted about this tactic. I see both pros and cons and I am not sure which side of the fence I fall on.

On one side, the community gets engaged and gets to submit designs. The winner gets some great resume fodder…everyone else gets a say in the look of their favorite site.

On the other it seems a bit cheap. I mean, the site makes money off their readers already…now they get free work too?

The trend seems to be catching some steam. Devlounge, Smashing Magazine, even Slashdot did it a while back I believe. So what do you think?

You visit these sites to learn about design and development…do you think it is odd that they aren’t designing their own sites? Is there a better/worse way to do it? Where is the line between good for the community and just plain cheap?