Posts from January, 2006
Tagged by Yannick Lyn Fatt
Four Jobs I’ve Had in My Life:
- Web Designer
- Network Technician
- Computer Support Grunt
- K-mart “Stock Help” (I was the only guy in a store full of women. I lifted heavy things and sold ammunition.)
Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over, and Have:
- Batman Begins
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Lord of the Rings (the trilogy, is that fair?)
- Any Will Smith as sarcastic renegade cop movie.
Four Places I Have Lived:
- Ames, IA
- Webster City, IA
- Burlington, IA
- Vernon Hills, IL
- McCook, NE (to complete the list)
Four TV Shows I Love To Watch:
- Late Show with David Letterman
- Saturday Night Live (at least, I used to love it, not sure why I watch it anymore… not that I do that often)
- Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (gotta love Ty Penningtom)
- Lost (I’m hooked.)
Four Places I Have Been On Vacation:
- Hawaii
- Grand Canyon
- Niagra Falls
- Orlando / Disney World
Four Websites I Visit Daily:
Four Favorite Foods:
- Stir Fry
- Anything Authentic Mexican
- Sausage and Mushroom Pizza (Pan Crust)
- Anything Nancy makes. (not kidding.)
Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
- Heaven
- Heaven
- Heaven
- Heaven
Four People I Am Tagging With This Meme:
(I’m a little late on this one but I wanted to check the studies out for myself before commenting.)
Sean Carton on the recent study by Carleton University about Web site aestheitcs.
Researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa recently discovered that users make judgments about Web site design in as few as 50 milliseconds (a mere 1/20th of a second!). This judgment is an emotional reaction based on pure aesthetics and has nothing to do with usability.
A study by Questus confirmed the results.
I still have questions about the methodology and sample size for the study, but this is one of those things that “seems” to be true. (Seems is a dangerous word).
Most usability experts will tell you that Web browsing habits are idiosyncratic and it is difficult to create hard and fast guidelines for this medium; but nonetheless, I think it is safe to say that DESIGN MATTERS,. A LOT, when it comes to the success of your Web presence.
Carleton University, Usability, Aesthetics, Design, Study, Questus
Missed An Event Apart - Philadelphia? Well, here’s a 2 minute highlight reel for you. Both times they show the crowd, I am JUST outside of the frame. (The guy shooting the video was right next to my rwo.).
Probably reaaally dull and boring to non-Web-geeks.
What’s funny is, the part where Eric Meyer is talking about “but when you add “overflow:hidden” to the main div, the padding disappears….” sounds sooooo dry but everyone was on the edge of their seat, and everyone’s jaw dropped at that moment.
He was demonstrating The One True Layout: Equal Height CSS Columns. And everyone collectively smacked themselves in the forhead after that.
An Event Apart, aneventapart, one true layout
Gmail has recently added a “Web clips” section to their Webmail (or is that a function of me having google desktop installed?). It usually provides mildly interesting related links associated with your e-mail.
This was hillarious though. As seen while purging my spam folder.
mmmm. Spam
Webmail, email, spam, google, gmail
Mr. Zeldman has a beautiful editorial over at A List Apart regarding all the hype around “Web 2.0″.
A particularly inspiring quote:
…ours is a medium in which, more often than not, big teams have slowly and expensively labored to produce overly complex web applications whose usability was near nil on behalf of clients with at best vague goals. The realization that small, self-directed teams powered by Pareto’s Principle can quickly create sleeker stuff that works better is not merely bracing but dynamic.
“Big teams slowly and expensively labored to produce overly complex web applications whose usability was near nil….”
You get what you pay for
I’ve been curious as to how the axim “you get what you pay for” applies to Web design. I think this quote has helped me figure it out.
If you pay a huge corporate Web factory that has overly bloated infrastructure a small fortune to produce your Web site, you will get in return an huge, corporate-feeling, factory produced (i.e., looks the same as everything else), monstrosity of a Web site that has overly bloated code and an almost beureaucratic navigation system/site map.
If you pay a small-time amateur beans, you will get a small-time, amateur Web site that isn’t worth much.
If you pay a sleek, small, custom shop run by a few experts a reasonable amount of money, you will get a sleek, fast, custom, beautiful Web site.
This is almost always true.
Web Design, Design, Web, Web Standards, AJAX, Web 2.0
