Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context – a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.
I’ve noticed this wrap-around or folding banner thing showing up around the web. I like it. Simple effects like this add layer and depth to the flat images on screen.
If you have ever been to a science museum, you know what to expect: wild animals preserved in threatening poses, strange bugs from across the planet and, if your lucky, some dinosaur bones. Things have changed a bit at the California Academy of Sciences. Last year they completed a major overhaul to their facility in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and transformed it into the greenest museum in the world (LEED Platinum). The usual bugs and bones remain, but the exhibits have been designed to increase visibility and interaction. You can walk through a four-story glass orb that contains the rainforest exhibit, explore the amazing aquarium, stare at the night sky in the planetarium, or watch researchers do their actual work in front of you.
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco
My favorite exhibit is the building itself. It is packed with green features but none are obtrusive. The average visitor may not notice the solar array, computer-controlled natural ventilation, or rainwater collection, but they will definitely notice the result: a beautiful, light-filled, comfortable museum which prompts you to spend the day learning. The grandest green feature it its 2.5 acre green roof which looks like a green carpet floating above the whole museum. Architect Renzo Piano sketched it with one undulating line. From the observation deck you can enjoy an impressive view of the native plantings and species that call the roof their home, as well as the rest of the park and city beyond. I wish my office was up there; it is amazing.
The term crafting brings to mind the knitted sweaters my aunt made for Christmas gifts. Those weren’t worn much after that day. The old stereotypes of crafts are being redefined by a new generation of creative people. Today’s crafts are functional, stylish or cute creations that appeal to a new audience who are tired of massed produced options from the mega store.
If you appreciate hand made items, you used to visit your local craft fair. The halls were filled with knit pot holders, yarn haired dolls and jewelry made from “friendly” plastic. Today, crafting is back and it’s high-tech. Creative folks have turned to the web for inspiration, instruction and customers.
Websites like Etsy.com (rhymes with Betsy) are built as a marketplace for crafters. Customer can buy a wide range of items from talented crafters without leaving their couch, while crafters get a worldwide audience for their specialized creations. Several of myfamily and friends have gotten into it the craft business with the help of Etsy.
Feel like creating something unique? Share it with the world. Love hand-made items? Have fun shopping. Crafting 2.0 has arrived.
After two nights of intense design and development, a new site has been released for E&J Design, a collaboration between Eric Ritchey and myself. Nothing like a deadline to motivate! We’re stoked to have it live, but have more in the works for the future. Take it for a spin: www.eandjdesign.com
It is amazing to watch a child grow up with technology as normal while the older generation is still figuring it out how to adjust to it. My one year old spends most of the day pushing buttons, opening doors, or trying to take things apart. Hopefully, that desire to learn how things work will last a lifetime. I can only wonder what the future will be like. The world is changing fast. I wonder if anyone predicted that information would be so accessible though the internet. It is simple to learn so many things that previously were confined to trained professionals. Websites and online tools allow you to manage your banking and investments, publish a book, sell your original music and much more.
Open access to vast knowledge has eliminated the traditional barriers to entry into many fields of work. Web design is a field that has no such barriers. Anything you need to know about web design is available online and can be self-taught. Many professionals started out tinkering and then developed their new skills into a career.
Why it is valuable to pay for professional web design if it’s so easy to do?
Time: Web design basics are simple, but it quickly gets complex and takes a lot of time to develop professional level skills.
Experience: Like any profession, there is immense value in practical experience.
Standards: Professional web sites should be built to web standards. These standards are a benchmark that separate professionals from amateurs.
Style: This aspect is subjective. Generally, professionals have a higher quality of aesthetic style.
So if you need a professional website, hire a pro. If you’re a technology sponge, start learning and soon you may have a new career.
Intel has a commercial portraying Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of the USB, as if he was a rock star. Check it out:
If the web industry had it’s own rock star commercial it would have to feature Jeffrey Zeldman or Eric Meyer. Both are well known for starting the movement to create standard practices for web sites and making sure browsers supported those standards.
Zeldman is the co-founder of the Web Standards Project (WaSP), started A List Apart and his own studio, has authored several books and lectures on the topic of web standards. He was recently called “the godfather of web standards” by .net Magazine.
Meyer is famous for his standards evangelism at Netscape, authoring numerous books on CSS, and lecturing on CSS and web standards.
The official web standards are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These standards have become an integral part of professional web development, thanks to the pioneering work of Meyer and Zeldman. Standards ensure a website’s audience is viewing the site as the designer intended and also provide a benchmark for quality work. Thanks rock stars, rock on!
Remember when everyone had AOL, prodigy, or Compuserve? Those were the days of the original browser wars. Internet Explorer battled it out with Netscape Navigator while websites proudly displayed badges to support their chosen weapon.
While that debate has faded, there is a new browser war going on, this time it’s Web Designers vs. Internet Explorer 6. You don’t have to look far to find blog posts by designers and developers using vile words to describe IE6. For the un-initiated, IE6 has issues displaying websites built to current standards. This makes make building websites that work for the majority of users much more difficult. Advancements have been made by Microsoft in subsequent releases of IE 7 & 8, but there are still far too many users that have not upgraded to modern browsers. Most power users have moved on from IE to Firefox, Safari or others that are built to facilitate standards based web design, but the IE6 contingency is unfortunately too large to ignore.
What’s a designer to do? Some have taken elitist stance of serving an empty page to IE6 users with a message to upgrade. Others provide a stripped down text only version of their site. This may be justified from the designer’s perspective but isolates IE6 users, many of whom are stuck with it by enterprise IT departments. Sites that must cater to a wide audience go through the tedious effort of adding IE6 specific tweaks to make things work. These tweaks add extra cost and complexity to the development process, resulting in increased distain for the enemy browser.
Some interesting new approaches have emerged that are gentler than the forced methods and bring needed attention to the issue. IE6update.com and pushuptheweb.com have devised tools that attach a message to your site that is only viewed by users of IE6. This message suggests the user upgrade their browser to get the maximum experience. I prefer this kinder approach to bringing users up to speed instead of punishing them for being out of date.
Despite these methods, IE6 isn’t going to die as fast as designers would like, so we have to deal with it for now. It helps to reminisce about the progress that has been made in the past years thanks to the web standards movement. Be glad we are past the time when every site had a flashing “under construction” graphic, and a 56k modem was cutting edge.
Taking an idea and making it a successful business is a struggle. Not only do you have to manage internal factors like productivity, customer service, and accounting, you are also subject to external factors like competition, market volatility, and fickle customers. Recently I was surprised with a legal challenge which required big changes to one of my websites and its products. Challenges like these bring the entrepreneur to a crossroads. Do you allow the challenge to be a stumbling block or a launching point? It’s easy to be discouraged, but it takes endurance and hope to turn a setback into an opportunity for success. There is always more to learn or a fresh way to approach your challenge. In this case, the abrupt legal issue has lead to a renewed marketing effort and careful planning for the future of this small business.
My recent interest in pro cycling has led me back to the design world in a round-about way. I discovered this amazing chalk mural created in support of Live Strong from a post on Lance Armstrong’s twitter. Nice work James Jean! More details at SuperTouchArt.com.
