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joeross.me

Civil litigation lawyer. Interested in the collision of law & tech policy. Prone to geekery.

design

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    A sense that it wasn’t design

    A sense that it wasn’t design

    Robert Sullivan has such a good interview with Jony Ive over at Vogue:

    In other words, the secret weapon of the most sought-after personal-electronics company in the world is a very nice guy from Northeast London who has a soft spot for woodworking and the sense that designers ought to keep their design talents backstage where they can do the most good. “There’s an odd irony here,” he observes. “I think our goal is that you would have a sense that it wasn’t design.”

    I’m not sure the Apple Watch is for me because I haven’t had the chance to hold one yet. But the passion and sincerity Ive exudes for his work compels me to at least check it out.

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    Listen: 99% Invisible

    Listen: 99% Invisible

    This week’s featured podcast is 99% Invisible is “a tiny radio show about design,” by Roman Mars.

    If you think often about design, you’ll love every episode of this one. If you don’t think often about design, 99% Invisible will make you think often about design. Mars doesn’t just talk about graphic design every week. He finds design everywhere.

    This week’s episode is Call Now! and it is all about that magnificent corner of the advertising industry that is lawyer marketing. Whether you’re a law student lawyer, or client, it’s a must-listen. I’ve embedded it below the subscription links.

    Subscribe to 99% Invisible:

    iTunes | Pocket Casts | RSS

    Listen:

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    Teehan+Lax on redesigning Prismatic

    Teehan+Lax on redesigning Prismatic

    It’s a great post by great designers about the work and value that goes into and comes out of great design. It also happens to explain very clearly the concept behind my own website here at Constant & Endless.

    Geoff Teehan of Teehan+Lax writes:

    In the end, a successful project is never done. It is never perfect. If you aren’t learning from it, then you’ve given up. It’s a constant process of assessing the landscape, making hard choices and accepting trade-offs.

    Like Saleem Sinai says in Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children, “the process of revision should be constant and endless.”

    Prismatic is a content discovery engine powered by your own wide array of interests, aiming to avoid being limited by your filter bubble of common sharing tendencies. Check it out on iOS or the web.

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    Details and summary tags in HTML5

    HTML5 includes two tags, details and summary, that can be used to generate expanding menus you once needed JavaScript or jQuery for.

    A code snippet opening and closing with the “details” tag can include a summary that, when clicked, expands to reveal additional HTML.

    As of this writing, I’ve implemented it in this site’s header, but I’ve also included a working example below, which won’t work in the Tumblr Dashboard.

    All you’ll see is the summary line: “Click here to expand this example.”

    So this link opens this post in a new tab. Problem solved.

    Now, here’s the example:

    Click here to expand this example.

    Here is a paragraph. Links work, as well. This one goes to my home page.

    Learn some more about this simple and elegant way of making web pages more dynamic for HTML5-compliant browsers at W3Schools and Hongkiat.com.

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    Reuters nixes Next: Failed redesigns and the challenge of expanding a digital audience

    Reuters nixes Next: Failed redesigns and the challenge of expanding a digital audience

    That’s a shame. This image alone illustrates the design strides made by the Next team (the cancelled redesign is on the right). 

    The Reuters iOS app is better than that of Associated Press, for what it’s worth.

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    My first post at Medium

    My first post at Medium

    It’s something I put here in January, but I thought I’d point it out in case you hadn’t seen it, or you prefer Medium, or you have yet to see Medium in action.

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    10 great free monospaced fonts for programming

    10 great free monospaced fonts for programming

    I can understand why programmers may want to consider using a decent font, but it’s worth noting that writers, particularly those who prefer plain text, should also pay attention to the fonts they’re using.

    I like to write with a monospace font for two reasons. First, there’s nostalgia in using a monospace font that connects me to the days I spent in college writing on a typewriter. Second, I find them easier to look at for long periods of time than standard serif or sans serif fonts.

    If you write often on a computer, you owe it to yourself to be a little picky about the fonts you use.

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    Apple store trade dress

    Apple store trade dress

    I wonder if there are any retail stores out there that have looked like Apple stores since before Apple stores, and before this trademark was granted earlier this month. I don’t mean knock-off stores, though. I’m thinking make-up shops, art galleries, and other entities that often embrace a minimalist store design aesthetic.

    Here’s a direct link to the very-user-hostile USPTO page for the filing.

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    Designer Eats Engineer

    Designer Eats Engineer

    Laurie Voss:

    It’s getting easier for designers to become engineers. That’s a good thing, but it should be even easier. Design should be the hard part.

    This is a great post, and something I think about often. I can read and write a lot of HTML and CSS, and can read some JavaScript. I don’t know anything about design, but I’m confident in my ability to avoid ugly mistakes by putting as much consideration into what I don’t include as I do into what I do include.

    As an aside, Medium is a beautiful site with consistently solid content by thoughtful and articulate people.

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    Site Design as Context: An Amateur's Perspective

    Introduction

    I hesitated to change themes because, well, it’s one of those things people do instead of writing. But while my customized version of Quite Big theme had treated me very well, I hate using Tumblr’s default mobile theme on phones, or seeing my desktop-optimized layout on a tablet. I also had modified Quite Big so much that it started to look a little off to me. I know enough HTML and CSS to avoid breaking sites altogether, but over time my changes had started to give the theme a clunky look. I decided that I needed to find the ultimate theme for me: minimal, useful, and responsive.

    Minimal, Useful, and Responsive

    Some people use minimal themes to keep the focus on their content. Others use minimal themes because they think any content placed within a minimal theme will appear great. I think of myself as the former, and it’s why I’ve been personally trending to more minimal site designs for a long time. I consider the use of a minimal site design focused on content to be a commitment. It commits me to quality, and that’s a great thing.

    I also want my website’s design to be useful. I’m particularly annoyed when a theme requires me to scroll down to the footer to see how the author describes the site, what other pages are on it, or how you might contact the site’s purveyor. Give me the things I expect when and where I expect them. Yes, it is absolutely a sense of entitlement, but when you’re writing at a blog, you’re writing for whomever is reading. If most people expect things in a certain place, put them there and get to writing the real stuff.

    Finally, most free blogging platforms have automatic mobile layouts, but they’re often global, meaning that all sites on the platform end up looking the same on a phone or whatever device the reader is using. This site is on Tumblr because I got tired of maintaining Wordpress and other self-managed CMS installations. I love Tumblr for its simplicity and its Markdown support, as well as its truly beautiful apps. But their “optimized mobile layout,” while minimal and designed for clarity, feels far too cookie-cutter.

    Vision Quest

    After all, a theme, however minimal, does more than determine post width and font face. It sets the tone for the site. It provides a context in which all of your content is going to be experienced. I think of site design, whether for a blog or a corporate portal, as a form of self-expression. Many people get enough self-expression out of being able to share whatever they want, or looking “professional” or “enterprise,” and to them the theme of their site isn’t important. But I take pride in:

    • having a vision for how my content should be presented to readers;
    • seeking out well-made themes as starting points for that, and
    • being able to make customizations that bring the theme I found and the vision I have together

    If you can find a theme or site design that fits your vision out of the box, that’s great. Nothing beats just applying a new theme and getting to the writing part of it all. But if you do need to modify someone else’s design work, it’s important to leave credit somewhere in the theme.

    I credit Idraki Muhamad's MNML in the footer as well as on my About page. The changes I’ve made fit the design into my vision, but Mr. Muhamad created the theme.

    Ed. note: I’ve moved to Observer by Tumblr designer Zach Sultan since first writing this in January, but the principals still apply, and MNML is an awesome theme.

    Conclusion

    Most people use blogs as a means to an end, usually to share opinions or showcase work. But geeks often see their blog as an end in itself. If your site is a book, its aesthetic and layout are the cover, and unlike many authors, bloggers have full control over it. I take advantage of that, and I encourage others to do the same.

    In a world of cloned “default” themes, a site design with a little bit of personal nuance will stick in someone’s mind. You don’t need to use design to scream “I’m DIFFERENT!” but you should use it to politely remind visitors that, you know, you’re different.

    Then, all you have to do is write amazing content.

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    Thoughts on the new Engadget design

    INTRODUCTION

    Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about design. I’m a user, and design work on websites made for frequent article consumption should be tailored to user experience. I may come off as arrogant, ignorant, or petty. That’s not my intention. I’m being honest about my thoughts.

    Engadget has launched a full re-design, something we’ve seen recently with sites like The Next Web and Read Write. Like those, Engadget’s new look focuses on cross-platform responsiveness, with a bias for tablets. I don’t write about every redesign I see, but Engadget was the first blog I read with dedication, so it has a special place in my geek heart.

    Engadget’s previous design was, as even Editor-in-Chief Tim Stevens puts it, “heavy.” A better description would be clunky, crufty, and stale. I’m only going to mention a few details that are very important to me, instead of describing to you a website that you can just go see for yourself.

    TYPOGRAPHY

    The new Engadget uses the free Google Web Font Oswald for headlines. It feels too narrow, but Engadget is prone to information-rich headlines, so I can understand why they chose it. Full-width article images get a headline overlay on top of the image. Opacity of the overlay increases to 1 when you hover your cursor over the headline text. I wish it went to 1 on hover over the image itself, making it easier to get that readable opaque background behind the article title.

    The body font is Georgia (same as this blog you’re reading now). It seems almost too pedestrian for a blog of Engadget’s means, as does the Google Web Font. After all, Engadget has a budget and a design staff. I find it hard to believe that the best they could do font-wise was a free Google font and Georgia.

    Then again, The Verge uses Helvetica or Arial, and Read Write uses mere “sans serif.” These blogs often cater to dedicated fan bases, so page loading speed is important: many readers click between multiple articles in one sitting.

    I wish font was larger in articles themselves. Yes, it’s easy to increase the size of the page with a quick CMD + (or CTRL + on Windows), but I definitely consider most of the web just a little small as far as font size. People should be able to sit back and read comfortably.

    Maybe it’s just me (although I’m told my reading vision is fine), but if I have to lean forward to read a website, I’m having a bad reading experience. This is why I’m a frequent Daring Fireball reader but I can’t remember the last time I visited the website itself.

    MENUS AND UI

    I like the topics bar at the top of the site and the placement of the search field immediately beneath it. Expand the “Topics” item on the far right of the top bar to reveal more specific categories. The spacing is touch target friendly, and I appreciate the lack of some fancy separator character.

    I like the banner at the top of the site. I like the loading bar that shows the time-to-change from one featured story to the next. I like the persistent table of contents on longer articles, like the redesign announcement.

    Share buttons are well-placed on both the front page and article pages. Pinterest is an interesting addition to sharing options and one that I don’t see very often on sites of Engadget’s type. I occasionally dive into Pinterest myself to pepper my friends with gadget posts. Maybe Engadget can read my mind…

    Probably not, though, otherwise the “Via” and “Source” links would be internalized instead of placed in article footers. I don’t go to Engadget because I think they break every tech news story ever, I go because their opinions on the news interest me. Thus, in-line source linking wouldn’t risk losing me to the source. I’m not sure if I’m the exception or the rule, but something about placing source links in the footer has always bugged me.

    I don’t like the sidebar with the headline-over-dimmed-image motif. It works in the main body of the site, but in the sidebar it’s cluttered and incredibly difficult to scan. I want to see “Recent Reviews” and other site content placed above links to the podcasts and other supplementary media. The “Quoted” section includes recent tweets from Engadget authors, but I think this space would be better used for pull-quotes from high-traffic or recent articles.

    CONCLUSION

    Engadget’s new design is an improvement over the old one, and they plan still more changes as they settle into the new look. Generally, I think their design direction and that of the big-name tech blogs as a whole is great. Tablet-optimized design built for fingertips instead of cursors leads to less clutter and more negative space. In case you haven’t noticed, that aesthetic tracks well with my own preferences, so it’s encouraging to me and hope it continues. I know these websites are businesses, but at the end of the day the reading experience is absolutely everything, and if things continue down this path, I expect to see even more improvements in the future.

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    "Parallel Thinking in Product Design Will Only Increase"

    “Parallel Thinking in Product Design Will Only Increase”

    Rain Noe at core77:

    When you have an uncomplicated design that’s boiled down to its pure essentials, you approach a kind of universal perfection, and that universality is the tricky part in a world filled with designers.

    This is a great point.

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    Invention as Art

    Invention as Art

    This is a great article on patent drawings and models, as selected for Co.Design by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan.

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    Richard Branson on Design

    Richard Branson on Design

    And if you’re building a spaceship company like Virgin Galactic, you might as well build the sexiest beast ever built—the sexiest spaceship, the sexiest mother ship, the sexiest space port. Getting every little bit of the design right is so important.

    Love this guy.

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    The Honest Design Age

    The Honest Design Age

    Allan Grinshtein of LayerVault, design software, designed for designers:

    It would be crazy to call these designers lazy — there’s an awesome amount of work and detailed involved in recreating beautiful “rich corinthian leather.” Still, it is laziness to not continue to refine. Remove the unnecessary embellishments and keep stripping until you’ve almost gone too far. We believe that elegant interfaces are ones that have the most impact with the fewest elements.

    As a user who wishes more designers would refocus their talent away from skeumorphisms and toward the elegance Grinshtein describes above, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

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