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Stamen map tiles for OpenStreetMap
These are really stunning, and free to use in your OSM applications. I especially love the Toner one.
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How I’m implementing Responsive Web Design
Responsive Web Design is hard. Really hard, actually. But I’ve recently been exploring ways to make it fit more neatly into my development workflow, and I thought it’d be worth sharing what I’ve learned. I don’t have all the answers, but I am finally to a point where Responsive feels worth the extra effort — and for me, that’s saying something.
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Some Generalizing about Specializing
Khoi Vinh thinks the industry is swinging back towards generalists, after having moved to be more interested in specialzation in recent years.
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What it means to be “responsive”
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been tagged with a reputation of being somehow an opponent to the technique Ethan Marcotte coined “Responsive Web Design” in his seminal A List Apart article of the same name. Ethan defines Responsive Web Design as a technique that incorporates fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries to deliver experiences that accommodate today’s multi-device world, and he has vigorously defended his brand name against any suggestions that there are other ways (besides fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries) to achieve the same effective result.
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Designing The Well-Tempered Web
I get a little bit hard for any article that compares web design to music theory, and this one from Rob Flaherty certainly fits the bill.
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Android Doubles Down on Design
Khoi Vinh on Android’s recent efforts to not only embrace design, but engender a design culture where one doesn’t currently exist.
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On admin interfaces
A few minutes ago, I tweeted the following: “Starting to feel like any site which requires a separate admin interface is not fully baked. Am I crazy?” A couple people responded asking for more details on what I meant, so I logged into the admin interface (or backend, or CMS interface, or whatever you want to call it) of my personal site, and started this here blog post.
Which is ironic, because the point of my tweet was to say that, more and more, I’m wondering if these kinds of interfaces are necessary, or even helpful.
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Living Room
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Veerle’s blog 3.0
A fresh design from Veerle, who is always one worth watching!
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Please Scroll
+1
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Are web agencies design-heavy?
Since I couldn’t fit my thoughts in 140 characters, this is a short post prompted by a discussion on Twitter today about development resources at web agencies. First, let’s define “agency.” When I say “web agency,” I mean a company that does web work for clients. This does not include internal teams, such as the web staff at a newspaper or university, nor does it include companies that build apps for themselves, like 37 Signals or Alamofire.
My impression, which I’ll admit is entirely speculation and not backed up by any real facts, is that web agencies today may be under-staffed on the development side of things.
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RCA student radically improves the UK plug
Brilliant.
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Chistmas at the Croft/Buckley household, 2009
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Chistmas at the Croft/Buckley household, 2009
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Note & Point
Nice design inspiration gallery for people making Keynote/Powerpoint presentations.
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Authentic Jobs realigned
If you’ve been visiting this site for a while, you know that I’m a member of the Advisory Board for Cameron Moll’s Authentic Jobs — almost certainly the best place for web professionals to find and post job opportunities. In the name of transparency, this means, roughly, that I help Cameron out with advice and other little things in exchange for a small cut of the profits from the site.
Recently Cameron has been hard at work on the next version of Authentic Jobs, and it launched late last night. As you’d expect from Cameron, it’s a gorgeous site, with beautiful textures and type. But what’s more significant, from a job seeker’s perspective, is the entirely-rewritten backend. The listings’ metadata is now much more structured, which allows for more configurable searching and filtering. You’re also able to subscribe (via Twitter, RSS, or e-mail) to any search result.
For employers, the site now allows for more customized listings, including company logos, formatted text, and anonymous e-mail address. What’s more, full-time listings now stay posted for 60 days, instead of 30. Jobs still cost the same amount to post: $250 for a 60-day full-time job, and $75 for a 30-day freelance gig.
I did a very small amount of HTML/CSS development for the site, and it was definitely a fun one to work on. I think the end result is spectacular and a really big step forward for Authentic Jobs. If you’re a web designer, you’ll want to check it out — for the gorgeous design, even if you’re not currently in the job market.
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Create a Realistic Hover Effect With jQuery
Nice example of how to create useful animations with jQuery.
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31Three
Lovely redesign by Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain. I also like the way he markets himself as a designer for developers.
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Restoring Spring to iPhone Springboard
Bruce Tognazzini has some ideas for improvements to Springboard (the app that runs what you probably call your iPhone’s “home screens”). Not exactly thrilled with his visual design, but from a usability perspective, most of these make sense. A good read.
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Helveticons
Must. Have. Now.
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Danny Blackman
Beautiful portfolio site for Danny Blackman.
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Don’t Lose That Creative Thinking
Blue Flavor’s Keith Robinson has a lengthy and thought-provoking piece on creativity in our profession, questioning established patterns, and the drive to keep innovating and not get comfortable with the status quo. Good stuff.
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Fuck the foundries
+1
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Erik Spiekermann’s Typo Tips
Spiekermann has several typesetting tips for you. They aren’t likely to be new to readers of this site, or especially people who have seen one of my typography talks, but it’s still a nice resource to point to.
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Goodbye, Speak Up
Sad. One of the best design blogs ever.
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It's absurd how similar these three logos are…
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50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory
That’s a lotta free into right thurr. Via @RubyVelle.
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Measuring the Design Process
A really thoughtful and insightful post on the relationship between engineering and design, as a follow-up to Doug Bowman’s post wherein he described his reasons for leaving The Google.
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Font or Typeface?
Nice little clarification between the two words. I liked this bit from Stephen Coles:
VisitWhen you talk about how much you like a tune, you don’t say: “That’s a great MP3”. You say: “That’s a great song”. The MP3 is the delivery mechanism, not the creative work; just as in type a font is the delivery mechanism and a typeface is the creative work.
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jQuery Sparklines
Pretty sweet-looking implementation of sparklines using jQuery.
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Nick Finck
My good friend (and boss) Nick has launched a new version of his site, and it looks great. He worked with (other good friend) Matt Brown on the design.
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Image to Colors Palette Generator
Pretty useful, if you’re crunched for the time to do it yourself.
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Map of Popular Super Bowl Words Used on Twitter
Absolutely awesome data viz from the New York Times. Love it.
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42 Web Design Companies
Hits most of the HTML/CSS/Javascript-focused ones I’d seriously consider.
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The Vignelli Canon
A free PDF book on typography from Vignelli? Yes, please. Wow. Awesome.
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Authentic Jobs Design Review: Your chance to critique Cameron Moll
Cameron is doing a cool and ballsy thing: he’s putting his subtle redesign of Authentic Jobs out there for your critique and feedback. Let him know what you think, and don’t forget to check AJ for your job listing needs!
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Feltron 2008 Personal Annual Report
Feltron’s personal annual report is one of the things I look forward to every year, and this year he’s outdone himself. Just awesome, as always.
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POWER TO THE POSTER
User-submitted poster project which asks, “As a global citizen, what moves you?” There’s some great work in here, and it’s all downloadable and printable. Great for bare walls.
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Five Simple Steps
Mark Boulton’s new book looks like it’ll be a must-have. Check it out.
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The Typographic Desk Reference
Looks like a beautiful book.
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Jeff Croft
I’m a digital product designer and developer in Seattle, WA. I currently work with nGen Works, and recently co-founded Lendle, a Kindle book sharing service.
Some of my clients include Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Copious, The New York Review of Books, The Lawrence Journal-World, and the University of Washington.
I’ve authored two books on web and interactive design and spoken at dozens of conferences around the world.
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