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Five things I’m doing to get better at web design
With work on Pro CSS Techniques winding down, I’m starting to have a bit more spare time on my hands. Don’t get me wrong — I’m still busy with the day job and a few other projects — but I’m finally able to stop and take a breath every once in a while, which wasn’t the case a few weeks ago.
So, what am I doing with my new found spare time? Well besides the obvious answers (spending more time with Michelle and Haley, consuming more booze, and watching more TV), I’m trying to get better at web design. So, in no particular order, here are five things I’m either doing or planning to do in the next several months to hone my craft.
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Win with me on Blingo
Since it’s been a long time since I’ve done anything to encourage my reputation as one of the Internet’s more vocal purveyors of Free Shit™, I thought I’d take a moment to invite all of you to join me on Blingo. Blingo is a search engine, powered by Google, in which simply performing your daily searches can garner you goods — things like iPods, PSP, iTunes gift cards, VISA gift cards, and more.
I’ve been using Blingo for about six months now, and have won three times: two iTunes gift cards and a VISA gift card. Nothing super-exciting, but not bad for doing the exact same searches I’d be getting nothing in return for on Google. You can use Blingo without joining me as a friend. Just go to Blingo.com and search normally. However, establishing friend networks on Blingo increases chances of winning, because when someone you invited wins, you win too!
To use Blingo without being my friend, you don’t have to give away any personal information at all (until you win — then you’ll need to tell them where to ship your prize). To join Blingo as my friend, you do need to give them your e-mail address — but they won’t sell it to other parties.
If you’re going to search the Internet, why not get Free Shit™ for it?
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Mine victim families: “don’t know if there is a Lord.”
First off, this is an incredibly sad story, and I definitely don’t mean to be insensitive here. The families of the victims are human and most of us would react with anger, too.
That having been said, when I read this story, the question I kept asking myself is, “why do they thank the Lord for a ‘miracle,’ and then blame the rescuers when the miracle is ‘taken away?’” If you believe the Lord granted the miracle, then doesn’t it stand to reason that he also took it away? If you believe the rescuers took it away, then should you have been praising them, and not the Lord, for giving it to you in the first place?
I feel horrible for the victim’s families, but I also feel horrible for the workers trying to save those people. They were doing their best, trying their hardest, and had a miscommunication — something we all have in our jobs all the time — and now they are being blamed for killing the faith of these wishy-washy “Christians?”
Sorry, families…it’s devastating that your loved one was killed, and I totally understand that it’s human nature to react with anger — but blaming the mine workers for this is absurd. They made a simple mistake — a sad, sad mistake, but one just like you and I make every single day — and that mistake had absolutley no bearing on whether or not your loved one lived or died.
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Got something to say? Be a guest author…
In the past two days, I’ve gotten three complaints that I haven’t written enough on this blog lately. And it’s a fair criticism. I’ve been extremely busy with the day job and generally just haven’t had all that much to say on the topics of interest here.
So, I’m hereby inviting any of you to be a guest author on jeffcroft.com. Yes, I know it’s no big honor or anything. But, if you’ve got something to say that you think my audience would be interested in, feel free to submit your work to me at jeff@jeffcroft.com. I’ll post any that I find to be suitable and well written.
Perhaps it’ll be a way for someone who doesn’t yet have a blog to have their say. Or a way for a newer blogger to get a little exposure to his/her site. Or perhaps no one will submit anything at all.
Either way, no one can say I haven’t posted in the past two days anymore. :)
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Getting there.
The live redesign is coming along. I’ve been focusing mainly on the blog components of the site thus far. There are a number of pages left to overhaul — among them my portfolio (which is vastly out of date) and resumé. In the meantime, enjoy a short list of highlights, comments, and acknowledgments pertaining to what I’ve done here so far.
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And now it’s time for a breakdown.
This site has been in need of a mass overhaul for some time. My code has been messy (by my current standards), my design was old and dull, my directories are full of orphaned files, etc. However, I simply don’t have the time to do a full-on redesign right now. So, I’ve taken the “live redesign” approach.
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Design-oriented blogs: are personal topics okay?
An e-mail I got today got me curious about my reader’s feelings on the content of this blog.
As you all know, I am passionate about graphic design, communication, typography, branding, standards, CSS, etc. I’ve had people tell me they’d like to see more write more about these topics. Truth be told, I’d love to write more about these topics. However, I don’t always have something to say. And while I could rehash what others have said (like a lot of others do), it seems silly to me. I’d rather just drop a link in my sidebar with a comment or two of my own and skip the full entry of same ol’, same ol’. I assure you, when I have something to say that is new and fresh on these topics, you’ll hear it.
In the meantime, what do you think about personal, or “off-topic” posts? I regularly post about sports, technology, personal matters, etc. Does this bother you? Do you think that folks who write about design and the related should keep their “off-topic” posts relegated to another blog, instead of integrated with their design speak? When I post about Terrell Owens, for example, do you feel I’m lowering the signal versus noise ratio here?
I ask this not just in the context of my site personally (although I’m definitely interested in what you think about jeffcroft.com), but also about “design blogs” in general. Do you appreciate the personal, “off-topic” stuff, or do you just find it annoying?
There is no wrong answer. I’m just curious.
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Link Blog Updates
If you visit the site regularly, you may have noticed a few changes over in the sidebar. Notably, I’ve made the links blog, which I call “HREFs,” more prominent. I’ve started posting more of these links, and as such, I’ve made a few changes to the “HREFs” area:
- Links now include a (very) short description or comment by me. Usually just a one-liner, to get across what exactly I’m pointing out.
- I’ve enabled comments on these links. Next to each short description, you’ll find a comment link. Feel free to discuss any links you find interesting. Commenting works the same as on the main blog.
- Finally, I’ve set up an RSS feed of these “HREFs” links. Point your favorite newsreader to: http://jeffcroft.com/blog/links/index.xml
Enjoy!
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Blog Glossary
Samizdata has a interesting and fun Blog Glossary, which definies many terms you’ll hear around the blogosphere. Speaking of “blogosphere,” I rather liked the definition for it in the glossary:
noun. The totality of blogs; blogs as a community; blogs as a social network.
The key to understanding blogs is understanding the blogosphere. Blogs themselves are just a web format, whereas the blogosphere is a social phenomenon. It is hard to overstate the importance of this.
What really differentiates blogs from webpages or forums or chatrooms is that blogs (at least properly implemented ones) are designed from the outset to be part of that shifting internet-wide social network. There have been many attempts to design ‘social software’ but thus far the only effective example is the blogosphere, which was not ‘designed’ by anyone but is an emergent phenomenon.
Just thought it was interesting. We all know this, but they did a nice job of putting it into words, I thought.
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Postal Service v. the postal service
According to the New York Times (registration required), the pop band Postal Service has settled its trademark dispute with the United States Postal Service:
Future copies of the album and the group’s follow-up work will have a notice about the trademark, while the federal Postal Service will sell the band’s CD’s on its Web site, potentially earning a profit. The band may do some television commercials for the post office. The group also agreed to perform at the postmaster general’s annual National Executive Conference in Washington on Nov. 17.
This has got to be unprecedented as far as intelectual property settlements go. Very strange. And yet pretty cool, too. I’m impressed with the lawyers who were able to think outside-the-box to come up with a creative solution.
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Non-lethal?
BOSTON (AP) - A college student died Thursday after suffering a head injury in a clash between police officers and a crowd of Red Sox fans who poured into the streets outside Fenway Park to celebrate their team’s victory over the New York Yankees.
Victoria Snelgrove, a 21-year-old journalism major at Emerson College, was among 16 people hurt in the revelry. The injured also included a police officer.
Most of the injuries were minor, but Snelgrove suffered a severe head wound as police tried to subdue the crowd, authorities said. Mayor Tom Menino told WBZ-AM that she was struck by a “non-lethal weapon,” but he did not elaborate.
Correct me if I’m wrong here. It seems to me that if a person is struck by a weapon, and that wound results in the death of that person, then it is no longer proper to call the device a “non-lethal weapon.”
Am I alone on this?
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Welcome to the new server!
If you’re seeing this post, you are viewing this site on the new server! The new server is exponentially faster than my old one, and is also located in a more robust datacenter with much greater bandwdith. Enjoy the new speed of jeffcroft.com!
Note: I expect there to be minor problems while I get used to the new box. If you notice anything, feel free to report it in the comments. Thanks!
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Bill Gates has one-liners?
I thought this was funny. When asked about the fact that Apple/Pixar CEO Steve Jobs thinks the portable video market is going nowhere, Bill Gates responded:
Ask kids in the back of a car on a two-hour trip, ‘Hey, would you like to have your videos there?’ My kids would,” Gates said. “I guess Steve’s kids just listen to Bach and Mozart. But mine, they want to watch ‘Finding Nemo.’ I don’t know who made that, but it’s really a neat movie.
Nice dig, Bill.
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More Public Begging
So, I’m only one person shy of getting me free iPod over at freeipods.com. I’ve got four referrals that have singed up and done their offer — five are required. So, I’m begging again. Someone please help me out! I’ll be forever grateful. Please? :)
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G-Mail: Giving Back
A few weeks ago I publicly begged for a G-Mail invite, and my homeboy Wilson kindly dropped one on me. Now, as a show of goodwill and humanity, watch as I give back to the blogging community by offering invites of my own.
That’s right, folks, I have six G-Mail invites ripe for the pimping. All you gots to do is axe me, and I’ll be happy to turn one out for you. First come, first serve. Word?
Word.
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My new favorite piece of spam.
I received this piece of spam today and found it rather hillarious. Note that I’ve removed the URLs in order to avoid advertising for this putz.
Dear Jeffrey A. Croft
There are over 41,232,181 active domains as it stands today. Each day 41,129 domains are added to the tally waiting to be designed. This is the best time in history to be a professional Web Designer!
No wonder people de-value design.
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I’ve been Zeldman’d
So it turns out a lot of people visit Jeffrey’s site. Who knew?
The Great and Powerful Zeldman linked to my little “More Design, Less Standards” blurb the other day and he’s already managed to climb up to number eight on my ShortStat’s all-time referers list (ShortStat Hat Tip: Shaun Inman). Traffic has gone through the roof (at least by the standards of this site). Crazyness.
Thanks, Jeffrey. I owe you — both for your book, which finally convinced me to dive fully into standards, and for crippling my pathetic little server. :)
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Shark Repellent
A new “shark repellent” currently being tested in the Bahamas has been shown to ward off Carribbean reef, blacknose, lemon, and nurse sharks.
For those who don’t watch Shark Week religiously as I do, these four species are about as dangerous as, say, grasshoppers. So, until they prove this works on white, bull, tiger, oceanic whitetip and mako sharks, the only purpose it really serves to is to make your dives less exciting.
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Revamped Home Page Journal Entries
In an effort to reduce the unwieldy length of the home page here at jeffcroft.com, I’ve chosen to include only the five most recent blog entries. The home page will typically only contain the first couple of paragraphs, unless the entry is very short (like this one). Below the chosen five, you’ll find links to the ten next-most-recent musings.
For those of you who prefer the old style, the journal page still displays 15 days of entries in their entirety.
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SourceForPoker.com Rips off My Photo
Today I discovered a site selling what appears to be a very nice 10-12 Player Hold ‘Em Table. Check it out:
Look at that beautiful red table! It looks great! I think it looks as great as my table. Maybe that’s because it is my table.
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“Listening to…” Section Now Live
I’ve finally got some of the final tweaks to this new site design done. Among them, I’ve added a “Listening to…” section of the sidebar, which displays the most recently played songs from my iTunes. It’s powered by Michael Simmon’s iTunes Watcher. I found iTunes Watcher to be relatively easy to set up if you’re a bit familiar with PHP. If not, you may have trouble customizing the templates and integrating it into your site. Once it’s set up, it works brilliantly.
For what’s it worth, my iTunes library is large (6700+ songs) and I tend to listen to the Party Shuffle or other semi-random lists. My collection ranges from jazz and blues to hip-hop and gangsta rap to funk and soul country to soundtracks to classical to pop and dance. So, you’re likely to find a very disparate and eclectic set of songs on the sidebar at any given time. Please don’t necessarily consider these recommendations — I can’t say that I like every song I have in my library. :)
Also, I managed to make an integrated MT search page. Many thanks to the Orange Haired Boy for his tutorial on how to include the search results into your PHP-driven pages.
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Cargo Magazine
I recently picked up the July/August issue of Cargo Magazine, a new “Buyer’s Guide for Men.” I’m not sure when they started, but I think this is only about their third or fourth issue. In any case, I really like it.
Cargo features and reviews new products from the worlds of technology, style/fashion, grooming, automobiles, alcohol, smokes, and other manly stuff. The rag has a fun and innovative design, with a couple particularly clever features — Cargo Stickers (built-in bookmarks for the products you want to keep in mind) and an “Instant Replay” section (perforated, tear-out cheat sheet cards to remind you what you learned in the reviews). Oh, and they use those wonderful typefaces from Lineto (Autoscape is the one I kept spotting).
If you like Stuff, Maxim, FHM, GQ, Esquire, and other men’s magazines, give Cargo a look — it’ll keep you stocked with all the gadgets and threads you need to continue getting your pimp on.
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Taking requests…
In his article Some Fresh Faces, Paul Scrvis mentions that he wishes I’d write more about design. I wish I’d write more about design, too. I’m going to make a real effort to do that.
I’m in the very early stages of a redesign for jeffcroft.com. It’ll probably be a while before it sees the light of day, but I’m looking for input. What do you want to see here on jeffcroft.com? What should go? What should stay? What elements of this site’s design are most memorable to you? What is missing from this site that you enjoy on other personal sites?
I’ve got ideas of my own, but I’d really like some input from you. So hop to it. :)
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Whoops!
Michelle just discovered that my mt-blacklist had an error in it that caused all comments to be denied! Whoops! I’ve fixed it, and you should now be able to comment again!
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Checking in from Phila, PA
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Just a quick note to say that I’m still alive. I’m in Philadelphia, PA on a business trip. I’m attending the SCT Summit conference (SCT is a leading provider of higher education software). It’s been fairly fun, but I’m anxious to be home, too — especially since I’ve been out of town for basically all of March. I’ll be posting more regularly soon — I promise! -
Wilson
I just realized that I’ve failed to link of one of my favorite blogs here. Said favorite blog would be that of one Wilson Miner of Larryville. I met this dude when I was applying for a job in Lawrence a few months back (a job that I really should have taken, but that’s another blog entry) and started visting his site daily. From what I can tell, Wilson is eccentric, talented, smart, and funny — all of which adds up to a pretty entertaining blog covering all sorts of topics. The only bad thing is that he brags about his new camera a lot and makes me jealous. But other than that…
…I like it (even though the bastard called me a geek).
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ShortStat
Shaun Inman, web design superstar and all-around nice guy, has released the second public beta of his web site tracking software, ShortStat. It’s PHP/MySQL based, took me all of five minutes to install, as does just about everything you could ask for in a non-commercial package. It may not serve if you need extensive reports and graphs over extended periods of time, but it’s great if you want a quick overview of what your recent visitors are doing, what they’re using, and why they’re coming to your site. Check it out, yo.
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Go ahead, search me!
I’ve finally added search functionality to this blog. You can search through all of the blog entries, including keyword, boolean, and regex searches. You can find the search link as a submenu item under “Journal,” or use the quick search field in the lower left of the content area.
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Thanks for the linkage!
I’d like to thank Dave Shea, of mezzoblue.com and CSS Zen Garden fame, for his recent link to my Luxury Type entry. Dave’s one of the foremost minds on web standards and design, so being linked from his site is a bit of an honor! Thanks, Dave! :)
Thanks also to spoono.com for listing jeffcroft.com in their recent list of “wonderfully designed CSS sites.”
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Best of jeffcroft.com
In an effort to improve the overall jeffcroft.com experience for my six or seven readers, I’m compiling a list of entries that I’d consider to be the best that have been posted here. You know, the ones where I’ve really had something to say (unlike now). I’ll keep this entry linked in the main navigation so you can always hit up my best moments with astounding ease. Please just attempt to further my fantasy that anyone actually reads this site. Thanks. :)
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MT-Blacklist
Over the past few months, I’ve had a steady stream of comment spam streaming into this blog. It was annoying, but never enough so to make me go and do something about it (other than deleting the offending comments). Well, today, I got railed for about 30 minutes straight by avalon@hotmail.com, who really wanted to let all of you know about his online casino. After getting about 25 comment spams in a row, I decided I needed to check out MT-Blacklist, a Movable Type plugin by Jay Allen. After spening all of about five minutes installing it, configuring it, and using it to fully de-spam my blog, I can only wonder “Why the hell didn’t I do this earlier?”
MT-Blacklist is way sweet. If you run a Movable Type-based blog, you must run, don’t walk, over to Jay’s site and get it. Seriously.
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Blog Links
A few new blogs I’ve been frequenting:
- AdamPoselli.com - Beautiful design, nice articles, great tips and tricks, and hey, he linked to me, so he must be cool.
- Brookelyn.org - Great design, nice writing, beautiful macro photography.
- Playground Blues - Love the design and color scheme, and the writing is good, to boot.
- JustWatchTheSkyDesigns - It’s blue, and fun to read.
- Design Dojo - Well-designed blog in a unique form factor.
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Soubriquet
So-bree-kay. I think. Something like that. Anyhow…
Sara Flemming has a beautiful site that is, effectively, a blog done in photographs. There’s not a lot of text here, so mayhaps I’m infering too much from the photos — but this is what I can tell about her from the photos:
Sara:
- Wears vans.
- Is interested in type and identity.
- Has homestarrunner.com figurines..
- Lives in SoCal.
- Like the VW Touraeg.
- References bad Tesla covers from the ‘80s.
- Pontificates on the semantics of overused Midwestern contractions.
Seems like a cool chick to me. Oh, and she’s also a pretty damn good photographer. Check her out.
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Web Job Titles
Dr. Kieth Robinson, on his blog (which he calls asterisk), wonders about job titles for those of us who work on the web. It’s something that I’ve thought about before, too. In most industries there are very clear-cut titles. If someone tells you they are an Art Director, an Illustrator, an Account Executive, an Administrative Assistant, or a Flight Attendant, you end up with a very clear idea of just what is is they do. However, with web workers, there are any number of titles out there, but the meaning behind them (as to skill set and job duties) is not always so clear. Here’s a handful of titles I’ve heard of:
- Webmaster (ugh, I hate this one)
- Web Designer
- Web Developer
- Web Programmer
- Web Producer
- Multimedia Designer/Producer/Developer
- Interactive Media Designer/Producer/Developer
- Visual Designer
- UI Specialist
- Back-end Specialist
Etc, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. While some of these are clear-cut, many of them are ambigious. Which of these titles signifies that you do XHTML and other mark-up work? CSS and other layout? Flash and other embedded media? PHP and other backend technolgies? Graphic design and art direction? Branding and identity? It’s all a blur.
It’d be nice if there was a set of titles that had very clear-cut meanings. I guess that’s all. :)
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Still alive.
This is just a quick note to say that I am still alive and kicking, despite the lack of recent blog entries. I’ve been a bit busy and, quite frankly, haven’t really had much to say (which is quite a rarity — ask anyone who knows me).
I’m sure I’ll post a real entry soon. Until then, thanks for visiting!
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Save the Oranges.
The University I work for is putting me through a couse they call b.e.s.t. That’s “Basic Effective Supervisory Techniques.” I know what you’re thinking — typical rah-rah cheerleading bullshit. Well, maybe. But, the first session was considerably more interesting than some of the pathetic employee development workshops other companies have forced upon me.
Anyhow — we got to the obligatory personality test portion of the class. Unsurprisingly, I tested as an “Orange.” Oranges are playful, charming, engergetic risk takers who are typically creative, visual, impulsive, spontaneous, and most productive in informal envoroments. I suspect that most oranges (especially those who didn’t previously know they were orange) do not drive an orange car, have an orange office, or maintain an orange website, but I didn’t ask. Incidentally, I also had a great deal of “Green” in me (complex, intelectual, philosphical, abstract, conceptual, etc.).
The instructor went on to explain how “Oranges” make up a good 20% of the population, but many of them “have the orange beat out of them” by society, and especially the workplace. Corporate America often encourages individuals to not excercise their orange side, insisting they be more political and proceedural, more conservative, more predictable, and more formal. I almost felt as though she was speaking directly to me, as this sort of “be more like everyone else” pressure is exactly what I’ve been feeling at work latley. Another example of people not being allowed to be orange is the thousands of orange children on ritalin because their “gold” parents think there is something wrong with them.
So, being somewhat inspired and amused at the visual of “beating the orange out” of someone, I came up with these desktops. They’re 1280x854 (widescreen). The typeface, Mest, is available from SRF.STN.
Take ‘em or leave ‘em.
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Waiting sucks.
I want my Powerbook. Apple has decided to torture me by shipping all of my accessories before my new computer. All of the following items are on their way to my house:
- Apple Wireless Keyboard (received)
- Apple Wireless Mouse
- Griffin iCurve (received)
- HP Deskjet 5150 (received)
- 10GB iPod
- Extra Powerbook Power Adapter
- iPod Connection Cable
- Kensington Saddlebag
- Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004
So, in a day or two, I’ll have all this — but no new computer. How unbearably frustrating.
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Just wondering…
Since when it is appropriate to add and extra “OL” to your “LOL” in order to increase the impact of your laughter? I’ve seen this a lot recently. For example:
Joe: This is a funny joke.
Jane: LOL
Joe: This is a really funny joke!
Jane: LOLOL
Personally, I find this to be not only incomprehensible, but also profoundly stupid. As if “LOL,” which stands for “Laughing Out Loud,” wasn’t ridiculous enough, the kids these days find it necessary to proclaim that they are “Laughing Out Loud Out Loud,” when in fact they are probably doing nothing of the sort. We all know they’re probably naked and operating the mouse with their left hand, so what is their point in trying to convince us that they are “Laughing Out Loud Out Loud?”
I don’t get it.
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What about 9.11.2002?
Yes, I said 2002. And that’s what I meant. While everyone is remembering those who died at the hands of terrorism on September 11th, 2001, I wonder who is stopping to consider those who died in Iraq on September 11th, 2002. Or any other day over the past two years, for that matter.
We should absolutly never forget the tragedy that was 9.11.2001. The innocent people that died that day should never be far from our thoughts. However, I am irritated by those who feel that the countless deaths in Iraq are meaningless because the victims were, primarily, non-American.
Let us remember all those who have died in the past two years due to terrorisim and its resulting war, not only those who were American.
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JeffCroft.com Goes Syndicated
I’ve now got an RSS feed up for this site. If you use an RSS reader, such as the great NetNewsWire, subscribe to the following URL:
http://jeffcroft.com/blog/index.xml
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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.
