HTML email isn't going anywhere, but unfortunately the adoption of web standards across email clients is notoriously poor. The team behind Campaign Monitor and MailBuild have created a great site to help change that by championing standards in email.
I always wanted to return to the world of self-employment, and in 2008 I'll be doing just that. I'm leaving behind steady paychecks and consistent work to follow my heart and focus on ideas that I'm passionate about. Here's to hoping it works.
Comments: 27 (view/add your own)One of the more subtly powerful things we can do as designers is create a consistent and flexible visual language. Buttons are a common place where this type of activity manifests itself, and Amazon has traditionally done a very good job of this.
One of my favorite topics is the influence of business decisions on interface design. It's an unfortunate truth that the underlying business structure and decisions will invariably affect the interface. It's important to recognize this fact and work to improve both simultaneously.
Comments: 5 (view/add your own)One of the key requirements for creating any kind of issue tracker is making it easy to get data into the system. While the browser is the primary interface, I felt email also had to be a first class citizen for issue submission.
Comments: 6 (view/add your own)The Onion comes through with a laugh. Kevin Cornell helps me dress better, and maybe decorate better too unless I can control myself. And Garrett, the other one, reminds me that Apple makes me cry a little bit inside.
Conferences are invariably a good time, and Webmaster Jam Session is no exception. This year was a little more fun for me because I was able to share real examples from the issue tracker design process as well as capture some pictures for posterity.
Comments: 17 (view/add your own)I’ve received several encouraging e-mails about Tracker, but they've all come with questions as well. After some thought, I decided to start sharing regular status updates to address the questions and keep any interested parties in the loop.
The format of my site doesn't really allow for quick little links, so I thought I'd start sharing some noteworthy links for sites and products that I've used, enjoyed, or pre-ordered. It's an easy way for me to share things without writing a detailed post about each one.
It's not uncommon to spend so much time on the big picture that we overlook the details. While I'm far from a typographical expert, my growing interest in typography has really helped draw my attention into more subtle details that add up to make a difference.
It's panel picking time, and Garrett Murray and I are hoping we can offer some insight into our design decisions for Simplelog and the issue tracker for SXSWi 2008.
We've taken a look at the concepts behind the issue life-cycle and workflow, and next we're going to see how the dashboard is playing out so far. For me, the dashboard is about quickly assessing the state of projects, and diving right in to managing them.
I've seen countless elaborate ways to link related or duplicate issues. While most of them get the job done, it's generally way more confusing than it needs to be. I considered a lot of different solutions, but in the end, there was one that stood out.
For my issue tracker, I've wanted a more natural process for updating issues. I decided that all activity would have to go through the comment form associated with each issue. This way any change in status, priority, category, or assignee could quickly and easily be associated with a comment.
I'll be on panel with some incredibly talented and knowledgeable Dallas folks discussing different aspects of Web 2.0 and rich internet applications this Tuesday, August 21st.
Last time, I went into my vision of a simpler bug and issue tracking life-cycle. This time, I want to focus on one of the manifestations of a simpler process—the status bar.
I'm a very big fan of spending equal time between drawing and sketching interfaces and pushing pixels in Photoshop or Omnigraffle. I've checked out quite a few sketchbooks and ideas, but the Dot Grid Book by Behance is my favorite.
It's been quiet around here, but things are about to pick back up. I've been spending all of my free time designing and developing an issue tracker that I'll be releasing as open source early next year. Until then, I'll be exposing and sharing the design and development process.
Webmaster Jam Session is right around the corner, September 21st through 22nd. There's a great lineup of speakers, and if it's anything like last year, it should be plenty of fun. I'll be doing a session on application interface design as well if you're into that sort of thing.
Another great conference has come and gone. This year was even better than last, and all things considered, I'm pretty happy with the results of the workshop.
The Geniant blog is live and kicking. After a month of squeezing in extra time here and there, we've managed to pull together some ideas and create a forum for sharing what's going on behind the curtain.
Several people have noted that I avoided having a logo or any traditional sort of branding at the top of my pages. I originally didn't see the need for a logo or branding until now. I've created a logo that I think is classic and expressive at the same time.
This year at Web Visions, I'll be putting on a workshop titled "Improving Interface Design". We'll take a hard look at the tangible and intangible aspects that affect interface design and discuss the steps we can take to make it better.
Since finding so much inspiration from Edward Tufte's books, I've made a point to branch out and read books that aren't so innately tied to web development. Most recently, is The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander, a great book about designing and building for and around people.
Comments: 3 (view/add your own)Comments are back, and I've also made some changes to how I use Campfire. Going forward, depending on the context, some articles will have a time-boxed live chat, some will have comments, and some will have both.
If you've visited the site in the last week or so, you may have noticed that I'm experimenting with Campfire as a replacement for comments. This is a quick retrospective about how it's gone.
One of the easiest ways to improve an interface is to use ambient indicators to help set user expectations and effectively communicate and reinforce simple concepts. OS X does this rather elegantly with its close buttons on windows.
Too often we rely on color, whitespace, or icons to indicate hierarchical relationships. The New York Times, however, uses typography, and it just goes to show that there are plenty of ways to simplify and accomplish the same goals.
Even the longest journeys begin with a single step. The redesign of this site is just that—one step. It isn't meant to be revolutionary or flashy. Instead, it's meant to enable and focus on the creation of better content.
We take a good look through SimpleLog, a Ruby on Rails weblog application that does less. It's designed to be simple, as the name indicates, and focuses on writing above all else.