subLog

It seems that the copywriters (html developers?) over at Microsoft’s Photosynth project have a sense of humor about them.

When trying to install Microsoft Photosynth, I was greeted with this snarky and self-deprecating message on my Macbook Pro.

Is big bad MSFT striking back at Apple by using their own tactics? Can the microserfs out-hipster Apple?

Story developing…

Just dropped a redesign on subimage.com after four years of stagnation.

It was time for a change.

Wow, just got done watching the Helvetica documentary.

I consider myself a type geek, but I now realize my interest in letters is rudimentary at best.

The film interviews many high profile designers, as they explore the history of fonts, and Helvetica in particular.

Being a self-trained designer, the segment with David Carson was the most interesting to me.

If you have any appreciation for fonts and letterforms (or design in general), this is a must-see.

Ever wonder what the financial, racial, or marital status of your zip code is? Wonder no longer, ZipSkinny has the answers you’re looking for.

I’m impressed by the unique data visualization they’re using. Cool stuff…However, the rest of the site’s design could use some love and attention.

Zoom interfaces have interested me since reding Raskin’s The Humane Interface. Up until now I haven’t seen a modern example of one.

This changed today when I read a post over at SVN about the OLPC’s $100 laptop.

The interface team OLPC put together came up with something that throws the desktop metaphor right out the window.

Sadly, the “demo” is just a bunch of screenshots. Guess I’ll have to wait to try it out.

Looks promising though, and great to see UI people thinking about new ways to convey information on the screen.

Check out this very well designed app for creating online portfolios.

Carbonmade oozes personality and friendliness. Something nice to see in the world of the web where everyone takes themselves way too seriously.

It looks to be the way to go for setting up an online portfolio for artists that don’t want to mess around with HTML.

Besides the nice design, most of the portfolios contain fresh work as well. Take a spin through it if you have some time.

The iPhone looks like a wonderful device. Beautiful, stunning, simple, elegant design. I’m even considering picking one up.

But don’t get it twisted… My major problem with the design of this (and all large-touch screen input devices) is that keeping it clean and looking nice is going to be a major pain in the ass.

I’m a current owner of a Treo 680. I’ve owned pretty much every Treo model in existence since they were created, and a lot of Palm/Handspring devices before that.

My main problem besides trying to keep dust out from underneath the screen is keeping the screen oil-free from my fingers and my face. Not that I’m a particularly oily person, I’d consider myself normal…at least in that respect.

It’s a constant struggle to keep the screen clear of such mess, and after awhile it builds up and even the best cleaning won’t remove accumulated scratches, smudges and streaks.

I can’t imagine keeping a screen clean where it’s the primary source of input. At least on the modern-day Treos you can enter pretty much anything via the keyboard and the 5-way input button.

I’m interested to try out the iPhone, like everyone else. I’m sure Apple is going to make a killing selling the thing, but I think there’s real money to be made selling cleaning products for it.

Who’s with me? All my people with OCD stand up.

Following up my post on Adobe’s icon mess, here’s a look at the process of choosing new icons for Debian’s IceWeasel, IceApe, and IceDove programs.

For those of you not familiar with the suite of programs (as I wasn’t) here’s a blurb from Wikipedia:

IceWeasel is the name of two currently independent Mozilla Firefox rebranding projects. One is part of the Gnuzilla project, a GNU project to provide versions of Mozilla programs which are made of entirely free software. The other is a rebranded build prepared by Debian in order to satisfy a demand from Mozilla that they either drop the Firefox name or comply with other terms that Debian policies find unacceptable.

IceDove is a rebadged ThunderBird, and IceApe a rebadged SeaMonkey. My favorites are currently from Unicko…check these out.

The ones for IceWeasel aren’t as nice, but at least some people are having fun with the process.

Makes you wonder what Adobe threw out in the process of rebranding of their suite of programs.

During my daily reading I ran across this piece over on the Rails blog discussing how a large political blog is considering three web languages/frameworks for redoing their site.

The comments within are fairly interesting for what they are, but this thread in particular caught my attention.

The age-old debate

Every UI job I’ve taken always runs into this discussion. Regardless of the setting there’s always some programmer or marketing type who thinks that proficiency in their field leads them to be an expert in yours as well.

If you’re not familiar with it, it goes something like this…

“Why can’t we make the text just run the entire length of the page? I don’t like scrolling, and all that white space is just wasting room on my nice big monitor.”

Sometimes, just to rub salt in the wound they like to add this one as well…

“I think that would make the site much more usable.”

...Please just put me out of my misery now.

Why long lines of text suck

Line length, leading (rhymes with heading), and word spacing all contribute to the readability of text on the printed page or screen.

One of my favorite books sums it up the best…

The lines should be long enough to get complete thoughts into them and there ought to be enough space between them to allow readers to finish reading a line before their eye gets distracted by the next.

If you make lines the entire length of the browser window it’s extremely difficult to move your eye to the beginning of the next line after you finish with the previous one.

But print and screen design are different!

Of course they are. In the web world we have to deal with liquid layouts, multiple font sizes and screen resolutions.

I’m a fan of constraining text width to fixed pixel columns, or small percentages.

A lot has been written on the subject, but I find these resources helpful:

• Online Readability
• That Darned Content
• Typography: Line Length

Now if only I never had to explain this concept again…

I found this interesting screen while trying to add a feed to my Bloglines account this afternoon.

Nice spin on the “request is taking too long” angle. Shows a bit of personality, and lets you know that something has gone wrong.