UI that looked sexy in Photoshop almost always looks overdesigned when we try it for real in the browser. Here’s a hypothesis. Simple and useful designs just don’t seem good enough when they are dead pixels. They need to be brought to life before they can be appreciated. Until that happens we overcompensate with garnish.
via 37signals
| October 29 | This is about: photoshop, rant, web design & has Comments. |
A list of complaints about San Francisco from Alex Payne that I happen to vehemently agree with:
- An obscenely high cost of living for comparatively poor real estate and social services.
- Limited and mediocre cultural institutions. It’s easy to exhaust museums, theater, and other forms of the arts in SF. Most of what you’ll find outside the mainstream is dim, amateurish, and – as above – obsessed with being different rather than simply being better. (The ballet is the major exception. It’s quite good.)
- Entirely a matter of personal preference, but I dislike much of the architecture in San Francisco. Some find the endless peeling Victorians quaint. I prefer buildings that are truly historic or aggressively modern.
- Vast dead spaces between and within neighborhoods. For a city of relatively small size, you’ll find that most of it isn’t worth repeated visits. Areas worth spending time in are usually just several blocks, scarcely enough to occupy an hour or two with window shopping and a stroll.
- Enormous competition for limited resources. You will wait for everything. The better a thing is (food, coffee, a nice place to sit), the longer you’ll wait for it. When you finally get what you want, you’ll be crammed in with others trying to enjoy the same place/thing, diminishing everyone’s enjoyment.
via Alex Payne
| October 24 | This is about: rant, san francisco & has Comments. |
Make something great. Tell people about it. Do it again.
| October 13 | This is about: advice & has Comments. |

I came across this wonderful book while browsing at Elliott Bay Books the other day. It is a refreshingly quick read with absolutely no filler. Every page is packed with actionable bits that help you understand how to form (or reform) the most critical, yet often abused part of any website project: the content.
The author, Kristina Halvorson, has posted a sample chapter online you can download here: http://www.contentstrategy.com/book/download. Enjoy.
| October 11 |