Recently while redesigning Z-Up (It’s still a mess), I realized halfway through the process that my design didn’t fit the branding of it at all. See, for Z-Up, I used the whole cardboard box metaphor, representing the files that one can upload onto it. For my “redesign” of it, I started going for the whole airmail envelope look, with the diagonal stripes on the borders. Yes it looked pretty, but I soon realized that it just did not go with the branding I had established for Z-Up. It was poorly thought out, and done on a whim, with little thought to how well it works for the brand.
Continue reading ‘Good Designers Complete, Great Designers Discard’
Welcome to the blog of Dan, a designer, artist, blogger, and rabid Apple fanboy.
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Archive for the 'Web' Category
I’m sticking with using my own, self-hosted WordPress-based blog. All the youngsters and even some professionals have gone over to microblogging, with services like Tumblr. Sure, it may be convenient (having the whole theme in one .html file sounds extremely tempting), but it doesn’t give me that same satisfaction I get from running everything on my own server. Plus with WordPress, I can completely change anything I want, even on the backend.
On April 12, 2010, Parliament (UK) passed a bill to “help protect copyright online and increase regulation and control of the way people use the Internet.” It’s set to go into effect on June 12, 2010. How does this affect us in the United States? Simple, if a developed, modern country passes and implements a law controlling the internet, other countries will follow with their own legislation. “Repeat offenders” will have their internet cut off by their ISP‘s, for an indefinite period of time. This is just another sad attempt by the entertainment industry to stop piracy.
Continue reading ‘Piracy Cannot, And Should Not, Be Stopped’
It all started when the new city buses came out. They’re pretty comfortable and quiet, but one thing really bugs me about them. Whenever you use the back door, the door takes ages to open, in addition to an annoying voice telling you to “touch yellow tape to open door” every time the bus stops. I press the yellow tape and about 5 seconds later the door starts to open. I usually just shove the door open, because when I’m tired after a long day I have no patience at all.
How does this relate to web design? Simple, make your interfaces work quickly, don’t put any lag or delay. On certain websites you have to hover over a dropdown nav button for 3-5 seconds for the dropdown to appear. That’s really annoying, so don’t do it.
If you run a blog or website on any topic, there’s a good chance you may have gotten hatemail at one point or another. Most of the time it’s poorly phrased, with the spelling and grammar of a ten year-old. Even though you may be extremely offended or angry, follow these helpful tips below when responding to hatemail.
Continue reading ‘How To Respond To Hatemail’
I”m pretty sure all of you guys have heard people referring to their Tumblogs as “blogs.” Everybody and their preteen brother has one nowadays. For those of you who don’t know what a Tumblog is, it’s a social networking tool of sorts, where the user posts links, images, IM conversations, music, quotes, etc. Most of this is done in less than a minute, and without any commentary. Blog is a short name for a Web Log, which is like a journal or diary, but on the web— usually publicly accessible. A blog usually has well-thought out entries and articles, whereas a Tumblog is just a dump of all the stuff you find interesting. I’m not against Tumblr or any of those sites, I actually use a similar system here, but not as often. I’m just sick and tired of people referring to their Tumblogs as legitimate blogs, even when the former takes little or no time to maintain as opposed to a real blog. Next time some teen says “Well I posted this song/quote/picture in my blog..,” make sure to correct them.