Journal

One of the most important things we can ask as designers is not “what” but “why?” There are always things that need to get done, always tasks that need to be checked off, but sometimes we should step back and make sure we are going down a path that makes sense. During a recent project, …

When CSS was first getting started, one of the promises laid down was to finally separate content from presentation. When the web was much younger, designers were forced to include elements like spacer images and font tags to style their content. This is considered a mixing of content and presentation. The goal with CSS was …

I have found that as I learn more, more comes to be expected of me. For example, there was once a time when I thought I could just create in a vacuum, and let others worry about the details. Project management is a huge term that can encompass any number of things. At a high …

I’ve been thinking about paging lately. We consistently access sites with mountains of content, and while search is a good way to find specific items, page browsing is still useful if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. In my quest to understand paging, I thought it best to first break down some of …

Google has very slowly started rolling out its brand new social network, Google +, and I am excited. The most interesting thing to me is not about the features, but the design. Along with this new product, Google is rolling out redesigns of a lot of their core products. The end result feels a lot …

Paul Rand, paraphrasing Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, once said, “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” These words have stuck with me for a long time. The quote came roaring back into my brain after viewing the first three parts of an amazing series of videos called Everything is A Remix. …

The current state of mobile computing has created a war of sorts between two opposing factions. On one side we have apps, and on the other, HTML5. Apps refers to compiled programs, whereas HTML5 represents a set of technologies aimed at providing app-like experiences through a browser. For a long time, there was no choice, …

It is no secret that I am borderline obsessed with Apple and all of its products. Recently, Steve Jobs was put in front of the Cupertino city council to present plans for a brand new Apple campus there, and of course I watched the whole thing. I enjoyed the presentation itself, and I think Steve …