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Archive for the 'design' Tag

1. EmbeddedStream Mobile Version

   

   After learning that I have at least one occasional mobile using accessing the site (yes Jimmy, that’s you!) I’ve put in place a much more appropriate stylesheet, linked in with the handheld media type. I’ve been testing this against Opera - pressing Shift-F11 will switch Opera to handheld mode and will emulate it’s rendering behaviour when running on a mobile device. I think overall it works pretty well. Some of the features include…

   • Only 2 images in the design, and these are mini, mini images (3K each)
   • Single column fluid layout
   • More appropriate text sizing and margins
   • Better sizing of form controls

   I don’t really know enough about how widely the handheld media type has been adopted by mobile browsers, but I guess at least Opera crops up all over the place and it will render really nicely. Any feedback from my one mobile user would be appreciated

   While I was in the mood I’ve also added a print stylesheet, so think I should now be covered all round. I might have a little rant about Aural media type shortly, but will save that treat for another day.

   Posted at 9:06 am on 11/12/07

   Tags: browser, design, handheld, mobile, my sites, opera, rendering

   Comments: 2

2. Practicals of grid-based design

   I just looked through a slide deck from Khoi Vinh from a recent SXSW presentation, and found it really interesting reading even without the verbal commentary. It walks through the approach to a complex portal design, and how to use a grid to achieve balance and order when presenting so much information in a single interface.

   I freely admit my own background and personal preference is totally based around complete simplicity, with each interface helping you with a single task. I find it fascinating how to approach putting together a coherent design for a much more multi-task interface. I suspect my own bias is partly based in the fact that I haven’t been educated in grid-based design, so should have a go at something similar to the site that is used for illustration.

   Posted at 4:44 pm on 19/04/07

   Tags: design, grid, layout

   Comments: None

3. Cinema Site Designs

   In a vague attempt to combat the winter-induced sleep addiction that hangs from my eyelids each night when I get home, I thought I’d take a quick look at cinema listings. Obviously it’s much more worthwhile to walk to the end of the road and sit in a different seat for a couple of hours being entertained.

   I couldn’t really find anything that appealed to me (that I hadn’t already seen). However, I did notice that Prince Charles have redesigned their site recently, and the new version is really well structured and easy to use. I think they’ve done a great job of presenting lots of information in one place without leaving you feeling like you don’t know where to look. I tend to be a little short-sighted and tired this time of night, but could intuitively get what I needed without thinking about it at all.

   In constrast, the Curzon site manages to incorporate most of my pet hates about design. They have much less information on the page, but leave you feeling stressed and unsure what to look at. There’s no kind of visual hierarchy to guide the eye (everything in upper case), so you have to read most of the content to work out which piece to look at. The cherry on top is a layer of pointless and annoying animation.

   I think you really have to consider your situation when making decisions around design. Cinema sites are purely functional, so I’d like to be able to get the information I want as quickly and efficiently as possible. I really don’t think animation works well in this context at all.

   Anyway, as you can gather I ended up ranting about design instead of going to the cinema. Fool. At least I get to test out my tasty new keyboard.

   Posted at 9:22 pm on 16/01/07

   Tags: curzon, design

   Comments: 1

4. The Grid

   I was reading The Designer and the Grid last night. I had some vague awareness of this area of design theory, but hadn’t delved into any real detail. I saw a great talk earlier in the year by Andy Clarke that made me realise I should really do some reading in this area.

   I think I tend to work mostly from a visual / aesthetic point of view when carrying out design work. Another way to approach it is to decouple laying out content in the most appropriate way, from the visuals layered on top of this. Where I’m interested in grid theory is around this first step - using various grid configurations as faded layers in Photoshop or Illustrator to provide structure around the initial step before visuals are even considered.

   I guess I tend to jump directly to the fun, high impact stage, and sometimes this means there is insufficient structure around how the content is presented.

   I’m also playing around with ideas about the best way to convey or test pure content layout. This can be done in a flat way with Visio or Illustrator, but I think you can get better feedback using a simple interactive model that allows you to click through a particular scenario. I like the idea of using static html pages with very understated greyscale CSS, and maybe combining this with Wiki style content that can capture notes around the design, or feedback from others.

   Then again, maybe I’m just trying to avoid writing spec documents in Word. I was reading an article from Joel about that whole subject, and it made me realise I should make an effort to embrace the word processor a little more than I do.

   Posted at 9:09 am on 22/11/06

   Tags: books, design, grid, layout, reading

   Comments: 2

5. Sunday Photos

   I thought it might be interesting to post up a few of the raw photos from the shoot on Sunday to compare to the finished site design. In particular this is the original image that was used for the site header before mucking about with it and getting the crayons out. As before, you can check out the finished design at kimelliott.net

   Posted at 10:37 pm on 12/09/06

   Tags: design, kim elliott, my sites, photography

   Comments: 2

6. Drawing Sickness

   I’ve been suffering from an affliction that seems to affect a number of people I know. If I’m full of energy about a particular project, then I’ll wish to devote lots of time to getting it underway.

   The problem is that when I spend more than a certain amount of time working on a new design, I get slapped with a stupid stick. I lose any ability to make sensible judgement about what is good and bad. The only solution seems to be to walk away and lose interest for a while.

   I’ve spoken to people who suffer from this with painting or writing, and I’ve always summoned the appropriate amount of sympathy while not quite understanding what all the fuss was about. OK, I get it now!

   I’m really hoping that when I get home tonight I’ll have regained an objective eye, but right now I honestly have no idea if I’m going home to a work or art or a kid’s crayon drawing.

   Posted at 12:10 pm on 22/05/06

   Tags: design, observations

   Comments: 5

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