I just finished buying my first photograph from iStockPhoto.com. I am totally impressed with their user interface. The entire experience was solid. The information architecture seemed coherent. Everything about it has subtlety and grace. Compared to the competition, it head and shoulders above the rest. Plus the pricing strategy was great. You buy “credits”. Then…
Netflix, a few weeks ago, finally introduced Drag and Drop on their Queue page. I have already used it a bunch of times. Bravo, Netflix. It works very well for what it does. It has a nice transparency when a row is in motion. Plus several visual cues to know what is happening. However, it…
I just finished watching the movie Bridge to Terabithia with Katie and the Kids. It was the saddest thing I have seen in years. I almost started crying. I had that terrible lump in my throat. I can still feel it. I thought it was going to be a movie like The Lion, The Witch…
I was just reading the CSS3 specifications. This got me down for two reasons. One, because I am a total geek for reading these. Two, because browsers are pretty far away from supporting these. Who knows when I will feel comfortable actually using some of these capabilities? When IE7 dies? 2010? Later? The stuff in…
For a long time, I have not liked the functionality in the image zoom implementations out there. Usually I use HighSlide. It is probably the best of the bunch. It zooms, drags around, has great styling with lots of options. But it doesn’t dim the screen and it doesn’t have easing on the zoom. jQuery…
I have been getting myself accustomed to the idea that my first book advance check will go to a list of fun stuff. Here is my current list. Logitech Harmony 800 Remote Control (or equivalent) Digital recorder for Katie. I don’t know which one is best. It’s for recording her singing. Wii. You know, for…
An engineer friend of mine needed some help on CSS. He was extremely frustrated with the CSS. As I fixed it, he looked at me like I was performing black magic. I asked, “Isn’t programming like this?” He said, “No, programming is more deterministic.” This made me think about all of the HTML/CSS I have…
I am stunned, shocked and dismayed. Microsoft has kicked me straight in the family jewels on this one. I am so mad, I could spit! Literally. This is a horrible decision. Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2003 both used Internet Explorer as their rendering engine. T his meant you could design a regular old html website…
To love an idea is to love it a little more than one should. –Jean Rostand I highly resemble this quote.
jQuery just announced launched a new plugin area. This is an area that I have had particular interest in for some time. The jQuery plugins really are needed to do any advanced UX. Once you have a taste of great UX, you just can’t hold back from every detail. Anyway, I looked at the area…
Busy weekend as usual. Worked more on the book. It’s moving along. In the book there are lots of “examples” that I am mocking up. I find myself making them way too complicated. I believe that any page can have dozens of small details that make it smooth and perfect. Each one is small in…
Ok, I couldn’t help myself. I installed Safari for Windows. It was a beta! I couldn’t resist. Almost immediately, I noticed a few annoying things which bother my User Experience senses. There was no top bar. I use that top bar. I resize with it, I double click on it to maximize and minimize. Why…
Apple is in the news alot this week. And almost all of it really burns by biscuit. They redesigned their website. They are using Prototype and Scriptaculous javascript frameworks for some of the subpages. (lame!) I haven’t made up my mind about the Information Architecture, but from a visual standpoint, there are things reminiscent of…
I found this new program that converts regular pictures into ASCII art. It’s surprisingly easy to use. You load a picture and boom, it’s done. Check out the sample I just made. It even saves in color. I love it. I used to be totally enamored with ASCII art. It seems such a neat cross…