On Native App Splash Screens

Mused on March 20, 2014

Consider this: splash screens pervade almost all native apps. And this is seen as a good thing. But splash screens in web apps; a terrible, bad thing. Why do we allow one but not the other?

Fuck Trends

Mused on March 11, 2014

Seriously, fuck ’em. They have no place in professional design, and definitely not in web design. Why would they? They pay no attention to the specifics of the project at hand, nor those affected by said project.

Font-face Character Swapping

Mused on June 14, 2013

By using a few simple CSS tricks, we can replace any HTML character we want by targeting it’s Unicode value.

Anti-antialiased Text

Mused on June 13, 2013

Designers! Developers! Listen, listen! We must stop our collective nonsense. We’re putting our likes ahead of user needs, and letting our preferences cloud our products. Using antialiased text (albeit limited to webkit, possibly blink, browsers) is a bad, poor, erroneous choice.

Static Lies

Mused on June 12, 2013

We've been doing it wrong since the beginning. And no, I'm not referring to life in general, though the argument could be made for that. I'm more referring to what we deliver to clients in the design phase, and what they end up getting in the prototyping / development / deliverable phases.

Use Your Analytics, People

Mused on April 29, 2013

Developers everywhere fear older versions of IE, its's a fact, and it's a fact for good reason. Supporting IE 8, 7 and possibly even 6 makes building the web unfun. But, for some business verticals and clients, it's a necessity, as for some of them, their users still traverse the web with these older, archaic browsers. And, there is not much we can do about this, outside of a few hacky-type things.

Pay-for-Play Music Suggestion

Mused on March 16, 2013

Somewhere recently I’ve noticed a disturbing trend: services like Spotify, Rdio and the like, are not as wonderful for the artist as the public assumes. At least, a trend in as much as the information has been presented in these articles. First, a disclaimer—I use, and have used Spotify for as long as it’s been available in the US.

We're Failing Images

Mused on March 07, 2013

I'm probably weird, but I want no images. Not only for page speed reasons, or for retina/non-retina reasons; but for the simple fact that getting images right is very hard. And, unfortunately, very often we get them wrong.

Design Feedback Is Hard

Mused on February 27, 2013

Yep, it is hard. It's not just I don't like green. Or it's not just that looks cheap. And it's definitely not ’It needs to pop more’. It takes practice, of a sort. It takes practice after you build a solid foundation of understanding design principles. It's just like any other profession; we should not jump to conclusions about something we don't really understand.

Client Education Still Lacking

Mused on February 25, 2013

While working on a recent project, I (re-)discovered the issue of client misunderstandings and perceptions of browsers and rendering. While a lot of people have talked about this, and tweeted about it, and mentioned that this is part of what we do, it's not where it needs to be yet. I don't know what the actual solution is to bridging the gap, but I'll run through some scenarios and how I might handle them.

Responsive Email, Yesterday

Mused on February 20, 2013

Everyone knows responsive web design (henceforth RWD). Well, people in the web industry, and those working closely with web folk; they pretty much all know what that term implies. And they all probably have their own opinions about whether it's good or bad, or at least going in the right direction. But what about responsive email design?

Jekyll, Flat Design & Unicode

Mused on February 19, 2013

I recently updated my site to use Jekyll, markdown, and Unicode icons. There are, of course, still some images, but only as necessary. Portfolio samples and 4 header images to give the site some character. However, I decided to dump a lot of tiny details in buttons and whatnot in favor of just focussing on content, and speed. The images I do use are pretty well optimized, but being that they are portfolio pieces, there's only so small I was willing to go.

Email’s Just Fine

Mused on February 12, 2013

Email is not dead. Email is not wrong. Email is not broken. Is it awesome to use all the time? No, of course not. But, as a medium, it is fine that is suiting it's purpose fairly well.

Iterate, and Iterate Often

Mused on February 11, 2013

This is something I don't do often enough for sure. Some of this is laziness, but some of it is just budget constraint. But this is one of the most important parts of creating success; whether you're building a new product or working on a client project.