almost effortless

Douglas Bowman of Stopdesign, probably the best web designer I know of, has been working with Google for 6 months now, and has just taken a position there full time. This might not seem like such a big deal, but I'm certain that his influence will show up throughout their product line, and this is a very good thing. I appreciate clarity and simplicity just as much as the next guy, but I think that Google design comes across as overly sparse a lot of the time. The middle-ground between lush graphics found in a lot of Stopdesign work and the "classic" Google look and feel sounds just about right to me. Side note: I think Daniel Burka of silverorange might be the number one independent designer, now that Google has locked Mr. Bowman up. Read Going to Google:

...After a bit of negotiation and a lot of internal debate, I recently accepted an offer to join Google as Visual Design Lead, a position that did not previously exist there. I'm charged with helping the company establish a common visual language across all their collaborative and communication products. This includes products I've already had some hand in like Blogger and Calendar. But it will also include other highly used products like Gmail, Writely, Page Creator, and other projects in the pipeline.

Although I'm reluctant to gobble up everything coming out of 37signals, I find it hard to resist their charm. Just this evening, I was riding the Brown Line home from work, checking out the latest drivel pouring out of Business 2.0, a magazine I subscribe to (shame!) in large part because I enjoy reveling in nonsensical marketing hype. An article called How to build a bulletproof startup caught my eye - not because it was on the cover, but (true story) because I couldn't wait for 37signals to hate on it. Well, I'm not disappointed:

They'll tell you that you need to burn between $1.6 and $4.5 million to get to launch. They're wrong. They'll tell you that working on a prototype is about drawings and photoshop abstractions, that you need advisory boards, big staffs, and a huge lawyer tab before you get to building something real. They're wrong...People often ask us "what should I do to build a company like 37signals?". I think we finally have a succinct answer now: Do exactly the opposite of what Business 2.0 tells you to.

It's easy to make a div into a link using a bit of javascript. You can use this technique to make any div "clickable". For example, you might want your "header" div to link to your home page. Here's how:

<div onclick="location.href='http://www.example.com';" style="cursor:pointer;"></div>

If you're using a standard WordPress theme, you can make your header div clickable by doing this:

<div id="header" onclick="location.href='<?php bloginfo('url');?>';" style="cursor:pointer;"></div>

That's it!

A long time ago, a group of designers began a somewhat officially endorsed endeavor to redesign the Wordpress administration interface. I remember reading something around the time this started getting publicity that was rather harsh in regard to the drab grey look of Wordpress at the time. So, the Shuttle project caught my attention. The progress of the project was brought to my attention today via Photomatt.net. From the Shuttle info page:

The Shuttle is a complete beautification of the WordPress Administration Panel. The project has been in development since early 2005. These are the images we did on Photoshop, so there is no plugin for you to download, as it’s not been incorporated into the final release yet.

I'm pretty impressed with the work so far, and I'm looking forward to this making it into the core. Estimated arrival... my guess... by the end of the year.

In one of my more misguided attempts to do away with digital clutter, I uninstalled a piece of software from my Mac that I'd long forgotten about. It was only then that I realized how much I relied on it:

SideTrack is a replacement driver for Apple PowerBook and iBook trackpads. With SideTrack installed your standard trackpad becomes a powerful multi-button scrolling mouse. [Features Include:]

• Vertical scrolling at left or right edge of pad.
• Horizontal scrolling at top or bottom edge of pad.
• Map trackpad corner taps to mouse buttons 1-6 or simulated keystrokes.
• Extensive control over accidental input filtering.

Actually, it's that last feature that really takes the cake. I don't know how many times I was typing something and accidentally hit the trackpad, which really messes things up when you're trying to type a sentence. It took a couple of days before I realized the problem - Sidetrack had been taking care of all my accidental input in the background.

While you're there, you should pick up MenuMeters, which is another piece of software I've come to rely on. It gives you a highly-customizable set of monitoring tools, so you can see things like network, RAM, hard drive, and processor activity. Coming from a PC, I found it kind of strange to not have those flashing lights on my computer case, which indicated that the computer was still chugging away when it seemed like nothing was going on. With MenuMeters, you get a much more useful view of your computer's internal goings-on sitting conveniently next to your clock. Plus, it's free. Can't beat that with a stick.

I came across an article today that tied together something I've been thinking about for the last week or so. Although this article is short, it makes an excellent point. The copy on a site or in an application is probably just as important as the layout, colors, or features.

It's time we designers stop thinking of ourselves as merely pixel people, and start thinking of ourselves as the creators of experiences. And when it comes to experience on the web, there's no better way to create it than to write, and write well. Via A List Apart.

The experience of using a web application could be the most important part of the app. Let's take 37signals apps as an example. I noticed a while ago how the naming-scheme seems to be slanted toward outdoor imagery (Basecamp, Backpack, Campfire). I'm not sure how crucial having a good name is, and even the namer of Basecamp questions the importance:

A great name really helps. A good name isn't bad either. A bad name can probably hurt, but all in all I think names, logos, and taglines are vastly overrated. Give people a great product and they'll be happy. It does help if the name is short, unique, and memorable though -- it helps people spread the word. Via WorkHappy.net.

...but there is something about a good name that helps with the overall packaging of an app. I don't know if you could quantify it, but I think there's got to some sort of subliminal effect of, say, outdoor imagery when you're staring at a computer screen. Think about it this way: why is the default Microsoft desktop wallpaper be a grassy field? If you look at the other pre-packaged wallpapers on XP you'll notice a theme there.

The Perfect Mark: How a Massachusetts psychotherapist fell for a Nigerian e-mail scam.

An enduring trait of Nigerian letter scammers—indeed, of most con artists—is their reluctance to walk away from a mark before his resources are exhausted. On February 5, 2003, several days after the checks were revealed as phony, after Worley was under siege by investigators, after his bank account had been frozen, after he had called his partners “evil bastards, Worley received one more e-mail from Mercy Nduka...

“I am quite sympathetic about all your predicaments, she wrote, “but the truth is that we are at the final step and I am not willing to let go, especially with all of these amounts of money that you say that you have to pay back. She needed just one more thing from Worley and the millions would be theirs: another three thousand dollars.

“You have to trust somebody at times like this, she wrote. “I am waiting your response.

Yahoo! UI Library: Grids CSS

Grids CSS is a suite of seven web page templates and the ability to nest grids of one to four columns within the content area of those templates. Together, the combined template and grid system offers these features: Full A-grade browser support, More than 100 page layouts with a single CSS file at just 1.82KB, Flexible font-size, Min-width enforcement, Source-order independence, Self-clearing footer, Centering within the viewport by default, Forward-compatibility, etc...

Veerle's blog | A CSS Styled Table

Further to my article about the creation of a CSS calendar the thought crossed my mind to show you an example on how you can style a table using CSS. The data of tables can be boring so all the more reason that we need to attract attention to it and make it as pleasant to read as possible. Presentation and design with some basic accessibility rules in mind is the way to go.

You can also jump straight to the finished product, complete with CSS styling. Very nice.

Bullet Madness - 200 Free Bullets Project at Stylegala

Bullet madness is a list of 200 bullets, arrows and icons uploaded by our users. A handy collection of bullets for your webdesign needs - these icons can add that little extra to your design and make your site stand out from the crowd.

Quite the handy site - I come back often to use the icons for bullet points in various sites. You'd be surprised, but using something that the standard, default, boring bullet points can add a little whiz-bang to your otherwise plain design!