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Blogs » Archive for September, 2007
WDS07 Bonus Feature: Andy Clarke & Cameron Adams
At Web Directions South 2007 in Sydney yesterday, I caught up with SitePoint author Cameron Adams (themaninblue.com) and renowned designer Andy Clarke (stuffandnonsense.co.uk), both of whom spoke at the conference.
Andy spoke about comic book design and layout (summary by Matt Magain), and some of the lessons it can teach us about web design. I asked Andy about comic book typography.
Cameron Adams
“Does that also mean you’re advocating more use of Comic Sans, Andy?”
Andy Clarke
“Comic Sans is one of my absolute favorite fonts, and expect it to crop up in several projects.”
Cameron Adams
“You heard it here first.”
Cameron spoke about the wide range of user interface possibilities that are now available to designers thanks to maturing JavaScript libraries, and using them to provide truly customizable user experiences.
Listen to the interview (17’11, 7.9MB MP3)
Read the transcript
Tags: wds07
PC vs. Mac Redux
The following is republished from the Tech Times #174.
The forum threads associated with my editorial last issue, 
Mac vs. PC: What Floats your Boat? and Mac vs. PC and the Future of the Web, are running hot with nearly 400 posts at last count.
“Is Apple Hardware Crummy?” in the SitePoint Forums
A few of you did write in via email, however, to let me know your thoughts. More than a few of you suggested that moving to Linux will get all the benefits of Mac OS X that I mentioned and without getting locked into Apple hardware. Having not given Linux a fair shake on the desktop for a few years now, I have to admit that Ubuntu and the like may be a very good option for the extra adventurous who don’t need commercial apps like Photoshop to get by.
Speaking of Apple hardware, Tech Times reader Bob Deloyd wrote in with this perspective:
“I have friends who have Macs and it seems that there is always something going wrong with the logic boards or other parts. [...]
“You buy from …
A New Standard for HTML Email
The following is republished from the Tech Times #174.
If you’re one of the many lucky readers of the Tech Times who use Outlook 2007—whether by choice or not—then chances are you’ve noticed this newsletter and many others haven’t looked quite right since the upgrade from Outlook 2003. Could the solution be standards for HTML email?
“A New Standard for HTML Email” in the SitePoint Forums
Long time readers of the Tech Times may remember my rant in Tech Times #156 about Microsoft’s choice to replace the Internet Explorer rendering engine in Outlook 2003 with a new engine based on Microsoft Word in Outlook 2007. Yes, that Microsoft Word. Clippy is reading your email as we speak.
The fine folks at Freshview, the makers of the Campaign Monitor service for creating and sending high-quality HTML email newsletters, have led the ongoing efforts to get Microsoft to see reason and reverse this move, which frankly sets email technology back a decade.
As it seems these pleas continue to fall on deaf ears, Freshview has proposed a new tack: define a (relatively) easy-to-support subset of HTML and CSS as a standard that HTML-capable email clients may strive to support. …
Yahoo! Acquires Zimbra
The following is republished from the Tech Times #174.
Yahoo! acquires all the coolest companies. First it was Flickr, then del.icio.us, and now it’s bagged Zimbra (for a reported US$350 million!), which I dare say is the company with the most Ajax know-how on the planet (with the possible exception of The Google).
“How will Yahoo! change Zimbra?” in the SitePoint Forums
If you haven’t heard of it already, Zimbra is an open source email, address book, and calendaring server based on open source technologies tied together with a bunch of Java code. It competes with Microsoft Exchange, and is most noted for its rich web interface that makes heavy use of Ajax. We use Zimbra at SitePoint.
Zimbra was doing Ajax-powered email before Google made it cool. The company has also contributed a great deal of Ajax know-how to the world. Zimbra released of one of the first industrial-strength Ajax libraries, it helped to spearhead the OpenAjax Alliance, and has published numerous blog posts that have illuminated the sometimes murky waters of real-world Ajax development.
Now that Zimbra belongs to Yahoo!, I would only expect to see these trends …
Web Directions: The myths of innovation
Kicking off day two of the Web Directions conference was an inspiring talk by the charismatic Scott Berkun.
Scott described several myths that exists about innovation — including the misconception that ideas are external to us, and that epiphanies come to us when we least expect it. He gave examples of famous characters in history: Archimedes, discovering how to identify gold by measuring its density, and Newton’s famous revelation of the existence of gravity. People latch on to the story that they want to hear (e.g. Archimedes leaping naked from the bath tub and running through the street, and Newton lazing about until an apple landed on his head). The reality is that inventors and innovators spend their entire life trying to solve a problem, and the hard work that these famous characters invested is quickly forgotten.
He suggested that, in a company, the less you use the word “innovation”, the more likely you are to do it. If you’re using the word regularly, you’re in big trouble.
Innovators are essentially explorers: they pick a blank spot on a map and say “I want to go there and bring back cool stuff”. Star Trek, however, is an inaccurate representation of exploring — all …
SitePoint Contests Highly Commended in McFarlane Prize
The SitePoint Design Contests web application came runners up in the McFarlane Prize announcement at Web Directions South yesterday, earning a Highly Commended award from the judges which placed it in the top three of all entries.
The winner of the McFarlane Prize was Michael Koukoullis, for the political campaign site Andrews Must Resign.
Members from the SitePoint development team, Andrew Krespanis and Lucas Chan, accepted the award from the representative of the W3C office of Australia, Dean Jackson.
The McFarlane Prize was established in 2006 to recognise excellence in Australian web design, and to honour the memory of Nigel McFarlane, a Melbourne-based web pioneer and technologist.
Web Directions: Comic book inspiration and the CSS Eleven
Andy Clarke captivated the audience in true Malarkey style this morning, with his keynote presentation Think Like A Mountain at Web Directions South.
Drawing upon one of his childhood loves, comic book art, Andy pointed out the numerous parallels between comic books and web page layout.
Bandying around references to and artwork by comic artists both celebrated and obscure (Frank Miller, Paul Chadwick, Dave Gibbon) Andy highlighted the progression between panels in a comic book (some follow an obvious order; others require a lot more deductive reasoning). As it does in the movies, this technique adds drama by not explicitly showing every detail.
In addition, following an established convention to build trust and familiarity, then busting out of that convention occasionally, is an effective way to create timing for a story, or for a user scanning a page.
Andy also mentioned the rhythm of a page, as defined by its layout. On the Web, similar rhythm can be created by using borders, background images/colours, contrast (font weight). It’s useful to think about the amount of time we want someone to look at our content when laying it out.
While it might not be appropriate to splash exaggerated sound effect …
Web Directions South 2007 opens in Sydney
The SitePoint crew was in the 600-strong audience at the opening of Web Directions South 2007 in Sydney today. Conference runner John Allsopp took the stage to open the conference and introduce some of the major themes.
Top of his list was that the mobile web has arrived. John mentioned devices like the Apple iPhone, Nokia’s WebKit-powered mobile browser, and the Nintendo Wii as devices that are changing the way people use the Web. Reflecting these advancements, the conference this year has a special focus on mobile web technology.
Keynote speaker Rashmi Sinha of SlideShare, then stepped up to speak on The Perils of Popularity, focusing on the current trends in social networking. Sinha showed how the new crop of social networking sites are based around shared activities (e.g. Facebook) and objects (e.g. YouTube).
At several points during her talk, Sinha paused to poll the audience about their current focus, and was surprised to find the Sydney audience seemed to have different priorities than audiences she has addressed in Silicon Valley. For example, only a smattering of Web Directions South attendees indicated they were currently developing Facebook applications, whereas stateside it’s apparently “all about Facebook Apps.”
News Wire: Yahoo! Acquires Zimbra, WordPress 2.3, and more
- Is your website greenhouse friendly?The organizers of the Web Directions South conference share their advice for Australian-hosted sites seeking to eliminate their carbon footprint.(tags: business hosting )
- Google Presentations ReleasedGoogle has launched the latest in its stable of web-based office applications: Google Presentations. A direct competitor to Microsoft PowerPoint, Presentations is still a simple offering, but may be enough for many less demanding users.(tags: google ajax gwt )
- Facebook investors start $10 million fund for developersFacebook will be giving away $10 million to developers who submit worthy proposals for Facebook applications—no strings attached!(tags: socialnetworks php business )
- Yahoo! Acquires ZimbraYahoo! acquires all the coolest companies! The latest (joining Flickr and del.icio.us) is Zimbra, the pioneers of Ajax-powered email. Yahoo! hopes to use Zimbra to break into educational and institutional markets.(tags: yahoo! ajax java business )
- Mozilla tries Firefox recipe with ThunderbirdMozilla is splitting off a new company to focus on the development of Thunderbird, its open-source, cross-platform desktop email client.(tags: business opensource firefox )
- CSS Grid Positioning Module Level 3A convincing alternative to the …
Free books for the 5,000th member!
Last week the Web Standards Group reached a milestone of 5,000 members, and thanks to SitePoint the lucky 5,000th member has scored some awesome prizes. (For clarity, the WSG is a grassroots organisation focussed on educating designers and developers through the sharing of knowledge, both online and at regular presentations — not to be confused with the Web Standards Project, who works with browser vendors and tool creators.)
From the announcement that went out to the group’s members this afternoon:
Our first meeting was held on 6 March 2003 in a pub in Sydney with 8 people. We currently have 5,009 members from 109 countries. We also have meetings in a range of cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane … Wellington, London, Singapore and Moscow — with more to come in the next few months.
To celebrate this milestone, SitePoint has donated a range of books to be presented to member No. 5,000: Michael Riethmuller, from Australia. Michael will be receiving copies of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, The CSS Anthology, 2nd Edition, Simply JavaScript and Deliver First Class Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists to add to his personal reference library.
Congratulations Michael!
Becoming a member of …
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