Things We Write
By Joshua on August 04 2010
I’m tired of web designers equating minimalism and good design.
I suppose the final straw was when I saw Dmitry at Usability Post say this:
[Minimalism is] a trend in design where the subject is “reduced to its necessary elements”? As opposed to a design …
By Joshua on June 05 2010
Version control systems are a foreign concept to a lot of designers and front end developers. I've known about Git and Subversion (SVN) for quite a while, but as a one man shop, never really saw a need to use them.
That changed when I began to develop themes that would be used …
By Joshua on March 15 2010
Working in web design can feel incredibly confining at times. Header goes here. Sidebar here. Duplicate your base HTML and CSS templates. Rinse. Repeat.
In a field so governed by conventions, what can we do to breathe life and originality into our work? Focus on just one thing.
A …
By Joshua on February 03 2010
Thanks to their excellent articles in 24 Ways, Meagan Fisher and Andy Clarke have kicked off another round of controversy about designing in the browser. While many web designers are excited about this "new" way of working, others seem to fear an invasion of blocky, boring …
By Joshua on January 27 2010
In a recent article, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov reflected on an experiment designed to create the most competitive chess games ever played.
In 2005, the online chess-playing site Playchess.com hosted what it called a "freestyle" chess tournament in which anyone …
By Joshua on December 28 2009
If you've visited the Design Pepper website in the past couple of weeks, you probably noticed that it's sporting a new look. It's also been updated under the hood.
Here are a few of the highlights.
(If you're using a feedreader, you might want to click through to …
By Joshua on November 04 2009
I was recently introduced to thesixtyone, which is a great way to discover interesting new music, especially if you appreciate indie efforts.
They have a great user interface. But what most intrigued me was the way they had built a reward system into the site. As you explore, you …
By Seth on October 28 2009
Confession: If you want to see me respond in a dramatic and possibly amusing way, drop a few ice cubes on my kitchen floor and watch my face when I place a sock-covered foot in one of the resulting icy puddles.
Actual Content: What makes my admission of eccentricity useful and …
By Joshua on August 03 2009
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By Joshua on April 13 2009
As web designers, sometimes we get stuck in our own little world, rarely looking outside. And if we do look outside of web design, it's probably print or package design. But the interactive nature of websites, especially feature-rich "web 2.0″ sites, means that …
By Joshua on March 09 2009
Even if the only thing you've ever designed is a mashed potato volcano with gravy lava, you're a designer. We all design in some way or other. The best of us get paychecks for their designs. The worst of us have to appreciate our elegant disasters for free. The best designs …
By Joshua on October 19 2008
This is the first in a series on a type of website mistakes that I call "unprofessionalisms." But they aren't just any mistakes. To qualify as an unprofessionalism, it must:
Be relatively common.
Detract from the professionalism of a website.
Be something …
By Joshua on September 01 2008
Though there are some great examples of web designers writing on typography recently, one thing that I've always wanted is a quick little reference to help me remember both the terms and how the typographic toolkit should be used. This is the beginning of such a …
By Joshua on June 24 2008
It's been a little while since I posted a linklist, so I've got some pretty nice links for you to check out.
8 fonts you probably don't use in css, but should – Web Design Marketing Podcast & Blog
Feel like you're being too constrained by limiting …
By Joshua on June 17 2008
Over the past couple of days I've been trying to make a list of all the software that I need to reinstall or transfer to my shiny new Dell* laptop. In the course of this list-making, I realized that though I have a lot of software that I use occasionally, there are a handful that …