Should Designers Code

Arguments for a “no” to a recurring question: Why we may want to give designers all freedom in the world, not to be limited in what they’re trained to do best.

Post from November 23, 2018, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

Highlights from The Elements of Style (William Strunk Jr.)

“Consciously or unconsciously, the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; he wishes to be told what is.”

Post from January 15, 2018, filed under Art and Design and Everything Else.

On Material Design

When Google introduced Material Design back in 2014, I was happy; I was happy for the team and I was happy for Google to mark another milestone on the long way of improving the aesthetics of their products. But, I was also concerned.

Post from January 11, 2018, filed under Art and Design.

On Writing 1,000 Poems

A story of venturing into an entirely different genre.

Post from December 17, 2017, filed under Art and Design and Everything Else.

10 Photos V

The next part of the x-monthly series.

Post from August 26, 2017, filed under Art and Design.

10 Photos IV

Continuing the x-monthly series, here are yet again ten of my photographic favorites.

Post from February 10, 2017, filed under Art and Design.

Apocryphal Apostrophes

Oh, typography. How have you been.

Post from January 8, 2017, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

10 Photos III

Establishing a three-, four-, or five-monthly series, here are ten more of my photographic favorites as of late. Of my own works, sure; if it was public what one liked on EyeEm I’d happily disclose which 4.200 photos…

Post from August 8, 2016, filed under Art and Design.

10 Photos II

Some more of my EyeEm photos, published over the last few months, that have become others’ or probably my own favorites.

Post from March 25, 2016, filed under Art and Design.

It’s Not Too Late

…to contribute to good causes.

Post from February 5, 2016, filed under Art and Design.

Endless Peace

Amidst all the wars we never wanted but our governments and industries wage and participate in regardless of our will, we threaten to lose sight of our goal. That goal, surely, is peace. That goal, clearly, is durable peace. That goal, indeed, is endless peace.

Post from January 1, 2016, filed under Art and Design.

The Problem of “Fire and Forget” in Web Design

If I were to pick the main issue in web design… I couldn’t answer immediately. I don’t think there are so many, but there are a few, they are very different, they operate on different scales, and so they’re hard to compare. One, however, is “fire and forget.”

Post from September 17, 2015, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

Museums Should Always Allow Photography

The observation that there seem to be good reasons to allow most photography—to charge extra for it if necessary—, but none to offend visitors by banning it.

Post from April 30, 2015, filed under Art and Design.

10 Photos

Some of my favorite and most popular photos lately.

Post from April 24, 2015, filed under Art and Design.

Web Design and Principles

Web design has become complex. More people, more ideas, more use cases, more technical innovations, more design variations, &c. pp. More makes for more complex. However, there’s a life line helping us with this complexity, as well as trends.

Post from January 30, 2015, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

Jens and Photography

I love what technology has allowed all of us to do, from writing and publishing for the masses to designing and coding for the masses to photography and arts for the masses. But as a professional in an industry that is easy for people to enter…

Post from December 22, 2014, filed under Art and Design.

Animated Traffic: My 10 Favorite Travel Photo Animations

Last December I launched Animated Traffic. Animated Traffic is an experiment in which I play with photo animations that feed off my eternal journey, of which I’ll share the results. The material, as of this moment, made for 302 posts covering 4 continents…

Post from July 25, 2014, filed under Adventure and Art and Design.

A Word on Contemporary Web Design

These days, and as juror for Design Made in Germany I see a lot of websites, many a designer knows how to make a page appear spacious, even grandiose. Alas, as many appear to have forgotten how to use space effectively…

Post from February 5, 2014, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

Travel, Photos, Art?

I started another side project. It’s about taking a ton of photos of street scenery, working some magic that I talk about in this very post, and putting the results up on Tumblr. On the one new travel tumblr art installation that I call Animated Traffic.

Post from December 9, 2013, filed under Adventure and Art and Design.

The Art of Saying Thank You, One Thousand Times

But not here, on onethousandthankyous.org.

Post from August 29, 2013, filed under Art and Design.

Print Style Sheets and URLs

Print style sheets are awesome. They’re easy to write, too. Site owners and developers who care about print typically know what to do. Alas there’s one thing that’s done rather the wrong than in any right way: printing URLs…

Post from June 14, 2011, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

On Correct Punctuation

Let’s speak the unspeakable: Correct punctuation, here referring to the use of the correct characters for quotation marks, apostrophes, dashes, and ellipses, will forever remain a dream online…

Post from April 7, 2011, filed under Art and Design.

SUS: How to Easily Grade Your Site’s Usability

The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a Likert scale-based questionnaire to grade the usability of systems, which John Brooke created back in the 80s. SUS results yield a score between 0 and 100, with 100 indicating “best” usability…

Post from November 27, 2009, filed under Art and Design.

Punctuation Cheat Sheet

Developing and working with international sites is an interesting challenge, not just because of right-to-left contents. Typographically, there are differences between many locales. To improve punctuation in Google translations I’m using a localization aid…

Post from June 3, 2009, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

Another Survey (Including Website Usability Scale Template)

I’m doing it again: Do you have another 15 seconds to answer a couple of questions? The survey is based on the System Usability Scale (SUS) John Brooke presented in the 80s. Which means nothing less than that there’s another experiment taking place with me testing SUS…

Post from February 25, 2009, filed under Art and Design.