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.

The Greatest Secret in Web Design

Alright I cheated, this isn’t a secret. Or an open secret. Or whatever. It’s that web design is a process. Good web design is an ongoing endeavor.

Post from December 1, 2008, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

Updating a Definition of Art

When I tried to define art, design, and decoration, I described art as: “Art hides. Art has a meaning, and it hides it, on purpose. Art delivers a message, and that message is hidden, on purpose. It is an art to create art. Art is unusable, by definition.” Continued.

Post from July 29, 2008, filed under Art and Design.

Compared to What?

…is probably one of the most important questions there is. “Compared to what?” is the question that should be answered every time it is about data, be it through charts, in newspapers, on websites, or in conversations. Yet it is rarely asked, rarely answered, and people end up with less or even false information.

Post from July 3, 2008, filed under Art and Design.

Web Design: 10 Additional Research Findings You Should Know

Following up on last year’s post on web design research, here’s another collection of research findings, this time featuring further reading.

Post from June 5, 2008, filed under Art and Design.

The 10 Design Theses of Dieter Rams

Moving up industrial design on my agenda and studying the work of German top designer Dieter Rams (who was responsible for the great design of Braun products for about 30 years), I deemed it useful to republish his design theses.

Post from March 25, 2008, filed under Art and Design.

Qualities of Design: It Works and It’s Durable

Attempting to improve my simplified definition of design I’d like to point out another important attribute beside functionality, namely durability (or robustness). This means that a design that works may nonetheless be bad if…

Post from October 13, 2007, filed under Art and Design.

7 Additional Ways to Focus on Users

Smashing Magazine just published my article on “20 (Alternate) Ways to Focus on Users,” and not only do I like to point to the article, I also like to extend it. A quick bonus level, so to speak.

Post from September 10, 2007, filed under Art and Design.

The Art of Dancing in 1910 and Narratives of Time and Space

Information design time travel with several photos of Zorn’s ancient “Grammar of the Art of Dancing.” Featuring craftsmanship, small multiples, and, surprise, “narratives of time and space.”

Post from August 28, 2007, filed under Art and Design.

Are You a Web Designer or a Web Decorator?

This has bothered me for for a long time. The topic popped up when I thought about art and design, and it had to be covered when Roger asked whether we were designers or developers—

Post from August 24, 2007, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

Requirements for Website Prototypes (and Design Systems)

Best practices for website prototypes based on HTML, CSS, and DOM scripting, covering essential requirements from accessibility to universality, and including definitions, pros, and contras. Compiled from a recent presentation.

Post from June 9, 2007, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

Principles of Art, Design, and Decoration

Much thinking about design has led me to the conclusion that defining the terms art, design, and decoration can be pretty simple. Outlining their principles, at least.

Post from May 12, 2007, filed under Art and Design.