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.

Published on January 11, 2018, filed under Design.

On Writing 1,000 Poems

A story of venturing into an entirely different genre.

Published on December 17, 2017, filed under Design and Everything Else.

10 Photos V

The next part of the x-monthly series.

Published on August 26, 2017, filed under Design.

10 Photos IV

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

Published on February 10, 2017, filed under Design.

Apocryphal Apostrophes

Oh, typography. How have you been.

Published on January 8, 2017, filed under Development 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…

Published on August 8, 2016, filed under 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.

Published on March 25, 2016, filed under Design.

It’s Not Too Late

…to contribute to good causes.

Published on February 5, 2016, filed under 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.

Published on January 1, 2016, filed under 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.”

Published on September 17, 2015, filed under Development 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.

Published on April 30, 2015, filed under Design.

10 Photos

Some of my favorite and most popular photos lately.

Published on April 24, 2015, filed under 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.

Published on January 30, 2015, filed under Development 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…

Published on December 22, 2014, filed under 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…

Published on July 25, 2014, filed under Adventure 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…

Published on February 5, 2014, filed under Development 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.

Published on December 9, 2013, filed under Adventure and Design.

The Art of Saying Thank You, One Thousand Times

But not here, on onethousandthankyous.org.

Published on August 29, 2013, filed under 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…

Published on June 14, 2011, filed under Development 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…

Published on April 7, 2011, filed under 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…

Published on November 27, 2009, filed under 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…

Published on June 3, 2009, filed under Development 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.

Published on February 25, 2009, filed under 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.

Published on December 1, 2008, filed under Development 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.

Published on July 29, 2008, filed under Design.