xBlog: The visual thinking weblog
24th October 2001

Metafilter TextAds

“TextAds are a non-invasive, non-annoying, low-cost way to get your site in front of thousands of people, to announce new projects or boost traffic to your sites… Ads are priced at $2 per thousand impressions, with a minimum of 5,000 impressions. So for

posted in Advertising | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Get to know Bibendum [Michelin’s mascot]

“The best ideas are often born by accident. Bibendum, without a doubt the best known publicity character in the world, is no exception. His distinctive silhouette, his very personal humor, and not to mention his more than improbable name, are all unique to him, and are the results of a series of accidents involving several men as different as an engineer-turned-marketer, a poster-maker, an old-fashioned poet and a car driver.”

posted in Branding | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Starving Artists Law

“StarvingArtistsLaw.com is the launch pad for artists and writers looking for self help legal information.”

posted in Copyright/TM | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Representations and Perceived Information Architecture

“This article discusses two key ideas. First, it briefly outlines four ways to represent the same information. Second, it provides a high level overview of Perceived Information Architecture… These four modes of representation are interesting because they are at the same time very similar and very different from each other. They all basically represent exactly the same information. However, the first mode affords flow, the second mode is visual and inclusive, the third mode is extremely compact, and the final mode is driven by language.”

posted in Information architecture | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

The Cranky User: Constraining users with modal dialogs

“Most GUIs incorporate a ‘modal’ interface — one that prevents you from doing anything else until you’ve completed the current task. This is almost always a mistake because it restricts user choices, often for no good reason. In this article, Peter explores the specifics of how modal dialog boxes can be inappropriate and annoying.”

posted in Interaction design | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Bowdlerized by Microsoft

“Microsoft’s approach regarding the spell checker dictionary and thesaurus is to not suggest words that may have offensive uses or provide offensive definitions for any words. The dictionary and spell checker is updated with each release of Office to ensure that the tools reflect current social and cultural environments.”

posted in Language | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Disaster recovery

“For the last decade or so, disaster recovery has been a hot topic among Information Technology professionals. We all know that disasters lurk around every corner. They can happen anytime, anywhere and without warning. All of us in IT have, at one time or another, dealt with disasters in greater or lesser magnitude. And our degree of preparedness dictates how well we weather such storms — do we come out unharmed, or looking like we’ve been through a major war?”

posted in Technology | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Representations and Perceived Information Architecture

“This article discusses two key ideas. First, it briefly outlines four ways to represent the same information. Second, it provides a high level overview of Perceived Information Architecture… These four modes of representation are interesting because they are at the same time very similar and very different from each other. They all basically represent exactly the same information. However, the first mode affords flow, the second mode is visual and inclusive, the third mode is extremely compact, and the final mode is driven by language.”

posted in Usability | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Representations and Perceived Information Architecture

“This article discusses two key ideas. First, it briefly outlines four ways to represent the same information. Second, it provides a high level overview of Perceived Information Architecture… These four modes of representation are interesting because they are at the same time very similar and very different from each other. They all basically represent exactly the same information. However, the first mode affords flow, the second mode is visual and inclusive, the third mode is extremely compact, and the final mode is driven by language.”

posted in Visual thinking | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Design for Community: Design Matters

“In my experience with the visual design of community spaces, I’ve seen some common threads. And though it’s hard to quantify exactly how much the visual design of a community space contributes to quality of the contributions, it’s impossible to deny that one directly influences the other. Here are a few areas to consider in the design of community spaces…”

posted in Web design | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Redesign on a shoestring

“Budgets, staff and confidence have been slashed, yet you’re still expected to improve your site, overhauling its content, structure and design for increased (cost) effectiveness. Time for a talk with your counselor Jeffrey Zeldman.”

posted in Web design | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Redesign on a shoestring

“Budgets, staff and confidence have been slashed, yet you’re still expected to improve your site, overhauling its content, structure and design for increased (cost) effectiveness. Time for a talk with your counselor Jeffrey Zeldman.”

posted in Web development | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

Metafilter

TextAds “TextAds are a non-invasive, non-annoying, low-cost way to get your site in front of thousands of people, to announce new projects or boost traffic to your sites… Ads are priced at $2 per thousand impressions, with a minimum of 5,000 impressions. So for

posted in Weblogs | Permalink | Comments Off

24th October 2001

The Cranky User: Constraining users with modal dialogs

“Most GUIs incorporate a ‘modal’ interface — one that prevents you from doing anything else until you’ve completed the current task. This is almost always a mistake because it restricts user choices, often for no good reason. In this article, Peter explores the specifics of how modal dialog boxes can be inappropriate and annoying.”

posted in Interface design | Permalink | Comments Off