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Web 2.0: Does Presentation Matter Anymore?

May 13, 2005

In the first article for their new Digital Web Magazine column, "Web 2.0 Design: Bootstrapping the Social Web," Richard MacManus and Joshua Porter discuss the future of the web and its impact on design.

[The] Web 2.0 world...is not defined as much by place and is less about visual style. XML is the currency of choice in Web 2.0, so words and semantics are more important than presentation and layout. Content moves around and is accessible by programmatic means. In a very real sense, we’re now designing more for machines than for people.

The HTML Editor Shuffle

May 11, 2005

If the tools we use are indicative of our personalities, then call me Eve, 'cause I've got multiples. When I work on a design, my screen bristles with open tabs, and I jump around from one HTML editor to another so much I sometimes forget which one I'm in.

Mommy's Feeling Guilty

May 1, 2005

The other day my four-year-old, who still says "baf" for "bath" and "boke" for "broke," clearly and distinctly asked for a "Kids Cuisine" for dinner. Most dads would simply rejoice at such improvement in articulation. But I, being a mom, am racked by guilt. Have I been working too much? Am I selfishly choosing career over motherhood? Am I neglecting my basic motherly duties? Will she get rickets? Good god, my little one can perfectly pronounce a brandname child's frozen dinner before she can even say "f'ozen."

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

April 29, 2005

I'll make you bet. I'll bet you that, after finishing Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think, you will have a brief head-scratching moment when you think "Well, yeah. I knew all that. Sheesh. I just blew 35 bucks." A few moments later it will dawn on you that while, yes, you did somehow know most of what Krug says--or at least it seems you must have known it; it was all so obvious--you've never actually done much of what he suggests.

The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams

April 28, 2005

I am not a natural-born designer. Growing up in my family, I was the writer--the one who was good with words. It was my younger sister who was the artist, and heaven help us should we try to cross over into the other's territory. So no one was more surprised than me when I went into web design (well, maybe my younger sister.)

Without any formal design training and harboring the secret knowledge that I am not the artistic sister, the graphic design aspect of web design is the one that makes me most uncertain and nervous. Clearly, I can't stay in this profession without addressing my lack of knowledge.