Inside look into successful design shop
A List Apart is running a great article by Simon Collision, a driving force behind http://erskinedesign.com/. Simon gives an intimate account of how his shop began with just two people, ran into the traps and pitfalls indemic to such a venture, but then systematically overcame them with clear vision and sound operating priciples to move past the problems and grow to (what seems to be) a very successful six person shop. As half of a small business myself I closely identify with the challanges and am inspired by Erskine's solutions.
Read the full article here: http://www.alistapart.com/authors/c/simoncollison
Here's a video interview with Simon that looks interesting but is too long for me to watch right now because I'm eye-brows deep in one of the pitfalls that stems from setting out on the frontier: avoidance stemming from stress resulting in a dual whammy of lack of setting of clients expectations and allowing projects to run far over schedule due to lack of client engagement: http://www.colly.com/comments/starting_from_the_beginning/
Update: If you like the article on alistapart and are hungering for more check out the 9 part writeup on the Erskine website. Simon has a great passion for what he does and puts it out there with fearless abandon. If I had a hat I would tip it to him.
Resources: CSS for Readability
In design, some things should jump out at you while others should fall to the background. The readability of your site (or any copy) is probably the best example of something that should go unnoticed at the conscious level. Why? Because text is a medium for conveying information. It should get the word across while being invisible itself. Great readable text does this seamlessly, almost pulling the reader through the content. Good content in readable text will cause a reader to sigh and relax, or stand up with a smile and raise their arms in the air or even sometimes pause for a moment as if something has just whispered in their ear to find their life's problems and hardships unraveling toward a wondrous future.
Below are some sources for readable typesetting (fonts, lines spacing, color, etc..), some tutorials on how to design readable text and the occasional neat tool or site that is relavant in some other way.
Here's the best statement of style, including readability standards, I've found on the web. Yes, it's from http://www.alistapart.com. A must read anyone producing content - http://www.alistapart.com/contribute/styleguide/
Here are some other random ones: (I will add to this list as time goes on)
- http://www.legistyles.com/ has three nice styles to choose from.
- If you're just getting into CSS, here is a very clear and straightforward tutorial for CSS readability.
- The folks at http://readable-app.appspot.com/setup.html have a pretty neat idea. They put together a tool that allows you to decide upon a typeset that you like, then make a bookmark in your toolbar that will convert any page to that typeset. I don't forsee myself using the bookmark much but next time I'm trying to figure a font for something clicking through the style element may come in handy.
If you know of any resources, please leave them as comments. Thanks!
Contest anyone?
I have been talking with the creator of http://www.advertology.com about the possibility of starting up a mini web development competition. Here are the rules I've come up with so far. I'd like air out these ideas to let some of the stink out before throwing them down for the massive event. Please let me know if you'd be interested in entering such a competition or if you have any ideas/suggestions about it or if you'd like to play some frisbee anytime in the near future.
Rules
- The competition will run for a set amount of time. I say 4 months, but I may be off.
- Everyone will create a site containing the same subject matter to be decided via committee having:
- a decent amout of popularity (ie is being searched for) and
- some web commercial value (ie is associated with items that are selling on Amazon.)
- A maximum budget will be set, say $50, to be paid out of pocket or hustled from friend or family member
- Each contestant will hook up a google analytics account and share it with a centralized competition account so that everyone can see everyone's traffic, goals, etc...
Judging criteria
- Visitors, uniques, time on site, etc...
- Goal conversions
- Ad Revenue collected
- Commission profits, such as Amazon Affiliates revenue
Prize: deep fulfillment and lifelong well being.
Some Drupal themes
I spent some time today scanning for a new theme for this site. Here's a list of some of my favorites from the community.
http://drupal.org/project/tendu
http://drupal.org/project/terrafirma_theme
http://drupal.org/project/zen
http://drupal.org/project/Aeon5
http://drupal.org/project/Amor_Azul
http://drupal.org/project/shallowgrunge
http://drupal.org/project/scruffy
http://drupal.org/project/salamander
http://drupal.org/project/interactive_media
http://drupal.org/project/painted
I found these using http://themegarden.org/drupal6/, an excellent theme visualizer.
If all goes well in the next couple of hours you'll be reading this in said skin, and possibly even said skin in an evolved state. Shannon is making dinner now, however, so there's no guarantee that the new skin will go live tonight. Only time will have told.
(Edit: I eventually went to wordpress, which says something about these themes...)
Getting Real with 37 Signals
37 Signals is a web company that delivers web productivity tools. It was founded by the folks who developed Ruby on Rails. So besides recommending their web products, which is not worth a blog post, why am I talking about them?
They wrote a book called Getting Real and parsed it into a free website. And even better, it’s a book written in straight forward language that cuts across philosophy, procedure, business, design, code, and just about everything else. I’m sure you’ll agree, there are few things digital that are better than such an effort.
It’s really easy to think about ideas that will save the world, or at least help millions and get you rich in the process. It feels really good, makes for great conversation and is a generally pleasant way to pass the time. This is especially true in the world of web development where anyone with a minimal level of experience can, theoretically, reach a billion people without having to leave their parent’ s basement.
Sitting down and making those ideas Real is a different story. If you’re the sort of person inclined to roll up your proverbial sleeves and go head to head with reality, this book is for you.