influx

In Flux

I had my brand new retina display iPad (all 3.1 million pixels) in one hand and the panic button in the other. I was sure the pixel-dense screen would take the websites we’ve built and peel back their layer of pretty, revealing something less than perfect (like HD cameras did to sitcom actors). Was this layer we’ve so painstakingly designed, sliced, exported, and built stylesheets around really so thin?... Read more

inthewoodsthumb

Into the Woods

When I was in grade school, from the time I stepped off the bus in the afternoon ’til sunset, my neighborhood was my entire world, and the possibilities were limitless. I was part of a BMX kid gang of sorts. We rolled our jeans up and folded our converse down. We built forts, played Nerf football, and shot bb guns. When that got old we’d explore the outer... Read more

redefined

Redefined

To design responsive websites effectively and responsibly, I had to completely redefine the way I view the web. It pains me to admit it, but I wasn’t too keen on responsive web design right out of the box. Weeks after Ethan’s ALA article, I even briefly entertained the idea of writing a post haranguing the practice, nit-picking concerns on how using media queries to relocate elements on a page... Read more

workspace_thumb

Workspace

I’m a happy camper. I just moved into a new office space that’s directly suited to the way I work, think, and create. Months ago, I wrote about improving the working environment inside my desktop, and with the move I sought to extend that process to my physical workspace. The plan was to fashion a space that makes my work more active—not simply in regard to my physical well-being,... Read more

unitasking

Unitasking

Recently, my 27” iMac went out of commission for a day, and I had to rely solely on a 13” Macbook Air. It forced me to focus and had me second guessing how I work on computers. I have a big monitor that sits on a big desk, which is littered with stacks of paper the same way my iMac is littered with stacks of apps. I see... Read more

content_choreography_thumb

Content Choreography

The concept of permanently placing content on a web page for a single browsing width or resolution is becoming a thing of the past. Media-queried responsive & adaptive sites afford us the ability to re-architect content on a page to fit its container, but with this exciting new potential come equally exciting challenges. Web designers will have to look beyond the layout in front of them to envision how... Read more