Design Archives
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ALA 258: Flickr ‘n stripes
May 6, 2008
What does it take to build an online community like Flickr’s? And how can we tell if interface design conventions we take for granted actually help or hurt users? In Issue No. 258 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, George Oates, a key member of the core team that shaped the Flickr community, tells what it will take to build the next Flickr (hint: the answer isn’t Ajax). And Jessica Enders drops some science on the widespread belief that zebra stripes aid the reader by guiding the eye along a table row.
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A $30 billion powerhouse
May 5, 2008
In September 2006, Happy Cog set on a journey to redesign the site for the Thomson Corporation, a global provider of industry-focused business information. After helping Thomson complete a significant overhaul of the site’s information architecture, design, and CSS/XHTML, we learned that Thomson would acquire Reuters, the worldwide news agency. Drawing from a newly established brand and corporate messaging, we redesigned our redesign to accommodate the public unveiling of a $30 billion company. Presenting Thomson Reuters.
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ALA 256: swell maps
April 8, 2008
In Issue No. 256 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, Wilson Miner shares techniques for incorporating data visualization into standards-based web navigation patterns, and Paul Smith shows how to replicate Google Maps’ functionality with open source software to produce high-quality mapping applications tailored to your design goals. Read and enjoy. (P.S. We’ve also started an A List Apart Facebook group.)
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WordPress 2.5 released
March 29, 2008
WordPress 2.5, designed by Happy Cog and built by Automattic, has been released. Download and enjoy.
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ALA 255: web forms, findability
March 25, 2008
In Issue No. 255 of A List Apart, for people who make websites:
- Findability, Orphan of the Web Design Industry – Aarron Walter, author of Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond (New Riders, 2008), provides an overview of this essential web discipline, explains how it is like SEO but different, and tells how every member of your team can contribute to your site’s content’s findability. (See Aarron speak about findability and web standards live and in person at An Event Apart New Orleans, April 24–25, at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside.)
- Sign Up Forms Must Die – Luke Wroblewski, Senior Principal of Product Ideation and Design at Yahoo! and author of Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks (Rosenfeld Media, 2008), calls for the abolition of sign-up forms where web services are concerned. Via “gradual engagement,” says Luke, we can get people using and caring about our web services instead of frustrating them with forms. (Get more Luke live and in person at An Event Apart Boston, June 23–24, 2008 at the Boston Marriott Copley Plaza.)
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Preview Praise
March 19, 2008
The paint isn’t dry on the WordPress 2.5 preview built by Automattic and designed by Happy Cog, but the buzz in user forums and on blogs is already white-hot, and journalistic reviews are beginning to come in, too.
In “Catch a Sneak Peak at WordPress 2.5’s Sexy New Look,” Wired Magazine says: “Although WordPress 2.5 includes some nice new features like better plugin management, full-text feeds, and built-in photo galleries, the most immediately obvious change is the sleek new look, which comes courtesy of Jeffery Zeldman and the Happy Cog design team.”
And in “10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress 2.5,” Technosailor summarizes: “By far the most comprehensive change in this release was the complete rethinking of how WordPressers do their administrative tasks. Happy Cog Studios was enlisted to do usability research and testing—with the emphasis being on usability research.”
Although 2.5 is still just in preview, the build by Automattic is rock-solid, and we are using it for our daily blogging.
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Pixel8 Podcast
March 19, 2008
More about version targeting: Craig Shoemaker interviews Jeffrey Zeldman for Pixel8. The interview was conducted in February 2008, after Microsoft had announced version targeting in its IE8 browser, but before the company, bowing to public opinion, changed version targeting so that advanced standards would be supported by default.
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Meet Matt
March 18, 2008
One of the best things about An Event Apart is the attendees, who travel from far and wide not only for the great content and speakers, but also to spend time in the company of their fellow craftspeople of the web. We’d like to introduce you to one of them: Matt Rossi.
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WordPress redesign preview
March 18, 2008
Founder Matt Mullenweg offers a sneak preview of WordPress 2.5: “For the past few months, we’ve been working with our friends at Happy Cog—Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria, and Liz Danzico—to redesign WordPress from the ground-up. The result is a new way of interacting with WordPress that will remain familiar to seasoned users while improving the experience for everyone. This isn’t just a fresh coat of paint—we’ve re-thought the look of WordPress, as well as how it’s organized so that you can forget about the software and focus on your own creative pursuits.”
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More SXSWi Videos
March 18, 2008
SXSW Interactive video podcasts featuring Happy Cog personnel include:
- Respect! Panel Excerpt featuring Douglas Bowman of Stopdesign and Google, and Happy Cogs Erin Kissane, Liz Danzico, and Jason Santa Maria. Moderated by Jeffrey Zeldman.
- Michael Lopp and Jeffrey Zeldman on user interface design and managing design and development teams.