Noteworthy, SXSW edition

~ 12 March 2007 ~

Yes, I’m totally bummed I couldn’t make it to SXSW due to illness. Thank you to all who have sent well-wishings. I’ve heard from Jason and Rob, as well as attendees, that our (their) session on Saturday was a success. I had no doubt they’d be able to pull it off without me, despite getting news about my illness just 24 hours prior to speaking.

Anyhow, below is a collection of stuff noted in the last week or so. Please enjoy responsibly.

Seen the new Expression Engine et al. sites?

You can thank Jesse.

Palm Responds to the iPhone

New York Times:

…industry analysts have said that the Apple phone will force the industry to shift its focus from hardware to software design.

Great Firewall of China

“Test any website and see real-time if it’s censored in China.”

On finding a designer

Detailed results from Wondermill Webworks’ quest to find a designer using several targeted job boards, as told by Aaron Dragushan. Cost per qualified applicant was higher with Authentic Jobs than a couple others but ultimately helped them find the final hire.

30 Dirty Designs

Dirty as in distressed, that is.

MSU Law redesign

I had a small part in helping shape the design of this site, but ultimately MSU Law web developer Steven Klukowski deserves all credit.

Curriculum Vitae: Timothy Uhl

Great way to format one’s resume/CV without PDF or Word doc. I’d like to see more like this.

Tappity

Seems to be a del.icio.us for mobile, with site previewing and a personalized mobile home page. Available presently only in the U.S.

Tappity is a user driven site where you discover, rate, and suggest mobile-friendly web pages for viewing on phones and PDAs. In addition, you can save favorite items to a mobile homepage that’s personalized just for you.

Other notable sites spotted recently:

20 Comments

Veer: Visual Elements for Creatives.
Stock photography, type, and killer tees. Genuinely recommended by Authentic Boredom.

1 Timothy ~ 12 March 2007

Cameron

I greatly respect your work. I am a student in design school and was wonder where you (or anyone here) gets inspiration for designer web applications.

I ask because there are plenty of css galleries for web design of personal and corporate web sites, though I am finding it difficult to locate good place to get inspiration for designing web *applications*.

Again, you have a great blog and create beautiful and functional designs.

2 Colly ~ 12 March 2007

Yeah, how consistently on-the-money is Jesse?!

Get well soon, Cam…

3 J Phill ~ 12 March 2007

I was very bummed to only see two chairs on the stage for panel you were supposed to be on. I had front row seats!

Hope you’re feeling better!

4 Ed Knittel ~ 12 March 2007

I’m interested in hearing what you found interesting about the Curriculum Vitae of Timothy Uhl. I looked at it and then I looked at the code. It’s just a table. A table with a fixed width of 840px at that which makes it completely useless to print out.

He doesn’t use TH tags and the use of classes such as bottomLine and redText seems sloppy.

I think the design of the site is fun (treating the resume as a piece of art is definitely interesting). So if that’s what you’re judging it on then I can appreciate that.

Otherwise, as far as I can see he still needs a PDF or Word document.

5 Jdjohnson ~ 12 March 2007

Good post here, a lot of great things to look at.

I found Curriculum Vitae about a week ago and really appreciated the design. However, as mentioned above, I noticed some flaws. Is there something we are looking over here?

6 Cameron Moll ~ 12 March 2007

Regarding CV: I glanced at the code before choosing to link to it, and went ahead regardless. The visual presentation remains a decent alternative to .pdf or .doc. Nothing groundbreaking, just another option I wouldn’t mind seeing more of, with better code.

7 R.Bhavesh ~ 12 March 2007

I was wondering why u didn’t post a link to new EE work by jesse in the linkage. Now i know why! :) Another great post sir!

8 Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain ~ 13 March 2007

Hey Cameron, totally missed you here at SXSW… and really hope you’re feeling better. It may have been for the best though. I can’t imagine the amount of damage you would have inflicted on the hotel room with the combination of your sweaty hands and Sean Sperte’s Wii.

9 Cameron Moll ~ 13 March 2007

Ha!

10 ML ~ 13 March 2007

Thanks for the informative post…

Very clean easy-to-read UI on the MSU Law redesign.

11 Jason Beaird ~ 16 March 2007

I believe Rob’s exact words before the panel were that you were “on death’s doorstep”. I wish I could have met you in person Cameron, but I hope you’re feeling better. Perhaps next year. I’ll definitely be back, barring any unforeseen illnesses.

12 Cameron Moll ~ 16 March 2007

Thanks, Jason. I just noticed your Principles of Beautiful Web Design book this week. A big congrats, and very nice job on the book site!

13 John ~ 19 March 2007

VIRB is a great site, but the darn thing doesn’t validate!

WC3 CSS VALIDATION (or not)

14 ~ 21 March 2007

Cameron, in regard to the Great Firewall of China site, would you happen to know if this site is accurate? I tested my own url and found that I was blocked, yet when I check my reports on google analytics I see at least 10 visits from people in the Beijing area of china.

15 CM Harrington ~ 21 March 2007

With regard to Uhl’s CV, I’d like to say it’s really well designed, and I’d even argue that it’s a *correct* use of tables. He’s presenting data in a tabular form, why not use the samentic tags for presenting tabular data!

“Web standards” isn’t about not using tables, it’s about using the tags that are available as they were intended to be used, and Uhl’s done just that.

16 Cameron Moll ~ 21 March 2007

#14, I can’t verify the accuracy of the China firewall site. If someone else can, please speak up.

And CM, very valid point.

17 ML ~ 22 March 2007

CM, I agree with you. But In regards to the Resume layout, there are a few different issues that have been raised:

1) Is it a nice design? - User Opinion

2) Does it conform to web standards? - Yes, according to you. (I really haven’t checked, nor do I ever check a site if it conforms to web standards.)

3) Is the fixed width table design/layout the best solution for printing? – NO

I think the issue you are touching on is that many designers tend to think a site only conforms to web standards when the site is designed without tables. And I totally agree with you on this. I for one still use tables in conjunction with DIVS when building a site. As long as you are using the tags as they are meant to be used, you are doing ok. And that’s not to say that all my sites validate, because they don’t. And who really cares if the site validates or not? As a designer, I strive to write perfect code, but I make mistakes here and there, we all do. Google obviously didn’t care about validation when it purchased YOUTUBE for 1.3 bil or whatever it was. W3C validation doesn’t make or break a “nice design” nor does it effect whether a site can be effective or not.

18 Miller ~ 26 March 2007

There are better solutions that cost less at CES…Can you say Slingcatcher??? Plus i`m more excited about

the Dell with built-in hi-def cable card :) I have found that, even with this great Apple TV we still need

a video converter (things like Apple TV Converter) in case to put our favourite movies onto Apple TV before

playing them on TV Screen.

Best apple tv converter
http://www.apple-tv-converter.net

19 Patrick Mullin ~ 27 March 2007

I too was sick recently. Came down with mono, was in the hospital for 3 days, and missed 3 weeks of work. Too bad for you, however, that you had to miss SXSW. Hopefully you’re feeling better.

20 Jim Jeffers ~ 30 March 2007

Hey Cameron, great links. It’s really a bummer you were out sick. I’ve been reading your blog along with Todd Dominey’s since I discovered blogging! You were one of the folks I was looking forward to meeting as this was my first time at SxSW. Ah well better luck next yer. Keep up the good work!