Project Rebirth Interactive Timeline
Monday, January 31, 2005 11: 21 AM
Project Rebirth. Interactive timeline with time-lapse photography of Ground Zero reconstruction. Via NewsToday.
Hi. I'm Paul Nixon, a designer living in Mountain View California. My days (and some nights) are spent designing websites for a little company in Cupertino. The rest of my time is spent with my beautiful wife and friends, road cycing and reading your blogs.
January 2005
iSnip
Monday, January 31, 2005 09: 06 AM
iSnip. "A new freeware application (For OS X) that allows users to manage and edit a collection of text clippings that can be easily accessed from a system wide menu." It also pastes the stored text automatically into any application when it's selected from the drop down menu. Handy.
How To Make A Life Poster With iPhoto
Monday, January 31, 2005 01: 44 AM
How to make a life poster with iPhoto. Great concept. See Mike's final poster here. Via Subtraction.
On a Foggy Night
Monday, January 31, 2005 01: 03 AM
On a Foggy Night. Striking photo. From the very capable lens of Jeff Werner.
Revenge of the Right Brains
Monday, January 31, 2005 12: 34 AM
Revenge of the Right Brain. Interesting new Wired article adapted from author Dan Pink's forthcoming book A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. Dan believes the next great age will belong to the right brainers -- the creatives, the visionaries. Should be another fun ride.
Kick Back
Sunday, January 30, 2005 12: 12 AM
Kick Back. Nice photo from Jeff on top of the world in the Superstition Mountains over Phoenix.
Conversations with Johnny Carson
Saturday, January 29, 2005 06: 14 PM
Rebecca tried to wake me this morning and the first words out of my mouth were, "Shhh...I'm on the Apprentice right now."
She then asked (humoring herself), "Did you win?"
To which, in my sleepy state, I replied, "The episode isn't over yet, but I'm doing really well. So I need to get back to see what happens."
I proceeded to roll over and go back to sleep -- apparently to continue the episode my dream. The oddest part of the dream? Johnny Carson was leading the show instead of Donald Trump. Not only that, but Johnny and I had several conversations about life and business. I don't remember getting fired, so I must have done well. We'll see how I do in tonight's "episode".
How strange these things called dreams.
Memorable Quotes from Napoleon Dynamite
Friday, January 28, 2005 01: 29 PM
This one's for Jeff C.: Memorable Quotes from Napoleon Dynamite. at IMDB. Via SimpleBits. "Maybe I will, GOSH!"
Update: Jeff W. points us to the Napoleon Dynamite Soundboard. Napoleon in all his audio glory. Awesome.
Free Music Fridays: Chemical Brothers Flip The Switch
Friday, January 28, 2005 01: 23 PM
The Chemical Brothers release their remixed album Flip The Switch for free download. There's a Bit Torrent link there too. Enjoy. Via How It Is
Infographic: Train Derailment
Thursday, January 27, 2005 10: 08 AM
Infographic of train derailment in California. Via the altitude defying Airbag.
Mac Designer's Config
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 01: 40 PM
Scrivs at 9rules buys a Mac. Asks designers for software advice. Lots of good recommendations in the comments.
When Technology Compensates
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 01: 33 AM
Luckily technology compensates for decisions like this. Amazing how far freeride mountain biking has come. I need to dust off my mountain bike off...
Infographic - Economy Improving
Tuesday, January 25, 2005 09: 25 PM
Infographic: "Economy Improved in Most Regions" - NY Times. Via The Big Picture.
Google Video Search
Tuesday, January 25, 2005 08: 44 PM
Google Video. "Google Video enables you to search a growing archive of televised content – everything from sports to dinosaur documentaries to news shows" via closed caption text. Learn more about it.
So my inexperience leaves me wondering -- do PR people already have tools to search closed caption archives to see if their company is getting coverage??? (Google's is only pulling from 8 channels -- but the potential seems big.) Via What It Is.
Shopoholism
Tuesday, January 25, 2005 04: 37 PM
Do you buy things you "don't need"? Shop "for a pick-me-up"? Own things with price tags still on them? Then my fellow shopping addicts, I refer you to: How to manage compulsive shopping.
Booq Vyper Powerbook Sleeve
Monday, January 24, 2005 10: 49 PM
I already have too many Powerbook accessories - but this one is just calling my name...the Booq Vyper M (15") Powerbook Sleeve. Very, very nice looking case. Via Gizmodo.
3 Cadillacs
Monday, January 24, 2005 10: 04 PM
3 Cadillac Cars. 0-60 in under 5 seconds. Cadillac? Really? Who knew? And you can win one of those Cadillacs by creating a winning 5 second movie -- Rules in PDF. Via Autoblog.
Why ride a bicycle? Ten reasons and counting
Sunday, January 23, 2005 09: 03 PM
Why ride a bicycle? Ten reasons and counting from VeloNews.
The Future Is Now
Sunday, January 23, 2005 04: 31 PM
A while ago I posted "The Future Will Be Mechanized" -- seems that future is here. Armed remote control robots heading to Iraq.
Another Iron In The Fire
Friday, January 21, 2005 06: 38 PM
Throwing another iron in the fire because I'm obsessed with too many things. The focus of my obsession this time: Infographics. The iron: Infographica: Where Seeing Is Understanding.
Just a splash page now -- but I hope to develop it in the total lack of spare time I have in the next few weeks (i.e. late at night on weekends). NiXLOG as been a good home for linking to infographics, but based on the search engine traffic and a steady demand for infographics links, I think it is worthy of a seperate web project. Plus, I have one more free blog in Moveable Type -- might as well use it...read more...
Currently typing "infographics" in Google results in NiXLOG at the top. This is the result from consistantly linking to infographics since creating the September 11th Collection over three years ago. The recent popularity of the Apple's Tipping Point infographic I created confirmed to me that there is, at least, a general interest in the design world for inspiring content like this. Tufte's work and popularity further confirm this belief.
Over time I would like to build-up Infographica to take over that top spot at Google, as well as "information graphics" top spot, by providing the most valuable and dedicated resource to Infographics out there. I think it will become an inspiring resource not only for information graphic designers, but also designers across the board, newspaper and magazine professionals and, of course, Jason Kottke -- who always manages to dig up infographics from obscure places. It will also be a home for firms and freelance infographic artists to be found. And, heck, throw in some tutorials...etc...then eventually write a book...and...then...
...anyways, enough talking to myself about my ideas, we'll see out it goes...
Fire back thoughts, make suggestions or predict my utter failure in the comments below.
Sundance 2005
Thursday, January 20, 2005 11: 22 AM
Sundance 2005 (Jan. 20-30). It's that time of year again.
Wish we had time to sneak up to Park City, Utah -- a week full of watching under-the-radar films would be a blast. Just seems like an energetic, creative event for filmmakers and viewers alike. Going to try next year. The downside? Each year it becomes a bigger circus with more famous people showing up to be "seen". I wonder how many actually catch a film?
Tags. Tags. Tags.
Thursday, January 20, 2005 01: 11 AM
Flickr Tags. Technorati Tags. And now... Metafilter Tags. Via Matt's Flickr feed.
INA Infographics PDF
Thursday, January 20, 2005 12: 31 AM
Linked to these elaborate INA Infographics a while ago, but now ChangeThis offers them in a handy PDF format.
Corporate Blogging
Thursday, January 20, 2005 12: 21 AM
Starting a company blog? Two handy PDFs: Beginner's Guide to Business Blogging (via ChangeThis. Free through Jan 25.) and Beginners' Guide to Corporate Blogging (Via CorporateBlogging.info) All via HBS Working Knowledge newsletter.
Ta-da List
Wednesday, January 19, 2005 12: 00 PM
Ta-da list. "Simple, sharable to-do lists." from 37signals. Very simple and suprisingly powerful tool. Could publicly displaying basic tasks lists motivate me to get more done? See example. Worth a shot. Can't wait for two things with this web app: 1) Humorous to-do lists spoofing famous people and 2) Simple, handy how-to lists of all types shared publicly. Via the one of the web's best pilots Airbag.
It Is Never Too Late
Wednesday, January 19, 2005 02: 30 AM
"It is never too late to be what you might have been." - George Eliot
iPod shuffle Reviews and Thoughts
Wednesday, January 19, 2005 01: 45 AM
Some excellent reviews of the iPod shuffle for new users and power users at iPodlounge. My friend Matt has already ordered one to add to his collection. My sister is considering one and she's never owned an iPod. Friends and co-workers are buzzing. Certainly another hit for Apple. John at Daring Fireball some great thoughts on all this. ...read more
Some more random thoughts:
- Cultural Status: Even if the shuffle's features don't match up against other MP3 players, the competition cannot duplicate the pop culture status of the iPod overnight. The result? The iPod shuffle will fly off the shelves.
- Competition Is Baffled: Meanwhile competitors continue to dismiss the shuffle. Which makes me wonder how disconnected the competition is from the culture of the marketplace. Just because your product has better features, doesn't mean you will win the battle for the hearts and minds of music lovers. The iPod, with emphasis on simplicity, sleek design and powerful marketing has proven this time and time again.
- Experience Design. One additional factor I haven't considered through all of this is the power of Apple's experience design -- especially integrating iPods and iTunes. Before purchasing my first iPod, I owned a Sony Minidisc player. The size and form factor was OK -- but getting music onto the discs was a royal pain...so much so, that I just stopped using it. This isn't the case with iTunes and iPods. The software is just so easy to use and the integration seamless. The experience is very smooth. Within a year of giving up on the Minidisc, I purchased an iPod mini to use with my PC. Within a year of that, I was dropping cash on a Powerbook...seems their plans worked on me!
What If...
Tuesday, January 18, 2005 10: 45 PM
What if... A very interesting infographic exercise in the possible directions a life *could* have gone. Via the "obviously has too much free time to find this stuff" Jason Kottke.
Picasa 2 Released
Tuesday, January 18, 2005 05: 43 PM
If you are a Windows user, Google released its free photo manager Picasa 2 today. This should be a handy tool, assuming Google hasn't mucked it up. Someday I'll match it up against iPhoto to see if there is any comparison. Of course Flickr is a fun platform independent option as well. Via my favorite place to debate the nuances of the mundane: Metafilter.
Fast Forward Commercials
Tuesday, January 18, 2005 02: 03 PM
Last night, thanks to our DVR, Rebecca and I caught up on Fox's 24 by watching the first five episodes in a row. As we were fast forwarding through one of the commercial breaks, with bits and flashes of products flying past, an idea dawned on me: Why not design commmercials to have greater meaning while being fast forwarded through? ...read more
With the growing number of DVRs (Tivo leading the pack) out there, more and more people are fast fowarding through commercials while watching their favorite shows. This has been a challenge for television studios and advertisers alike, who see the fast forward button as a commercial killer.
But what if they took a negative and found a way to squeeze something, anything, positive out of it? What if ad firms took a standard 30 second commercial and story boarded it to have greater meaning when fast forwarded without sound?
Two things immediately jump out as possibilities - using bold text and bold logo usage...both with longer air time during the commercial. The bold visual would ensure the person fast forwarding sees it, while the longer air time ensures the text or logo isn't just a flicker on the screen. It's like condensing a 30 second commercial to a 5-10 second one, where one message and the logo are key. The key is also giving this commercial meaning in 30 second format. Somewhere in the middle is the balance.
Initially this may only make sense on those top 5 or 10 shows that Tivo knows is being recorded. People are most likely fast fowarding through commercials on these. Eventually, this could be a concept that trickles through the commercial medium as a whole...who knows, maybe it already has...and I'm just late to the party. (Of course this doesn't factor in Tivo messing around with advertising during fast forwarding.)
You can proceed to trash my idea in the comments below...
Getting Unstuck
Monday, January 17, 2005 04: 28 PM
Dave at Mezzoblue on Getting Unstuck. "Four tips for getting yourself out of a design jam." Some good recommendations in the comments too.
Meme Theme: Most Popular Music
Sunday, January 16, 2005 09: 29 PM
Meme Theme: Most Popular Music in iTunes.
As started the "bored out of (his) skull" Michael of Binary Bonsai. View his original Flickr post with Comments.
The rules:
1) Sort by 'Play Count'.
2) Take screenshot of the top and upload to flickr.
3) Link back to where you first saw this meme.
4) And leave a comment so they know where to look.
5) Include these instructions.
Looks like I kept the Garden State soundtrack, Snow Patrol and a few others in heavy rotation...
Tufte's Next Chapter Online
Friday, January 14, 2005 04: 22 PM
Tufte's Next Chapter Online: Corrupt Techniques in Evidence Presentations. "Here is the first of several chapters on consuming presentations, on what alert members of an audience or readers of a report should look for in assessing the credibility of the presenter." -Tufte. Via Kottke.
Comments on Apple's Tipping Point
Friday, January 14, 2005 02: 45 PM
Comments are finally live on the Apple's Tipping Point post. Feel free to add a few words if you feel so inclined. Thanks to everyone for the many links and kind words. With over 20,000 page views of the graphic so far, I have just sat back in awe at how quickly a concept can spread from paper to digital to the online world at large. Simply amazing.
The irony of the whole thing is that I was reading this Fast Company article: The Accidental Guru at lunch about Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, when I started thinking about tipping points, MacWorld and Apple -- then I reached for the sketch book to put ideas to paper. Makes me wonder about the interconnectedness of various, seemingly unrelated tipping points...
Logo competition at Airbag
Friday, January 14, 2005 12: 42 AM
Create logo. Win contest. Enjoy new iPod. Greg is a hosting a logo design comptetition for his friend Mike of LedgerPaper. Go forth and design...
Apple's Tipping Point: Concept Sketches
Thursday, January 13, 2005 09: 48 AM
Scanned the concept sketches I made at lunch yesterday that were the foundation for the Apple Tipping Point infographic.
Apple's Tipping Point: Macs For The Masses Infographic
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 06: 49 PM
Apple's Tipping Point: Macs For The Masses Infographic
The idea for this infographic came to me while I was eating lunch today and I had to create it (using Adobe Illustrator)...the concept seems to capture Apple's strategy with the iPod Shuffle and Mac mini in the bigger picture sense (as I see it of course). Enjoy. (View concept sketches in pen/pencil here.)
Requests for raw text:
Apple's Tipping Point: Macs For The Masses
The Sweet Spot. Until January 2005, Apple had no iPod or PC products that served the mass market. With the launch of iPod Shuffle and Mac mini they have finally converged two product paths with the mass market in mind. This will not only drive more iPod sales (via the Shuffle), but also fulfill the promised "halo" effect of the iPod products as PC users jump to the Mac mini. Over the course of 2005, Apple will continue to dominate and grow its MP3 player market share, while steadily growing its PC business through the Mac mini. As with the original iPod, the Mac mini could build slow, but serious momentum in the market place. Within a one to two year timeframe, the Mac mini could bring Apple to a tipping point in which a combination of factors create strong double digit market share in the mass-PC market, as Windows-based PC's continue to suffer from viruses and adware and users are drawn to the elegant and affordable simplicity of the Mac mini.
These things do not happen by accident. The graphic below illustrates extreme patience and foresight from Apple to bring users to the platform by innovating increasingly towards the mass market over time without sacrificing the middle or high-end markets. In the end, the iPod continues to be the vehicle that drives Apple's ultimate goal: Switching. In many cases the biggest hesitation to switch was price. With the Mac mini this concern is now moot. We could very well be witnessing the early fruits of a five to ten year business strategy from Apple that has been in the works since the first iPod. If it works -- Apple will go down in history as a company that patiently built its brand equity through high-quality products and design -- and then, when the time was right and audience the largest, brought their superior computing experience to the masses. -- Paul Nixon
- The Sweet Spot: Inside the Mass Market Psychological Price Barriers ($100 for MP3 players, $500 for personal computers)
- Price: Reflected by market segments
- Market Opportunity: By number of potential buyers at a given price point.
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Mass MP3 Market: Price breaks-through psychological $100 mass market barrier. Simplicity and price make purchase less risky for mass market
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Mass Computer Market: Price breaks-through psychological $500 mass market barrier. Simplicity and price make purchase less risky for mass market.
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iPod "Halo" Effect: As the number of PC users purchasing iPods continues to increase -- perhaps exponentially with the new Shuffle -- the Mac mini presents the first real low cost, low risk opportunity to become a switcher with minimal cost and overlap of current PC equipment.
- PC Users Switch: Low Mac mini price coupled with great design and decent specs increases temptation for PC users switch.
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"Too Cool To Resist" Effect: Low Mac mini price coupled with great design and decent specs increases temptation for current Mac owners to buy Mac minis as back-up machines, test machines, media hubs, second or third Macs for the house, etc.
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High-end Market: Market: High-end. Wants: Design, features and performance regardless of price. Most storage space. Best features. Best performance. Type: Early adopter. Must be first to own. Trendsetters. Results: Higher price, fewer buyers.
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Middle Market: Market: Middle. Wants: Sensible balance between design, features and performance within reasonable price range. More storage space. Better features. Better performance. Type: Upper mainstream buyers. Group between mass market and early adopters. Make educated purchases. Results: Lower price, more buyers. Solidifies brand in the marketplace.
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Mass Market: Market: Mass. Wants: Low price, even at the expense of performance and features. Basic utility outweighs performance. Cool design can inspire impulse buy if the price is right. Type: Mass market buyers. Typically seek most utility for the dollar. Lower the price, the better. Results: Lowest price, most buyers. Expands brand in the marketplace.
© 2005 Paul Nixon, NiXLOG. Send comments to nix@nixlog.com.
The Kid With 7 iPod Shuffles
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 03: 13 AM
This kid is either: A) Going to make his friends at school really happy today, B) a budding eBay profiteer, or C) really obsessed with owning one iPod Shuffle for each day of the week.
Library of Congress Civil War Maps
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 02: 13 AM
Library of Congress Civil War Maps. "The Library of Congress is posting 2,240 maps and charts and 76 atlases and sketchbooks, while the Virginia Historical Society and the Library of Virginia are adding about 600 items." - Seattle Times article. See other LOC map collections.
Mac mini stacks
Tuesday, January 11, 2005 07: 20 PM
Mac mini stacks. Like pancakes only sweeter. Fictional, stackable external hard drives for your Mac mini. I couldn't resist -- I had to pull the the Mac mini image into Photoshop and create this two minute hack job. Wouldn't be suprised if something similar came out. I just want to expand the little mini with hard drives galore...maybe one for music, one for photos, one for movies, etc..etc...(alas I have joined THAT crowd that actually mocks-up fictional Apple products...please pray for me.) 
iPhone Mock-up
Monday, January 10, 2005 03: 59 PM
iPhone. Fictional take on a real product that Apple and Motorola are working on. It would be classic if this design required you to "rotary dial" each number and click it at the top. Looks like it might. MacWorld should be interesting this week. Via Mike.
iPod Nano Mock-up
Monday, January 10, 2005 03: 04 PM
iPod Nano. Slick, fictional iPod with a "twist" on the scrolling wheel. This guy is creative. Via maniacalrage.
RE: Your Off Your Rocker
Monday, January 10, 2005 01: 09 PM
Haughey on Gates: "...he's off his rocker." Passionate post revealing his dissapointment in the man who has always seems to be chasing the future, but not quite catching up to it. Via the high flying Airbag.
ROK Financial Website
Monday, January 10, 2005 04: 41 AM
Projects on really short deadlines always end like this...posting at 5 a.m...numb from the endless night. But it was worth it...ROK Financial is born. Designed, built and launched within a day.
This project is for a new tax return business that my wife Rebecca and Kenneth (a very sharp brother-in-law) are creating. They are backing up the whole thing with the good technology, top-notch software, etc.
This past week we've created a logo, printed business cards and marketing materials, registered the company, filed the necessary paperwork, surveyed and purchased the best tax software and laptops, and now launched a website. Amazing how fast a few determined people can "create" a company.
If you are in Arizona, Utah or just about anywhere and want your taxes done for less than those most other places -- let me know.
As always, my projects have little to do with my own talent, but rather stand upon the shoulders of those who have done the heavy lifting. Many thanks to those who maintain the following resources:
- Accessify.com's List-o-matic - A real time saver when you are lazy like me.
- CSS Creator's Layout Generator - once again, I seek the shortest path to CSS bliss.
- SimpleBits - both his website and book.
- Morguefile - great free stock photography resource.
Netflix "Marriage Saver" Feature
Saturday, January 8, 2005 12: 46 AM
Netflix introduces "marriage saver" profiles feature. This is nice. Rebecca and I have had a his and her's queue on our Netflix wishlist for a while now. In other news, married couples sit around discussing how web-based movie rental technology could be better. So sad...
Saturns? Really? Nice.
Saturday, January 8, 2005 12: 05 AM
Choose your flavor: Roadster or sedan. Saturn shows off two aggressive and sporty concepts. And just like that, Saturn becomes a much more interesting brand.
Creating Context With Mini Snapshots Of Data
Friday, January 7, 2005 05: 15 PM
Blackbeltjones on merging the best of Tufte's Sparklines and IBM's History Flow concepts to create a contextual, mini snapshot of a Wikipedia entry's history for users. I love ideas like this.
How Fit Is Your City?
Friday, January 7, 2005 02: 33 PM
How fit is your city? (Unscientific study) Tucson (our current home) comes in at a very respectable 8th fittest nationwide. Must be all the cycling we do here. The weird thing is the huge difference between Phoenix (12th fattest, our home town) and Tucson (8th fittest) -- two metro areas only 100 miles apart.
Inverted Pyramid Style of Writing
Friday, January 7, 2005 12: 10 PM
Inverted Pyramid Style of Writing via this interesting "What Bloggers Can Learn From Journalists" article. I should of went for a Journalism degree -- would have been a bit more useful over, say, my degree in Organizational Communitations.
Examining Iraq Infographics
Friday, January 7, 2005 12: 05 PM
Examining Iraq Infograpics (March 2003). Slightly dated, but still interesting to read someone's take on a collection of infographics.
NY Times Weather Over 1 Year Infographic
Thursday, January 6, 2005 02: 21 PM
NY Times Weather Over 1 Year Infographic. Impressive visual. Via Design and Redesign.
NFL Aerial Stadium Camera Infographic
Thursday, January 6, 2005 11: 16 AM
Just in time for the NFL playoffs. NY Times infographic on those aerial stadium cameras that zoom around. Associated article. (Reg. req.)
NYTimes.com Redesign In The Works
Thursday, January 6, 2005 01: 44 AM
NYTimes.com Redesign in the works. RSS, search engines and direct linking to articles among many reasons for the redesign. Seems the design of subpages will become more vital. More here. Via Poynter.
From Editor & Publisher Article:
"We haven't redesigned the site in more than three years," says Leonard Apcar, the site's editor in chief. "In that time there have been a lot of changes in the way people come to The New York Times on the Web. For instance, a good percentage of our readers are not seeing the homepage; they are coming in because of search engines or RSS feeds, any number of avenues — our own e-mails, other links. They're coming in to an article page. Once they get to an article page, we need to redesign how else you engage the site and travel through it."
Glenn Kramon, Associate Managing Editor for Career Development, is notable because it shows how the online news environment has changed and how big media recognizes the need to adapt..."Next year, the site will embark on its first redesign in four years in an Internet environment that has changed dramatically. Back then there were no Google News or RSS feeds, or even much broadband outside the workplace. Also, video's time on the Web hadn't really arrived. The growth of new technologies like Google News and RSS represent major challenges and opportunities for our storytelling. How we respond will be critical for the long-term health of NYTimes.com."
Apple Lawsuit Timing
Thursday, January 6, 2005 12: 10 AM
John Gruber on Apple, Think Secret lawsuit. The timing is interesting -- did Apple make this move now to raise rumor buzz to a fever pitch before MacWorld?
VisualJournalism.com Infographics Gallery
Thursday, January 6, 2005 12: 04 AM
Amazing and growing infographics gallery at Gert's site VisualJournalism.com. Wish I had made a return visit sooner -- taking these in will take some time, but well worth it.
NiXLOG RSS updated
Wednesday, January 5, 2005 05: 31 PM
NiXLOG RSS updated. I apologize if your RSS readers are full of duplicate posts, etc. Finally bumped up XML feed to RSS 2.0 with full content and links in each post. Should have done this ages ago. Thanks for being patient.
Apple Rumors
Wednesday, January 5, 2005 02: 28 PM
MacWorld rumors hit too close to home for Apple. As always, the lawyers will come out ahead.
Designer's Holy Triangle
Wednesday, January 5, 2005 02: 05 AM
The Designer's Holy Triangle: Good, Fast and Cheap. Such wisdom hath mine ears rarely heard.
Passive Agressive Communications Solutions
Wednesday, January 5, 2005 01: 31 AM
Passive Agressive Communications Solutions: Punctuation Substitution. (Video w/ sound.)
Infernal Affairs DVD
Wednesday, January 5, 2005 12: 05 AM
Based on this review I'm bumping the Infernal Affairs DVD up the Netflix queue (yeah Infernal, not Internal).
Halo 2 Live Statistical Science
Wednesday, January 5, 2005 12: 03 AM
The statistical science behind Halo 2 Live rankings. And you thought games were just games.
NiXLOG Redesign Notes
Tuesday, January 4, 2005 01: 32 PM
Please Note: This design is a work in progress. Many of the subpages and archives still need new dark brown wrapper and layout. View the homepage to see what this post describes.
Please send any comments, rants or suggestions to nix (@) nixlog (.) com
Quick overview: I'm not shooting for the most usable, super-validating, mega-standards compliant site around -- there are plenty of those out there. What I am trying to create is something simple, but very different. Something that challenges the norm. For better or worse. Something I can learn from.
The Pain: As mentioned in an earlier post - Greg's recent call for more innovation in the weblog/web design community really hit home. Although he wasn't talking purely about weblog design, it was like hearing a doctor diagnose that pain that has been bugging you for some time, but you assumed there was no cure and just learned to live with it.
Over the past year I've grown frustrated with many things in the weblog/web design world, including:
- 3-column CSS layouts
- Limitations of 800x600 design
- Cookie cutter feel of most blogs
- My own site designs within the 3-column limitation.
- The general lack of information/examples of CSS design beyond 3-columns. Yeah, there's some 4-column stuff, but not much.
NiXLOG went through 2 or 3 redesigns in 2004 -- I was grasping for something, anything to make me feel like my site was had something unique to offer -- while still providing blog content and functionality. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a single column of blog posts in chronological order -- it is the meat and potatoes of the blog world, it will always be with us...but I was tired of dinner. I wanted dessert.
The Cure: As I thought about blog design more, the idea of showing the posts horizontally by date, much like a weekly calendar, kept popping up in my head. I had seen lots of horizontal scrolling sites, but I didn't recall seeing a horizontal blog site organized by date like this (I'm sure I'm not the first to create this...surely there are several out there -- I just don't recall seeing any.) I played with the idea a bit early last year, making several sketches, laying out some ideas in Photoshop, but was still too green with CSS layouts and wasn't yet experimenting with Movable Type plug-ins. Yet the idea wouldn't leave my head. I even went so far as setting up Movable Type to automatically create horizontal tables with each new post and it worked (see example), but I wanted a CSS layout. Then came Greg's post. I knew it was time.
What I love about this experiment so far:
- It's different. CSS design with 6-columns (1 nav, 5 content) -- who wants 3 when you can have 6? Different enough to discuss the merits, advantages and disadvantages of such a design and see where it takes my thinking.
- Creates a mental pause. I love the fact that design forces you to stop, take notice and get oriented with the blog, unlike most vertical designs that seem too familiar on the first visit.
- Future ready -- today! Most mainstream designers do not design for Netscape 4.7, the browser is dated and the user base shrinking daily. The same might be said someday for 800x600 monitors. Yes, there will "always" be some users (especially as the baby-boomers age and eye sight goes), but five years from now I think 1024x will be the new minimum standard. The time to enter the 1024x age is close at hand. Why not start experimenting with blog designs now? Web stats showing steady decline of 800x600.
- Visual snapshot. As soon as NiXLOG loads you have an immediate context for how much information has been posted the past five days. You don't usually get that with vertical blogs without scrolling past the new posts to the last one you remember reading. You also see the days when I've posted nothing -- to me this is a great motivator to find good content. I don't want blank days on my site.
- What's old is new. We've seen weekly calendars for years, all designed around dates to be filled with content. For NiXLOG I really wanted to present a "weekly calendar" view of posts (only flipped, with the newest of the left, oldest on the right). Plus, Horizontal is the new Vertical. I love landscape oriented design
What I'm not worried about just yet:
- Standards/Validation. This is an ongoing experiment - with a lot tweaking, fine-tuning, etc. Validation, standards, etc. are coming with time. I just wanted to get a working version out there to see what the possibilities are.
- Printing. Not sure people print my site, but going to be working on a print-friendly style sheet sometime.
- 800x600 users. See below.
- CSS. My CSS is probably terrible by most pros standards, but such is life. As I learn I apply and tweak. I'm not afraid to put it out there -- what's the worse that can happen? Yep, you'll suggest improvements and that will make me even better.
Some challenges:
- 1040x Design. Most readers of NiXLOG are on higher resolution monitors. Still, there's no reason I can't have an 800x600 CSS switcher for those that would prefer it. It's in the works (4-column, showing three days). The other thing the design requires is that users have their web browser maximized to take it all in and prevent a horizontal scroll bar from appearing. Still usable with the bar though.
- Style sheet off. Turn off the style sheet and all the content is there, but because of the way the columns are structured, the dates are not ordered correctly. Working on that.
- Other typical usability, standards issues when going with a funky new design. Making a list.
- Content space. When you play with 6-columns within a 1000 pixel width, you have to limit the width of each column. I wanted two things with this design: 1) vertical nav and 2) 5 days in view. These requirements forced me to go a little narrow on the content column for each day (150px), but I really liked how the layout turned out.
Inspiration for my design:
Tools in Use:
- Moveable Type 3.0
- Somedays (Movable Type Plug-in): Used to -1, -2, -3 dates to grab yesterday, day before yesterday, etc.
- A Movable Type plug-in that allows you to run a cron job at a specific time to republish a template. The homepage republishes just after midnight, loading up the next days blank date.
- Cron jobs (via Dreamhost account)
- CSS Trial and Error (Patented process I have for trying a lot of things, dissecting other people's code, shedding some tears and losing hair because I never stopped to learn the fundamentals.)
The 6 Myths of Creativity
Tuesday, January 4, 2005 04: 47 AM
The 6 Myths of Creativity. Good read from December issue of Fast Company.
43 Things
Tuesday, January 4, 2005 04: 28 AM
43 Things. Not sure if grouping a large number of procrastinators around a goal helps or hurts...but it looks fun.
Death and Taxes: A Visual Look
Tuesday, January 4, 2005 04: 02 AM
Death and Taxes: A Visual Look at Where Your Tax Dollars Go. Enjoy this big, tasty inforgraphic. Via Metafilter.
1024x and beyond
Tuesday, January 4, 2005 03: 03 AM
NiXLOG: Vertical Gone Horizontal. Inspired by Greg's call for more innovation -- I'm building out this 1024x CSS design with 6 columns. Subpages in the next couple of days...
Scrapbook Colors
Monday, January 3, 2005 11: 20 PM
Who knew scrapbooking could be so colorful. Mesmerizing.
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