SOME RANDOM DUDE

A while back, I posted a basic example of layout organizers and layout organizers applied to video. I kept talking about how cool I considered this idea to be, yet I had yet to truly explain the idea and (more importantly) the source code for people to download. I wanted to make sure the code was at a good spot before releasing it; I believe that is now the case. You will find examples, the basic gist on how it works and some possible reasons why layout organizers may just make your life easier. (more...)actionscript, actionscript 3, displayobject, experiment, flash, flex, front end, layout, layout organizers, programming ui

I had the fortune of being invited as a judge for Standards Reboot, a standards-centric web design event. The deadline is May 1 and I thought it would be appropriate to “reboot” my site to go along with the event. Let me clarify a bit, the reboot will be less visually oriented and more user-experience oriented. These change (which hopefully will occur) are tied to the moves I have been talking about for quite a while. I was lucky enough to have had an online buddy help with some changes that I have yet to institute due to a lack of time. I feel pretty confident that a few serious sit-down sessions could end up being quite fruitful. Life has finally started to slow down and so I feel right now is as good of a time as ever. Still, this project needs to be very focused and pragmatic. No significant changes can be implemented within the 2 weeks before May 1, so I really would like to tackle two or three areas in a very simple, yet effective manner. As the title suggests, these are short term goals, but they are all directed towards much larger ideas.

Here are the topics I am considering - I would love to hear your thoughts on what you see as the more important to you.

• Increased Comment Love functionality
• Improved load times
• Improved commenting experience
• Basic user participation elements
• Cleanup/refinement on homepage UI elements
• Easier access to less noticeable areas of the site
• Work on branding and visual language - only where it improves user-experience throughout the site

This site has continued to grow much more quickly than I would have ever imagined. Nonetheless, the actual site has not progressed significantly for nearly 6 months. There is no way that a large-scale redesign could happen, nor do I think it should occur. Still, I really want to make this site more enjoyable to come to as well as come back to. Your feedback would be amazingly helpful.

design, experience design, feedback, judge, layout, loading times, short term goals, some random dude, standardsreboot, ui web design