SOME RANDOM DUDE

A ran across an interesting article, Where Did My Beautiful Internet Go?, a couple days ago on one person’s thoughts the direction the internet is going. With RSS, syndication and the rise of the blog, the author feels that the visual design and originality of the internet as a whole has taken a hit. Honestly, it is hard to argue with this preface if one looks strictly from a visual standpoint. Nonetheless, I feel the quality of design as a whole on the web is at an all-time high with the future looking even more promising. The argument really comes down to whether you think of design strictly from a visual standpoint or consider it to be a collection of the entire experience. With myself leaning greatly to the latter, I look at the current trend on the web as good. We cannot put the usability and accessibility of information aside from this debate - they are a crucial piece of design on the web, if not the most important.

Sure, I have a bone or two to pick with certain visual design styles, and the lack of visual originality with many sites, most especially blogs. However, many of the root-caused for those very issues have allowed for an unprecedented increase in user-experience design and accessibility. The rise of the blog and the general theory behind Web 2.0 has allowed the user and other sites to have greater access to content - allowing for a richer experience. Usability and web standards have definitely stifled visual creativity at times, but the movement is responsible for a much accessible and compatible internet. A site can be absolutely visually stunning, but if the public cannot easily access the information or interact with it, the design failed.

With information becoming more modular with every passing day, we are going to have to get comfortable with letting go of controlling how our content always looks. We need accept the fact that (many) people prefer to access data from an RSS reader or a web aggregator. While one may be of the opinion that certain content looks more appealing under a certain strict visual style, imposing those beliefs onto the audience is not the job of a designer nor is it responsible. Time would be better spent working with those technologies to make the content look its absolute best under all circumstances. Fighting this is useless, content and information is only going to become more free.

Design, especially on the internet, is a balancing act. Communication and aesthetics can, at times, conflict with each other which forces compromise. At this moment on the web, communication has taken the higher priority - which probably has to do with the fact that it was so neglected in the early years of design on the web. What we are seeing now is a natural return to balance. Honestly, this is a good thing.

So, our ‘beautiful internet’ is still here and thriving, it is just becoming beautiful in an entirely different way.

del.icio.us linkaccessibility, balance, beauty, blogs, communication, daily, delicious, information, internet, link, rss, syndication, usability, web, web 2dot0 web design

Hi guys, I wanted to get a little feedback from you if you would not mind. I am starting to notice some slightly bloated load times on this site every now and then. I am in the process of planning a cleanup phase for this site, but before I move forward I would love to get any feedback on how long the site takes to load for you on average. I am beginning to plan how I can pluck out pieces of HTML/Javascript throughout the site, but if load times are far worse than I currently think, I will begin reevaluating the current structure of the site.

Please, if you do not mind, take the time to let me know how your loading experience is for this site. I really want to make coming to Some Random Dude as enjoyable as possible. Waiting 8 seconds to have the page load is not what I would consider acceptable… Thanks ahead of time.html, I do not want to wait an eternity for this page to load, javascript, loading, loading time, page bloat usability

The more I read attacks on Flash, the more I end up shaking my head in confusion. Honestly, I am a little surprised this is still being debated. People, we need to get over this. Before I elaborate further, I want to make clear my support for web standards, usability and accessibility. Additionally, I understand the concern with Flash - it is not as easy to make accessible compared to HTML/CSS, it has, and continues, to be used for some really stupid things, etc., etc., etc. We have all been down that road, we have heard the arguments. That being said, standardistas: you are fighting a losing battle, and on top of it, a battle not worth fighting. Flash is about as standards-friendly as any media plug-in there is. For each bad use of Flash, there are hundreds being used well. Lastly, and more importantly, it is changing what we can do on a browser and how our generation accesses media. Please, for everyone’s sake, stop griping about Flash and start educating people on how it can be used more effectively with standards and accessibility in mind.
(more…)accessibility, css, flash, flash video, html, javascript, opinion, standardistas, standards, usability, user generated content, video, web development you need to chill the hell out

Hello boys and girls. Yes, it’s that time again, everyone’s favorite, the links of the week. I have to say, I have a completely different perspective on this weekly post now that I have decided to use my brain and leave the heavy lifting to del.icio.us. These posts are now a breeze - I surf the internet and in return, I get a load of links to share with the masses. Well, my “hard work” is your gain. Have fun.
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I freely admit that I do not derive bountiful amounts of pleasure from designing forms. Forms are a relatively dry subject. They rarely drive visitors to a site. Forms do not empower the user to take action, but they do dissuade the user from inaction. No one ever goes on and on about how much they enjoyed filling out a form. The vast majority of people recognize when forms are frustrating; the other handful may notice when forms are not frustrating. Forms are the offensive linemen of web design - amazingly crucial to the success of the collective, rarely given credit and only concentrated upon when they fail. I used to give very little thought to the design process of form layouts. I would concentrate instead on the “important” pages that I believed would garner the most attention. My point of view has completed changed. Forms facilitate users to make purchases, register into communities, exchange information with organizations, etc. These functions are the basic elements of a majority of websites - money, participation, information.
(more…)amazon, cnn, css, design, fieldset tag, forms, html, label tag, legend tag, myspace, usability, web design web development