June 26, 2005
Suggestions for the WaSP Accessibility and Education Task Forces
In addition to the Education Task Force that I mentioned earlier, the WaSP has set up an Accessibility Task Force. Members of the WaSP are asking for suggestions for the task force here and here. There have been some great suggestions, and a few university people have piped up. In an attempt to not have the voice of higher ed (which I feel has some additional/different concerns to those of the rest of the web world) lost in the shuffle, I thought I’d post my suggestions here, and open up the comments for other higher ed folks to add their insight. If you’re like me, you could use all the help you can get with these issues— the WaSP is asking for input, so let’s give it to them! :) I will post this url back to the other sites, so the WaSP can hear our thoughts.
My top 3 suggestions for the Accessibility Task Force
June 24, 2005
Biocurious
Possibly my new favorite site. Why didn’t I think of that title!?
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June 23, 2005
Thinking about a redesign
This should not be a surprise to those of you that know me. After all, the tag line of this site is “Where redesign is the new black”. Today I came back from a week away from the blogosphere (which I highly recommend)— imagine my suprise when I saw a bunch of folks visiting this site from shauninman.com. Actually, “surprise” is an understatement— I was practically shitting myself. It seems that Jani, who I don’t know and didn’t pay anything to for this (I will, however, buy you your drink of choice should we ever meet), linked to my site as a design different from Shaun’s but pleasing. [Edit: for the record, I really like his redesign, and I envy his skills in design, javascript and flash. The aesthetic aspect isn’t my cup-o-tea, but the quality of the features and execution of the design make his site a favorite of mine.] There followed some critique, which is nice to finally get from the web design community. Some comments were right on, and I totally agree with them— these comments stated that the site is hard to navigate, and it’s difficult to tell where to begin. I have been thinking this lately as well. The confusion happened as a result of this site suddenly having information, and therefore needing information architecture. I have been writing a lot more lately, and about a lot of diverse topics. I didn’t have the backend sufficiently thought out, and it didn’t accommodate this radical change in my behavior. It is hard even for me to find things I’m looking for. Other comments are personal opinion— the site is busy and overloaded with color. This is true, and it was done on purpose. Every time I redesign this site, I try to challenge conventions and my own design abilities. I thought sites were becoming too monochromatic and sparse— I wanted to see if I could pull off a design that went in the opposite direction. This is the place for me to do that, since experimenting with client work is not always such a good idea. The only comment I have issue with is one that stated that this site is a little cliche. To that I have this to say: gradients, plastic-y buttons, little pixely icons, wicked worn, whitespace with grey type and a punch of color, repeating squidfingers-esque backgrounds— these are the design elements I consider cliche right now, and which I deliberately avoided using. I kind of like rounded rectangles and used them extensively-, which could definitely be considered cliche, but I haven’t seen them used in such an asymmetric way before. I got suckered into a drop shadow by my own insecurities at the last minute. I can tell that no one spent enough time to tell whether or not my writing is cliche. So say you don’t like the design, that it’s not well-done, that its ugly, that it’s not working— anything but that its cliche. So, I am thinking about a redesign to address the information architecture issues. Things that will not be going away:
- the animals. These have an important meaning to me. (Although I’m considering retiring the wood duck, because for some reason I hate that color scheme)
- the colors. I consider this part of the animals, as all the colors come directly from the critters.
- the meters. These help keep me sane, and I love it how Steve always knows the exact numbers whenever I see him. It would be great to get some constructive criticism from you folks, as well. What about this site works? What doesn’t work? What would make it more useful to you (besides better writing— I don’t know if I can do much about that…)?
June 14, 2005
OK, now I’m really gone
I’m flying out for Alaska tomorrow morning, and it can’t come fast enough. It’s really, really disturbing to me how hard it has become to rip myself away from this computer. Part of it is this weekend’s hullabaloo and my obsessive need to make sure nobody over at John’s site has tried to rip me a new one. But that’s only part of it. Even when there’s nothing new to read, I can’t log off. And I can’t focus enough to get any real work done. I can’t account for where the time is going— I’m not playing games or surfing ebay (not even to bid on the socks). I’m just being sucked into some weird NetNewsWire vortex. And no offense, but no one really says anything so important that I need jump on it the instant it pops up. Anyway, I’m shutting down this computer now, and I going to not turn it on before my flight tomorrow, even if it kills me. I’ll be back June 22. If you want something to read in the meantime, please read this and add your comments. That article kind of got glossed over this weekend, and it’s really more important than all that other stuff that happened. Later!
June 11, 2005
Article 265, In which Andrea admits she’s a sexist and then goes to Alaska
A million thanks to John Oxton for following up with his thoughts on the issues I brought up in my rant last week. I didn’t expect him to pick it up, and in retrospect I wish I had been more clear about what I was saying. This post tries to clarify those points, and to respond to some of the ideas raised by John’s post.