Formatting Catastrophe: 'UIC Announce'
I mean, they're not even trying:
http://tigger.uic.edu/announce/
Design
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 9:15am.
Simplicity vs. Complexity in Design Rematch
Don Norman's at it again! Here's his wonderful description of the balance that designers need to observe between complexity and simplicity:
The mark of the great designer is the ability to provide what people need without excessive complexity, without feature bloat. Simplicity should never be the goal. Follow the famous Einstein quote: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." Complex things will require complexity. It is the job of the designer to manage that complexity with skill and grace.
He says this unfortunately in the context of a completely gratuitous squabble with Chicago-based developers, 37signals (here's their response). Nevertheless, it's an approach I find quite appealing -- certainly more than his earlier attempt which led to this post.
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 11:05pm.
Library Webpage Design and the Notion of Conversion Rates
We're all familiar with usability. Basically it's a way of assessing the success rate of any one task. Successfully finding a book or journal article starting from the home page would be a typical task to measure.
I'm wondering if it might also be helpful to think of task completion in the way marketers do, namely as "conversion rates".
MARKETING 101 FOR LIBRARIES
When librarians use the work "marketing", usually they mean 'getting the word out'. Marketers go one step farther: marketing for them means actually selling a product.
This notion of a complete transaction can be useful.
We all have user populations. When these users come to our site, they represent potential "sales" of our products and services.
This is where conversion rates come in.
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Sun, 08/19/2007 - 12:45pm.
Fonts Are the New Black
I never thought I'd be reading this in the New York Times -- especially in relation to highway signs:
"Fonts are image, and image is modern America".
It comes from an excellent article called "The Road to Clarity" by Joshua Yaffe that looks at signage on U.S. Highways and efforts to improve readability. Begun almost twenty years ago, the process marks:
... the first time in the nation’s history that anyone attempted to apply systematically the principles of graphic design to the American highway.
The author then embarks on a breathless history of how the new font for road signs, Clearview, was developed using it as a vehicle to explore issues in Design and Typography. At one point, he declares:
Stodgy or irreverent, timely or timeless, typography helps establish the ethos and identity of a brand — and it can have a similar effect on the highway.
"Type on the roadway is very much like the corporate identity of a country," says Graham Clifford.
Touching base on everything from Milestones in Roman Times to Volkwagon Ads in the Sixties, the article serves as a wonderful introduction to the importance of getting the lettering right.
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Sat, 08/11/2007 - 1:30pm.
Grids Are Good
I've wanted to link to this for quite a while now. It's a PowerPoint presentation by Khoi Vinh called "Grids Are Good". Khoi Vihn is the lead designer at the New York Times and he gave this presentation along with Mark Boulton at SWSW.
The importance of the topic, namely that grids are essential to how we lay out information can hardly be overemphasized.
Look at the image below from Vihn's presentation. Note how easily the page fits into a grid.
Next, look at the home page of Cornell Library. (It's what got me started on this.) Note how the boxes in the center columns don't line up.
On Cornell's page, this isn't a big deal but it's easy enough to find examples that are far worse.
Whatever the degree, it's clear they hadn't seen Vihn's presentation. If they had, they would have known that visual order is an aide to cognition and that it conveys meaning. The less of it we have, the less clear our design.
You can download the presentation here... A podcast from SWSW is available here...
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Mon, 07/09/2007 - 9:37pm.
Zeldman Turns 12
Jeffery Zeldman celebrates 12 years of blogging on the Web.
My earliest introduction to him and other "web" people was through the ur-important Web List WebDesign-L run by Steven Champeon since 1997.
I did an interview with Jeffrey and NYPL's Carrie Bickner for LJ a couple years back.
All I can say is, Congratulations on the 12th! And here's looking forward to the 25th!
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Sat, 06/02/2007 - 2:44pm.
My Gift to UMICH Libraries
I happened upon the University of Michigan Libraries Website today and the icons it uses for RSS Feeds made me wince: 
I mean I'm not a purist or anything but you'd figure an institution with those kind of resources ought to be sporting something finer -- especially for a link to something that's increasingly as important as RSS.
So out of the generosity of my heart, I spent all of five minutes (or roughly 1 sec./pixel) to put together the following kickaZZ 24x12 icon to be shared by the entire University of Michigan community: 
Yes, I know, generosity abounding.
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Tue, 05/01/2007 - 3:00pm.
Survey for Web Designers
Jeffrey Zeldman's got a Survey for Web Designers over at Alistapart.
As he explains:
The information it collects will help us form a long overdue picture of the ways web design is really practiced around the globe.
The thing is pretty much a breeze to get through. You can take it by going here...
Posted in Submitted by Leo Klein on Tue, 04/24/2007 - 9:13pm.
Adobe Icon Controversy
Nothing like a graphic design controversy to brighten up the day!
If you look at the Mac taskbar above and can figure out the difference between 'Lr', 'Ps', 'Ai' and 'Id', maybe you'll have no problems with the application icons in Adobe's new Creative Suite 3 currently in Beta.
For many designers however it's been thumbs-down.
