Daniel Hardy

I speak usability and developer to make amazing user experiences.

You can take a look at my archives, follow me on twitter, or check me out on forrst.

To Be a Designer

“As a designer, your job doesn’t stop when you leave the studio at 5 p.m.  That’s why our environment is key – it provides constant input, a constant stream of ideas,” – Jae Min, Audi Chief Designer, Audi Magazine 02/08

This statment rings true for me.  While I may not be designing something as complex or complicated as an automobile, I certainly look for a constent stream of input and ideas.  This consent search allows me to find solutions to problems I have yet to encounter.  It also helps continuously refine ideas and views I have had about previously completed designs.

Site Change

Well, I said a while back that I would be changing the theme. Over the last several months I have struggled with creating a theme that I felt was good enough and fit my personal style. Today I have finally given up. This theme could be considerable better on multiple fronts and doesn’t fulfill the previous statements but I decided it was finally time to just post something. I am not sure how long it will stick around for but at least I got it up.

Mystery of fonts

I read a simple and sweet post today by Seth Godin and realized why I will never be a graphic designer. The gist of what he was saying is that most of the time a decent font will suffice but it will never compare to a GREAT font. To me fonts are like music, their are those who can make great music and their are those who can enjoy great music. I fall into the latter group. I feel that I can tell when the perfect font is being used but unfortunately couldn’t tell why it is perfect. In the same way I can tell when a song has all the components of being successful but I can’t tell you what those components are.

I have found my twin

SimilarityI recently found a site that looks an awful lot like mine. It uses a similar background and layout. To check it out cruise it over to www.sullr.com/us/. At first I was concerned I might some how be infringing on their copy write but after doing some research I have determined that this is unlikely as their site wasn’t even registered until after I debuted my first iteration of this design. It is important to note that in the first iteration I used a vibrant green closer to the one being used by by Sullr. My original design can be viewed at old blog. Needless to say I have started working on a new design and hope to have it up soon. Until then enjoy a great looking reverse lookup engine ;)

Digg’s new look

Digg.com has recently unveiled its new look and it sure is a “humdinger.” There are some good points like inline images and a more prominent bury button but overall I believe it is a step backwards in both graphic and interaction design.

On the graphics side the biggest mistake in my opinion is the failure to define a base font size. This means that the size is dictated by the default browser configuration, something that most people never change. For Windows Firefox users the default size is 16pt which is typically a little large for Web text. This gives the entire site a cartoon look. I understand that this might have been done for accessibility reason but there are other alternatives that would have allowed for a better controlled experience.

From the interaction standpoint many of the common feature such as digging, commenting, and burying have remained mostly unchanged. Personally I think the big failure here is the integration of video into the front page. This forced a redesign of the navigation which until now was excellent. In fact I have pitched similar designs and people recognized the similarities and even referred to it as “Digg style navigation.” While the new design maintains many of the elements of the previous it has added a drop-down menu system accessed through multifunction buttons. This can be confusing to casual consumers. With each click you may end up with different results.

Overall I think the previous design is better than this current iteration. Sure there are some interesting additions but I think they are really just feature fluff. I look forward to seeing how the public sees the new changes.

[Update] I just found this post. It looks like there might be other problems with the new Digg.com redesign.

Tip for those pearly white pages.

I have been using a unique theme for a while now and have noticed something strange. It appears that many people don’t code in the background color because they assume that the default is white. Well this is a fallacy, as it turns out the default is set by the window manager and there fore your page may be broken. I know I am a minority but it is not that hard to add one line of code to ensure your site is always at its full glory.

The arrogance of design.

First off the thoughts below are constructed around stereotypes.  If you are against stereotypes then there is no need to read on ;)  In my opinion stereotypes can be a useful tool in interacting with people.  The catch is to not let stereotypes impact your ability to give someone a chance.  Now on to the good stuff…
I have met a lot of types of designers in my life.  Many of them have had a common thread even though their fields of expertise have been wildly different. This thread is an air of arrogance.  This is not to say that all or even most of them have this trait, but instead that a large “per capita” ratio does.  I have often ponder why this phenomenon occurs and today I came up with my own hypothesis.   Design is intoxicating, particularly a successful design.

In a broad definition design could be viewed as an outward expression of a solution to any given problem.  The important part of this thought is that it is outward.  This is to say that the audience(customer) can see the design in action, be it an interaction or some graphics that build a “feel” or “attitude”.  This is in contrast to something like development where the user doesn’t see or consider the results of the hard work (unless it is broken).  As a designer when the application is a success it is easy to take it personal.

Think of if in terms of “buzz.”  Most of the time when people talk about how great a product is they say things like “It is so easy to use” or “I love the way it looks.”  Rarely do you hear someone discuss how well it was developed or how there isn’t any bugs in it.

Even when the reverse happens and a product is deemed a failure it is often blamed on the design, not the construction.

The interesting part is that none of it would be possible if someone didn’t have the amazing amounts of knowledge to build it (be it by code or content).  This alone should humble any designer.  But some how this concept continues to be lost on many in the design community.  Perhaps it is because many designers have never taken the time to learn how to develop the rest of the items needed to make a great application.