It’s a big maybe, -but a really valid point. Web and app developers are always going to struggle with this. Pixels have no physical characteristics, or culture to embrace, -they can be anything. I get the feeling that the iPad is Apple’s effort to appeal to the older crowd in a way that they never have. Simpler, bigger, and more like the real world. All of the apps matching their real world counterpart will probably help users who spent the first 30+ years of their life without a computer adapt more easily.

Here’s my email by the way:

It’s to Dan Cederholm, I think his work is really great.

“Dan,
Laying in bed last night I decided I don’t do this sort of stuff enough…
I just wanted to drop you a note saying thanks for your work. It’s really inspirational, and I think you’re doing a great job. Keep it up.”

However I do want to see more of this online:
http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/416273227/feed-me-atlantic

And this:
http://www.marco.org/438103070

and even this:
http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/439434786/entitled-to-care
(Although I do wish the tone sounded less aggressive)

But what I really like is this:



(This is Marco, who Merlin’s article is written in derogatory response to, saying he like it via Tumblr.)

I really look forward to a time when the internet is filled with thoughtful public responses and passionate dialog. We all win when it’s like this.

Things like this Flickr set make me feel pressure to have gorgeous creative notebooks. I feel like if I don’t, then I’ve somehow failed, or I’m not doing it right.

A while back though, I gave myself permission to use my notebooks for “junk.” Not for finished art. Not to frame. Not to brag about. But to really quickly get ideas out of my head, and thought through in a visual way.

My notebooks aren’t going to be in a museum 500 years from now like DaVinci, and that’s ok. My brain kicks out lots of ideas and 90% of them are bad. I use notebooks to record and sort those ideas, most of which aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

Giving myself permission to treat a notebook like a tool, not something precious, has been a good thing in my life. Do you have self conscious thoughts like this that keep you from being more productive?

Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there, and isn’t vital. It might not seem important to everyone, but background information is the core of every single project we work on. I found this out recently when I was trying to be articulate during a project… it turns out it didn’t matter how eloquent I was; I didn’t 100% grasp what we were doing. I could have said the same thing eight different ways and it still wouldn’t have made sense. The biggest communication barrier was that I didn’t even know I was missing information. But then someone connected those dots, filled me in.

It was my missing link.

Suddenly I was able to put the pieces together, and it made all the difference. So next time you find yourself in that situation- either you or with a co-worker- it might help to take a second and make sure everyone’s on the same page… and essentially working toward the same goal.

I’m ashamed to say I wasted a lot of my formative years learning Actionscript, keyframe animating, and some BS catchphrase called R.I.A. design.

I bought the Macromedia pitch pretty wholeheartedly. While Zeldman was preaching standards, I was still obsessed with the idea that the internet would turn into something like an interactive television.

I still think it might, eventually, but we’re further away from that now than ever. I’m glad the industry caught its breath, and a dose of sanity about interface design, but I miss “motion design.”

Flash became aggressive when Adobe took it over. Like PDF before it, Flash turned away from being a simple content delivery platform, and started to turn into a market cornering “business development initiative.”

Creative people, myself included, want things easy. We want to be enabled to do things quicker and better. We are often willing to trade freedom for productivity, and the enabling of creativity.

I wasn’t one of the first to start feeling the handcuffs Flash was putting on us, but I felt them just the same. It’s too bad. I bet I’m not the only one who remembers how Flash used to feel. How empowering it was to play with animated interactivity. To create immersive interaction beyond the page refresh and “submit” button.

Today we’re starting to get interactive animation in the form of javascript libraries. It’s really great, and it’s better for the future- but its not the same. Adobe, you missed the boat… So much excitement around a platform, and now the only time Flash comes up seriously in a conversation its about video,  spinning logos, or why it crashed.

We go so far out of our way these days to avoid Flash, the other day we were talking about how the animated gif ought to be used more.

That technology dates back to the early 90’s.

(Client’s name,)

You’ve probably heard us mention Jumpchart in bits of our conversations- here’s a little more information on it as we move forward.

When putting together your website, there are certain steps we take as a studio to make sure we give you the best finished product possible. The first step is figuring out what order your site’s pages will go in, and what content will go on which pages. The next steps include designing and programming. Jumpchart is an online tool we use specifically for the first step of this process.

It gives us visual access to what the site will look like from a navigational and content point of view. We understand it can be a little tricky to imagine your site without design incorporated, but Jumpchart helps us optimize the layout and content of your site: the backbone. It gives us a really solid foundation to build on.

Here’s what will happen: You’ll receive an invitation to the Jumpchart we created for your site. When you accept the invitation you’ll be able to see progress we’ve made, as well as make your own suggestions in the comments section. You can even edit content on the actual pages. It’s like a meeting room between us- but we don’t all have to be there at the same time!

If you have questions, please let us know- we’re all about collaboration and communication.

Thanks!