Is it just me, or does the armchair quarterbacking of our tech leaders towards other industries underscore the absurdity of their allegiance to innovation? Just look to the way they’ve discussed the recent automotive crisis. With all of the U.S. auto manufacturers facing serious shortages of cash, insanely high labor costs, highly […]
Author Archives: Matt
In Print
November 17, 2008 – 2:18 pm
I was kindly asked a few months ago to write a short piece for .net magazine (Practical Web Design in the US), a great industry publication that covers the convergence of interaction design and site development technology. My mini article is about how small design changes (link hit states, hover interactivity) can have a […]
Portfolio Panic
November 14, 2008 – 10:58 am
Nothing, it seems, is more professionally challenging than re-designing your own design portfolio. It’s a perfect storm of conflicting issues — it’s difficult to scope the audience (is it you, other designers, clients?), the stakes are high (it’s most designers’ primary means of marketing), and it must be pitch-perfect in terms of design and content (you’re […]
Someone Finally Said It
November 4, 2008 – 2:00 pm
It’s now nearly a month old, but if you haven’t seen Merlin Mann’s piece “Better,” do so now. It’s worth a full read, but here’s my favorite bit:
What makes you feel less bored soon makes you into an addict. What makes you feel less vulnerable can easily turn you into a dick. And the things […]
Tomorrow
November 3, 2008 – 8:53 am
This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it — that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the […]
Quick and Dirty
October 24, 2008 – 9:21 am
One of the most annoying aspects of doing xhtml and css development is having to juggle multiple files — structure must go to an html file, and style to a css file. We separate it, of course, because keeping style and content as far away from each other is the only way to keep site maintenance sane.
Café Presse
October 21, 2008 – 4:43 pm
While it’s a bit more of restaurant & bar than a cafe, Café Presse does also live up to it’s name. It offers a great, open atmosphere for remote working (a big, naturally lit space), great coffee (from Cafe Vita), and wonderful breakfast and lunch food of the French sort. The wait staff […]
Seattle Is My Office
October 21, 2008 – 12:32 pm
One of my biggest hurdles so far freelancing has been finding a work environment that’s inspiring. Aesthetically, I’m still not where I’d like to be with my home office — it’s dull, frequently messy, and cluttered with unused electronics to the point of looking a bit like a pawnshop. Still, no matter how cool I […]
Do Less
October 20, 2008 – 12:18 pm
If I’ve found any sort of overarching strategy to successful website design, it’s this — do less. Good design is much like good editing — you must strive for absolute economy, leaving no element without a function and purpose. But doing less goes far beyond design. You should strive to remove excess from your entire process, and […]
What I Use
October 12, 2008 – 10:06 am
It’s perhaps ironic to post about tools and tech that I use and recommend, immediately after decrying the trend in our industry to over-cheerlead any particular tech. So take all these recommendations with a grain of salt, and remember to use what you’re comfortable with and what solves your specific problems best. Still, […]
