Jeff interviewed by Boagworld
A few weeks back, our own Jeff Croft sat down (well, virtually, anyway) with Paul Boag, proprietor of Boagworld — almost certainly the world’s best web design podcast — to talk about Jeff’s sometimes-controversial positions on web standards.
The two chatted about various subjects, such as the Blueprint CSS framework, the “culture of compliance” in our industry, using personal projects as outlets for experimentation, and whether or not the web standards movement is stifling innovation,.
They also talked about Paul and his crew’s redesign of the Boagworld website. It’s really, really well done. The design is beautiful, clear, and effectively communicates Boagworld’s brand and content.
Check it out.
New Work: NYRB
It’s with great pleasure that I give you a peek into one of our best projects to date: The New York Review of Books. It’s not often you get to work with such a prestigious publication, especially one backed with so many great people, and we’re so happy to be able to show a bit of what we’ve done for them.
But who owns Javascript?
In my experience, most in-house web teams basically employ two types of people: designers and developers. Sure, some people call them different things, and there are definitely exceptions, but generally speaking, we’re split into these two camps.
For the most part, our technical responsibilities are split up as such: “designers” do the client-side things (HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash, etc.), and “developers” do the server-side things (PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, .NET, etc.). Somewhere along the line, we decided the gap between front-end and back-end would be a good place to divide up our responsibilities. But is it?
Web 2.0 vs. Branding Fundamentals
I began writing this post while on a plane to San Francisco for the Web 2.0 Expo. Lately I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the state of design, especially as it relates to interactive media and the web. We all know that when we create interactive designs, our primary goals should be ease of use and clear communication. Yet, in order to stand out in an increasingly homogeneous crowd, we need to be at least a bit concerned with brand and…well, style.
The Adobe Rut
A few days ago when the the Blue Flavor crew was out having lunch, we started discussing Expression Web and why there’s practically no interest in it at all. None of us have spent much time with EW’s suite of products, but there are good reasons why. The lack of interest can be boiled down to three main obstacles that anyone trying to carve out some space on Adobe Mountain will have to overcome.
Phase Two and What We Didn't Do
Coming into this latest redesign we had lots of ideas. Some of them good, some potentially bad and some that just never made the cut. We also had quite a few ideas that we haven’t been able to implement yet. I figured it might be interesting to talk about what we cut, and why, and some of what we’ve got in the works.
Sildes and examples From SXSW and The UIE Web App Summit
Over the last few months I’ve done a bit of speaking and I’m just now getting caught up enough to post the notes, examples and slides from those talks. I’m really sorry for the delay!
A New Design and More
Today marks a new beginning, not only for this site, but for Blue Flavor as well. In the last few months we’ve undergone some major changes. From a founder leaving to a re-dedicated focus on what we do best, design, we’ve been shifting to what we think will ultimately be better for our company and our clients.
That change can in many ways be seen in this new site.
Problems, Not Features
Clients have proposals. They come in all sizes and shapes, from formal RFPs to an idea hastily sketched on a back of a napkin. But there is one thing they all have in common: Requirements. And each of those requirements almost always calls for a feature. Like a blog. Tagging. sIFR. Some AJAX. These days, even a site that sells toothpicks seems to need a rotating AJAX-powered image gallery.
Often times, we web pros spring into action when confronted with this dilemma. We draft estimates, outline how all these “necessary” features might fit within a client’s budget, and use our design and development skills to build something that doesn’t look like a cobbled-together mishmash.
I understand why almost every client requests these intricate features. They see a site that does something they really like. They love how you can zoom in on Google maps or drag and drop things into a shopping cart, for example. It’s easy to make that leap from “they do that” to “we should do that, too.” Unfortunately, it’s also a fundamentally a flawed approach.
Blue Flavor, Austin-bound
Wow, it’s hard to believe South By Southwest Interactive, the annual geek-fest for interactive professionals in Austin, TX, is only a few days away. We at Blue Flavor are all excited for another year of great sessions, great networking, and great fun. Keith and Nick will be speaking, and the entire Blue Flavor crew will be in attendance.
The schedule of talks and panels has recently been released, and in going over it, I thought I’d highlight a few sessions that seemed particularly interesting to me.
More Entries
- Brooklyn Boy Flies the Coop
- Posted by Nick Finck on February 29th, 2008
- Some thoughts on the role of style in design
- Posted by Keith Robinson on February 21st, 2008
- AT&T to offer free Wi-Fi at Starbucks
- Posted by Brian Fling on February 12th, 2008
- Microsoft buys Danger
- Posted by Brian Fling on February 12th, 2008
- AOL Announces Open Mobile Software Platform
- Posted by Brian Fling on February 12th, 2008
- Edge Cases are the Root of all Evil
- Posted by Brian Fling on February 11th, 2008
- Leaflets is a Finalist!
- Posted by Keith Robinson on February 8th, 2008
- The Immutable Laws of Web Design and Development
- Posted by Brian Fling on February 7th, 2008
- D. Keith Robinson to Speak at the UIE Web Application Summit
- Posted by Tiffani Jones on February 7th, 2008
- South By Southwest 2008
- Posted by Tiffani Jones on February 7th, 2008
- Reflections on Web Directions North
- Posted by Tiffani Jones on February 6th, 2008
- Tufte Quotes
- Posted by Tom Watson on February 6th, 2008
- Welcoming Tiffani Jones!
- Posted by Keith Robinson on January 25th, 2008
- RGB
- Posted by Kevin Tamura on January 22nd, 2008
- The Template Dilemma
- Posted by Keith Robinson on January 16th, 2008
- Setting Expectations
- Posted by Tom Watson on January 10th, 2008
- Solutioneering, or putting solutions before problems
- Posted by Jeff Croft on January 9th, 2008
- Getting Started with Rails
- Posted by Garrett Murray on January 8th, 2008
- Web Directions North 2008
- Posted by Nick Finck on January 2nd, 2008
- Project Management Made Easy (Redux)
- Posted by Keith Robinson on January 2nd, 2008
