Jeffrey Zeldman's Blog, page 40
December 9, 2013
December 8, 2013
Design Is A Relationship
MIKE MONTEIRO is a man on a mission. He wants to improve design by fixing the core of it, which is the relationship between designer and client. Too many of us fear our clients—the people whose money keeps our lights on, and who hire us to solve business problems they can’t solve for themselves. And too many clients are even more frustrated and puzzled by their designers than the designers are by the clients.
It’s the designer’s job to fix this, which is why Mike first wrote Design Is A Job, and spent two years taking the message into conference halls and meeting rooms from New Zealand to New York.
I wish every designer could read this book. I can’t tell you how many friends of mine—many of whom I consider far better designers than I am—struggle every day with terrible anxieties over how a client will react to their work. And the problem isn’t limited to web and interaction designers. Anybody who designs anything burns cycles in fear and acrimony. I too waste hours worrying about the client’s reaction—but a dip into Mike’s first book relaxes me like a warm milk bath, and reminds me that collaboration and persuasion are the essence of my craft and well within my power to execute.
If the designer’s side of things were the only part of the problem Mike had addressed, it would be enough. But there is more:
Next Mike will help clients understand what they should expect from a designer and learn how to hire one they can work with. How he will do that is still a secret—although folks attending An Event Apart San Francisco this week will get a clue.
Design education is the third leg of the chair, and once he has spread his message to clients, Mike intends to fix that or die trying. As Mike sees it (and I agree) too many design programs turn out students who can defend their work in an academic critique session among their peers, but have no idea how to talk to clients and no comprehension of their problems. We are creating a generation of skilled and talented but only semi-employable designers—designers who, unless they have the luck to learn what their expensive education didn’t teach them, will have miserably frustrating careers and turn out sub-par work that doesn’t solve their clients’ problems.
We web and interaction designers are always seeking to understand our user, and to solve the user’s problems with empathy and compassion. Perhaps we should start with the user who hires us.
November 21, 2013
Intelligent Interfaces: Fantastical Designer Michael Simmons
IN Episode № 105 of The Big Web Show on Mule Radio, I talk with Michael Simmons, co-creator of the Fantastical app (#1 Apple Store app), about iOS 7, designing Fantastical, reinventing calendar software, staying inspired on a long-term project, how to do a huge launch with no budget, Apple’s long-term design strategy, and more.
Michael is a passionate, experienced, and opinionated designer. As a huge fan and daily user of Fantastical, and as a designer, I loved our conversation; hope you do, too.
Listen to Episode № 105 of The Big Web Show.
Fantastical 2 Giveaway
Michael’s company Flexibits is giving away four copies of Fantastical 2 for iPhone to the first four Big Web Show listeners who use one of these promo codes in their store:
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Enjoy The Big Web Show
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November 15, 2013
Blue Beanie Day is Coming!
ALL IT TAKES is a toque and a dream.
Join your fellow web designers and developers around the world on Saturday, 30 November 2013, as we march in virtual solidarity in support of web standards.
The countdown to this worldwide celebration begins today, with the opening of the Blue Beanie Day 2013 photo pool on good old Flickr.com. Read more at the new official home of Blue Beanie Day online, bluebeanieday.tumblr.com.
November 14, 2013
Animate This: Val Head on CSS, Pittsburgh, and The Big Web Show
DESIGNER/DEVELOPER Val Head and I discuss her new book A Pocket Guide to CSS Animations (Five Simple Steps, 2013); the Web Design Day conference; working as a hired gun; JavaScript and CSS animation; the great city of Pittsburgh; what it takes to run a workshop; and more.Enjoy Episode № 104 of The Big Web Show on Mule Radio.
There’s Always More
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November 13, 2013
An Event Apart 2014 Schedules Posted
IT’S NOT NEWS that all eight An Event Apart conferences in 2014 are open for registration. But this is new: we’ve now published complete schedules and speaker lineups for the first three shows of the year.
Learn from some of the smartest people in our industry. Go deep on topics like emerging responsive image standards, advanced web typography, designing in the gap between devices, putting your UI in motion with CSS, working with CSS preprocessors, increasing the likelihood that your digital design projects will succeed, and even the best ways to share the ideas you’ve learned at An Event Apart when you get back to your office.
Why Sass? · An A List Apart Article
WE ARE PLEASED to present an excerpt from Sass For Web Designers by Dan Cederholm, available now from A Book Apart.
November 7, 2013
Font Lover’s Pizza: The Font Bureau’s Nick Sherman on Type and the Web
TYPE NERDS, unite! Join Nick Sherman (The Font Bureau, Webtype, Fonts In Use, A List Apart) and me for a pleasant hour geeking out on responsive type, 21st century hinting, typefaces designed from scratch for onscreen reading at small sizes, things you still can’t do on the web, EDID and other standards, typefaces used in blaxploitation movie posters, punk rock, pizza, and more. Enjoy Episode № 103 of The Big Web Show on Mule Radio.
Yippee Tie-Yay!
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November 5, 2013
Mic. Dropped.
I LOVE how my cats decide an interaction is over. Do something playful to get my attention, then abruptly walk away.
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