Cameron Moll's Blog, page 14

Square, the iPhone Credit Card Machine, Goes Mainstream

Square, the iPhone Credit Card Machine, Goes Mainstream:

Alexis Madrigal:

I asked Square to make me a map of their transactions to see where they had users. The map you see shows one hour of transaction volume on a Friday afternoon. The size of the bubble represents the volume of the transactions while the different colors indicate the types of users that Square has….

Just about every major city and plenty of smaller places have someone using the device. I was particularly to see that the whole southeast is blanketed with Square users.

charity: water September 2011 Campaign

charity: water September 2011 Campaign:

Today marked the first day of charity: water's annual September Campaign. They've had no problem raising money in the five years since Scott Harrison founded it, but they're not building wells as quickly as they have the potential to. This year's focus is to raise enough funds for a rig + materials to increase their drilling capacity. $17,000 on day one and rising.

Authentic Jobs will join the cause beginning in September, just as we did last year. I certainly won't suggest you wait until then to donate, but I'll definitely ask for your help at that time.

And that fabulous truck illustration featured above? That's the work of brothers Philipp Datz and Konstantin Datz.

UX Job Title Generator

UX Job Title Generator:

Struggling to title your UX job opening? Done. (Noticeably absent from the role orientation list: rockstar.)

"Only Geeks Understand Link Icons"

"Only Geeks Understand Link Icons":

Peter Steen Høgenhaug, suggesting we consider using something other than the ubiquitous link icon for inserting hypertext links in an application:

All in all, only 35.29% of the test participants understood the chain icon, and only 25% understood the globe icon. While we didn't set a minimum for success, clearly, 25% is not good when it comes to usability. When being interviewed one of our participants asked:

'Why not just write WWW? Everyone understands that!'

Spin.js, a Loading Spinner Sans Images

Spin.js, a Loading Spinner Sans Images:

Uses CSS3 to render the animation, falling back to VML for Internet Explorer (all the way back to IE6). 2.8K of total code and supported by newer versions of most browsers.

/via @jc

Visual Design is Not a Thing

Visual Design is Not a Thing:

Mark Boulton:

Talking to and observing your audience is a fundamental part of graphic design research. In fact, it's the first thing they teach you about communication theory: what are you trying to say, and who are you trying to say it to.

So, you see, graphic design is not Visual Design. And given that the look of something — in my mind at least — can't be considered holistically without the feel of it, or the use of it, then how can Visual Design be separated as not only a step in a process, but as a job title?

Drummers are Natural Intellectuals

Drummers are Natural Intellectuals:

Of course they are, silly.

/via @scottboms

Hiring: UI Designer at Big Cartel

Hiring: UI Designer at Big Cartel:

I've used Big Cartel's hosted shopping cart software to sell my letterpress posters going on four years now and, in a word, it's superb. Made for designers, by designers.

They're looking for the right kind of person who wants to help artists make a living doing what they love. Work from anywhere in the U.S. (extra credit for being in the Salt Lake City area). You'll help make me and 150,000 other users even happier.

Golden Grid System: A 'Folding' Grid for Responsive Design

Golden Grid System: A 'Folding' Grid for Responsive Design:

Joni Korpi, who developed the system:

16 columns sounds a bit much for anything other than huge widescreen monitors. This is where the folding, inspired by the DIN paper system and Unigrid, comes in. The 16 columns can be combined, or folded, into 8 columns for tablet-sized screens, and into 4 columns for mobile-sized ones. This way Golden Grid System can easily cover any screen sizes from 240 up to 2560 pixels.

Click the three bars in the upper left to toggle the grid on and off. (This toggle switch is included for your use, too.)

/via @jcroft

Nosh 404: Behind the Scenes

Nosh 404: Behind the Scenes:

The deftly talented Alex Cornell (director, cameraman, editor, voice talent, designer, musician) describing the production process for the Nosh 404 page:

The script was basically this: cool place, action and stuff, guns, cool sounds. Generally that's about all I have to go off anyway for my videos, so I figured we were ready to rock and roll.

It's pretty impressive to read just how much was done by one individual, and done so well.