[Blank] [Blanks] in Season Five
In yet another sign that my countless hours watching TV have not all been squandered, Brad recounts his own addiction to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Exhibit twenty in the "see, other smart people watch it" court, Your Honor.) He describes the difficulty of living in a BDR (Buffy Discordant Relationship), in which one partner has seen episodes the other hasn't. Plenty of eggshell-stepping around all things Sunnydale. And his synopsis of Season Five proves that genius plot transcends the need for proper nouns and verbs:I now know why [blank] [blanked], and that particular episode is sure to become one of my favorites. It made me cry, as did the one where [blank] discovered that [blank] was the [blank]. I knew it was coming -- those damnable Internet message boards and their siren songs! -- but I still clutched my pillow tight when [blank] [blanked] off the [blank] and [blanked] to save [blank] and, not incidentally, the [blank]. Again.
Space-alien punctuation
Mimi rails on the misuse of quotation marks in a Bed Bath & Beyond sign. Clearly the author must be from outer space. And fond of Fritos, apparently.Polite error messages
Another great example of a company issuing a serious, professional message in a human voice. And you know the sysadmins have their fingers crossed, too.
I think that was a hyena
I just called the Oregon Zoo to find out whether a concert would sell out, and the hold music was animal noises. Pornographic animal noises. Really disturbing.Web teamwork: IA and CSS
One of the sessions I most enjoyed at WebVisions detailed a pretty clever technique for getting Information Architects, Graphic Designers, and Web Developers to communicate using the same vocabulary through the entire design process. In a typical multi-person web team, IAs plan the site's structure based on user studies. Then they deliver a wireframe to the designers who add the look and feel, and the designers hand it off to the developers to implement. However, while IAs should be focusing on strict content hierarchy (not presentation), most wireframes consist of page mockups: navigation goes here . . . and the welcome message here . . . and the news headlines here. The designer, who should be making those placement decisions, is reduced to coloring in the lines. Meanwhile, the developer is twiddling her thumbs because she can't start until the first two people have finished.Christina Wodtke and Nate Koechley instead propose that the IA deliver a hierarchy document marked up in semantic HTML and CSS. Instead of a visual mockup, the document would show which content was most important (i.e., H1, H2), which elements were reusable (i.e., .featuredHeadline or .detailedPhoto), and what were unique (#studentServices, #facultyServices). Then, the graphic designer can determine the visual layout and the developer can begin the backend programming concurrently. Everyone uses the same set of labels, meaning isn't lost, and it's all hugs and puppies.
Hearing Christina and Nate describe the confusion generated by the current task-flow in web teams, I'm grateful that I work in a small institution, where I wear all three hats. I think in CSS classes and graphic techniques while analyzing card sorts. But I could be clearer in separating the three phases; my biggest problem is jumping too quickly to design or development without considering the architecture thoroughly. I'd love to spend some time at a larger company, dedicating my attention to just one of these three roles. But that's for another day; I have a card-sort to run and a form to build.
We beat the Burnside
Hannah and I went out at o-dark-thirty (her words) to walk in the Beat the Burnside race. One of those random events that doesn't benefit breast cancer research or childhood literacy, just a pleasant downhill 8K from the World Forestry Center through Washington Park and along Burnside to the East side of the bridge. The goal is to start as late as you can and still cross the bridge before it opens at 9:00. We finished with 4 1/2 minutes to spare; perfect timing, except for the lack of small t-shirts at the finish line. (But as Susan Komen hasn't ever gotten the formula right, I wouldn't expect the BtB group to, either.) Then we wandered back and had free lattes at Vivace. An excellent Portland morning.
WebVisions 2004 Review
Alan had some scathing comments about WebVisions, most of which I agree with. However, having attended the last two years (see my comments from 2003 and 2002), I see it more as a promising fledgling conference still trying to establish (a) its level of formality (Alan, I thought Nate's untucked shirt was stylish and more on par with the audience to whom he was addressing, but I agree that Nick's overuse of the word "stuff" was a bit distracting) and (b) its size. Three years ago we fit in one room at PSU, and now, though the Convention Center is certainly large enough for the exponentially growing throng of attendees, the itty rooms we used were not. I didn't mind squeezing in, but from the back you couldn't see the panelists, especially when they didn't stand. Maybe next year Inflow could sponsor a big room rather than a bag full of schwag I won't use. But the caliber of speakers was excellent: Peter Morville, Anil Dash, Kelly Goto and year after year I leave the conference inspired. I enjoyed meeting Christina Wodtke and Paul Bausch (one of the founders of Blogger; he now runs ORblogs). Congrats to Hot Pepper for again organizing a great event.High praise from Anil
Describing how Google's ability to answer questions nearly flawlessly would have appeared futuristic a few years ago, Anil Dash poured on the praise: "That's some Star Trek shit!"
More from WebVisions shortly.And speaking of bluegrass
Rodeohead is a five-minute mp3 medley of seventeen Radiohead songs performed by a bluegrass band. According to the creator: "See, it's funny cause it's a play on words."Room full o' Democrats
Oh, but the Crystal Ballroom was sweltering last night. With sweaty heat and all ages of Democrats. Even very small ones who probably don't understand the concept of party affiliation. But, up on the shoulders of their bespectacled parents, they at least understood the concept of a dance party! Pink Martini and Sneakin' Out raised $18,000 for John Kerry's campaign in a packed Tuesday-night show. Sneakin' Out pleased the enthusiastic crowd with their peppy bluegrass covers of 80s pop hits (including Billie Jean, Money, and Love Will Keep Us Together), but Pink Martini really delivered with a sincere, tasteful, but frolicking performance. Before beginning "Sympathique," lead singer China Forbes mused, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a president who speaks French?"Good local music
More than forty local bands will play the PDX Pop Now! festival this weekend at Meow Meow. If you happen to miss the excellent ones and end up listening to the (always present at these things) droningly self-indulgent and experimental hipsters, you can always wash it down with Pink Martini Tuesday at the Crystal Ballroom.Oregon Country Fair 2001 Photos
With the Oregon Country Fair happening this weekend, I'm getting a lot of hits from people looking for photos of topless hula-hoopers and other OCF regulars. Look no further, but be forewarned, they're tasteful and blurry.Bathroom innovations
A couple of marginally-related design issues for public restrooms Katie was telling me about:- In Molalla, Oregon, the BLM was having a vandalism problem: people were firing rounds into the bathroom walls. To counter this, they put an American flag on the building. (I'd envisioned a painting covering the full side, but this page shows it's just a flag plaque.)
- Restaurants, hostels, and grocery stores worldwide are mounting blue lights in restrooms to prevent intravenous drug users from seeing their veins. Though ostensibly ingenious, it can be easily counteracted by drawing on veins with a marker before entering the bathroom, and the lights may pose significant problems (pdf) for other users.
Bryce reviews usability of airport websites
Bryce has an excellent critique of three airport websites (PDX, SFO, SEA). Though Portland wins, and has nifty features like this page telling how full the parking garage is, Bryce lauds San Francisco's customized directions page: "It's like MapQuest for inside the airport."Use Google to find books in your local library
The Open WorldCat pilot project provides access to library holdings information through Google. Simply search for a title, appending "site:worldcatlibraries.org," and Google will return libraries in your zip code that own the book.Examples:
Handbook of Usability Testing
Six Feet Under
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