The primary design principle underlying the Web’s usefulness and growth is universality. When you make a link, you can link to anything. That means people must be able to put anything on the Web, no matter what computer they have, software they use or human language they speak and regardless of whether they have a wired or […]
Author Archives: Mike Donahue
Blame the Implementation, Not the Technique by Tim Kadlec is spot on in its position that too often the technique is blamed for a poor experience rather than how it was implemented. In football this would be akin to blaming the coaches play calling when in fact it was the quarterbacks read on the defense that […]
I’ve recently run across a couple articles that aim to make the point that responsive web design (RWD) is not a cure all when it comes to designing for the web. While that is true, in the process of getting to their point the authors make several statements that are misleading, inaccurate, confusing and conveluted. […]
I know the fold should be a dead topic by now but you’d be surprised how often it still comes up. So I’ll take a stab addressing it and start by asking this simple question… What Would You Do If There Were No Fold? How would you prioritize your content? Fact is all content is […]
Responsive Web Design (RWD) has really come into its own since 2010. This is due in large part to the explosion of mobile devices, notably smartphones and tablets, into the marketplace over the past couple years. But even the best and brightest minds in the field recognize that responsive is only part of the answer.
Useful. Usable. Desirable. There it is. These 3 qualities can help us understand both what’s needed (deliverables) to succeed and the order (process map) in which to approach design and development. At a deeper level they can help draw focus to the “why” or “purpose” of a website. In fact, understanding “why” we’re creating a website […]
“A good player plays where the puck is. A great player plays where the puck is going to be.” – Wayne Gretzky We’re all aware that things are constantly changing and doing so faster then ever in the world of web. New challenges arise daily. More browsers, more devices, more screen sizes, changing user contexts […]
What Bruce Lee can teach us about web design. “Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it […]
Content lives within an ecosystem much like any other organism on the planet. Like other organism there are a multitude of factors have influence over its existence. It’s important to know what those factors are in order to develop a strategy to deal with them.
Over the last year or so much has changed in web design. Our big problem use to be backwards compatibility with IE6. But now we find ourselves in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. New smart-phones and tablets are popping up faster then the brain hungry undead in a George A. Romero movie. Luckily a […]