Current and Upcoming Book Updates

January 13th, 2010

I’m about a quarter of the way through Journey to the End of the Night and really enjoying it thus far. The main character’s self-centered, heightened reality reminds me a lot of both John Fante and Charles Bukowski’s characters. I don’t want to go into too much detail about the plot at this point, in case anyone hasn’t read the book. But look for a slightly longer, spoilerific piece on the book in early February.

Which leads me to February’s book, which I just ordered today:

Dune

Figured I could use some #nerdcred.

Book, the First: Journey to the End of the Night

January 7th, 2010

While I haven’t finished compiling the list of the books for the year, I did manage to select the first one and order it on Amazon. It arrived a couple days ago and I’m starting it today:

Journey to the End of the Night

Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

I’ll be writing little updates about the book as I read it. Feel free to read along!

Ohlone Dog Park (with Photos)

January 2nd, 2010

Took Carver Watanabe and his dog-friend, Ursula, to Berkeley today to play at Ohlone Dog Park. It’s an amazing fenced in area where dogs can roam free and humans can sit and talk on picnic tables. I took my D40 out with me (which I have recently begun to use with more frequency) and took some of the best photos I’ve ever managed. Days like today are what encourage me to learn more about my camera and photography in general.

The entire set is up on my Flickr profile. Here are a few of my favorites:

Carver Watanabe

Ursula

Carver Watanabe

What do you think?

Wanted: Twelve Books for the New Year

December 30th, 2009

12 Books a Year

Generally I’m against New Year’s Resolutions. They’re all-too-often vague and, as a result, impossible to take direct action on. Still, I can’t help but reflect on stuff I wish I’d done better or that I wish I’d done at all over the past year. To try and resolve all my shortcomings would be a nearly insurmountable task, so I’ve decided to just focus on one thing over the next year:

Read more books.

I used to read every day. A year and a half ago, you could’ve asked what I’d read lately and get a laundry list of titles that I was in the middle of devouring. But life is more hectic now and the odds of me keeping more than one book going at a time are slim. But I know I can, at the very least, commit to one book per month. Not a lofty goal, to be sure, but a solid, achievable one. The problem is I have no clue what books I want to read. This is where you come in.

Suggest books to me. You can comment on this post, email me (cwatkins at gmail dot com), IM me (capstinence on AIM), @reply me or DM me.

Feel free to suggest anything you want: Fiction or Non-Fiction. In a few days, I’ll pick (as randomly as I can) twelve books to commit to for the next year and post the order of them as soon as the list is ready, so anyone who wants can read along as well. Each month I’ll write a report on the book I read and let you know whether or not I’d recommend the book to anyone else and why.

Thanks in advance for helping me out :) I’ll be sure to also post the full list of everyone’s suggestions.

What YouTube should do with all that great user research

October 6th, 2009

Interesting article on YouTube’s blog yesterday regarding their User Research discoveries. They gave users a set of magnets which represented different features and elements of YouTube (as well as other video sites) and asked them to arrange their ideal version of the YouTube video page:

Youser Testing

From YouTube’s blog:

One of the most important findings has to do with the difference between the large group of users who are on YouTube simply to watch videos and a smaller, but very important, group of more engaged users — often uploaders. The latter group will, unsurprisingly, care about details like how to make communication with their audience easier and more effective, how to grow their audience, and even how to make money on YouTube. The former, on the other hand, want as simple of an interface as possible: “Just let me watch the video, please!”

Now the question is how to design for these use cases. The ideal solution, to me, starts with the simplest design possible, with the ability to dig deeper to more advanced features if you desire. Of course power users want every feature on one page… they use them all! And it’s important when you’re designing to make sure that all those features are:

a) Easily accessible – Make power users dig for advanced features, but make the layers shallow. In other words, advanced features should be a click or two (maximum) away from the video page.

and

b) Usable – A shallow, accessible navigation doesn’t mean that the features should be. Reward your advanced users for their effort with well thought out, usable features. It’s a big mistake to assume that your power users have any desire to deal with convoluted, unnecessarily complex features. Make it as simple as it can be, while also offering a rich user experience. It’s a tightrope walk, for sure, but something that can definitely be accomplished.

To me, all of this means going with the simpler, video-centric design, while implementing new tools and a more intuitive interface which surfaces those tools, so that your power users feel more empowered while your normal users don’t feel overwhelmed or distracted from their goals. Now that I’m talking about it, I somewhat tempted to mockup a scenario. I’ll post it here if I do :)

Google Link Colors… What’s the Diff?

October 2nd, 2009

This morning, Josh Porter tweeted about Google’s choice of link colors. Apparently on the Google.com homepage, links are #0000cc, while on the results page the links are #2200cc. I tossed together a quick screenshot of what those two colors look like:

googlecolors

They’re so close together that they could easily be mistaken for one another. So why have two colors at all? Well, knowing Google, this isn’t some errant design decision. I’d say it’s safe to assume that both these colors (along with a plethora of others, no doubt) were tested thoroughly and perform the best.

So why do these colors work? It’s hard to say. What’s important to note, though, is that they work for Google specifically. The reason Google uses those two shades of blue is that those shades are good for Google, not because they are the end-all-be-all choice for every web site. Anyone who lifts a color scheme without a really compelling reason (example: Google’s link colors really do test best on your own project) is doing a disservice to themselves and their client. As designers, it’s our job to do the legwork and find what works best.

My First Typeface

September 30th, 2009

I’ve never purchased a typeface before, but today it was love at first sight:

Tungsten

Tungsten is a gorgeous font collection from Hoefler & Frere-Jones and I have a feeling I’ll be putting it to use very, very soon.

Thanks to John Gruber for the link.

Save the Logo, Save the World

September 29th, 2009

Once in awhile, I get emails addressed to the wrong person (cwatkins is commonly mistaken for Charles Watkins or Cynthia Watkins or some-other-C-name Watkins). Finally, someone incorrectly sent me an email I know something about:

Save the Logo, Save the World

Glad to see they took my advice… though their web sites could also use some work.

And for those who don’t know, 38one.com is the home of the fantastic designer Denis Radenkovic.

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…

September 24th, 2009

Buy them and take credit.

At least, that appears to be Yahoo!’s new strategy.  Four years after they bought Flickr, Yahoo have finally decided it’s time to begin the long, delicate process of rebranding:

Flickr from Yahoo

There’s already been a large outcry on the Flickr Forums, and for good reason. Because if this is a sign of how Yahoo are going to handle this property, then we can all look forward to their next branding change:

Yahoo Photos Beta Power by Flickr

I see absolutely no flaws with this plan. Do you?

I’m Adding a Note Here

September 23rd, 2009

Huge Success! It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction.

So yeah, new day, new design.  I’m never quite satisfied, I suppose.  Don’t get used to this either.  It’ll be gone in a few months most likely ;)