Recommendations for improving UX/UI skills →
A nice extended comments thread over at Hacker News where users suggest websites and other resources for UX and UI design.
A nice extended comments thread over at Hacker News where users suggest websites and other resources for UX and UI design.
I’ve lately been catching up with this news summary site each evening after work. It’s a quick summary of the big stories and uses excellent typography and a responsive design. I shouldn’t be surprised given the work is by Mule Design. It was mocked up and launched within a week.
I learned a few nice tricks here by web developer Flavio Copes, most notably the ability to debug code based on DOM modifications.
I saw this originally over at Craig Mod’s Twitter stream. I agree with his take: even though the Iconfactory normally does excellent work, there’s something about the default Sublime Text 2 icon that doesn’t quite click. I like this smooth pure black square alternative by designer Dan Perrera more.
I’ve already linked to a few of these extended back and forth conversations between NYT critics A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis; they are uniformly excellent. This week’s topic adds optimism to what tends to be a sore spot in the summer movie season: diversity. We’re finally seeing a lot more films this summer that appeal to multiple tastes, not just the hyper violent, lightweight teenage segment. I especially liked Dargis’s indie funding idea:
If I were running a studio (ha!), I would take the money that I’d set aside for the next bad idea (like a remake of “Total Recall”) and give a handful of directors, tested and less so — Todd Haynes, Barry Jenkins, Kelly Reichardt, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Aaron Katz, Benh Zeitlin, Damien Chazelle — $10 million apiece to make whatever they want, as long as the results come in with an R rating or below and don’t run over two hours.
I like Pixelmator as a lightweight alternative to Photoshop. It’s perfect for a quick resize on an iPhone photo or Tumblr snippet before uploading or sending somewhere else. Yet I greatly dislike the Lion preferred auto save/versioning that comes with Pixelmator out of the box. It’s unnecessary and adds bloat to my throwaway, multi MB files.
After a few google searches, there’s actually a really simple solution buried in the support forums. Just one line in the console. Scroll to the thread buttom.
Startup exec Josh Kerr:
Dalton claims that developers are frustrated with Facebook and Twitter’s ad revenue driven platforms that don’t do enough to cater toward developers. He is right, and there are plenty of examples of the pain that goes with trying to build on those platforms, but there just isn’t enough pain to support a completely new product like App.net.
App.net’s current appeal touches more on the anger in the developer community toward Twitter and Facebook and less on the need for another social platform. Once those two companies get their act together and improve their developer programs, the market will quickly loose interest in App.net.
Gamer Hazzen on Ouya, the red hot Kickstarter funded gaming console:
I could go on and look at the other realities of this project, but I won’t. I don’t even care if the thing succeeds or not. I’m just sick of the breathless enthusiasm for a complete unknown in an exceedingly difficult industry.
Agreed. Hazzen goes on to rip apart the economics of this new gaming platform. Be it for big releases or even indie hits, the financial implications don’t seem sound. I don’t see this taking off. I’d expect a more integrated Mac/PC/iOS to TV gaming solution as a much more viable option.
Speaking of Breaking Bad’s Hank Schrader, check out this 40 minute interview with actor Dean Norris on a recent episode of NPR’s Fresh Air. Excellent and revealing. (As a warning, there are some pretty **major spoilers** for the whole Breaking Bad series very early into the interview.)
Seitz, as mentioned here before, is one of my favorite TV and film writers. He takes a bit of a departure with this week’s Breaking Bad episode recap, focusing more on the big picture and where the series is heading.
More than anything else, I loved this observation (major series spoilers ahead):
Walt’s actions in season two sparked a rampage by the Cousins that ultimately landed Walt’s brother-in-law Hank in a wheelchair and turned Hank’s wife Marie into his stressed-out nursemaid. And yet, perverse as it may sound, Hank’s journey is ultimately an example of positive change coming from trauma…He’s more observant, a better listener, and seems to have lost most of his arrogance. He’s smoother. He has gravitas.
This, more than anything else, makes me think it’ll ultimately be Hank who catches or trips up Walt: There’s an odd but pleasing symmetry to their stories.