I just want to start off by thanking everyone for the tweets, comments, and overall feedback you’ve given me in the past week. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to start this blog - I want to connect with like-minded developers to learn and share. So thank you! I hope this tutorial continues to be something that you can use and implement in your daily development.
In this tutorial, I take the concept of our last tutorial(dynamic class names) and apply it to form field highlighting. This has been done before by hundreds of others, but this is how I approach the task.
In my first tutorial, learn how to create a menu that knows where you are by dynamically adding classes to your navigation.
As Nov. 4 is just three days, I can’t help feeling that CHANGE is in the air. In that spirit of change, I decided to pull my site down (conspiratordesign.com). Everytime I went there, I couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t the very best piece of work that I could put out there. It no longer was representative of my skills or my taste. So…as the site now states…don’t mind the dust. CHANGE IS IN THE AIR. Remember to vote on November 4!
By the way…I’m only a few followers shy of 100. Would you mind putting me over the top?
Yesterday, I attended the first of two full days of An Event Apart Chicago hosted by - go figure- A List Apart. It was an honor to be in the same room as some of those that I look up to- Jeffery Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Jason Santa Maria, Sarah Nelson, Robert Hoekman Jr., Jason Fried, and Andy Clark.
Of all sessions, the two that impacted me the most were Sarah Nelson(Adaptive Path)’s Design Criteria and Jason Fried(37 Signals)’s discussion of Beyond UI Basics.
Nelson discussed working in groups of 4/5 to create 5-7 statements that drive/direct the design team. The power of this process, is that when done with the client, you establish the most important aspects of the job BEFORE a pixel is painted. Something that as a designer is a welcomed change. Nelson described the process of attempting to read the mind’s of clients only to have them change their minds mid-project as “soul sucking work.” It was something that resonated with me, because you distill the criteria into - as she puts it - “actionable ideas.”
The other session that I really enjoyed was Jason Fried’s discussion of Beyond UI basics. He talked about the extra details great apps -specifically his(37 Signals) take care of for the betterment of the users. He preached the value of flow and it’s impact on the usability of the app. It was also great to hear how 37 Signals works. For instance, they sketch with fat sharpie markers. Why? Because details aren’t important at that stage of development and anything else would only slow you down. Those details are to be worked out once something of substance has been created. It was also great to see first-hand Fried spout off against using wire frames and extensive screens in Photoshop - a position that to this day - for whatever reason, still garners controversy. It’s when you hear Fried speak that you see/feel more precisely what he means. He referred to IKEA vs a craftsman in his speech several times (we can assume he feels he’s the craftsman), but the way I look at it, his apps are a myriad of both. It’s IKEA-powered aesthetics built with the craftsmanship of Bob Villa. It’s the thoroughness of how the interface responds to the users that really makes the app something to be respected.
The day was filled with funny moments/jokes, but possibly the most humorous moment of the day was when someone asked Jason Fried what 37 Signals is most prone to. To which he responded: “We use Prototype because Sam, the guy who works for us, he, uh, he developed Prototype.” Classic!
Overall, things have been very enjoyable. We - those that stayed for the late session - also learned that CS4 should be debuting this week.
Eric Meyer is on stage now prepping for this morning’s first session, so I better wrap this up.
Oh yeah…I heard someone is releasing some new laptops today.
In my constant search for the greatest iPhone app of all time, I’ve searched high and low. I’ve explored Tetris-style rip-offs, tip calculators, Twitter apps, bubble wrap popping, and list makers, and they’ve all been so so until last night when I found the best iPhone app ever.
Behold the White Noise App by TMSoft. The app plays one of eight noises to sooth and relax you. Whether you’re looking for a quick nap or just want to feel like you’re in a fancy pants massage parlor, White Noise may be the right app for you.
Pick one of the following eight noises (beach, fan, crickets, tv, rain, chimes, or the clock) and set it to the sleep timer.
Download WhiteNoise today in the iPhone AppStore.
In a freak accident, all of my older posts(only three were worth a damn) were deleted. For my first post on my newly designed blog, I wanted to share a site that I’ve used often in my searches for reliable jQuery tutorials and that is TutSearch.net. The site serves up the very best tutorials from 100 hand-picked web sites, and I know that I’ll be sure to use them whenever I’m trying to figure something out, and so should you.
