When I first started working in a true creative industry, it took a little time to understand the value of good copy writing. Along the way, I found out about something called “Lorem Ipsum” text, or placeholder copy, mostly used in creative design, publishing and development to show what blocks of text would look like when placed on the web page or print item until proper copy could be produced. This fake copy looks like the real thing, and gives a sense of the overall visual layout for the finished creative. It looks kind of like Latin, but it is not. When a web page needs this kind of treatment, I usually find this Lorem Ipsum Generator to do the trick quite nicely. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Tools’
A Lorem Ipsum For Images
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Winning At Working: Workplace Heists
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
It’s that time of the month again, when I receive my enewsletter from Nan Russell, author of Winning At Working. Her articles are typically well written, easy to read and communicate a specific concept related to success in the workplace. I find them to be good food for thought and I hope you do too.
Seated in the courtyard of a sports bar during a playoff game in the home city of one of the teams, it was an energetic crowd that Sunday. While we’d come for a quick bite to eat, we caught a glimpse of a play now and then as home-team enthusiasts roared their approval during the first half.
When a man sat down next to us with two friends, ordered a pitcher of beer and maneuvered around to glimpse the game, we barely noticed. But when he hassled the waitress every few minutes trying to intimidate her into getting him a table closer to the TV where none existed, his rudeness and her apparent discomfort, drew our attention.
What happened next surprised me. Growing increasingly agitated at not being able to watch the football game from inside the bar, the man stood up, ordered his colleagues up, and walked away without paying. I don’t get it. He came well after the game started. Why would he think he should be entitled to a great seat over others waiting in the wings? (more…)
Guess What? Size DOES matter.
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
The Internet is full of variables. As web developers and web designers, we constantly wrestle with web user variables. Things like: browser types, browser versions, platforms, Flash, JavaScript, cookies, web-safe colors, connection speed, visual impairments, and fonts.
Our goal is to find the most common settings, and to deliver web sites which match settings with a majority of users viewing the sites. Also, we need to mitigate any problems which might arise if the user doesn’t have their environment settings similar to the development team’s in-house settings. Let’s face it, not everybody uses Firefox or Chrome.
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Design for the color blind
Friday, January 15th, 2010
As a designer I tend to believe in the economy of form. Why make your web links a different color, bold and underlined when a simple color shift is enough to visually distinguish them? Isn’t it?
While I haven’t changed my “less is more motto”, I do think it is important to keep in mind that a color shift may not be noticeable to all viewers. About 8% of males have some form of color blindness.
When designing web sites, information graphics, maps or charts that use color to distinguish different pieces of information it may be helpful to test your design using a handy tool called the Color Oracle. The plug-in uses a menu that quickly converts your art (regardless of the program you are using) into a palette that simulates what colorblind people see. Very handy!
Winning At Working: Assessing Your Progress
Monday, January 4th, 2010
I love Nan Russell’s columns and this one, regarding resolutions, is entirely appropriate. Happy New Year everyone!
Assessing Your Progress
I’m not a big fan of New Years resolutions. Sure I’ve made dozens of them, all with good intentions and a bit of magical thinking, believing this time the resolution will stick. Maybe a few have, but generally these wishful self-promises end up broken. And when that happens my self-esteem suffers.
You see, every time you break a self-promise, your self-trust is weakened. Every time you give up on your commitments your self-confidence takes a hit. And every time you look back on broken resolutions, your self-assessment hurts, not helps, your performance future.
By contrast, I am a huge fan of goals or dreams or aspirations or targeted focus. Call it what you like. Mine come in a variety of forms, anything from a life-to-do-list to aspirational dreams. But their achievement hinges on the same element – incremental action. I learned in twenty years of management the power behind small steps. (more…)
Stopwatch for Cubers ver 2.0
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009What do you know? I did get around to updating my timer. Introducing Cube Clock 2.0 for Rubik’s Cubers (and other cubes) with fancy new graphics, sounds, and a settings screen. See Stopwatch for Cubers for the original version.
If you want to study your cube before the time starts, click the SETUP button to specify how many seconds you would like to study. The default is 0 which means the time starts as soon as you release the space bar (or click the START button). You can also toggle sounds on or off.
Let me know if you would like to see any features in the next version. And, of course, post your times in the comments.
Typedia Rocks… or, at least, its starting to
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009Typedia, an online encyclopedia of typefaces, launched in August. It is an community site for classifying, tagging and educating people about type (think wikipedia for fonts). Anyone can add typefaces or edit the pages about them. It is a great source for learning more about a typeface, when it was designed, who designed it and why they designed it the way they did. Typefaces are categorized by classification, designer and foundry, but our favorite part is the tagging. You can search for typefaces by tags—such as modern, signage, retro, news or informal, just to name a few. We absolutely love the idea of this site, however, it still has some growing to do before it truly realizes its potential as the ultimate type resource.
Stopwatch for Cubers
Thursday, November 12th, 2009A while ago I built a simple Flash app for people who can solve a Rubik’s Cube (or other cube brand). Other apps that I’ve seen require that you use the mouse to click the start and stop buttons. That can add a few extra seconds to your time. On my solution, the Cube Clock, the time starts when you pick up the cube from the keyboard, releasing the space bar. Then when you’re finished solving the cube, just tap the space bar again and the timer will stop.
Some timers have a feature that allow you to examine the cube for 15 seconds before the time starts. I might add that feature into the next version (if there is a next version). So, get your cube out and try out this timer. And be sure to post your time in the comments area.
