I’m headed to Austin in a couple of days and couldn’t be more excited about spending time with friends that I only get to see once a year, meeting new people, eating, drinking, bowling and oh yeah, going to the conference itself.

In preparation I’ve made a few tweaks to the site. There’s a [...]

Austin

I was in Austin again this year for SXSW Interactive and as usual, it was an awesome experience.

Recently Launched

There are three projects that I've been heavily involved with lately that have recently launched.

Better use of space

There are other areas of the home page that also get updated and they were being relegated to the sidebar. I wasn't very happy with that and I also really wanted to break away from the the big column and sidebar look for the home page. Reducing the the real estate for the blog really opened up the space. Now there's also more room for the other dynamic elements to balance out the most recent blog entry.

More contrast and tire marks

My first objective was to increase the contrast. On some monitors the older version had a washed out look. I wanted the graphic elements to be subtle and not overpower the content, but I think they were a little too subtle. So, the colors and the graphic elements such as the pin-striping have been adjusted for greater contrast.

Earlier this year I attended the 2006 SXSW Interactive in Austin. I met lots of fantastic people, attended some great parties, and even learned a thing or two about the web.

The weekend before last I was back in Austin, but for a totally different reason. I was participating in the MS150: a two-day cycling event from Houston to Austin that raises funds to help people living with Multiple Sclerosis. The ride is a little over 180 miles, and this year there were approximately 13,000 people that participated.

Exactly what is it that influences our perception of a nicely designed piece? Well, obviously, the way that something looks plays a large role. I think that it's also everything coming together as a result of a well-thought out design that elevates our opinion to a much higher level. You know something is different, but most of the time you don't take the time to really think about it. Subconsciously you are aware of it, but haven't identified each piece.

A closer look

First off, it looks amazing, but why do we think so? For me, it is usually clean lines and simplicity. But, lying underneath that, it functions well, and it's also intuitive. I understand how to use it with little or no instructions.

When designing a site, in addition to the overall design, I'll do custom layouts for certain pages based upon the different types of content. I usually tweak the design of the site again to help everything flow together. I spend a lot of time thinking about how certain elements of the site will interact with each other. Since web design is not static, I make allowances for that in the design and try to anticipate the areas of the layout that will need the most flexibility.

If it's a site that is going to be maintained by someone other than myself, or even if I am going to be the one making updates, a Content Management System is usually part of the process. This involves breaking the layout into blocks of content, and making templates that have repeating information such as a header and a footer. What I end up with is a basic framework that has one or two areas that I will insert content into.

After numerous design revsions, totally rewriting almost of all the code, and even a name change, I am relaunching the site.

I originally launched a previous redesign of the site earlier this year, but I was never really satisfied with the layout, and it was also really lacking any content that explained the purpose of the site.