Weekly inspiration – 28th July 2006
Christina Wodtke of Boxes and Arrows fame writes “The Elements of Style for Designers“, an article connecting Elwyn Brooks White’s “List of Reminders” in the end of his book “The Elements of Style” to practical rules of advice for designers. Some really good points. Have a look.
Gene Smith over at Atomiq.org has a great post about a Nomic Digg. He wonders what might happen if the community, apart from submitting stories, also had the opportunity to vote and change the ruleset of the website itselt. Tom Coates points to an article he wrote about the same kind of system with self-reflexive rulesets.
Rashmi Sinha posted yesterday a great piece on findability on systems that rely on tags. The recommended solutions to facilitate findability are (if you’re in a rush and can’t read the article): facets, clustering and pivot browsing. But seriously, go read it.
Molly’s funny (or is it?) reply to John C Dvorak’s post on “the problems with CSS code“. This quote speaks for itself: “In fact, I’m going to make you an offer that would fully and totally break my heart if you refuse. The offer? I will come to you and help you learn CSS. (…) You will be able to float, position and even hover in ways you probably never imagined possible.“

I would add to your list an article in PingMag about “5 design pattern which will improve usability” (http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/07/27/5-web-design-patterns-for-happy-users/). maybe they are not exactly “patterns” as Jon calls them but there are some, IMHO cleaver ideas which can change user experience – like “elastic design” which I recon as beneficial point out on relative font, and elements sizing.
thx for linking text about tag and findability.
Comment by losamorales — July 29, 2006 @ 12:58 pm