I’m not keen on rap music, but this video by The SEO Rapper is worth a view if you’re into standards-compliant web development:

Just had to post a link to this fabulous web portfolio by Bryan Katzel. It has one of the most interesting and innovative uses of semi transparent PNGs I’ve ever seen. Simply scroll down to the bottom and keep an eye on the central area of the page with the rainbow. Gorgeous!

http://www.webleeddesign.com/

Note: Don’t even think about visiting if you use Internet Exploder 6 or lower.

Web 2.0 is not a design aesthetic. Yet that hasn’t stopped thousands of designers perpetuating a commonly understood “Web 2.0″ look: over used shiny reflections, rounded corners, subtle gradients, bold colours and the use of the word ‘Beta’ next to your logo (whether or not your service is actually in beta!)

However, I find the most annoying effect is the now ubiquitous ‘peeling sticker’. It’s everywhere, and not just on the web either. I confess I just don’t get it: what’s wrong with those stickers? Do they use cheap glue? Why are you hiding part of your logo with them?

If you need to bring attention to something on your page, there are better ways of doing so. Good information architecture should lead users to the pertinent areas of your page, without the need for replicating real world physicality in your design elements.

Still, if you really want to perpetuate this aesthetic, you don’t even need to do the work yourself. Just get an app to do it for you. *Sigh*.

How many badly PhotoShopped efforts do you see day to day? This site has some corkers:

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/

So I’m trying to get away from having everything tied to software on my computer, such as email and web bookmarks. I haven’t decided how to handle email yet (Gmail seems an option), but I’d like to try social bookmarking to keep everything in one place, and accessible remotely.

I’m a die hard Folder Fiend and am entrenched in that way of working. I don’t really like the nature of tags as I can’t get an “at a glance” view of what I’ve stored. But I guess I’ll have to get used to them to use an online bookmarking tool.

I’ve signed up to ma.gnolia rather then del.icio.us (just to be different) and will start playing with it. But I’m looking for opinions on both magnolia and delicious. What are your experiences? Which is best? Out of all the other tools, are any better than both of these?

A short article on Wired comments on a poll run by What They Play, the US-based website aimed at educating parents about computer games. I couldn’t find the actual poll on the site — it must have been and gone — but the Wired article displays the results.

Apparently 37% of parents would be more offended by “a man and woman having sex” compared to 26% disturbed by “a graphically severed human head”. 27% would think the world had ended if a game contained “Two men kissing”.

Obviously this is not a scientific poll and is only indicative. However, it’s really rather silly too. Games have ratings. Sex and violence in games is rated, like movies. It’s right there on the box and the back always has a description of the themes of the content. Any game containing sex and/or violence is likely to be a 15 or 18 and is not suitable for a child anyway. I’m not naïve enough to assume that violent games won’t get into the hands of younger minors, but I’d suggest that if they are, there’s a problem with the parenting in the first place.

(As an aside, I was watching a Will It Blend of Halo 3 the other day and the presenter Tom Dickson discussed playing it with his 4 year old grandchildren. WTF? — it’s rated M for mature, 17 year olds and up. I know that’s probably too high — it’s not as bad as many games — but still…)

The most interesting analysis comes in the user comments, in particular this one caught my eye:

I have to admit, though, the fact that “two men kissing” even made the list just illustrates how fucked we are as a society.

Indeed. And I think it says more about the creators of the poll than anything else.

I’ve been using the new Wordpress 2.5 on a project which I upgraded from 2.3.3. It seemed very swish, with some great new features: Media Management, multi-file uploading, Gravatars, tidier menus and — the big one — an improved Write screen. When Wordpress was in RC phase, this was said about the Write screen:

.”..only displays the information that you’ll use most often. It displays the most common fields in a way that makes posting incredibly easy. Additional options are hidden away until you need them. The new Write screen anticipates the natural flow of the way you write.”

Wordpress’ Write screen is the core of the software. If this doesn’t work well, it doesn’t matter how many nice new features have been included, you’re gonna have a bad time blogging. So it was encouraging to read about it’s improvments. But rather than improving the experience, they made it worse. Why? In short: Bad use of screen real estate. (more…)