Ever wondered where those almost too perfect desktop images on your computer come from? So did Nick Tosches from Vanity Fair.

One of my ongoing frustrations over the last few years is how difficult the Transport for London website is. Trying to comprehend the complex structure just to find out whether the Hammersmith and City Line is working at the weekend was always a chore - even though I had fought my way through it many many times before. So finally, in the last few days, Transport for London has updated their site with a brand new structure and visual design. I’m not too excited about the ’Web 2.0’-style visuals, but it is very easy to understand, and I can now find out if the tube is going to be useful at the weekend in moments.

Swiss Legacy is a blog that concentrates on the Swiss design and arts. I am half-Swiss myself, so I have always been intrigued by the fine history of Swiss graphic arts.

We’re sticklers for detail, but getting typography to work well on the web is not easy. Or, as Mark Boulton and Clearleft put it, typography sucks on the web - and they have a SXSW presentation online that goes into detail of how to improve it.

Twitter has recently been taking off, as Jack Schofield notes on the Guardian Technology Blog. Twitter enables groups of people to be in constant contact with their social group by sending tiny text messages to the Twitter site, such as “I’m getting on a train to Hampstead” or “I’m watching the football”. If you still don’t understand what I’m on about, take a look at this graphic on Mashable. Frankly, it sounds like my worst nightmare - even worse than having a Blackberry. I am in contact enough with the world through this blog, Messenger, iChat, email, the phone, Skype and even when I actually talk face-to-face with people. That said, I would not be surprised if this time next year I’ll be texting to Twitter from my Blackberry about how much I was mistaken.

“It is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary ‘features’ aimed at idiots”. Charlie Brooker lays into the Samsung E900 in The Guardian. It’s funny, harsh, but probably true.

37signals talk about how you have to be careful with the above ingredients - they are probably not central to what your project needs to do.

“Poor usability is the main reason behind the limited adoption of Google’s services such as Gmail and Google Talk, according to Jeff Bonforte, senior director of real-time communications at Yahoo.” Computing.co.uk discusses how removing features encourages user adoption.

We’re looking for an ambitious junior designer and/or coder, who wants to work within a brand and user-centered design consultancy (that’s us). They will need at least one or more of the following characteristics…

• the aforementioned ambition
• be adept at CSS and XHTML (and comprehend Flash)
• be interested in current web and design trends
• be able to actually design
• be comfortable working within a team and with clients
• want to work in a fantastic office space in Hampstead, London

We’re interested in employing someone for initially a month’s work. If you’re this person, please contact us.