Inayaili is an “amazing female role model for web designers”
We knew she was great already, but we’re still proud that Inayaili has been nominated as one of 40 amazing female models for web designers at Line25.
The meaning of membership
That’s part of the secret to successful networks: everyone’s a member, no one is king.
As newspapers struggle to eek revenue from their activities many are discussing ‘membership areas’, that could include special access to forums, content or freebies. But what could membership mean? Could it mean something more radical? Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian suggests the model employed by Barcelona Football Club in which the fans own the club. Jeff Jarvis talks more about what website membership could mean…
The decline of Microsoft
Microsoft’s core problem is that they have lost the hearts of computer enthusiasts. Regular people don’t think about their choice of computer platform in detail and with passion like nerds do because, duh, they are not nerds. But nerds are leading indicators.
In some ways Microsoft seems to be getting more exciting again. Whether it is the good early reports of Windows 7, Project Natal, their Yahoo! search deal, the XBox’s continuing strength or their Bing search engine, things appear to be happening for them again. Nevertheless, they have just posted some very poor results, and there are still plenty of questions about their business strategies. The problem they have, is that whatever they do, Windows is their life-blood. Take a look at John Gruber’s take on Microsoft’s Long Slow Decline.
CAPTCHAs aren’t worth it
Everyone hates CAPTCHAs — those hard-to-read squiggles of text and numbers that you sometimes need to decipher before you can use a website — but now someone has done some research and it looks like they aren’t worth it. While they helped stop spam, the effect on the failure of conversions in site sign-up was worse. (via Christian)
Twitter and The Prince
Our friends at The Prince’s Charities have just started tweeting. Take a look at http://twitter.com/powcharities. Follow them and start asking questions!
Why support Internet Explorer 6?
Popular link sharing website Digg recently considered removing functionality from the site as they spent so much time trying to get things to work with the ancient web browser. With that in mind they did some research into their users — the findings weren’t great news for web designers. Take a look at their research results here.
The most-hated font in the world
Poor old misunderstood Comic Sans – created with the best intentions – but either hated or poorly used. Take a look at this story on Wall Street Journal about the font, and its creator Vincent Connare.
Taming trolls
Troll: someone who is deliberately aggressive or disruptive in a discussion.
Read more…
Websites still not up to standard
Computerworld discusses why even in 2009, 10 years after the Web Standards Project was founded, and after huge strides from all the browser makers (including Microsoft with the release of IE8), users still find that there are major problems using websites.
Monty Python find the Holy Grail
Due to the recession there has finally been a lot of recent discussion about the expectation and delivery of free content and services online. A recent high profile winner in this are the Monty Python team who placed clips of their work on YouTube and are now reaping a huge increase in their DVD sales. While the balance for copyright holders seems to be hard to find, for some being a bit more ‘relaxed’ about it all seems to be working.
(I’ve been out of action for quite a while, so I’ve been catching up on some interesting news from around the web and work we have been doing, therefore some of this stuff may be a bit old).
Blogging and shining shoes
There has been some debate recently about how plausible it is to make money as an independent writer on the web using advertising. Daniel Lyons who used to famously be ‘Fake Steve Jobs’ wrote an article about how becoming rich as a blogger is nigh-on impossible. Two people who do make a living from blogging, Jason Kottke and Andrew Sullivan, have some interesting responses: Kottke has a nice metaphor; while Andrew Sullivan says “I wrote this blog for years as a labor of love. If you expect nothing, especially at the start, you’re doing it for the right reason.”
Out of work? Browse the web instead.
Peter Kafka at All Things Digital parses recent results from various sources that more people are browsing the web, and wonders whether that it is related to American jobless figures. It could also, of course, be that people are simply going out less. Unfortunately and inevitably, the increase in traffic is not translating to people clicking on ads or buying stuff.
The problem with Content Management Systems
A good Content Management System (CMS) can be a fantastic help for people to easily update their website while keeping design consistent and use supporting technologies (such as RSS or clean, SEO-friendly semantic code). That said, if you use a CMS limitations and costs inevitably occur -it is a case of balance and what is important for your website. For example, in some situations a website that is highly focused on marketing a product or service and needs to be highly stylised may well find a CMS a hindrance. Paul Boag discusses some of these issues in his article The 5 Hidden Costs of Running a CMS.
David Carson on design
David Carson, a leading ‘grunge’ designer in the 90’s designer, talks about design, found images and humour from TED Talks.
Loading…
You probably hate Flash-based websites that display a ‘loading’ bar, but the website Pretty Loaded makes you almost love them.