Steve Jobs took some classes on typography which hugely influenced his design decision making when conceiving his OS. Type Terms is an animated typographic cheat sheet that is perfect for people to learn the basics of typographic terminology. Whether you are new to typography or here to refresh your memory, then Type Terms is perfect for you.
say “I don’t know”
ask for more clarity
stay at home when you feel ill
say your don’t understand
ask what acronyms stand for
forget things
introduce yourself
depend on the team
ask for help
not know everything
have quiet days
have loud days, to talk, joke and laugh
put your headphones on
say “No” when you’re too busy
make mistakes
sing
sigh
not check your email out of hours
not check your email constantly during hours
just Slack it
walk over and ask someone face-to-face
go somewhere else to concentrate
offer feedback on other peoples work
challenge things you are not comfortable with
say yes when anyone does a coffee run
prefer tea
snack
have a messy desk
have a tidy desk
work how you like to work
ask the management to fix it
have off-days
have days off
I love this it’s ok to … list, something I not only need to share in a future workplace, but a list I need to follow myself.
I accidentally discovered the other day that you can bold words and sentences in your text messages. It’s rather simple really, in whatsapp, while typing your message, add a star before and after the the word you wish to bold. It will not display bolded until you send. Do the same for sentences, add a star at the beginning of the words you wish to bold and the end of the sentence. Simple, bold, text messages.
After building sites for over a decade I still get requests to build sites for R5k (under $500) and given that the very first website I ever built cost the same amount all those years ago, I try not take offence, I try to be understanding and encourage people to find other ways of getting their site built on the cheap. So I thought I’d share how I would build a website if I was on a shoe-string budget and still wanted a professional looking presence online, with all the bells and whistles.
You could hire a student, a family member or friend who moonlights on the side or you could simply, do it yourself. Now there are probably a couple of things that immediately ran through your mind when you read that.
I know nothing about web design.
I think you know more than you think. You probably spend more time online these days than you do watching TV. You also don;t have to know much, you just need to follow instructions, I think it’s probably simpler than following a guide on how to build something in Lego. Read on and you might just know enough to get something launched online.
I’m not creative.
You don’t have to be. There are what we call design patterns which are the most common principles for layout, colour, texts etc. Professional web designers build sites around what you, commonly referred to as the ‘user’ does online, so most of thinking is already done. Good online sources will have already thought of this, so it becomes more about taste and function that any talent. The creative part is preparing your content, preparing graphics, which you could even get a descent designer to do and then picking a template.
I don’t know how to code.
You don’t have to. Once you have chosen your template, the functionality is usually included and it’s just about selecting what you want, no coding required. The hard work has been done by a development team.
I don’t have the time.
If you can’t spare a few hours, then you must save up and hire somebody, otherwise this is an excuse because you can get a site up and running in no time at all.
Ok I make it sound easy, and it really is. You can google free website builders or not waste your time and simply use Squarespace. They have packages that start at $8 a month. Thats under R80 a month and includes hosting. I sell hosting to my personal clients for more than that. A domain locally costs just over R100 a year or you can get a more international domain through Squarespace for a few dollars a year. You will have a site that is beautifully designed and functional website, no matter your taste or requirements, hosted with your domain name for give or take R1k. If you have a R5k budget, that will last you a few years, and you can even refresh the design as often as you’re willing to take the time to change the template.
I’m not here to pitch you on Squarespace, I’m not affiliated with them and their site will do a better job convincing you than I ever could. But I have presented you with an option, call it a hack that will really just take a little investment in time. There are many alternative things you could do, but this is what I would do to have a professional website on a small budget.
UPDATE – 23 July 2015
Squarespace has just released a new, free online class on Skillshare called Creating a Website to Build Your Online Brand. In just one hour, instructor George Denison walks you through creating and maintaining an online presence that’s beautiful and helps you achieve your business goals.
Enroll for free and go make something you love!
LinkedIn purchased Lynda the other day and I am surprised that no other online learning institute have thought about integrating socially. I study on multiple online sites, but none of them automate the courses I complete into any social networks, outside of them trying to promote themselves through referrer programs, which I’m encouraged to do. I mentioned it to the Treehouse guys, and I hope they do something about it, before Lynda completely dominates on LinkedIn.
I think this Lynda acquisition is a brilliant idea, possibly they over paid, but it’s a smart move by LinkedIn. I have read that they plan on suggesting courses when you get a promotion to ensure you have the right skills to do you job. But that seems counter productive, for job seekers, who I personally think benefit the most from LinkedIn. Instead, when you study and as you complete a course, your achievements are automatically added to your profile, so that recruiters and employers can find people with the skills they require. This could be done for any social network or recruitment site that showcases your credentials, in the same way as any learning institute, both online and offline, it promotes them , it’s good for you and everybody wins.
Automation of your credentials is useful, we sometimes hesitate to promote our new skills, for all sorts of valid reasons, so this way, so long as I have consented it just makes it credible, because everybody’s doing it. It would take me a significant amount of time to add all the courses I have completed to my LinkedIn profile, but automation takes away that hurdle, and if it’s happening as I’m learning, my skills are being presented as current as they possibly can be. Now doesn’t that just make sense? So lets hope for $1.5 billion LinkedIn are smart enough to not only offer courses, but showcase the courses already completed. This goes for all the other online institute out their too.
If you are interested in learning user interface and user experience design techniques, then a good place to start, given the wealth of useful knowledge shared, is the Material Design site by Google.
We challenged ourselves to create a visual language for our users that synthesizes the classic principles of good design with the innovation and possibility of technology and science. This is material design. This spec is a living document that will be updated as we continue to develop the tenets and specifics of material design.
I consider myself fairly seasoned when it comes to interaction design, but if for no other reason than learning how to articulate the points made, Material Design has plenty of learnings, information and inspiration.
I’ve had a few requests from people to show how I have added my domain to my instagram photos.
Add your photo, filters etc and once you’ve gotten to the final screen where you add your tags, description etc, there’s a link to Name This Location.
Click on that and you will see a list of locations near you.
At the top their is a field that says Find or create a location.
Type in your domain www.craigjamieson.com as a custom location, select Create a custom location and it will add it as your location.
The next time you post, you simply search for location and start typing your url and it should pick it up immediately and you add it.
The nice thing is when sharing on certain social networks, it includes your domain as the location.
Over the past couple of months, I have had a bit of free time on my hands, so I decided to brush up on my skills. The most affordable solution I found was Treehouse. They offer all their courses as easy to follow videos, tutored by some of the brightest talents in our industry.
I have studied all sorts of things like UX, Business, CSS, JavaScript, SASS, and WordPress to name a few. As you get through there courses you are tested, earn points and badges.
I’m proud to say I have more total points than 99% of all other students. Check out my profile on Treehouse.
Facebook is constantly evolving and one of the more recent changes is the way we handle images in posts. With the wall getting wider, the square we have gotten used to is now a rectangle. So I have started exploring how this new shape is being handled and how you can best design for it.
Square post
Rectangle post
The rectangle is wider, which gives you more real estate in which to design. The aspect ratio is 16:9 like the average photograph, unlike polaroids and Instagram
You can use larger images, I like to make them big so that when you view them in the gallery, they have some substance, but remember to keep the aspect ratio and that the larger the file, the longer the download.
Something else I have noted is that it does not crop right to the edge, so it might be a good idea to ensure your design does not go right to the edge.
There is a border around the images, it’s not a light grey, but rather a transparent line as you can still see some of the image through the line. Remember to add that when doing Facebook design mockups. Just in case that confuses anyone, you do not need to add the border for your final image for Facebook, that’s a style the site applies, but in your actual mockup for client presentations etc.
I still think these images are being used in other sections of Facebook, so don’t forget about the square, keep the focus of your image in that square space.
I am currently looking into how cover images are being handled as I have noticed some shifts in it’s usage too and will post something soon.
The latest book from the clever people at A Book Apart, Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte was not only brilliant to read, challenged how to approach web design in this new way, but it had Ethan’s personality all over it, which kept it as entertaining as it was brilliant.