July 2010

Re-starting my blog at 40,000 feet

Submitted by Marc Drummond on

I set up this blog a year ago. I felt I had something to share about Drupal, about web and graphic design, web standards, accessibility, usability and other fun things related to the web.

I wrote an initial post September 2009. I have not written since.

At times, I thought of writing up some new Drupal technique I discovered, if for no other reason than to document it for my own reference.

And yet, I didn't.

On tweeting notes at An Event Apart Minneapolis

Submitted by Marc Drummond on

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend An Event Apart for my first time. It was as mind-blowing an experience as possible. The opportunity to learn in person from many of the people who taught me web design through their books and their blog posts and their articles, well, it was an exceptional experience.

An Event Apart Minneapolis: Jeffrey Zeldman, "Web 2.1: The Medium Comes of Age"

Submitted by Marc Drummond on

Here are some of my notes that I took during Jeffrey Zeldman’s excellent talk at An Event Apart Minneapolis, Web 2.1: The Medium Comes of Age. It is inevitably impossible to capture everything that is excellent in such a talk, and it is always possible that I may get something wrong. Feel free to let me know if that is the case.

An Event Apart Minneapolis: Whitney Hess, "DIY UX: Give Your Users an Upgrade"

Submitted by Marc Drummond on

The second speaker at An Event Apart Minneapolis was Whitney Hess, who spoke about Do It Yourself User Experience techniques in “DIY UX: Give Your Users an Upgrade.” Below are summaries of my notes. These are Whitney’s excellent thoughts, not mine. Hopefully I captured them accurately, but this is a poor substitute for the engaging, practical presentation Whitney gave. You have to go to An Event Apart for that!

An Event Apart Minneapolis: Jared Spool, "Anatomy of a Design Decision"

Submitted by Marc Drummond on

All of the presentations at An Event Apart Minneapolis were fantastic, but I probably laughed the hardest at Jared Spool’s presentation on the “Anatomy of Design Decisions.” The cursed airlines had delayed Dan Cederholm’s flight to Minneapolis, so Jared was called upon to do Dan’s presentation on CSS3. Or so Jared joked.

An Event Apart Minneapolis: Luke Wroblewski, "Mobile first!"

Submitted by Marc Drummond on

On Monday afternoon of An Event Apart Minneapolis, the first presentation was given by Luke Wroblewski, with a simple but revolutionary message for us: Web products should be designed for mobile first. Below is a summary of my notes: unless I specify otherwise, these brilliant thoughts are his.

In short, even if you’re not planning on releasing a mobile version, design web products for mobile first.

An Event Apart Minneapolis: Aarron Walter, "Learning to Love Humans: Emotional Interface Design"

Submitted by Marc Drummond on

One of the most charming presentations at An Event Apart Minneapolis was from Aarron Walter, who talked to us about learning to love humans, something we have all struggled with from time to time, I’m sure. Aarron is also the author of Building Findable Websites, which I am reading and enjoying right now.

Really, the only flaw in the presentation is that Aarron is apparently originally from Iowa. I tried not to hold that against him, as I’m a Minnesotan. I jest of course, I suppose because I’m human.