Learning to Crawl

Henry, my three-month-old son, is learning to crawl now, which is amazing to watch. He seems to know what to do with his arms. They’re supporting his weight. The problem is that he hasn’t quite figured out what to do with his legs. He wiggles them around, but his weight is too evenly distributed across his legs. In other words, he’s not using his knees. Today, however, he started to put his butt in the air, which means it’s only a matter of time before those knees are doing some propulsion. Oh my god. I need to child-proof the house.

The Web Transmogrified 2: Predictions

These are not original ideas.

Print will die once everyone has a mobile computer. This may take a while, although perhaps not as long as one might think since Walmart is selling the iPhone.

Online catalog budgets for retailers will by in large surpass traditional merchandise catalog budgets, but ecommerce user experience will not change much, sadly.

Magazines will finally see the light and start investing in online publishing, spurring some minor innovations in online publishing, mostly in the area of online advertising, sadly.

All music will eventually be free via the web and all artists will make money through t-shirt sales and donations.

Most desktop apps will be cloud-ified.

George Agpoon’s internet buzzword, “cloudified”, will be embraced by hundreds.

The Web Transmogrified 1

Stating the obvious, but maybe some don’t know yet:

The web is mostly type, which makes readability and organization of written content of critical importance.

Users will scroll. They like to scroll. The vertical organization of large chunks of information on a page is easy for users to understand.

Users will surf the web from their sofa.

Users (Millennials and up) do not differentiate between television and web media.

Users (consumers) are the primary keepers of brands online. Web workers must inspire and empower users to activate and advocate brands.

How I Love WordPress

For me, WordPress has that pleasure principle going for it. I love using it. The design is elegant. It has great usability. It’s extremely flexible and customizable.

Put another way, WordPress is the Baskin Robbin’s Peanut Butter n’ Chocolate of online apps.

Addicted to Avenir

Seems like everything I design lately uses the Avenir typeface. I’ll often start with a different font, but I always seem to go back to Avenir. Why? It’s precise, modern, timeless, well kerned, and easy on the eyes. My overuse of it is however is making it a little stale.

There are other options, such as Freight:

Proxima Nova:

And Precious:

I could always go back to the tried and true Helvetica Neue. Or maybe I’ll finally get around to designing my ideal typeface.

(images from smashingmagazine.com)