David Herrold

BMW concept car with cloth skin

Posted by Dave | Filed under Design, Science, Technology

Video link

GINA Light Visionary Model BMW concept car makes me appreciate design even more. Imagine how light and fuel efficient a car could be made without the additional weight of a steel skin wrapped around it.

The headlights make it look almost alive.

Seen on Neat-o-rama.

Tags: bmw, car, concept, Design, gina

An Event Apart 2008 - New Orleans

Posted by Dave | Filed under Browsers, Design, Development, Technology, Usability, Web design

Wow. I have been drinking from the fire hose of information for the past two days here in New Orleans at An Event Apart. The conference was organized by Jeffery Zeldman and Eric Meyer and according to the website:

“Their new conference wouldn’t be just for designers. It wouldn’t be just for coders. Attendees would gain a deeper understanding of web standards, of course. But they would also encounter a world of emerging best practices and inspiring new ideas.”

I didn’t know what to expect. Would the code be over my head? Would the design be beyond my skills? Would I be able to grasp the conceptual nuggets they would throw? I mean, these people are the best in the industry.

They’re internet famous, right?

As it turned out, each presentation was amazingly clear, surprisingly understandable and completely worth the price of admission. The difference between the presenters at An Event Apart and your run-of-the-mill web experts is an overwhelming sense of passion for their craft. Some of the highlights for me were:

Andy Clarke’s astute observation about how comic book design can be transferred to the web to control pace and user engagement was refreshing, if not brilliant. It was one of those ideas that made me whack my forehead and wonder why I hadn’t thought of that. Andy’s a smart fellow. I added his blog to my feed reader immediately.

Brian Oberkirch, beyond being an extraordinarily nice guy, has an uncanny grasp on what humanizes the web. His talk Thursday afternoon was a lot like eating really good dim sum. I was filled with delicious savory tidbits about how sites can create human connections and positive social interaction with their users. Not shallow marketing, but real connections. The web would be a better place if more people listened to Brian.

I thought Eric Meyer’s CSS presentation, if any, would be the one that stumped me. I am, by no means, a CSS expert; and I feared his material would be tailored for people with more experience. However, Eric did such a good job of presenting his material in a way that made it easily digestible. I took away some very useful tidbits about how to use CSS to debug your markup. Very handy stuff.

I had never paid much attention to how beautiful data & information design could be until Jeff Veen spoke on Friday. His slide showing Google searches throughout the world as pinpoints of light on a globe was amazing. He spoke about data like some artists speak about color or texture. Data is simply another artistic medium.

Robert Hoekman Jr switched things up a bit. He did live usability assessments for people in the audience who needed some help with their sites. Usability issues fascinate me and Robert was very good at recognizing usability issues with a short glance at the site in question. I plan on checking out his book.

What can be said about Jeffery Zeldman that hasn’t already been said? Jeffery is the patriarch of web standards and has been fighting the good fight to make the web a better place for designers, programmers and users alike. He addressed a room full of designers as Yoda addressed his Jedi. Use your powers for good He was also very humble and approachable, something I hadn’t expected.

Here is some additional information about the speakers at An Even Apart 2008 in New Orleans:

Andy Clarke - Author, Transcending CSS
Dave Shea - Co-author, Zen of CSS Design
Cameron Moll - Author, Mobile Web Design
Jeff Veen - Design manager, Google
Brian Oberkirch - Publisher, Like It Matters
Aaron Gustafson - Co-author, AdvancED DOM Scripting
Stephanie Sullivan - Co-author, Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver CS3
Aarron Walter - Author, Building Findable Web Sites
Robert Hoekman Jr. - Author, Designing the Obvious
Jason Santa Maria - Designer, Happy Cog
Eric Meyer - Author, CSS: The Definitive Guide
Jeffrey Zeldman - Author, Designing With Web Standards

If web design, development and standards interest you then I would recommend checking out An Event Apart. I had a blast and hope to attend again in the future. It was good to hang out with Tim and the rest of my pals from BarCampNOLA in New Orleans.

Hope to see you all again soon.

Tags: aeanola08, An Event Apart, barcampnola, new orleans, nola

Google opens Website Optimizer

Posted by Dave | Filed under Business, Design, Development, Google, Marketing, Usability, Web design

Google released their Website Optimizer platform last week for general use. It has only been available to sites using Google AdWords in the past, but now can be used by anyone to enhance site performance. This is great news for web analytic junkies, usability testers, developers and designers alike.

In a nutshell, Google’s Website Optimizer allows you to test multiple versions of content (ie. marketing messages, logos, icons, copy, etc) in a live environment to determine which combination of content yields the best results.

Based upon what you are testing, this “result” could mean higher click-throughs, increased product sales, increased product downloads, increased ad revenue, higher traffic to internal pages, etc.

This eliminates the guesswork of testing ad placement, site designs, product purchase flows, etc. You can simply release multiple versions of your content and look at the analytics to determine which one is yielding the best results.

There are certainly other tools to do the same job; but not many are free or this simple. We could certainly do the same thing at the Chronicle, however we would have to use several systems to make it happen. This simplicity of using one system appeals to me.

Here are some links to get you started with Google’s Website Optimizer:

Google Website Optimizer
Google Website Optimizer blog
Website Optimizer press release

(via Web Worker Daily)

Tags: analytics, Google, Marketing, Usability, website optimizer

Temperature sensitive paint

Posted by Dave | Filed under Design, Science, Uncategorized

French scientists are testing temperature sensitive paint for use on the highways as a visual warning for drivers in icy conditions

A new temperature-sensitive varnish developed by researchers at French company Eurovia can be applied to road surfaces to warn drivers about dangerous conditions. The technique – still at the testing stage – might help prevent ice-related traffic accidents in future, the researchers say.
Full article.

I love ideas like this. So simple, yet brilliant. This will likely save lives if used in climates conducive to black-ice.

(Via Reaction)

Adobe launches web-based Photoshop Express

Posted by Dave | Filed under Design, Photography, Software, Web design

Adobe launched the web-based Photoshop Express recently and I’m trying to figure out if it’s any better or worse than Flickr’s  (picnik.com) web-based image editing tool.  Adobe offers 2GB of storage, which is better storage than the free Flickr account, however, Express isn’t meant to be a photo sharing site like Flickr.

The functionality isn’t terribly interesting yet, but image editing is Adobe’s bread and butter, so I would expect the functionality to grow in the coming months.

The one immediate limitation I noticed is the requirement of Flash Player 9 to run the Express.  I tried visiting the site with my current version of FireFox  and got a blank screen.  I suspected it was a problem with my version of Flash player.  When I upgraded my Flash Player to the current version (9), it worked fine.

I hope Adobe continues to build on this platform.  It’s an interesting idea and this space could use some decent competition.

Photoshop Express (via Bittbox)

Tags: adobe, express, image editing, photoshop, Software, web-based

Jackson Pollack spatters the web

Posted by Dave | Filed under Design

Jackson Pollack’s website has is a nifty Flash-based paint spattering program.  It looks very simple, but really captures the dripping lines of paint quite well.  The site’s been around for a while, but I was just reminded of it by the good folks at Computerlove.

Link (via Computerlove)

More about Jackson Pollack on Wikipedia.

Tags: Design, flash, jackson pollack, painting

Mobile presentation for BarCampNOLA

Posted by Dave | Filed under Design, Mobile, Usability

I put together a mobile presentation for BarCamp NOLA this weekend. Since I’ve been working on our mobile platform recently I’ve been taking some notes and reading about the industry’s best practices with WAP and mobile technology in general.

Let me know what you think.

- Dave

Tags: Blackberry, iPhone, Mobile, Treo, WAP, wireless

Headed to BarCampNOLA

Posted by Dave | Filed under Design, Development, Marketing, Networking, Technology, Web design

Looks like I’m headed to New Orleans for BarCampNOLA in a couple of weeks. I missed BarCampHouston & BarCampTexas recently due to scheduling conflicts and my general chaotic schedule at work.

Since NOLA is a fun place in general, I’ve convinced the missus to join me. I have a feeling she will be doing more shopping than BarCamping, but I’m just glad she’s coming along regardless.

It looks like the campers will be helping a local business with the power of technology. I assume this will involve legions of man-servant robots and rocket-powered jetpacks. More likely it will involve a handful of programmers and a few laptops. I suspect Twitter will be involved somehow too.

The most popular Steve I know will also be attending (I think).

Looking forward to some beignets and a cup of chicory coffee…and finding a room in the French Quarter for under $250 a night. Yikes.

- Dave

Tags: barcamp, barcampnola, french quarter, Networking, social media, Technology, Web design

Startup weekend 2008

Posted by Dave | Filed under Design, Development, Marketing, Software, Technology, Web design

What is Startup weekend you might ask? Well according to the website Startup weekend is:

“an intense 54 hour event bringing together brilliant tech minds (developers, designers, marketers, ect.) together to create a company from concept to launch!”

We Houstonians have the opportunity to bring Startup Weekend to Texas by voting on the Startup weekend website. Austin and Dallas are both listed as potential cities for the next event (I voted for Austin because I think it might be a little more fun than Dallas).

Vote here | Read more about Startup Weekend | Subscribe to Startup weekend RSS

Tags: Design, Software, start up weekend, startup weekend, technology conferences, Web design, web development

I (heart) Skitch

Posted by Dave | Filed under Blogging, Design, Software

I installed Skitch this evening and I think I am in love. Seriously.

I haven’t been this impressed with a piece of software since I first played with FireFox.

Skitch is an amazingly intuitive screen capture and image editing application for the Mac. But there’s a twist. Skitch integrates with FTP, SFTP, Flickr, .Mac as well as the iSight camera. You can also post images to the social Skitch website in your Skitch account (here’s a link to my page). You can then easily embed the Skitch image from your Skitch page with the click of a button. Very impressive.

Mac-based bloggers (and there are a lot of them out there) are going to eat this up with spoons.

This could spell the death of Command + Shift + 3 for screen capture on a Mac. I’m sure I’m not the first person to pour a little malt liquor on the grave of that 3-button-plus-mouse-click pain-in-the-ass. But I’m one of the happiest.

One for me, one for my homies.

Tags: Blogging, image editor, screenshot, skitch