won't and can't learn
The ABC network appears to have launched a new website template for its local news affiliates, and as usual, for TV news sites, I remain un-wowed, because the managements' priorities are too clear and have nothing to do with the site visitors. Here are two examples:
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/http://abclocal.go.com/wls/Once again I'm sent running to news sites produced by newspapers. It's taken a surprisingly long time for some of them to get a handle on an acceptable volume and quality of imagery. But aside from that, it makes complete sense that newspapers were better practiced at dealing with large volumes of, and variations in, content. One of my favorites is still
Savannah Now, because it's clean and fun.
Labels: design, media
my designer went to Flashbelt and all she brought back for me was...
...this photo of foam on the river, shot from the pedestrian bridge at the U.
Seriously, however: Flashbelt was once again chiefly an inspiration. The session topics I chose were rather polarized, with not a whole lot of notable presentations in between widely experimental digitally-initiated and Adobe stumping for its new creative suite. I'm not sure if this observation just illustrates something about me or about Flashbelt, but, well, there you have it.
Experimental Juju:
Jeremy Thorp's "The Pixel Economy" presentation. Be sure to check out his
Plumage project. The
Variance one is good as well.
Joshua Davis is one animated speaker. To illustrate his thoughts on the true organic, and ecstatic, nature of improvisation, he opened up the session by playing this most excellent video of a
Stevie Wonder drum solo. You can check out his Dynamic Abstraction experiments
here. I was sad to discover that, while I did get to see a little of his work at the Cooper-Hewitt a few weeks ago, he has a new and sure-to-be excellent
show in Brooklyn, right now. Dude likes flowers. And fabrics with flowers. Love it.
I felt like I needed more coffee (like, three depth charges) in order to keep up with Paul Ortchanian, but he presented an impressive series of math-driven visual experiments, all of which can be found somewhere on
his site. My conclusion from these presentations: the path to flash enlightenment and fulfillment is right there in front of me, but I will need to forgo some sleep (and other healthful habits as well) in order to gain ground.
Adobe Is God King Of This My Digital World:
Step Inside The Creative Mind. Flash CS3 has some excellent features & I can't wait to try them out. Also, I can do video with Flash (some great tips were provided by
Lisa Larson). Some great examples:
neave.tv and
Caveman's Crib. For sample video clips to get started, I can go to the
Prelinger Archives.
One of the few middle-ground sessions I attended was the Flash Accessibility (see blog
here) Dinner with Adobe's Bob Regan, and it was most informative and enjoyable. Some things I learned: Blindness/some degree of visual disability is not the most common form of disability, but it does have the most effective lobby (and for that reason, it is the main focus of designers concerned with accessibility).
The most common form of disability is cognitive disability-and it is the one disability whose troubles are not solved by using plain text in internet applications.
The best tool a designer can use to improve the accessibility of her work is to get into the habit of testing her work with a screen reader utility. DAILY. TWICE.
Some key concepts for Flash Design for Accessibility: Label, Role, State, and Structure. Be thoughtful and thorough. Other links:
Adobe's Accessibility Resource page.
Also,
David Lowe-Rogstad presented some excellent cases for user-driven online experiences, advising designers to build prototypes, listen to user feedback, and work with it. Topic is well-blogged about
here. Examples included Nike's JoinBode.com site (taken down but reviewed nastily
here). Here's
a book to read.
Labels: design, media
Confessions of this "magazine pervert"
A few days ago I picked up a copy of the most recent issue of "Jane" magazine. It's not one I usually pick up, but I've been a magazine addict for as long as I can remember, and the addiction started when Mom got me a subscription to "Seventeen," at least a year before my actual age even qualified me as a "teenager." So, now and then I like to re-identify with the roots of my addiction, as it were.
I'm completely fascinated by my experience with Jane this week. As I've seen in several other print media over the last few years, this one shows clear signs of infection by the Digital Disease, and it's fabulous. We're not just talking about bright graphics-driven layouts that attempt to tease the reader into "clicking" through the issue, rather then poring through it cover-to-cover or, gasp, using the table of contents. This magazine appears to have removed the persona of authority that fashion and popular culture editors have traditionally embodied. Regardless of whether that authority still there but simply transparent, I really get more of a sense of community, almost like I'm entrenched in a bulletin-board discussion. We have plenty of vocabulary originating from television (ok, YouTube: the revolution is complete). We have not "insider tips" but real-world tips appearing to come from people NOT on the payroll of Maybelline or Calvin Klein. And we have heartfelt calls to collective action, à la: "who's with me here? Let's do this!" I love it.
My little tête-à-tête with Jane also brings to mind the sort of historical role that magazines have (
for some people, anyway): sort of a time capsule, not just of current events, faces and trends, but of methods of advertising persuasion. The language and imagery that can sell a commodity changes with time. As Nick Currie writes in the article cited above, "The consumer society depicted in the pages of old magazines—advertising and editorial both, although the advertising perhaps somewhat more so—has lost its power to seduce, bully or dominate. The products presented look quaint, the future promised farcically fallacious. Everything has been valuably alienated—contextualized, sure, but also de- and re-contextualized...."
What works now? Perhaps the very thing that draws me to the magazine: I already feel loyal to the collective. Curses!
Labels: design, media, pop
