Posted on June 4th, 2010 by Karl Stolley
About the only thing more horrifying than my sketches is my handwriting. I should probably put scare-quotes around sketches, but I generally try to avoid that sort of thing.
But they do work for me. My own sad little way of previsualizing what I need to do. For example, consider this sad little sketch:
That actually eventually became the wiki for a workshop that’s part of the Summer Seminar in Rhetoric and Composition at Michigan State:
This afternoon, I started a few new sketches for my personal/professional web presence. I don’t like them, because they’re conventional and uninteresting. But sometimes those kinds of obvious ideas just have to get pushed out so you can get at the good stuff (while desperately hoping that there is good stuff in your head to be had). Here’s a sample of the not-so-good stuff:
I also tend to write a lot of things when I’m struggling to design. My default is the verbal, I guess, although in a week, I won’t be able to read it either:
In translation, all of that is talking about the general visual idea for my new site at karlstolley.com: I’m looking to do a pretty minimalist design in terms of graphics, relying more on subtle uses of color and strong typography (care of Typekit, although I have been very disappointed in&emdash;though not surprised at—how poorly Windows renders a good number of Typekit’s fonts).
I’ve not really designed a light-on-dark site in awhile (this one being somewhat of an exception), so I’ve been drawing some inspiration from http://www.lightondark.com/ and from the simple frankness of the command line (I always like to set my terminals up for light on dark).
I’ve also been drawing a fair amount of inspiration from John Maeda’s classic Creative Code, just as a visual artifact from the late 1990s/early 2000s (Maeda’s website has some microscopic thumbnails of the pages)—particularly because how it reflect the fascination at that time with digital designs that looked unapologetically digital.
We’ll see how this all shapes up.
Tags: karlstolley.com, planning, sketching | No Comments
Posted on June 4th, 2010 by Karl Stolley
For a project that came into being over the Memorial Day weekend, #wywof is off to a modest start. Not because of what I’ve done (shamefully, I just put in my first 40 minutes this afternoon; Saturday will have to make up for it…that’s me missing my own point right there), but what other enterprising people have been up to who have posted projects or blogs about projects. Here’s a round-up of some of the projects that have been mentioned on the #wywof tweetstream:
@alanbenson, @charlietanksley, @jnorion, and @rachaelsullivan are also working on projects, although I don’t think they’ve shared links yet. And many others have posted to my Facebook account or sent me emails about similar plans…I don’t want to leave you out; throw in a comment below.
If I left you out, please send an @ reply to @wywof or leave a comment below. Eventually, I’ll set up a page with Twitter, project and/or blog links for everyone who’s playing along.
Finally, a big thank-you to a few different groups or people have blogged mentioning the project:
I found those through either the #wywof stream or the Google blog search. If I missed your post, please let me know.
Tags: participants, progress | No Comments
Posted on May 31st, 2010 by Karl Stolley
So, the quick-thinking Travis Swicegood (@tswicegood) has suggested that 105 minutes would work out to 15 minutes a day, 7 days a week (or 21 for 5 days, if you’re counting).
I’m still enamored with the simplicity of 100 minutes; but if you want to go 105 (and I probably will too; who’d say no to 5 extra minutes?), that’s cool too. Just so long as you’re having fun.
Also, Travis has set up a site on Slinkset, http://wywof.slinkset.com/, where you can share links to your own projects, etc., as he has.
Finally, one little plug (again): While You Were on Facebook has a Twitter account, @wywof. Assuming you’re not a spammer, you will be followed back. Promise. And don’t forget to use the #wywof hashtag…or to note the irony of using Twitter as a comm channel for what’s sort of a reaction to Facebook.
Tags: 105, clarification, swicegood | No Comments
Posted on May 31st, 2010 by Karl Stolley
According to the Nielsen Company, people spent an average of 6 hours, 43 minutes and 22 seconds on Facebook during April 2010. That’s 403 minutes (rounded to the minute) per user for that month; during March, it was 419 minutes. In February, about 388 minutes. Average those numbers together (and assume 4 weeks in a month), and that’s an average of about 100 minutes spent on Facebook per user, per week for the three most recent months.
As a response to that and all of the media attention and public outcry over Facebook’s information sharing practices and privacy controls, I want to ask a simple question: What might people accomplish in those 100 minutes per week toward establishing or revamping their own personal, customized websites—so as to share and connect with others on their own terms?
To try and answer that question, I propose this summer-long experiment: Beginning June 1, 2010, take 100 minutes per week and show what can be done to write, build, and design things on the Web, even in that limited amount of time.
There are but two rules of engagement, in case you’d like to take part in this experiment yourself:
- You’re allowed 100 minutes each week, 400 minutes each month, to work. If you go over one week, you lose minutes off the next. If you come in under, those minutes roll over to the week following. (The idea being that web design can easily consume your attention for hours on end, so let’s keep the commitment small on a weekly basis, rather than blowing all 400 minutes the first day.)
- Each day that you resist logging in to Facebook, you gain 15 more minutes to work (100 minutes / 7 = 14.87 minutes). I personally spend at least twice that on Facebook each day because I’m something of an addict by force of habit (and iPhone), so I expect this will probably never actually happen for me–unless I start to panic at month’s end.
For my own part, I also plan to make this an exercise in making the often hidden work of design and writing public. It’s not just about making or redesigning a site, but sharing and making that work visible. To that end:
- I will post all of the XHTML, CSS, and other source code I write on GitHub.com; that source will also be reflected on the actual site I’m working on. Timestamps on GitHub will be my primary time-keeping measure and record.
- Each day that I work, I will post here about my progress.The posts will offer links to resources that can help others to learn web writing and design, based on whatever it was I did that day. With each post, I will also note the minutes I’ve spent working, and the minutes that remain for the week and month, plus any bonus minutes gained by not using Facebook (won’t happen, I guarantee it). However, the time to post does not count against the 100 minutes per week.
- When I post, I will also share pages scanned from my sketchbook or other pencil-and-paper work. I might also post mockups and designs I do digitally–and any materials or pictures I’m drawing inspiration from (within the limits of copyright law).
I might be interested in a few people co-blogging about their While You Were On Facebook (WYWOF; Twitter hashtag: #wywof) web design experiences on this site. Leave a message in the comments, or hit me up on Twitter @karlstolley or at the @wywof account I set up.
Finally, to test the viability of web design in 100 minutes per week over a few different projects, I plan to work on three different sites this summer, one each month:
- During June, I will be working on my professional website at http://karlstolley.com/. It’s currently built over the top of WordPress, and it will stay that way–but with a fresh installation and a new custom template and design that I will write from scratch.
- During July, I will be redesigning the Sustainable Web Design site and, by extension, creating the companion site for my web design book, which will also be housed at http://sustainablewebdesign.com/. I’ve not yet decided what will power this site; it’s currently a homegrown CMS that I wrote and no longer like.
- During August, I will be creating the site for Gewgaws Lab, http://gewga.ws. This will also likely be built using WordPress, but I may challenge myself to go with something else I’ve not tried to use before.
OK. I think that’s it. Are you in?
Tags: experiment, information | 15 Comments