Mark Boulton » ofinterest

BenjaminKeen.com

markboulton — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:01:05 +0000

Very useful bookmarklet that renders the page you're viewing in several device sizes. Great for testing responsive designs. Continue reading →

2012 UX Bootcamps

markboulton — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:59:18 +0000

I’m very excited to be running a Bootcamp again for UX Bootcamps in April next year. This year, it was great fun working alongside some talented UX-ers up their graphic design skills. And, considerable progress was made in just two days.

Alongside the Visual Design Bootcamp, there will be a Cognitive Psychology bootcamp in February with Joe Leech from CX Partners, and Information Architecture UX Bootcamp with Mags Hanley. Both of which, I’m sure, will be superb.

So, if you fancy any of them, tickets will be on sale from midday on 5th January 2012.

Feelings: The Technology Podcast About People

markboulton — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:44:43 +0000

Joe Clark with a superb idea; a series of podcast interviews with the focus on the person, not their work, projects or how successful and wonderful they are. Joe: please make this happen. Continue reading →

5by5: Me on Grids

markboulton — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:56:33 +0000

I had the pleasure of speaking with Jen Simmons (@jensimmons) on her show on 5by5: A Web Ahead..

For a whole 100 minutes (!) I harped on about responsive design, grids, design process, news, advertising and a few other things. Despite my dodgy sore throat, I had a great time discussing some of the nuances of adopting new and challenging approaches to design and build the web sites and services we do.

The New, Convoluted Life Cycle Of A Newspaper Story

markboulton — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:44:01 +0000

Great piece from 10,000 Words on the natural growth of news.

Having done a ton of thinking about this over the last year, this resonates so much with my thoughts and conclusions. This particularly struck me:

Unlike a blog like TechCrunch, for example, a newspaper is publishing to multiple platforms. TechCrunch has one platform, one story type: blog posts. Newspapers are the only type of publishing company to have the distinct differentiation of “print stories” (which are posted to the web) vs. “blog posts” vs. “web updates” (to the print stories). The different platforms, web CMS and print CMS, have different workflows associated with them.

So many news publishers are hand-tied by their own mental-models of perfectly manicured journalism similar to TV or Print. One to many, final-state publishing. The web’s different, but what’s crucial is how we show the change of the story for the user. How do we do that?

The making of FF Tundra | I love typography, the typography and fonts blog

markboulton — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:41:39 +0000

A wonderful story about the creation of FF Tundra on I Love Typography. Such a great insight into the design decisions, and motivations behind them, when crafting a typeface design. Continue reading →

Five & Ten

markboulton — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:37:43 +0000

Jason Santa Maria – the talented bastard – goes and redesigns his site and serves up a masterclass in understated elegance. The subtleties here are sublime. Look, absorb, learn.

Interestingly, Jason states one of the reasons he redesigned this way because he felt the weight of pressure that every post had to be a considered, designed, art-directed masterpiece.

An alternative to employee options/equity grants

markboulton — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:13:29 +0000

Very interesting, simple solution to equity/share options which is similar to an annual profit share scheme. Except this example is when the company is sold or IPOs. A very elegant solution. Continue reading →

How Much Design Is Too Much Design?

markboulton — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:13:06 +0000

Khoi echoes some of my own thoughts about the value of design in digital products: is it pixel-perfection, or 'good enough' iteration. Continue reading →

Explorations in Typography

markboulton — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 17:09:34 +0000

A great looking book by Carolina de Bartolo and Erik Spiekermann out in April 2011:

Explorations in Typography: Mastering the Art of Fine Typesetting (A Visual Textbook for Intermediate to Advanced Typography) is a vast collection of beautiful typesetting examples. Page after page, a brief article by Erik Spiekermann has been set in hundreds of different ways in hundreds of different typefaces, creating an extended visual taxonomy of typesetting that allows you to “learn by looking.”

Interestingly, the site has ‘key features’ of the book listed in the same way you would list features of an electronic product or web app.

The Ghosts of Old London

markboulton — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:42:03 +0000

Wonderful imagery from 1800's London. Some of the buildings shown look incredibly ramshackled. More Elizabethan than Victorian, I wish some of London looked like this now. Continue reading →