April 13, 2009
Just a quick note. The paperback of my book, Designing for the Web, is available on the 14th April at 12pm GMT. That’s tomorrow. I have 1500 copies all ready to go, and these will be available on a first come, first serve basis.
If I sell out, I may just get another print run done. We’ll see.
March 26, 2009
We plan to make the Drupal 7 User Experience something very special. The biggest risk to this project is community rejection/involvement too late in the project.
Please, get involved now.
March 26, 2009
Yesterday, a rather heated debate raged over on Carsonified’s blog regarding a design competition they’re running to design a slide for the upcoming Future of Web Design conference in London. The debate was an old one, resurrected every now and then and fiercely debated on both sides. The debate was regarding speculative work. It’s a subject I feel very passionate about as I’ve seen the damage it causes – both personal and professional.
I’m a little tired of justifying my position and opinions on Twitter, so I thought I’d pen a few thoughts here and explain my personal viewpoint and hopefully spark some considered, intelligent debate (see my paragraph citing Matt Henderson for an example of this).
March 24, 2009
Leisa and I have spent a good deal of time looking at how we can define the audience for Drupal 7. A couple of weeks ago, we spent a day trying to come up with an effective model to use throughout the design process. Not just a model that we could use, but one that could be available to the whole Drupal community as we embark on the challenging task of looking at the user experience for Drupal 7.
February 04, 2009
Last week, I flew to Boston, MA, to have a meeting with those fine folks at Acquia about a project they wanted my small design studio to look at. Today, Dries Buytaert, the founder of Drupal, announced that, together with Leisa Reichelt, we’re going to be working on improving the user experience of Drupal 7. Needless to say, we’re very, very excited to be part of this project.
From what we learned on the Drupal.org project, both in terms of process, but also some of the stumbling blocks that Drupal has, we’re confident we can make some changes that will make it easier to use for people who are new to Drupal, but also experienced users.
Leisa and I are going to be at DrupalCon DC in March. We’ll be kick-starting our research, presenting on the redesign of drupal.org, and doing a lot of listening. if you’re going please tap me on the shoulder and say hi.
February 02, 2009
In the hubbub of the launch this morning, I totally forgot to blog about the launch of Designing for the Web. So, there, I’ve said it. It’s available and ready to download now. I hope you like it.
PS. If you signed up for a coupon, they’re trickling out over the course of today and tomorrow. We’ve had some mail server issues (typical!).
January 31, 2009
Managing the expectation of the new book has been interesting. When I first announced it, I used to still blog quite a bit. People seemed excited – which was nice – so was I. Then, I stopped work on it for a while, all the expectation and buzz died down as the project did. Since we pinned a release date on the book, buzz has steadily increased once again, but with it the expectation. And I don’t mind telling you, that expectation is weighing a little heavy on my shoulders.
January 28, 2009
The interesting thing about trying something completely new is that you learn almost all the time. True, you make plenty of mistakes along the way. That’s how it’s been writing this book. But, it’s not just the writing you see. Book publishing involves a whole team of people, from editors and proof-readers to project managers and designers. I’m lucky that I have a semi-experienced team at Mark Boulton Design to help me get the book finished and out of the door.
Robert Mills is our Project Manager. He comes from a media research and journalism background, so is not scared of the written word. It was his job to really push the publication over the past four months or so. I asked him to pen a few words on our approach, and this is what he came up with…
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I'm a graphic designer from near Cardiff in the UK. I've been a designer for over ten years now and primarily work on the web. I'm still partial to a bit of print every now and then though. I used to work for Agency.com in London as an Art Director before working as a Senior Designer for the BBC in sunny Cardiff. This was all before I took leave of my senses and formed my own design consultancy, Mark Boulton Design Ltd.
I've got a thing about grids and typography and occasionally ramble on about them to anyone who will listen.
If you're after simple, clean and effective web design; let me know.