August 31, 2004
markboulton.co.uk finally goes 3.1 after beig involved in the beta test.
MovableType 3.1 was released today. I’ve been involved in the beta test, and as such was not allowed to install it on any production websites, but as of five minutes ago this site is fully 3.1 and so far working without a hitch.
August 24, 2004
This site has been put up on Stylegala and is currently number 4 in the voting. Nice one.
Not the best write up i’ve ever had, but the comments back are good and has made me think about altering a couple of things.
August 22, 2004
Update: Slight changes to the design, some problems with the old design. Mac Ie stylesheet deleted until I can get it to work properly.
Here it is, my new site.
As you can see a lot of changes have happened. In fact a (near) complete redesign has taken place. Only the journal remains pretty much intact (data wise). Everything else you see is brand spanking new. In fact I can’t quite believe it myself.
A year in the planning and designing and two months in the making. It’s been a great learning experience, even if it’s one I wont be repeating the near future.
I still have tons to do, such as populating the portfolio with old and new work. In the meantime you can still look at the old portfolio here .
A more detailed post will follow this shortly regarding the redesign. Until then, feel free to have a look around.
June 21, 2004
Whilst I was away on honeymoon there have been a number of launches at BBC Wales on the “Slash Wales” service (as it’s being marketed - no comment). Anyhow a number of these sites have been in development for nearly 12 months.
They’ve seen a considerable amount of work on the backend and represent re-engineered content management system and a shift in production methodologies - with an emphasis on User Centered Design, Web Standards and an Object Oriented Approach to the content management, with extensive look at cross promotion and meta data.
In Pictures
In Pictures pulls together a lot of content from across the BBC Wales service relating to images and puts it into one place. This was a first go at creating a generic style for all functional portals using CSS to render as much of the presentational information as possible.
Development / IA / Design / CSS
Surfing
This site represents the most work. A complete reworking of the Information Architecture, User Interface and a lot of time spent on the graphic design integration with the new content management structure. I’ll be giving a more detailed breakdown of these sites once I get my portfolio redesigned.
Development / IA / Design / CSS Implementation
Weather
This is phase one of the weather portal. It’s not quite right yet. The weather app needs some work from a usability point of view and the overall green/blue feel has been lost with the introduction of the garish purple. Hopefully this will be addressed in the next phase.
Development / IA / Design
May 11, 2004
Yesterday saw the relaunch of Blogger. All the “Web Standards” blogs out there were thick with praise for this redesign (I guess most of them don’t actually see beyond Doug’s great design and the Standards implementation). Doug has documented the process which has some great insights into this new launch.
I think the real success here is the Usability work done (and Dougs interpretation of the required “Ease-of-use"). The work Adaptive Path have done is fantastically elegant.
Good design shouldn’t be noticed. A very well design book, or newspaper, just works. The design doesn;t get in the way of the message. The new Blogger site is a wonderful example of this. Ease of use was of upmost importance, Jeff Veen points out that the Blogger wanted to be able to set up a blog, in three steps, in less than five minutes. Quite an undertaking.
The registration process is superb, one of the best i’ve used. Ever. It’s so simple even my mother could use it (and that’s saying something). Here’s some grabs of the process. What’s nice to see is contextual help links next to items that you may want help with.
The new Blogger logo is a good step on from the previous version and it ties in very well to the overall “curved” look of the site. I’m not over familiar with the original version of the logo, but I do know it was square, orange and blue. It’s a great logotype though. It carries a lot of the brand values - ease of use, approachable etc.
There are plenty of new templates available with the new Blogger, and all of them configurable from within the Blogger web-based interface.
The templates can be seen in full here. Some great designs from Zeldman, Bowman and Dan Cederhome (although there are a couple of lemons in there too, but maybe that’s just me).All of the templates are XHTML, with CSS driven presentation (as you’d expect from authors like this).
April 29, 2004
Some good stuff on these sites:
www.informationdesign.org
This sites got a LOT of resources. From Accessibility to Personas, Metadata to Writing. It’s got it all.
www.cssvault.com
Some really nice examples of CSS driven sites. Some good archive stuff, as well as some examples of what not to do!
April 27, 2004
Got these links from my new “Recent Links” sidebar (which has been good, I check it most mornings)
ColorMatch
EditCSS extension for Firefox
This thing is great for on the fly changes. It loads the current stylesheet for the page you’re viewing and you can make changes. Then you can save it. Very useful.
March 31, 2004
I got into work this morning, promptly fired up safari and checked over at Stopdesign (as I usually do every couple of days). He’s changed the design slightly…
These links are now pulled from my del.icio.us account. You can subscribe to the feed if you like.
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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.