fraction/WHOLE

"Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change."

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:42:57 -0400

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”

- Dr. Wayne Dyer

Charles Bukowski - Dinosauria, we. Great poem from the prolific...

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:36:47 -0400

Charles Bukowski - Dinosauria, we.

Great poem from the prolific author.

Photo

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:03:23 -0400

Social Network Design: Examples and Best Practices (via Smashing Magazine)

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:26:17 -0400

There is a great article over on Smashing Magazine about best practices in Social Network design that also includes plenty of examples. I highly recommend reading through it if you build, or ever plan to build, a Social Networking site.

A simple study in increasing site performance

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:34:00 -0400

Lately in my free time I’ve been working on optimizing the portfolio site of Maria Aponte to perform better with load times (and do some general experimenting). Maria is a Philadelphia Fashion Stylist and has been in the fashion photography industry for nearly 10 years. The site itself is a single page comprised of mostly image thumbnails and a few chunks of text content that are hidden/shown depending on which navigation item is selected. The site was originally completed about a year ago. I developed it fairly quickly and with little thought of performance optimization put into it.

The thumbnails make up the bulk of the page weight at approximately 1.5 - 4.5kb each. Since this is a portfolio site reducing the image file size (and hence quality) further was not really a welcome option. YSlow gave the site a grade of “F” with the default settings and barely a “D” with some of the server-side/big site rulesets disabled. So where can speed improvements be made on this seemingly simple site?

For starters I combined the logo, headers, and miscellaneous graphics all into one image, commonly referred to as a “sprite”. I do this for all the sites I build but for some reason I didn’t do it here (I’ll be honest here, probably just laziness). In doing this I was able to save about 4kb in file size but more importantly I cut my HTTP requests from 13 down to 1. Making less HTTP requests means your site will load faster, so obviously it’s beneficial to make as few as possible at anyone time. You can view my sprite by clicking here.

Next I merged my three JavaScript files into a single file and then compressed them using the YUI compressor by Yahoo. This reduced the HTTP requests by 2 and reduced the file size by about 4kb (roughly 8%). I also moved all JavaScript from the header to the footer in order to allow the entire page to load first and not have script tags block parrallel downloads.

The last step involved merging my 2 style sheets and compressing them which further reduced my HTTP requests by 1 more and reduced the total file size by about 1kb.

If I really wanted to get nuts about speed I could throw all the thumbnails into my sprite and use background-position to display them. However, this would increase my CSS file size a bit, create a ton of new ID/Class names, and make it more difficult to update the site or incorrporate any kind of CMS. It would however reduce my HTTP requests by an additional 60 bringing the total requests from 72 down to 12. Not sure if this speed increase is worth the cost of ease of updating.

All said and done though I shaved about 9kb of wasteful file size, reduced HTTP requests by 15, and got my page to load approximately 1.5 seconds faster (varies by connection obviously) than previously. After editing some of the rulesets on YSlow to eliminate some of the server-side stuff that just is not available, or needed, on a shared environment the site now gets a perfect performance score of 100. I’ll accept a perfect score any day.

Rulesets eliminated from my YSlow test were:

Compress components with gzip
Configure entity tags (ETags)
Use cookie-free domains
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Add Expires headers

"I don’t know the rules of grammar. If you’re trying to persuade people to do something,..."

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:08:48 -0400

“I don’t know the rules of grammar. If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language.”

- David Ogilvy

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and..."

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:13:59 -0400

“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …And what country can preserve its liberties, if it’s rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

- Thomas Jefferson

Intelligent conversation

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:53:15 -0400

gonzo10010 (4:41:28 PM): scared
dfiant05 (4:41:31 PM): you're scared
gonzo10010 (4:41:38 PM): of skateboarding?
gonzo10010 (4:41:39 PM): never.
dfiant05 (4:41:42 PM): you're scared
gonzo10010 (4:41:44 PM): never
dfiant05 (4:41:46 PM): scared
gonzo10010 (4:41:48 PM): scared
dfiant05 (4:41:51 PM): you're scared
gonzo10010 (4:42:02 PM): most intelligent conversation i've had all day
gonzo10010 (4:42:04 PM): not scared

I ran across this nice feedback module while exploring Daily...

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:02:00 -0400

I ran across this nice feedback module while exploring Daily Challenge; a social networking site that promotes good deeds. A simple feedback button remains static on the left hand side of the site and opens the above screen in a lightbox when clicked.

The module allows a user to either share an idea, ask a question, report a problem, or give praise all through a simple and intutive form. The icons in the navigation make it easy to identify the separate actions that can be taken. When one is selected, the tab is highlighted and the instruction within the comment field changes to reflect the choice. The menu on the right offers up recent and relevant information related to the selected action.

A very nicely done piece. Just one of many on this site.

I just saw a commercial for a new show on VH1 entitled New York...

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:09:31 -0400

I just saw a commercial for a new show on VH1 entitled New York Goes to Work starring “New York” from the Flavor of Love, I Love New York, and New York Goes to Hollywood series.

Why?

Seriously America…what is wrong here? Why do you continue to watch shows that are the equivilent of gossip rags? Do you enjoy being intellectually raped? This lady “New York” has proven herself to be such trash that even Flavor Flav turned her down; twice.

Yeah you read that last sentence correct. Flavor Flav. Dumped her. Twice.

And that was BEFORE you all made her show your dirty little secret! So come on America; only you can prevent horrible television.

I’m not sure if this is the proper technique or not for...

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:34:40 -0400

I’m not sure if this is the proper technique or not for informing your user base that their browser is horribly out of date. But it is hilarious. Check out the rest.

Is Marc Brownstein relevant online?

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:11:00 -0400

In short, no. I recently read this posting published in the “small agency diary” over at Advertising Age and I wrote a fairly detailed response in the comments. Thus far it has not been published and I don’t really expect it to be. I was very civil in my comment and purposefully left out all of the inside information of Brownstein Group that I know about. Information that further proves my points but could be misconstrued as personal attacks, which is not how I wanted to come across. I mean no disrespect to Marc, I just don’t think he really knows what he’s talking about in this instance. Below is my yet to be published comment.

Update: I was able to get my comment posted on the Ad Age site. Turns out their website has problems with loging a user in and posting a comment at the same time. Login first, then comment. Problem solved. That bit of testing comes free to you Ad Age. Your welcome.

Begin Comment:

“Inspired Thinking Seems to Be in Short Supply in the Online and Interactive Space”

Inspired thinking towards online/interactive is only in short supply in traditional ad agencies. The traditional agency creative director, art director, or graphic/junior designer has no clue about how a user interacts with the web or how to design for that interaction. Therein lies the problem. It’s not that these people aren’t talented and creative individuals, it’s just they don’t understand the medium, and they don’t understand the audience or how to speak to them. This is a huge part of why the web is so over polluted with horribly designed sites and experiences.

“Perhaps what prompted it was a slew of portfolios from interactive art directors, where the work really sucked.”

Did you ever consider the possibility that no talented interactive directors/designers/developers want to apply to your company because at first glance you don’t appear to offer much? Not to sound rude but have a look at your company site (as well as some of the other sites you list on your “our work” page). The amount of things fundamentally wrong with your own site could fill a composition notebook and should send shivers down the spine of any knowledgeable and respectable interactive individual.

“Never forget that the people who visit the website you created are often the same ones who read your print ad and drive past your outdoor ad. So appeal to them the same way in your interactive work”

I’m not sure, but it sounds like your promoting treating your online audience the same way you treat your offline audience. I really hope this is just an incorrect assumption on my part because it couldn’t be further from the truth. Regardless of my assumption it appears you still have it backwards. You’re talking as if online is just another extension of a print/offline campaign and not giving it the respect, or attention that it deserves. It’s the same train of thought that newspaper editors had, the one that led their business to the edge of a cliff where it now precariously hangs while awaiting its fate. You should be looking at it the complete opposite where all offline materials are an extension of the online materials. People are canceling their cable in favor of watching TV online. People are canceling newspaper and magazine subscriptions in favor of reading them online. People are canceling their phone service in favor of free online services. People are shopping online more and more instead of going to physical store locations. Do you see where this is going yet?

In closing I do agree with your points about re-training and learning from the greats though.

"If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to serve as a horrible warning."

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:43:05 -0400

“If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to serve as a horrible warning.”

- Catherine Aird

If you haven’t already, check out the prototype for the NY...

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:40:47 -0500

If you haven’t already, check out the prototype for the NY Times Article Skimmer. It is a great gallery style view of the top articles from the NYT. Navigation is as simple as it gets and also includes keyboard shortcuts. This is a great way to present the news online.

Social Slacking

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:41:00 -0500

I just noticed last night that it’s been nearly 4 months since I uploaded a photo to my Flickr account. I’ve taken a ton of photos since then but for some reason haven’t been compelled to upload any for whatever reason. From here on out I’m going to start uploading them as soon as I take them off the camera.

In other social news I finally broke down and signed up for Twitter. It is fun to use, but I’ve yet to see a real use for it. I’m confident though that in time I’ll find a better use for it than just random blurbs of text.

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality."

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:08:29 -0500

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Detroit is...

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:16:00 -0500

Detroit is a mess. I can’t even begin to describe this article in the Detroit News.

The asterik is becoming more and more synonymous with Major...

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:04:00 -0500

The asterik is becoming more and more synonymous with Major League Baseball. How about we just add it into the logo?

Video

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:43:00 -0500

The 2009 Grammys

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:27:05 -0500

Award shows are boring, period. It seems that they get even more boring year after year. The authentcity fades and it becomes apparent that you’re just watching a giant production that hardly even seems like a celebration at all. The genuine emotion is gone, mostly replaced by zombie-esk celebrities telling poorly scripted jokes and now blatant political ass kissing.

On the subject of politics, Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the Recording Academy decided it would be a great time to kiss some serious Obama ass and do some blatant lobbying on national television. He discussed how President Obama is a 2 time Grammy award winner (from the audio versions of his 2 books) before stating that he believes there should be a cabinet-level position dedicated to culture and the arts. Seriously? Now I’m a huge supporter of arts and culture education, but a cabinet level position? Come on.