In printed books, the two-page spread was our canvas. It’s easy to think similarly about the iPad. Let’s not. The canvas of the iPad must be considered in a way that acknowledge the physical boundaries of the device, while also embracing the effective limitlessness of space just beyond those edges.

We’re going to see new forms of storytelling emerge from this canvas. This is an opportunity to redefine modes of conversation between reader and content. And that’s one hell of an opportunity if making content is your thing.

Such articles help us redefine the medium and the process of reading. Excellent.

Link: http://craigmod.com/journal/ipad_and_books/

What Fried says is not magic. Nor wisdom. It’s a reality we’ve learned to accept without asking why.

If our work is our passion we should something about it.

See the video: http://bigthink.com/ideas/18522

Here’s the link on Seth Godin’s blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/jacqueline-novogratz-on-recognizing-a-linchpin.html

So I am going to take it easy. Welcome back.

The previous week one of the two leaders of ILG, Henny Swan, published a new blog entry at the official website where we ask for some translators or anyone who is eager to find some decent articles.

Regarding the greek readers of this website I can tell you that right now we have 3 articles in greek. Two of them were written by me and there is one more written by Henny for CSS3, the greek online magazine around design & development.

So if you’d like to participate in this, you can take a look at the links I gave you above and contact the ILG or me to help you. It would be great if you also wanted to promote Web standards. We are waiting for you!

If you dare, refresh some times the central page of the Pro Network and you maybe see this logo among the ones I just mentioned.

I love Expression Engine because it’s flexible and at the same time powerful and solid. Each time I needed it it was there for me and I never worried whether I could cope with a project thanks to it.

This is what I write at the relevant page where our studio is presented. It is the plain truth.

The best is yet to come.

His book, 5 simple things - A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web, was impressive because he not only shares his view as a professional, experienced designer but he does it so smoothly, almost magically. I admire writers who select to be simple and stay away from showing off. Boulton could show off anytime, but he doesn’t.

The chapters

1. Introduction
2. Research & Ideas
3. Typography
4. Colors
5. Layout

Introduction is the only chapter not so strongly connected to design. In this one Boulton shares his story and how he started as a designer of a small company, he moved on and became a Senior Art Director in a big agency and how in the end decided to leave all behind and start with his own tiny design studio. I love this part of the book but I feel it is not properly connected with the following chapters. I ‘d like to learn more about Boulton’s thoughts on this but not in this book.

The next chapter, Research & Ideas was the less important as long as it regards me. It is good to see how a famous Web designer approaches his work, but I think every designer has his very own way. However I liked a lot the Brief section of the chapter.

The rest chapters cover what Boulton does best. I won’t say much about the Typography chapter. If you visit this website you must know I adore typography. I believe Boulton is simply one of the best in this area. The chapter was great.

Regarding the Color chapter I thought I have learned everything I needed to during my studies as a physicist. This is only partially true, because this book helped me start over from a different point of view. I love Boulton’s analysis on Hue, Saturation and Brightness along with the examples. By showing us certain examples of websites where a specific color scheme works well for each one of them is valuable, because it proves that good design leaves our ego out of the story.

The last chapter Layout is the best one. Grid design, the Rule of Thirds, the Looking Room, the use of negative space and most of all putting it all together in a real website. What more could you ask? This chapter is really fascinating. Boulton writes and illustrates the way a great dancer performs on a stage in front of a difficult audience. In the end he deserves out applause.

-Should I buy this book -Yes!

5 simple things - A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web is a book that worths every single cent (or should I say penny) your going to spend for it. It costs £12. Don’t download this book from a torrent. Don’t get it from a friend. Just buy it.

Twitter-land is a free land people. I would never impose any specific use of Twitter. I couldn’t anyway. People go there to chat, to share links, to boost their job, to show off, you name it. I would never judge them. I just don’t care.

Thinking a lot might harm you. No, really. You are not obliged to do anything you don’t like. Do you want to share jokes? Do it. Do you feel you follow too many? Un-follow them. Do you hate re-tweeting? Go away. The world will keep turning around.

Since you asked (you didn’t actually, but it’s fine with me), I visit the Twitter-land to meet my ultra geeks companions, to follow their links and to smile. I don’t care who’s following whom and I don’t care who’s following me. I can’t be anyone but myself in there.

At the same time I love some clever wallpapers and some witty e-cards.

Did I provide you a decent answer dear Twitter fellow?

Of course your social Internet life impacts your Internet profile as well. If you un-follow a lot of people they might think you show off. If you tweet a lot you might gain more followers. And so on. So be prepared for the anonymous foggy feedback.

I always wanted to write something about Twitter but this post meant to be fun. Shit. Fine.

Do you still find me interesting? Here is my profile in Twitter. Wanna follow?

At that time I remember myself playing with Bryce, that software in which you could create 3D landscapes. Is Bryce alive? I have no idea. Well, Bryce was OK but I needed more. Such as software which could help you create websites.

I turned to Flash. I learned the basics and when I felt ready I loaded in there my Bryce images. I added some texts I had already written as the editor of the university magazine and that was it.

Since I had the content ready I only needed some animation (because Flash *is* animation), a bookmarks area and a contact button. Ready, set, go.

Now that I look back to those years I feel overwhelmed of what’s gone. Not because I used to live the best best moments in my life, far from it, but because you always feel the nostalgia of something that doesn’t live anymore. I love my first, clumsy website and this may be a perfect opportunity to tell (and invent sometimes) stories to the next generation in the future.

Here is the link: porcupine’s creek.

Some parts are in English, some in Greek and, yes, the navigation sucks. Please refresh the page in case you get lost.

PS. Maybe this website is the perfect new year’s resolution. Happy new year everyone!

This was the spark which helped start a huge explosion. An explosion which is burning and hurting us for 4 days now and it is not going to stop soon. People left their home and got out on the streets in order to mourn for the loss of the boy and to protest for their own lives. It is the first time I see so much anger and so much desperation in the eyes of people like you and me.

We all feel that the Greek government doesn’t care about its country and its people. The recent crisis in economy worldwide made things worse. We all see our lives becoming inferior and less important for the people who decide for us.

Now all the major cities of Greece are on fire. We see stores, public property and most of all libraries and books turning into dust. Among the crowds there are certain groups of people who certainly don’t care about anything. They call them anarchists or anti-authoritarians or plainly idiots. They just want to be heard and burn without respecting even human lives. We ‘ll live with that the way we used to do so for so many years now.

I feel very sorry and equally angry for what is happening. Our worthless government can’t be trust at all. The same goes for almost the political partys in Greece. I personally can’t trust anyone but a few cold blooded authors and professors, such as Nikos Dimou.

It is difficult to hope for anything these days. But we must stand on our feet, keep our voice loud and respect our dignity or what’s left of it.

PS. If you want to know more about what’s happening here in Greece use the term “griots” while searching via the Twitter search service.

What I like in iPhone

• It is so easy to use it.
  I couldn’t imagine it could be used by a child. But recently I tempted to give it to a child of 3 years old (!) to see what she could do with it. She immediately loaded the Photos application and she started navigating from photo to photo. After a few seconds she had discovered how to zoom in and out a photo. That was amazing!
• This iPhone stood by me when I needed most.
  Thanks to its perfect synchronization with my email accounts it helped me be prepared for a tough call I was about to receive. I don’t know how I would have reacted if I hadn’t seen a relevant email first.
• It helps me stay informed to what’s happening in my virtual life when I am not there.
  During trips I can stop worrying if I don’t have my computer with me. Simple as that. I have heard millions of stupid arguments against technology. People complain that technology has made our life more complicated. Nonsense. What I know is that thanks to this device I remain calm.
• I play chess. Again!
  One game per day. I love Caissa Chess app. It must be one of the best apps for iPhone. I missed chess all these years. I still miss a real opponent. Anyway, this app is the best alternative.
• I like the camera of my iPhone.
  People interpret digital cameras as megapixels only. Wrong. The resolution is only a feature. iPhone has a decent camera even though it is not the best in the world. I took some photos of which I can be proud of.
• Google maps work perfectly well regarding the two major cities, Athens and Thessaloniki. You can count on these maps. I do.
• It is a beauty.
  Enough with the politically correct comments. Enough with what is beautiful and what is not.

What I ‘d like to be different

• Greek interface.
  It’s pathetic not to be able to send emails in my mother language. I live in Greece, I am Greek and I demand a greek interface. Apple, what are you gonna do about it? How about you Vodafone?
• Vodafone.
  Vodafone has exploited us badly. We pay a lot of money per month and Vodafone give us practically a lot of SMS and a few MB bandwidth in return. Many Vodafone employes still don’t know what this thing is about.

OK, iPhone is an extremely successful product. Obviously. I see, sometimes clumsy, efforts of other brands which try to implement some of the features iPhone provides. When it comes to user interface Apple knows better than anyone out there. That’s why we love it.

If Obama becomes the next president of the USA, I think his website will have played a major part for his success. Obviously, he and his partners treat their website the way they should: as the most solid and valid vehicle to promote their ideas to all people around the globe, 24/7/365. This website is their virtual home, which is neat, tidy and welcomes a visitor and a future fan of their party.

Aesthetically, barackobama.com stands at higher level of a typical american website but at the same time the major colors of it are 100% american. However, it is simple and all the blue colors of it don’t make it look crowded or dull.

Thanks to the clear organization of the content, it becomes useful to a US voter. Furthermore, visitors can find a number of ways to promote their favorite candidate by following simple steps e.g. buying a t-shirt. I like this approach, it is another way to see how a website can bring money.

Why design makes the difference

Good design is not magic. And good websites are not being made by magicians. This website works so well because of some design rules have been followed. The rules are:

• The excellent typography
• The right use of negative spacing

An old good quote says: “many people can choose a good font but only a few will tae typography”. barackobama.com treats typography so well.

I won’t try to explain the details. I only want to mention that the previously shown text has been perfectly designed. Despite the fact there is no image in there it welcomes a visitor and it invites him to read it.

Similarly, the designers of this website know how to treat the negative (or white) space. Each text flows, there are clear messages and there is no rush to put all the content above the fold. Each banner has been wisely designed and each call to action is clear and intuitive.

Combining such characteristics with the beautiful icons and the rest of the colors, the website becomes engaging, beautiful and easy to be used. 

barackobama.com is great because all the design issues mentioned above serve the real king, which is of corse the specific content of the website. Text, images, videos and generally each content item has been placed at the right place. The same design would be of no use for an. e.g. website for world travelers.

A designer votes…

If a was a US resident and if my vote was determined only by what I see in a browser I would vote for Obama.

I am not claiming that baracobama.com is perfect. If you take a look at the code behind it you will notice a bunch of mistakes. All I am trying to say is that design can make the difference and websites for political parties rarely look so well.

This fall came too soon.

I used to see falls as a chance to start new things. Now I don’t. I don’t know why. Maybe because I couldn’t really start doing new things or because now things don’t have a real starting point.

Anyway, a fall is always a fall and this is enough to make us feel fresh and awaken.

See the image in full size (2935 x 724 px) in Flickr.

(I borrowed the technique from Heather Power Champ. Photos taken from my iPhone.)