Tales of a Designer

Recently Found Resources & Inspiration

I’ve been very busy this summer, both in doing Tridea work, travelling, and trying to get away from the computer a bit and enjoy the good weather while we have it. But that doesn’t mean I’ve been offline, in fact I’ve found some pretty nice resources and sources of inspiration lately that I’d like to share.

Cheat Sheet for Web Developers is my most recent find, which is an excellent resource for those of us that code websites. There are tons of PDF’s to download ranging from XHTML markup to CSS shorthand cheat sheets. This is definitely worth a bookmark.

Snipplr is a public source code repository ranging from front-end code to back-end code as well. I love this site and always refer to it when I hit a snag is trying to figure out some code problems. It also works with Textmate, my editor of choice.

Handwritten Typographers isn’t exactly a resource, but rather an interesting look at the handwriting of some well known typographers. There are some great fonts there too, that I’m looking forward to using in the future.

Graphic Exchange is an amazing source for inspiration. Here you’ll find anything from print, web, interior design, etc. The list goes on, but there is much to see here, and very easy to blow a lot of time looking at the great graphic design work.

And last but not least, The Dieline is another source of inspiration for looking at great packaging design. As a designer on the web, it’s always important to look at great design on other mediums outside the web to get inspiration, and this is another resource for just that.

So those are the recent resources that I’ve found, and I’m always looking for more. What are some recent resources you’ve found?

My First Detroit Tweetup

One of the great things that I’ve experienced while using Twitter is meeting local people that have the same interests as I do. In this case it was the second Detroit Tweetup, and I was able put faces with the people that I’ve been communicating with over the past few months. We talked everything from tech, design, to social media and Twitter.

I wasn’t able to meet everyone, but I was able to hang out with @ccarmichael, @kenburbary, @damonhenry, @snicholson26, @typeis4lovers, @chrisbrogan, @kewlrats, and @hajjflemings, just to name a few. Sorry if I’ve forgotten to include your name!

The social media scene around Detroit seems to be growing quite a bit, and it’s exciting to be apart of it. I’m very much looking forward to the next Detroit Tweetup. If you’re on Twitter and live around the Detroit area, you should definitely make it out to the next one.

Update: Damon Henry posted pics from the event. And Ken Burbary has pretty much the full roster of Tweeps at the event.

Questioning an Idea

I’ve had this thought in my mind the past few days and just felt like writing something out and maybe getting others thoughts on it. One thing that I’ve been thinking about is wondering when to move forward with an idea on the web. How do you know if it’s a good idea, and not just a waste of time?

We read about a lot of mediocre products on the web at sites like Techcrunch, and many of them seem to provide no real value. This seems to be a big challenge on having an idea work on the web. I guess one of the positives is that it is pretty low cost to get something up and running, as compared to other industries.

For the past few months I’ve been thinking on this idea with a colleague, and to us, the idea sounds great. The suggestions going back and forth have been really productive, but again, to us it sounds good but how do we really know if it’s a good idea? Will it provide value to those using it? Is it even possible to measure value beforehand?

After the initial excitement of coming up with an idea, you really start to question everything, and the unfortunate part is that momentum starts to die out a little. Is that normal?

I would imagine others have experienced the same kind of thing, but it’s just something I’ve been thinking about quite a bit lately. Should I be taking more of the attitude to just got for it no matter what, or should I know the value this will provide (if any) to it’s users?

Twitter in Plain English

If you’re like me, you’ve had quite a challenge at trying to explain Twitter to people, especially non-tech people. Well I just came across a video from Common Craft explaining Twitter. It’s a great resource when trying to explain the site, and they do a whole lot better job at explaining than I would. So, enjoy, because you might need to send this video to others…

Is the Internet Too Crowded?

Recently I’ve mentioned that I’ve been a little uninspired lately, and a big chunk of that is due to the internet. It seemed like there was this huge stretch in time a few years back, where tons of web companies were doing great things and all of these new web apps and services were coming out. I felt that at least once a week, I was signing up for some new public beta and/or service because it seemed that these services would be of value to me.

Now it seems that lots of companies are coming out with crap. It would be too much of an overstatement to say that all of the good ideas are taken up, however, I’m just not seeing much innovation on the web lately. Did everyone rush to the internet and exhaust all the good ideas? Who knows, but there has been one problem I’ve notice about all of new web apps these days.

There is no human aspect to them. In other words, what value does some of this stuff bring to my life? Not everything will be relevant to me, but it seems that companies get too caught up on providing the latest and greatest technology without thinking all the way through the human aspect of applications and services. One company will copy another thinking that because they can use better technology, their app will be better. But technology doesn’t solve human problems. The fact that something is “cool” doesn’t make it a good service to users.

When everyone is looking for gold in the same river, the best opportunities are somewhere else. Via

There is no way to counter the huge rush to the internet, and it’s going to happen in any industry where there is a lot of success. What is frustrating, though, is the lack of innovation. Everyone is doing the same thing, and hopefully that will change.

Do you think the internet is too crowded with not enough innovation? Or is it just me?