Recently, there have been foolish comparisons of web design to other design fields. “Where are the canonical, genre defining designs?” was the main question posed. This question necessitated tacit and explicit comparisons of web design to fundamentally different fields, such as static graphic design. The folly of comparing apples to oranges and expecting logical results have been debunked thoroughly and well:
Armin’s point is that while Google seems to be better than Yahoo, it is still plagued with a bad logo. He’s not “moved or inspired” by the design. Therefore, he reasons, it is not canonical design. Canonical design, in his mind, is one that practitioners of the medium look to as exemplary.
But, frankly, I think Armin has missed his own point. He wants to know what web designers see as canonical, but he’s dismissing the obvious answer because it doesn’t fit into his canonical mold of graphic design. In other words, he’s looking at Google from a graphic design perspective, when web designers necessarily have to look at it from an interaction design perspective.
So, we know there’s a problem: how do we define the very field and how do we place ourselves in context amongst related (but very different!) creative fields?
Into this monumental vacuum steps Papa Zeldman. In an epoch defining piece, Zeldman tears down previous foolish comparisons and builds a supremely accurate description of web design, basically from the ground up. His comments on typography are, of course, perfect:
The less sophisticated lament on our behalf that we are stuck with ugly fonts. They wonder aloud how we can enjoy working in a medium that offers us less than absolute control over every atom of the visual experience. What they are secretly asking is whether or not we are real designers. (They suspect that we are not.)
If you’ve been wondering what, exactly, web design is… well this is the article you’ve been looking for. If you already know and “do” web design, well then this article is even more important. It’ll help you avoid losing yourself in the pretty dongles and pointless widgets that inevitably dilute usable design.
Well folks, we’ve got another Prius modder here that deserves some recognition as well. He did not use solar cells in his modification, but managed to stretch out his Prius and insert a row of seating to accommodate all his children. The result is a Prius SUV Limo contraption.
That poor little motor, grinding away against the weight of extra metal and a bunch of extra people couldn’t achieve 50mpg — at least not consistently. Regardless, the pictures of this thing are worth 1,000+ words. On a related note, Wikipedia hosts a spectacularly geeky descent into nuance and grammar with regard to the Prius name:
Many enthusiasts enjoy using Prii as the plural, which would be correct if prius were a regular second declension Latin noun. The actual Latin plural of the adjective is priora. All of these forms are nominative case and there are several other forms for the other cases. As for the plural of Prius in English, Toyota has said that it is simply Prius and also that owners are welcome to use whatever they like.
What on earth is a regular second declension Latin noun? (And why does the author of that quote start talking about adjectives right after talking about nouns?) One of our own readers (Dan McKeown) took Latin courses, so perhaps he can enlighten us. Declension. Hmm.
When Dan was an RA in Cretin Hall, he used to post funny, inspiring, or interesting news articles. He called them “moments of Zen.” If he were still an RA, I imagine Dan would post this: Cow plunges off cliff onto moving minivan.
A cow plunged from a 200-foot (61-metre) cliff onto the hood of a minivan on a highway in central Washington state, according to police.
…
Middleton estimated the animal weighed 600 lbs (272 kilograms), or the average size of a mature cow.
Amazingly enough, all tags for this entry already exist on tumbledry. I would imagine this is the first time they have all tagged the same item.
St. Thomas recently relaxed their admissions policy. This has resulted in swelling class sizes… but apparently an average reduction in the qualification level of undergraduates. You see, I overheard this today in the weight room at St. Thomas:
Guy 1: Dude, are you going on spring break? Like, Fort Myers or something? Guy 2: Psh — does the sun set? Guy 1: What? … … … Oh, right.
