Overall, I’m not sure what I think of the big-picture Gawker restructure and redesign, which includes Gizmodo shown above (image #1). But one thing that bothered me right off the bat was the forest that my eyes needed to traverse to scan headlines. My tweaked version via Chrome Inspector (image #2) re-arranges the layout to give the user a consistent left line of sight for headlines. Images (when not full-size) and the meta information (tags, post date) take an appropriate back seat and are shown in the second two columns.
Blend.io — Betaworks just recently announced Blend.io, a music collaboration network where musicians share their productions publically, other users can create forks of source files, and publish remixes and different takes on the same track. On one hand, I’m happy to see a team (and a very talented team at that) taking on some of the challenges and concepts that I also encountered in my degree project. On the other hand, I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t execute on my degree project.
On a third hand, I should probably just shut up and build something.
New web-based Spotify, play.spotify.com. Impressive translation of Spotify to the open web.
Although some patents I have run across are truly novel and innovative, many are obvious and ordinary and should never have been granted. So many aspects of password management have been patented that any typical system would easily violate dozens of patents. To allow patents on every small aspect of software is just like allowing musicians to patent every new sequence of notes they invent–eventually it would be nearly impossible to write music without violating patents.
— Want to block common passwords? Sorry, that is patented.
Mark Burnett
Chrome’s latest iOS update added a new touch to the way the address bar works — a touch that has been commonly used in mobile applications like Facebook. Once the user begins scrolling down the page, the address bar hides. As long as the user keeps scrolling down, the address bar stays hidden. But as soon as the user begins scrolling back up, the address bar pops back into view. This is a great experience when the navigation that is popping down is the primary navigation, but the unfortunate side effect of this in a mobile web browser is that any fixed navigation built into a website gets immediately covered. (See progression above… on load, scroll down, scroll down, scroll up)
I like the idea, but I think it’d be better if Chrome built in a little affordance before popping the address bar down — like by detecting rapid movement back to the top of the page and not just a small scroll upwards — which would better indicate that the user is actually trying to get back to the address bar.
I want to write more, but Tumblr’s not the venue. I’m hoping I can pipe this new layout into a custom-but-maintainable back-end system… perhaps create a custom writing environment for myself too.
Breaking Down Amazon’s Mega Dropdown—Ben Kamen shares how Amazon uses a little algebra based on your mouse movement to decide whether you’re heading for the secondary menu or still browsing the list. The result: a super-responsive, quick navigation menu. Smart details!
@mollyatryzek got me some super cool coffee stuffs! #slingshotcoffeeco
Birthday gift from Upstatement! Thanks @steyblind @mswartz @t1to98 @jpboneyard & @jnova! (at Upstatement)
