Molly Holzschlag –  Progressive CSS3 Design

Quite a start to day 2 with Molly starting off with a call to action for all designers to have more input in the W3C Working Group. She presented a pretty matter-of-fact state of the web and where we are with CSS spec. The spec for CSS 2.1 isn’t finished and browser vendors and developers are already ploughing ahead with using the far from finished CSS 3 properties. It’s a all getting a bit crazy!

Posing the question of whether we should be going with a ‘progressive enhancement’ or ‘graceful degradation’ approach she recommended a ‘bridge building’ approach that somehow traverses the 2. Each project should be assessed individually for what kind of browser support you have to take into account but while you shouldn’t ignore older browsers and the problems they pose you need to get on top of what’s coming down the line.

Simon Collison – What Will Web Design Look Like in 2 Years?

An interesting musing on where the web and the web from a design perspective is headed. From questioning how the design process might change (should we design for mobile first and then desktop?) to the potential problem of the adoption of web fonts leading to widespread inappropriate use of typography on the web. Do designers understand grid systems properly and should they really be using them? How much web design in the next while is going to be purely experimental given the changes that lie ahead for HTML and CSS? His stunningly gorgeous website has more.

Aral Balkan – The Art of Emotional Design: A Story of Pleasure, Joy and Delight

One of my favourite sessions of the whole conference, partly because he spoke a whole lot of sense and partly because of his clear passion for what he does. He presented the question “why do we pay more for one thing over another?” Answer = UX. There’s a world of MP3 players available in the world yet the iPod still outsells them all despite not being one of the cheapest available. People like using them and are willing to spend a bit more for it.

For the second or third time at FOWD design and user experience is likened to our experiences with food. Essentially, to say that something is usable is like saying something is edible. Edible is fine but we want more than just edible. We go to a restaurant for more than edible food so let’s take that slant and apply it to user experience on the web. This idea I love.

And I loved his talk so much I’m going to have to give it some blog space all of it’s own. Seems I’m not the only one who gave him the thumbs up!

Bruce Lawson of Opera – How to build a HTML 5 Website (live demo)

As it says on the tin, a rapid how to for newbies on how to approach building a web page using HTML 5 markup and what the heck it’s all about and why we should care about it. Good overview and some useful tips on handling fallbacks for video formats in particular. Very much looking forward to getting stuck into the book that himself and Remy Sharp are writing on HTML 5 and its more advanced features.

Brett Welch of Adobe – Rethink Your Job (And Earn More Money)

Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting much from a sponsor slot but hats off to Bretty for making some really interesting and valid points about the business side of the design and development process. Some of the main points from his talk:

• Web designers need to think of themselves as web consultants (and consultant isn’t always a bad word!)
• Don’t expect a website to be a success without a strategy
• Set your goals
• Measure the results
• Don’t launch a website and leave it there – try a more iterative approach, agile development works on the web!

John Hicks – Icon Design

John Hicks of Hicksdesign is a well-known graphic, logo and icon designer who has produced some truly gorgeous work for well-know brands such as MailChimp and Opera. After a brisk step through of the history of icons and the concept of icon design he gave us some pointers and suggestions on how to approach the workflow for icon design including:

• Is an icon appropriate in this scenario?
• Choose the right metaphor
  • Realistic
  • Abstract
  • Aribitary/Symbolic
  • Application
  • A logo is not an icon!
• Is there an existing convention?
• Can you base it on familiar objects?
• Avoid too much detail and decoration
• Design on a grid
• If you’re designing more than one icon design them together to maintain context and coherence

Check out his work and his blog here.

A few people were asking on and offline about what I eventually bought for my MBP and it was a bit of a gamble given there wasn’t great imagery or video of this specific model out there and it’s not in the be.ez resellers in Ireland, it seems.

The full range of backpacks, shoulder bags, sleeves and skins for all things Mac can be seen here, most are available via Amazon UK. First impressions are really good – it’s slim, light yet strong and comfortable to carry. I’ll be taking it to Clare and to London this week so I’ll report back after that.

I stumbled over this on my phone again last night. I love the speed and efficiency that texting and tweeting offers but sometimes things just get so lost in translation or, as in this case, lost in context.

To set the scene: I had sent my dad a photo of a bunch of us having lovely creamy pints in the Storehouse and wishing him a happy Paddy’s day. It’s also important to point out here that he is a dairy farmer and the twins being referenced were newborns of the bovine variety.

Can’t wait to show it to him at the weekend after a few creamy pints

Microsoft Sustainability from Hana Ken on Vimeo.

To be honest, I’m struggling to fall in love with it. I have an iPhone since Xmas 2008 and I love it to bits. I’ve since bought my first MacBook Pro and the love affair in terms of design and user experience continues to grow.

This however, I find difficult to get my head around. Maybe it will change when I eventually see one ‘in the flesh’ but from pictures and videos it looks a bit awkward and as someone said on Morning Ireland today like you had taken a rolling pin to an iPhone.

Aside from the lack of love at first sight, I am excited by the way it will probably change how we interact with the web and with each other. No, scratch that, it will change all that.

Here’s what I think…

• It’s going to affect many industries and what they offer:
  • Telecoms: optional 3G but no voice support means new opportunities for mobile operators and good times for Skype
  • Web design and development: another new set of screen dimensions with full multi-touch and still no Flash support means HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript will be doing the tricks for now
  • Gaming: a large portable screen with compass and GPS – delicious opportunities for interactive immersive gaming
  • Advertising: no Flash support so traditional interactive banner ads won’t be appearing on an iPad near you – time to cook up the alternatives and embrace the new format
  • TV: if you haven’t been doing so already you’re going to need to start outputting your video clips using H.264 compression
  • Publishing: iBookstore is to books as iTunes is to songs – e-books are on the up
• Those who decided to learn Objective C and got into iPhone/iPod app development will be delighted and continue to be hot property
• It’s another foot in the grave for bulky sluggish netbooks

Now, when do I get to play with one?

Sharing is often a good experience. Sharing your tunes with someone can be heaps of fun. Take a magical mystery tour through someone’s iPod on shuffle and revel in the tales of why and when you both bought that same obscure album. Brilliant fun.

3.5mm splitter in Maplins: less than a fiver. Exposing a closet Gareth Brooks fan: priceless.

Future improvements promised by Qik include video uploading and sharing from the app but for now it’s just simple recording video files transferable via your iPhone cable.

Here’s my first test from this morning, something funky seems to have happened during upload to Vimeo…

Snow in Dublin 2 from Stephanie Francis on Vimeo.

New iPhone on O2.ie

Couldn’t resist posting this booboo that’s currently sailing on www.o2.ie. Just another blip in one of THE most blip-riddled sites in the world. Ever. I’m surprised there wasn’t another Javascript-tastic window overlay piece of nuisance to greet me when I hit the site this morning trumpeting how I won’t be able to get my mits on an iPhone 3GS as an existing customer for another age. </minirant>

Sunset in Muckinish

This evening while pottering around my apartment I stopped to take in a rather beautiful sunset. As I often do at this point, I thought about home on the west coast in Clare where I’ve seen some of the most breathtaking sunsets over distant Connemara & the Atlantic. Just as I was daydreaming my phone beeped. A message from my dad – no words, just that photo. I smiled & shed a little tear. 

This kind of thing happens me quite a bit & I love it. Seeing a poster for a band & next thing you know they pop up on a random shuffle playlist on your iPod. Walking down a street thinking about someone & you suddenly bump into them.

I’m convinced it’s the universe putting things together, somehow linking up & sorting through the thoughts & energies, ebbs & flows of life. I love it. And I love my dad. Long may it continue