Search with Design

I do the majority of my work on my trusty IBM Thinkpad T30.  Last week I installed FireFox 3 because I was looking forward to fewer memory leaks and a better looking interface (the Ubuntu/FF relationship produced some super-ugly forms, and even the available hacks from the Ubuntu community didn’t do very much to improve the situation).

However, I discovered once it was installed that ‘Faviconize‘ hadn’t been upgraded to FF3 compatibility yet.  This is one of those times when you say to yourself, “It’ll be ok, it’s just a little plugin…” and then realize every day that you miss it dearly.

For those not in the know, Faviconize is a plugin for FF that allows you to shorten the tabs in your browser down to just their favicon, instead of having the full title.  When you work on a non-design-grade laptop (read: 12.1″ screen) like I do, it gets very frustrating very quickly to have to scroll back and forth to find your tabs.  Since I always have at least three standard tabs open: Pandora, Google Apps Mail, and Google Apps Calendar, I use Faviconize to reduce them to the smaller tab size in order to keep my “web-desktop” uncluttered.

(A quick sidenote to web designers: Pandora, GMail, and GCal have all gone the extra mile and made some nice-looking, easily recognized Favicons.  This is a major point of usability for bookmarks, tabs, toolbars, etc.  I’m not saying they’re successful because they have good favicons, but it certainly doesn’t hurt, so make one!)

It was amazing how much productivity (I felt like) I lost due to have to scroll around and constantly reorganize tabs.

But I was happy to discover this morning that Faviconize now works with FF3.  I’m just not sure why the FF team doesn’t include this feature in their software by default.  This is one of those things that should be an easy add-on, and wouldn’t be intrusive to those who don’t use it.

Anyway, it’s back and I’m happy about it.

June, 2007 marks the date I officially switched tribes and joined the Ubuntu crowd.

As far as I can tell, Ubuntu is an African word with no direct translation, but which embodies the concept of “being completely inscrutable, yet self-congratulating and better than Windows”.  The truth is that it is a distribution of Linux, favored by many due to its easy install, and similarities to the Windows environment.
But why go all the way to Linux from my previously favored WinXP?  Glad you asked…

To be honest, I saw the release of Windows Vista approaching and realized that I was getting sick of playing a (small) part in the empire-building of Microsoft.  As much as I had hated the switch from my trust Win98 to WinXP, I had learned to live with it after a lot of slipstreaming CDs, backups and tweaks.  But Vista’s DRM-pushing, close-to-spyware using, sanitized like a mental hospital hanging from a cliff feeling just wasn’t going to cut it for me.  So what if it’s pretty?  Nothing runs on it and it will mark every file I create as illegal.

So why not go with a Mac?  After all, they’re powerful, chic, nerdy and they look like a hip young rock star.  Here’s where things get complicated.

I have a serious dislike for laptops.  I’ve never been able to find a laptop which fit the bill for a computer I could actually work on.  I need lightweight, power, small screen, excellent keyboard, durability, battery-life…the list goes on and on.  I’m a laptop snob.  There is only one line of laptops on earth that I will buy and use, and that is the IBM Thinkpad.

I love my little Thinkpad.  The keyboard is great, the battery and weight are good.  Also high on the list is the thumbstick, which is tough to master at first, but once mastered, makes a touchpad feel like drawing in the sand with a stick.

I need my desktop and laptop to sync fairly effortlessly, and because IBM doesn’t make a LeopardPad, I had to shoot the middle.

Don’t get me wrong, I still have my trusty copy of XP dual-booted (although I haven’t seen the familiar green ‘Start’ button in weeks).  I keep it around for one reason, and one reason only: Battlefield 2.

The switch to Ubuntu wasn’t bad, the three biggest sticking points being syncing my iPod (done with Amarok and patience), enabling the ‘Back’ button on my MS Intellimouse (done with some extra drivers), and disabling my on-board sound in favor of the SoundBlaster 5.1 card (accomplished through some text file editing and a reboot).

All in all, the switch has gone great, and it’s only getting better as I play with Compiz/XGL effects and customizing my computer through clever use of Launchers and Terminal.
I think Windows Vista could be greatest thing that ever happened to the Linux community.  More users = more options.

Why not come over for a stay with the tribe?

So I opened a free Stumble Upon account awhile back. And then forgot my password.

No problem. Forgot password link, type in email, boom, inbox(1) new message. But it’s a temporary password. Something I’ll copy and past once, and then immediately change to something I’ll remember. Done, right? Wait for it, wait for it. Nope. Wrong.

Here’s what SU has to say:

“How do I change my password?
Select Change Password from the dropdown meny on the StumbleUpon toolbar (a small, inverted triangle indicates the location of this drop-down menu). Stumbleupon recommends that for security reasons you should choose a password unrelated to those that you might use for Banking or e-Commerce transactions.”

WHAT!?! Download the toolbar? Are they kidding? What drunken CTO dreamed this gridlocked downloading traffic jam up? But no, it’s about buy in. About guilt. About them telling me, remember your password, or get our ugly step-daughter and then, if you want your Princess Password back, download the TOLLBAR, the Toilbar, the toilet-part, the troll-grrarr!

Thank you Stumble. Clever. But poor. Tricks don’t get customer’s to treat you better. Open email to SU tech department. Sure, more troll-grrarr downloads. But is it working to build screaming fans? Honestly, I’m just curious.

I know, this is a design post coming from the SEO, but that’s the point! I have no eye for color when it comes to design. I’m influenced much more by the geometry of the piece.

For instance, I saw this template online and thought the design was great:

Crispy Cut

And geometrically speaking it is. But color-wise, it needed work. Now I could sit all day and not come up with anything much better, so I headed over to Kuler, and found the ‘Japanese Garden’ scheme (a very popular one on the site):

And once I got done applying that theme, and using a couple of other tricks, I have this:

Promotions Guide

I know it’s not the greatest design in the world, but you can see how a little color change can really change the look of the site overall.

Use Kuler!