Playing With Photoshop

I've been using Photoshop for a while now, ever since I was introduced to all the wonderful things I could do with it during my first year of university. So any opportunity I get to learn a new technique to play with is a fun one, and I love being able to apply what I learn to other photographs.

Today, I looked at the Planet Photoshop tutorial on Photoshop Serigraphs, a technique to make pictures very Andy Warhol-esque.

I took this ordinary picture of my brother, James:


And turned it into this artistic masterpiece!


With this little tutorial, you too can turn your siblings into works of art!

The Return of Educational Radio

For this week's blog entry, I listened to one of the weekly podcast episodes on Boag World, the website of Paul Boag, a self described web designer and usability/accessibilty expert. I tuned in to his 47th episode, titled The Moblie Web.

I hadn't listened to a podcast before, and when I was assigned to listen to one on web design for class, I'll admit I groaned a little inwardly. However when I tuned in to Paul's podcast, I was very impressed, and more importantly, very entertained.

As far as I could initially tell, the reason that people want to tune into podcasts in the first place is to be informed and entertained (in addition to the portability of a podcast, of course). Paul's podcast was certainly very entertaining. His podcast, insofar as I can tell, is recorded in his living room (proven by his crying child in the background) with his buddy Mark, who he banters back and forth with over the course of the hour-long program.

Over the course of the program, I became increasingly aware of the interactivity that podcasts provide. Because of the online forum that the podcast is set up in, it is easy for listeners to go to links that the podcaster discusses, or to stop it and start it at their leisure. It is the most flexible media that a content producer can release nowadays.

As for the content of the podcast, I found that the podcaster kept me interested, despite the fact I wouldn't normally sit and listen to an hour of web design (although I'll admit, an hour was still a very long time to sit and listen for someone who has grown so accustomed to watching visuals alongside the audio, too). The discussion of mobile phones and web browsing, while not necessarily directly relevant to my web design class, brought up a lot of interesting points about accessibility and usability. He discussed the use of style sheets, in particular relation to mobile devices, but it made good points about how widely accessible a website must be for a variety of browsers. For example, Paul pointed out that there are actually 40 different browsers available for mobile devices, with over 160 different devices to use them on.

One aspect he discussed that we are yet to really touch on in class is the cost of making your website usable by all browsers. The time and money it takes to test your web page on various platforms, browsers, and devices can become costly, and web designers must analyze how necessary it is for their website to be accessible by anyone and everyone.

All in all, the podcast was informative and entertaining (although a little long), which is everything a podcast is expected to be. Next time, though, I still think I'd rather listen to streaming internet radio, instead.

Designing for the Blind

When I first read Adam Greenfield's musings on website design titled The Bathing Ape, I was not blown away. For the most part, he seems to be remarkably interested in what he has to say about everything, and not a great deal of concern for how his audience is receiving it.

A poorly designed essay, if I do say so myself.

But once you get past Greenfield being self-involved, he does make some good points. His big problem with some designers is that, well, they aren't really designers. They are more what he deems stylists: people who play with the artistic merits of the website, without really considering the functionality of it.

His point was truly illustrated when I began to think back to my MySpace experiences. Stumbling across some friend of a friend's home page, only to be harassed by a blinking, falling star background in every colour of the rainbow, killing any chance I have of reading any of the text on their page. Although really, if they've opted for the falling star background, I probably don't have much of an inclination to be friends with them, anyway.

There are, however, some shining examples of web design out there. All is not lost! In fact, MySpace competitor Facebook should be commended for one reason and one reason alone: they don't let people customize their HTML. This way, someone browsing through the website always knows where to look on any other person's page for information. Want to know what school they're from? Sure! It's the same as on your home page? Listening to music on your computer already? Well no fear! It won't be interrupted by yet another clip of Save Your Scissors by City and Color! The lines are clean, the colours are neutral and appealing, and there is a definite logic to how all of their links go together.

Facebook has recognized the one very important fact that Greenfield sees, but MySpace clearly doesn't: not everyone can be a designer.

Changing my ways for the Tao Te Ching

In order to better understand how to create a web page and spruce up my blog, I recently read an article by John Allsopp title The Dao of Web Design. For the most part, Allsopp made some good points about how to make web pages accessible to anyone. By using style sheets instead of HTML for all style elements, you create a much more accessible web page, because any person on any computer can go in and edit the page as they best see fit.

Now, some of this was a little shocking to me. As a long-time HTML user, the world of CSS is a very scary one to me. I like to use HTML to emphasize my point. See? And I am also part of that old school of web designers that Allsopp speaks of that believe the website is thought of like the printed page, wherein the designer expects their hard work to look identical on every browser. I am one of those people who will spend ages browsing over a Colour Codes sheet, picking exactly which shade of fuchsia I wish to inflict on visitors to my website.

Allsopp argued that this is no longer the case. He believes that a web design should be flexible and adaptable, in order to meet the needs of all of its visitors. By using style sheets, he says, you can control fonts using relative formulas rather than absolute values, or allow people to change their colours, based on what they are best able to view. While I would typically reply with, "No! There's no way! This is MY website and I'll edit it until everyone sees it MY WAY!", I am beginning to understand why the web does not work like that. With such a large audience, it is unreasonable to assume that my vision of my web page is the only acceptable one. Once I begin to better understand how to create CSS, I can further my education as to why I'm not always right. A shocking revelation, I know, albeit a necessary one if I want people to read my web page and actually enjoy reading it. Oops, that was more HTML , wasn't it? I'm going to have to get out of the habit of doing that...

Your Website and You

As a university student, I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on the Internet. I've seen some spectacularly bad websites, made both by fellow students and professional website designers who should really know better. I've thankfully also seen some very good ones, and one in particular that has always stood out to be as being well run, well laid-out website is Penny Arcade.

The website is part comic, part news feed/video game review site. Because the website is designed for "gamers" (video game players), the creators have strived to create a website that will most appeal to people interested in video games and web comics about them. It looks like they've done a pretty good job, too. The avatars of the creators, Gabe and Tycho, are not only in the comic, but are featured throughout the website. The comic itself is very entertaining, however all of the aspects surrounding the comic are what make this website so strong.

The various parts of the website that have spun off from the comic are all components that contribute to a better understanding of gamer culture. All of the links expand the experience of the comic, from the Forum where fans can discuss topics related to video games and that day's comic, to a blog updated by the creators of the site daily, featuring video game related new and observations from the point of view of Gabe and Tycho.

As far as technical aspects are concerned, the website is well put together, in the sense that it is visually appealing and laid out in a very accessible way. It is easy to read the day's comic and the day's blog post, without having to search through numerous links to find it. Also, whenever Penny Arcade is advertising special events, such as the Penny Arcade Expo or the Child's Play Christmas gift drive, unique and eye-catching graphics are used to draw the reader in, and bring them to a part of the site they may not typically go to.

A website does not need to be educational or productive in order to be good. Sometimes, a well-designed website can just be downright fun!