[IxDA Discuss] We\'re Moving!

2010-02-28 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi Everybody, The moment is finally here, IxDA.org is going down for the launch of our new platform. This means that the website AND mailing list will be offline for the afternoon while we get everything ready to go on the new site. *Important Steps to Get Your Account Running* When the new

Re: [IxDA Discuss] A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the URL

2009-12-16 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
IxD10 isn't the actual name of the conference.. if you search for Interaction 10 it's the first result in google. There's also a large image on the ixda.org home page. All that aside, that's a pretty bad reason to skip the conference. It's by far one of the best design events of the year. . .

Re: [IxDA Discuss] The Ahistoricity of Interaction Design

2009-12-14 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
It's unfair to expect junior designers, coming straight out of school (or maybe never having gone to design school at all) to be at this level. Does that mean they're not interested? No. But they need the chance to grow. This is the same for almost all disciplines of design (or any other

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Starting a career in IxD, UX, IA

2009-12-10 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Chris, glad to hear you've been working with some startups. Even if they aren't hiring full time, all that works builds your portfolio and connections. Those are important aspects to keep in mind, and will lead you in the right direction. Others have mentioned it, but the importance of meeting

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Starting a career in IxD, UX, IA

2009-12-09 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
It's true that there are more visual design and front-end dev entry level jobs... but, you might want to consider a different approach to getting your first IxD/UX job. Startups are a great place to get in at the ground level, if there are any in your area that need UX help approach them and

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Deciding whether to use a Show n items per page control

2009-12-07 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I tend to think that the # items per page control is pretty useless. I did some testing with it for a product a couple years ago and found that it was more important to get the default page size right than to have the option available. For that product we found the sweet spot was 16

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Commenting prototype?

2009-12-03 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I also really like Protonotes, I use it with HTML prototypes (could do it with Flash, or JPGs, really, anything that can be posted on the web) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47726

[IxDA Discuss] [Event] IxDA Toronto presents 10 Minute Soapbox, Dec.14th 2009

2009-12-01 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi IxDAers, We’re hosting one final event in 2009! Come see your fellow IxDA Toronto members present on a variety of topics: 1) “Agile UX and the decentralization of the UX department” by Karri Ojanen 2) “reSurface – Tabletop Touch Challenges” by Shawn Konopinsky 3) “Beware of making the UI too

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Good books or resources for interview techniques

2009-11-30 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
There's a good section about doing qualitative research interviews in Indi Young's Mental Models book, it's a good starting point if you haven't done that sort of work before. http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Work in groups or as individuals in your IxD work

2009-11-17 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
In my experience real project work is about 75% individual, and the other 25% is in groups of 2 people (very occasionally 3 people). That doesn't include collaboration with people in other areas (business, dev, etc), I'm referring to actual group work done by a group of multiple designers.

[IxDA Discuss] [Event] IxDA Toronto presents an evening of Axure, Oct. 28

2009-10-21 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi Everybody, IxDA Toronto is proud to announce our next event: An evening of Axure with Iain Lowe Please RSVP at http://guestlistapp.com/events/5457. As always, the event is free and open to all. We have limited space so sign up soon! Full event description below (and on the rsvp page):

[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] CanUX Early Registration until Sept. 30!

2009-09-29 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi Everybody! I just wanted to forward on the info about CanUX, an amazing event coming up in November. Early registration is on until Sept. 30th, plus all IxDA members can use the discount code cnxixda for an additional $75 off registration! Join your peers and well as great presenters (Peter

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Toronto Groups

2009-02-24 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi Maurice, Meredith Noble and I run the IxDA Toronto group. The best way to keep up on events is to subscribe to our google group list http://groups.google.ca/group/ixda-toronto There is also a Toronto social group called the UX Irregulars: http://groups.google.ca/group/UXIrregulars And, to

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxD blog aggregator site - are you interested in contributing?

2009-02-18 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I actually like that idea.. rather than an aggregator, which doesn't help you filter, we could have a Design is Kinky or K10K type site for UX/IxD. A curated aggregator as it were... or is there already a site like this that i'm forgetting? On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 6:36 PM, J. Ambrose Little

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Interaction \\\'10 Dates?

2009-02-13 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Already in my calendar! On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 2:30 PM, dave@gmail.com wrote: Interaction 10 will be Feb 4-7 in beautiful historic Savannah, GA hosted by the Savannah College of Art Design. Your cruise directors, I mean co-chairs are Bill DeRouchey Jennifer Bove. - dave . . . .

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Inspired by Interaction09?

2009-02-10 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hey, The conference was better than amazing.. my activity on the list has been sparse over the last year, but my feeling of belonging in this community has increased a thousand times. (twitter has played a large part in that too) I'll be presenting my recap of the conference at work in a couple

[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] IxDA Toronto/XPToronto: Agile UX Panel, Jan.19th 2009

2009-01-15 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hello IxDA! We're very excited to invite you to our next IxDA Toronto event! If you plan on attending please RSVP on Upcoming.org at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1490218/ - IxDA Toronto/XPToronto: Agile UX Panel Monday January 19, 2009 from 7:00pm - 9:00pm Bahen Centre - University of

Re: [IxDA Discuss] What's your favorite memory of Interaction 08?

2008-12-23 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I have many fond memories.. Rock Band, the local leaders' dinner, drinking drinking and more drinking (thanks Pauric, beers by the swimming pool at 2am). I am so excited for Vancouver, I wish I was there right now :) I'd also like to mention the great conversations I had with Pauric, Jack

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Interaction Designers: What is your elevator pitch?

2008-12-19 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
This is getting way off topic.. but I just have to post this link in support of Dan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfv-Qn1M58I On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 8:27 PM, Dan Saffer d...@odannyboy.com wrote: On Dec 19, 2008, at 4:40 PM, Angel Marquez wrote: nothing was created specifically to meet a

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Voting system design

2008-12-10 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
There's a guy here in Toronto working on a continuous open election platform that's really interesting. http://zelea.com/project/votorola/ On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 3:07 PM, Dana Chisnell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If you could design a voting system from scratch - with no constraints - what would

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Likert scale survey designs

2008-11-27 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I'd agree with that. A proposed flow: - click an answer button - immediately get the next question - next question page includes a spot (top or bottom?) that confirms the previous answer and offer to undo/go back That way I can just ignore the confirmation unless I actually need to change my

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Flash Catalyst

2008-11-17 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
the demo on the labs site looks interesting.. but i wonder how valuable it will be as a pure prototyping tool if the rest of the work flow isn't flash/flex... if you want to prototype a native mac or windows app, or a web app that's not flex, will this still be a good tool? On Mon, Nov 17, 2008

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best Practices for Mouseover Layers

2008-11-13 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
We do a very similar thing, except instead of hiding the buttons completely we dim them. We also use hover to show contextual content for an item in a popup box, and it works very well. You can see these techniques in action at http://opl.bibliocommons.com/collection/show/4922901_emenel/library

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design Research: Practice noticing stuff and telling stories

2008-10-26 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
i tend to use a soft cover moleskine (one of the thin ones) because it's easy to carry everywhere. i alternate between blank paper and grid paper versions... that's where i write all my ideas, sketch, make to-do lists.. all sorts of stuff. then, when i have an idea that i want to easily

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design Research: Practice noticing stuff and telling stories

2008-10-26 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
One thing I really don't like about coroflot is how the term interaction design just means anything interactive.. most people who tag themselves with interaction design there have done a few websites or flash.. kind of misleading if you're actually looking for IxD work On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxDA Value and Purpose

2008-10-23 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
That's exactly it. When somebody in Toronto (inevitably) asks me What's the different between the IxDA and [insert other group]? I always answer We give anybody interested a voice and platform to talk about design with their peers. So many other groups will only let you speak at events if you

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Twitter

2008-10-22 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Twitter has enabled me to have the kind of casual conversation with people that you usually don't get on the internet... Email (especially this list) can be overwhelming.. and not every topic is worth a whole email. Twitter is more like all of us standing around in a room talking over each other.

[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] IxDA Toronto Meeting: Monday October 27th, 7pm

2008-10-21 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi Everybody, We've decided to make this month's event a low key evening at a great pub, The Rhino. Join us for some great drinks and conversation, catch up with friends and meet some great new people. When: October 27th, 7:00pm Where: The Rhino, 1249 Queen Street West, Toronto Please RSVP

[IxDA Discuss] Bruno Latour on Design

2008-10-21 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi Everybody, Since there was a little talk of bringing some more academic discussion to the list I thought I'd share a great article by Bruno Latour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Latour) http://tinyurl.com/6qr477 (warning, PDF) It is a keynote that he delivered at the Network of Design

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Examples of anchored navigation anyone?

2008-10-11 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi, I think Facebook has what you're looking for. Matt. On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 4:14 PM, Celeste Cefalu [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello all, I'm having trouble finding some examples of an interesting UI I -know- I've seen. I'm not sure what to call it, and have browsed some of my go-to

Re: [IxDA Discuss] How to post a new topic

2008-09-19 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I think you just did it. Matt. On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 3:34 PM, Nathan Philpot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: How do you post or start a new topic to the discussion. thanks Nathan Welcome to the Interaction Design Association

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Next previous button order

2008-09-16 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
However, if the options are Next/Submit and Previous it does make more sense conceptually to have the back button on the left and the next button on the right. The tab order, a very important piece of form design, can always be manipulated to put the buttons in the right order. On Mon, Sep 15,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Next previous button order

2008-09-16 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
and will automatically Tab to the button and hammer the Space Bar to proceed with the task. Placing 'Previous' before the 'Next' or 'Submit' buttons breaks user flow and I strongly recommend against it. On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 10:31 AM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: However

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Next previous button order

2008-09-16 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
the 'Next' button so it doesn't look so much like a set of choices with the same value but rather a list of actions in order of importance and flow. On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 11:26 AM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Maybe the problem is assuming the Previous button has

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Creating a UI Spec Document Template

2008-08-28 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I would also love to have some sort of standard spec format.. I'm struggling to come up with something that works for my current project where I need to do very detailed wireframes with interaction specs/notes... biggest problem is that it's super hard to fit onto a printed page. On Thu, Aug 28,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mozilla Labs: Ubiquity

2008-08-27 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Fredrik mentioned Quicksilver.. and really, after trying out the Ubiquity prototype, it really feels like Quicksilver for the browser. And I mean that in a good way. After using Quicksilver for a number of years it's become indispensable, and Ubiquity looks like it would be the same once fully

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Creating a UI Spec Document Template

2008-08-27 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I will second that recommendation. that book is almost always somewhere on my desk. On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 1:13 PM, pauric [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I recommend the book Communicating Design by Dan Brown -- Matt Nish-Lapidus work: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / www.bibliocommons.com -- personal:

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxD and the Resistance of the Material

2008-08-27 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
so i guess the next logical question is: what are the tools of our trade? surely it's not the many different pieces of software that we use... what are the -real- tools of IxD? how do you experience flow in our type of craft? On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 2:20 PM, pauric [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxD and the Resistance of the Material

2008-08-27 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Maybe Pauric is onto something with his list of our tools .. maybe the craft of IxD is a cognitive craft ... the ability to see things in a certain way and express/communicate our thoughts clearly to those with a different perspective. On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 3:25 PM, David Malouf [EMAIL

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxD and the Resistance of the Material

2008-08-27 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
rant This discussion actually brings up a point that I'm constantly arguing about with designers at interactive advertising agencies... the need to understand your medium. Working in marketing/advertising agencies I've encounter far too many designers working on websites that haven't the

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Collaborative HTML Prototyping

2008-08-26 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
You could try using a basic source control system.. put your prototype (html/css/js) into SVN or GIT.. that way everybody can work on it without ever having multiple master copies On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 10:46 AM, Danny Hope [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I looking for a way of collaborating with a

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Clients are funny

2008-08-26 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
with carefully measured amounts of sunlight, moisture, and manure? On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 4:16 PM, Will Evans [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: sometimes it is best to cultivate clients in very much the same way one might cultivate - say - mushrooms. On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 3:50 PM, Santiago Bustelo

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Clients are funny

2008-08-25 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I used to work with people at an interactive agency who typed http://; manually every time they wanted to view a site... :/ Now, working with some public institutions, it's astounding to see how many people still have old 800x600 (or less) monitors... On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 4:03 PM, Nancy

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Designing a query builder for advanced search

2008-08-22 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi Larry, I just designed something exactly like this.. it's our first version and it's not perfect, but average users seem to get it well enough and it will only get better as we continue to revise... Here's the URL for a live implementation: http://opl.bibliocommons.com/search We approached

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Designing a query builder for advanced search

2008-08-22 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
it in the regular, non-advanced search.) I'm interested to hear your thoughts. Cheers, -- Martin Polley Technical writer, interaction designer +972 52 3864280 http://capcloud.com/ On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 4:07 PM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Larry, I just designed

Re: [IxDA Discuss] UI patterns - sort by more than one column

2008-08-21 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
The one I'm most familiar with is actually iTunes... if you keep clicking column headers various sort options include combinations of fields. I'm not sure if this is the best way to manage the interaction, but it seems to work and felt relatively natural the first time I discovered it. On Thu,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] UI patterns - sort by more than one column

2008-08-21 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
In my itunes, when i choose to sort by album for instance, if i keep clicking i get options like Album by Artist .. that means it's sorting by album and by artist. On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 4:33 PM, Oliver [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The one I'm most familiar with is actually iTunes When I look

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Basic time tracking and invoicing for a solo consultant

2008-08-19 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hey, I used to use some desktop software (mac only) called Studiometry.. it's been a few years since I was a freelancer, but it did everything I needed then. HTML or Illustrator invoice templates, client management, time tracking... Matt. On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 6:39 AM, Jessica Enders [EMAIL

[IxDA Discuss] twitter and IxDA once again

2008-08-19 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi Everybody. So, I finally broke down and am starting to get into twitter.. But there is still one big problem in my mind, sort of usability issue. Here's the situation: - I'm following user123 - user123 is not following me - i post a link to an article that user123 would be very interested

Re: [IxDA Discuss] best practices for login security?

2008-08-14 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
For a forgot password email the best practice seems to be to flag their account for a password change and email the user a link with a unique token.. the token expires and can only be used once. when they click on the link they are taken directly to a new password form. The unique token acts as

Re: [IxDA Discuss] web design specification examples

2008-08-13 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi, I'm not sure about a website resource for this, but my recommendation would be the book Communicating Design by Dan Brown. It's by far the best resource I've found for documentation examples and ideas.

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxDA iPhone users straw poll

2008-08-13 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
1) browsing anywhere, especially looking stuff up in wikipedia 2) playing casual games (aurora feint anyone?) 3) google maps anywhere 4) using location aware apps (urbanspoon, showtimes) On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 1:06 PM, Petroff, Greg [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Quick straw poll question for

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Intensive summer education options?

2008-07-16 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hey Dave, I would be absolutely interested in this.. I had considered some of the existing intensive programs, like Cooper U, but none seemed quite what I was looking for. Matt. On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 12:09 PM, David Malouf [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hey there, I am curious ... * If I had a

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IRC for IXDA?

2008-05-09 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I would love an IRC channel... It might sound counter intuitive, but I actually have an easier time using IRC at work than responding to long email threads :) On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 2:48 PM, paige saez [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Is there a channel for IxDa'ers? If not, could we make one? I would

Re: [IxDA Discuss] linkedin groups

2008-04-30 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
on LinkedIn. See this thread... http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=20750 Regards, Shep McKee On Apr 30, 2008, at 2:01 PM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus wrote: I recently received a number of invitations to groups on LinkedIn... it occurred to me that we really should have an IxDA group

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Guidelines for opening a printer-friendly page

2008-04-29 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Agreed. A print stylesheet is completely the right way to do this. A lot of people will just hit the print button anyway, so making sure that all pages print nicely is important. On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 2:53 PM, Bryan J Busch [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, Owen, You could be marking up every

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Direct manipulation and personalized homepage

2008-04-26 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi, We were considering doing this for our application, but decided not to in the end. After doing some research and user interviews we found that people really didn't use this feature very much.. it's more for power users, and even then they only really use it on portal style pages (igoogle,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Human-Computer Interaction Seminar @ Standord for free in iTunesU

2008-04-23 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
This looks amazing, thanks for posting it! On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 12:07 PM, Phil Suessenguth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello fellow IxDs, long time lurker found something that might be of interest to more people here on this list. In iTunesU 36 tracks from the Stanford Human-Computer

Re: [IxDA Discuss] What project management tool do you use?

2008-03-27 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I've used OmniPlan (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniplan/) which is a typical PM tool, gant charts and timelines.. stuff like that. It's good, but Mac only. The other thing I've done on projects is use an issue tracking system like Trac. It allows you to set up milestones with dates,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Fighting trolls

2008-03-26 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
one more thought on searching this list. the search on the IxDA site is pretty bad actually.. i was trying to use it today and it seemed like it was only searching message subjects. makes it hard to find previous threads that might relate to your question. On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 7:00 PM, Cindy

Re: [IxDA Discuss] 2 part button - industry standard?

2008-03-25 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
This style button is pretty common, but usually the visual cues are more obvious. Take a look at the main nav in Flickr and Facebook as a couple examples. On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 2:45 PM, Brett Ingram [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Check out the Add To Wish List button at Amazon.com. It consists

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Flex? (was: What's exciting in Adobe Thermo?)

2008-03-23 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I have lots of experience working on Flash based projects, and overall it's been about 20% positive, 80% negative. I've found that development takes longer, there are more issues.. and you inevitably end up rebuilding most of the browser functionality that you get with HTML for free. I'm of the

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Flex? (was: What's exciting in Adobe Thermo?)

2008-03-23 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
On more quick note before I end my rant :) What about accessibility? font-size changing? both are much more difficult in Flash, and I imagine Flex is the same... On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 11:01 AM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have lots of experience working on Flash based

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Flex? (was: What's exciting in Adobe Thermo?)

2008-03-22 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
So, all this talk about Thermo and how it integrates into Flex... but do people use Flex for real projects? I have yet to see any web app/site that really uses Flex for an RIA.. most apps still use (and will use IMHO) web standard technologies like html, css, javascript, etc... What are people

Re: [IxDA Discuss] The best way to start new threads in IXDA Discussion?

2008-03-20 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I use the whole list through email.. so when I want to start a thread i go to gmail and send a new message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ... On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 11:19 AM, Oleg Krupnov [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, It's rather strange to ask this question after having started a number of threads

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Interesting widget - WAS: argument for designing 1024px wide

2008-03-19 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
My thought on this is why make the user choose? That's not a decision most users will understand or feel the need to make. I'm all for variable width layouts, but there are ways of automating it so that the site adapts to the browser size without the user having to tell it to. Here's an ALA

Re: [IxDA Discuss] OT: Webhost

2008-03-19 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I'll second MT. I've been with them for a couples years now and it's great. A little more expensive than Dreamhost, but you get what you pay for On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 3:23 PM, W Evans [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have nothing but great things to say about Media Temple. They rock. They

Re: [IxDA Discuss] OT: Webhost

2008-03-19 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
, solr - lot's of stuff - and when you get big - they can scale right up with you. Some really big name design firms/ux people/e-commerce places use it too - I think AIGA is on MT. On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 3:30 PM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'll second MT. I've been

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxD: Mac Resources

2008-03-18 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Actually, if it doesn't become too much of a nuisance, please do keep this public. I'm changing jobs (my first time with no development, just IA! Huzzah!), and we're working on MacBook Pros as well. In that case I will post the reply I just sent to John: - Hi John, I'm not sure

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxD: Mac Resources

2008-03-18 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I second FontExplorer, can't believe I forgot it on my list :) IMHO, Fetch is pretty bad.. if you need FTP frequently there are free apps like CyberDuck, my favorite is a paid app called Transmit. Do people still use Stuffit? Now that zip is built into OSX i don't really see the need to

Re: [IxDA Discuss] virtual vs. physical social behavior

2008-03-18 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I agree that virtual communication can be just as important and engaging and f2f.. but the way I see this issue doesn't really have much to do with the mode of communication. Starting up an email/im/text conversation while having a f2f conversation with somebody is rude in the same way as leaving

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxD: Mac Resources

2008-03-18 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Paparazzi lets you do web page screen captures what are the whole page length rather than the screen/window length. Coda is nice, if I were to switch to a more wysiwyg editor that would be it... TextMate is just the best for all around editing.. web, programming, or just text. On Tue, Mar 18,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] collaborative group structures

2008-03-14 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
At my small company we're somewhere between A and B ... we do a lot of work as a single unit, all giving input into the various components, but then we break off to perform tasks based on our specialties and each take ownership of our own piece. The final decision is left up to the specialist

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Table Row Interactions and .ico files

2008-03-12 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
This is similar to a question I asked a little while ago, the solution I decided upon is #2 and #4 from Jack's list, and it's working very well. Matt. On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 12:29 PM, Jack Moffett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Mar 12, 2008, at 9:04 AM, Fine, David wrote: Can anyone point

Re: [IxDA Discuss] web app messaging

2008-03-07 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
relevant browsers. You have to code it differently i firefox and ie. frank --- Could you use a floating div positioned to the center (or top) of the current view? Jack On Mar 6, 2008, at 10:36 AM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus wrote: The biggest issue is that on a page

[IxDA Discuss] web app messaging

2008-03-06 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi Everybody. I've written to the list with a few of these practical questions and always received helpful answers, so here's one more. Are there any patterns or good examples of feedback/error type messaging in a web app? Here's a breakdown of the specific issues: 1 User can perform action

Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxDA Announces New Board of Directors for 2008-2009

2008-02-27 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
the undergrad BFA program in New Media at Ryerson here in Toronto has lots of IxD related stuff in it, although I don't think they really make the association. i've actually been trying to get in there to do a talk for their 4th years students, we'll see how it goes. undergrad education is a big

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Offtopic: What music do you listen to while you design

2008-02-26 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
for me it's generally punk and hardcore ... but i also love experimental music and a good chunk of 20th century classical when i get bored i'll throw on last.fm ... lately i've been listening to Von Sudenfed, and lots of Husker Du/Bob Mould since i'm going to see him play soon. On Tue,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Where are all the designers?

2008-02-22 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hi, Dave, you've said things like this is the past on the list, and while I understand what you're saying conceptually, there's some fuzziness because of the comparatively young age of IxD. A lot of people here started off as other types of designers, or as other things all together... so if you

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Where are all the designers?

2008-02-21 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
In the many discussions (arguments?) about defining IxD this is by far the most reasonable answer I've ever hears. In reality, we're all going to have different specialties anyway, and there's nothing wrong with looking for employees with specific specialized skills, like coding, or IA, or

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Digital Instrument Interfaces

2008-02-19 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
one of the most intriguing interfaces i've ever used for making music is software called PD (pure data)... sort of like Max/MSP, but with less initial structure. it's all about playing, discovering ... there's almost no manual and you start with a blank screen.. you can build your own UI with a

Re: [IxDA Discuss] friday fun: what's the coolest thing you've designed?

2008-02-15 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
my favorite has to be what i'm working on right now, BiblioCommons ... still not perfect, but by far the most rewarding. unfortunately there's nothing public yet, but when there is i'll be sure to let everybody know :) On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 3:02 PM, Ari Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: be it

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Less talking, more doing (was: Thoughts on Alan Cooper's Keynote)

2008-02-13 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I couldn't agree more. I've learned so much form this list and the community. I met people in Savannah that I wouldn't know at all if not for this list. BUT, I also agree that there is a lot of needless debate about questions that nobody here can wholey answer. So I just filter those out and

Re: [IxDA Discuss] How to transition from technical writer to interaction designer?

2008-02-11 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I agree with you completely Robert. But I know, as somebody who has slowly moved into IxD from interface dev, that it's not always clear what is meant by a portfolio in the IxD context. As a graphic designer it's really easy to print and show your impact on that work, but I don't find it as easy

[IxDA Discuss] thoughts on interaction08, applying knowledge

2008-02-11 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
hi everybody, this has been an amazing weekend. i'd just like to thank all the organizers, the speakers, and the other attendees that i met while in savannah, i don't think i've ever learned so much in two days. one thing i've been thinking about since the end of the conference yesterday is

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Monday. Ugh!

2008-02-11 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
same here.. just stepped in my front door. the weather here is cold and snowy.. and after spending a weekend listening to and talking about really exciting things with great people i have to now go back to reality. makes me wish i was a student again... :) On Feb 11, 2008 9:46 AM, W Evans

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Online newspaper software?

2008-02-07 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I can't think of anything that's made specifically for newspapers, but you could look at things like Wordpress, or on a more complicated but more flexible note, Drupal. Both will do the things you mentioned with a little work... Drupal is more of a full blown CMS, but will probably be more work

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Differnce between user interface and interactio design?

2008-01-31 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
i have another idea.. how about the Highlander approach. There can be only One. (sorry, late to the conversation, but that joke was just too good to pass up :) ) On Jan 25, 2008 11:37 AM, Jared M. Spool [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: While we're exploring other models, I'd recommend a World of

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Good Rant on lack of Good GUI Design Software

2008-01-24 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Hey Dave, But that being said, one of my issues with the method below is that it assume that standard HTML controls are right for everything. This has been my problem with HTML from the beginning. There needs to be a much easier mechanism (I know there are custom controls for sale) to manage

Re: [IxDA Discuss] for type enthusiasts

2008-01-24 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I was there in december as well.. amazing exhibit. the whole design section at the MoMA was fantastic, if a little small. On Jan 24, 2008 8:00 PM, W Evans [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I was lucky enough to see the Helvetica exhibit at MOMA in NYC in December and it was very interesting and

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Good Rant on lack of Good GUI Design Software

2008-01-23 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
On Jan 23, 2008 7:56 PM, David Malouf [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The Thermo stuff is definitely interesting, but thinks like a graphic designer, not like an interactive designer. Expression in their tutorials anyway is thinking similarly. i've always done my wireframes and prototypes with

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mac Air - What part is the IxD?

2008-01-17 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
that's a great question it's say any Industrial Designer that's really passionate and good at their job would be part Interaction Designer, or at least Interaction Sympathetic. Which begs another question: Is any designer (visual, industrial, etc) who is passionate and talented part

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Arial vs Vernada?

2008-01-10 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
A great typography resource with a web focus is http://webtypography.net/ .. lots of great analysis and information about applying traditional typography practice to the web. On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:34:56, Jeff Seager [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Type is fascinating, both in its history and in the

Re: [IxDA Discuss] OLPC: Sugar Not So Sweet?

2007-12-27 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
it on all users of a system in order to achieve basic tasks is another. (I'm not saying this system is doing that - I just understood from the discussion so far that there might be a risk of it doing that) On Dec 27, 2007 2:25 AM, Matthew Nish-Lapidus [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] building

Re: [IxDA Discuss] OLPC: Sugar Not So Sweet?

2007-12-26 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I couldn't agree more with pauric on this one. Most people I know who are leaders in technology, programming, and even a lot of designers, got their start with computers as children. When we got our first computer I was 7 and it was a c64. No instructions, no GUI.. just the BASIC language and a

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Interesting tab navigation example

2007-12-24 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
That's a fantastic idea actually... taking the common practice of progressive enhancement a step further, so that the enhancements aren't just about making things prettier/fun/fluid, but also about making things work better for different groups of people. this seems like a really great approach,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] When/Where/How did you decide to be a designer?

2007-12-24 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
This is a great thread! One for the archives for sure. My path to IxD started when I was a kid and we got our first C64 I suppose. I immediately took to programming, and when we got an Appl IIe with Logo on it graphics became my main interest. From there I got more and more into computers and

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Must we be Leonardo de Vinci?

2007-12-24 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
Agreed. There will -always- be compromise, even in the most ideal situations. Unless your project has a single stakeholder, then there will be compromise to please all parties. Compromise doesn't mean bad though, and sometimes compromises can actually lead to better solutions, ones that a

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Bring your OLPC XO laptops to Interaction08!

2007-12-21 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
I'd love to try this myself, but it seems that the disk image download is gone from the link you sent.. know of another source by any chance? On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:02:30, pauric [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Also, its possible to run Sugar in an emulator on a PC Mac. I've had is running on a

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Interesting tab navigation example

2007-12-20 Thread Matthew Nish-Lapidus
yeah.. doesn't work in firefox or camino... i'm not sure the scroll bar on the tabs is intentional, i think it's just a symptom of bad web development and design. On Dec 20, 2007 6:11 PM, Mike Scarpiello [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I DO think it's hilarious that MS refuses to make their sites

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