Davin's blog

Year: 2009

  • Argh! I’m pen-less!

    Pen-less. It’s 9:30 in the evening, and I need to write out some thoughts (about a split-complementary color set). At work last Friday, the pen that I’ve had with me for some months now finally gave up its last ink. It was a Pilot Precise V5, black. My habit has been to have that pen…

  • Nephtali web framework creator talks FP

    Adam Richardson of Envision Internet Consulting has been a long-time collaborator and good friend of mine, and over the last few years I’ve seen him pursue knowledge in web programming with persistence that I’ve never seen from anyone else. One of Adam’s projects is Nephtali: a web framework that focuses on security and considers the…

  • How WordPress falters as a CMS: Multiple content fields

    WordPress is amazing and keeps getting better, but I want to be clear about an inherent limitation that WordPress has as a content management system (CMS). That limitation is that WordPress doesn’t handle multiple content regions on web pages. Too strong? With WordPress, you can try to use custom fields or innovative hacks like Bill…

  • Experience theme for Covenant Eyes

    Cindy Chastain’s article, “Experience Themes,” at Boxes and Arrows outlines a neat way to package the concepts that help user experience designers put creative work into context. When I was leading many design/development projects at a time, I’d write a creative brief for each—it helped me and the team stay clearheaded about each project. An…

  • Seams between systems and the Vignelli NYC subway map

    I just read “Mr. Vignelli’s Map” by Michael Bierut over at Design Observer. In the post, Bierut remembers and analyzes why the public rejected Vignelli’s map of the New York City subway system. (Here’s the Vignelli subway map.) The Vignelli map smartly acknowledged that for passengers of the subway focused on navigating the subway system…

  • The Thanksgiving Duck

    As mentioned last post, I tried a duck for Thanksgiving. Lila summed it up with “It’s okay Dad, but it’s not appealing.” I could not fit the bird into the crock pot, so my Plan A was foiled. Instead I roasted it in the oven. I applied poultry seasoning and tucked onion and apple chunks…

  • A recipe for disaster?

    Against the advice of Adam, I am going to attempt to cook a small turkey in my crock pot for Thanksgiving. It’s just me, Lila, and Eva, so we don’t need a big bird. If I can’t get it to fit in the crock pot I reserve the right to abort to Plan B, which…

  • WUD 2009 at MSU recap

    Yesterday’s World Usability Day event at Michigan State University was good—but a little odd. The morning sessions were spot-on, and some of the afternoon talks were good as well. However, it was clear that some panelists didn’t understand their audience of usability and accessibility practitioners. Their talks were still interesting, but they didn’t understand the…

  • WUD: captcha problems discussed in assistive tech expo

    Tom Schultz and I are at the World Usability Day event hosted by Michigan State University today. We sat in a session this morning that focused on a demonstration and discussion of assistive technologies. An interesting point in the discussion was that problems with CAPTCHAs for people with visual  impairments. One of the presenters went…

  • Paper: crucial to Web design

    At first thought, Web design is a digital job. But as long as I have done this work, I’ve had paper on hand. In the 90s I’d quickly sketch different ideas for overall design, narrow it in, and then sketch out the plan to create the layout with tables, complete with pixel dimensions for each…