Archive for the ‘Web’ Category

Stop it. Just stop. You don’t have absolute control over the layout. Form is defeating function. You think it’s clever design but your precious contact info is getting cut off. I get it. You want that contact info out there so that it generates revenue. Put it in your account description instead. I went through my followers list and took some screen shots. There’s some high profile design accounts in this list. I’m using the new beta Twitter layout and this is what I see:

@adobebrowserlab

@BridgeWorldwide

@designinformer

@enovatowebdesign

@fastcompany

@freelancesw

@justcreative

@mediumrareinc

@mettacreative

@TheLogoFactory

@tofslie

I had a client approach me and ask if I knew how to customize MySpace. I replied “Sure can!” thinking that it couldn’t possibly be that difficult. Oh sweet merciful Jesus was I ever wrong. Instead of elegant semantic code full of classes to hook into, MySpace is a horrible mishmash of tables, divs, and transparent spacer images. You can’t directly style any ID elements, since hash marks (#) get stripped out whenever you save profile edits.

I dug through googled pages of style templates until coming across Hacking A More Tasteful MySpace by Mike Davidson. However, this was written almost 2 years ago, and MySpace code has become even more convoluted since then. Enter Alexander Agnarson (LOOK at that MySpace, WOW!) and his update to Mike’s excellent hack.

Honestly, my initial efforts pale in comparison. I’m a neat freak though, and my goal was to make all of the content boxes line up with even widths down the column and even gaps throughout, so mission accomplished. It’s still a WIP, now that I have the alignment all sorted out I can work on the flourishes.

I have my mac RSS screensaver set to display the feed from Slashdot and came across this interesting site. FontStruct lets you create your own font online, which can then be exported as a TrueType font for use on your computer. The UI is rather clever; with many scaling options and built-in ability to create hollows, bevels, and rounded edges. Early results can look rather blocky because of it’s grid-based geometry, but given enough time and effort, someone could make some very interesting fonts.