Facebook: You Are Not Its Customer, You Are Its Product
February 5, 2012
Now it’s not just about whether my dinner will be interrupted by a telemarketer. It’s about whether my dreams will be dashed by the collection of bits and bytes over which I have no control and for which companies are currently unaccountable. – Lori Andrews
Orwell’s Big Brother is here and instead of coercing you to reveal everything about yourself you do it willingly, eagerly. So you can share pictures and music and private thoughts and brand choices. And play FarmVille and Words with Friends. Good for Zynga and Mark Zuckerberg. But good for you? Didn’t we have ways to do all those things before Facebook, before the Internet?
I am not on Facebook though I make my living with my software skills and use my Mac every day.
I know people who are afraid of online predators and concerned about online bullying that allow their adolescent children to have Facebook accounts (all their friends are on Facebook, they say). I know people who rail against big government and telemarketers who complain of Facebook “withdrawal” when they can’t access their accounts multiple times during the day.
One of the heaviest Facebook users I know explains that it’s easier to deal with her friends and family via Facebook, instead of say, actually visiting or interacting with them. (I’m sure that’s true). I have had people tell me that I don’t really “exist” because I don’t have a Facebook account “like everyone else.” These are folks who have never read Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay.
For some reasons to be concerned about Facebook (and social networks in general) I highly recommend this article in the New York Times, Facebook Is Using You by Lori Andrews, author of I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy.
The WordPress Journey: Infographic
January 12, 2012
Obviously, I’m a fan of WordPress for content management and as a modular way of creating websites with advanced functionality. Here’s an infographic that gives on overview of WordPress’ development. . .click on image for larger size.
Great Mac Software Bundles – at Great Prices for a Limited Time
December 15, 2011
MacUpdate is offering a bundle of 12 applications, including the essential repair utility Tech Tool Pro 6. A total retail value of $741 for only $49.99 (a 94% discount, saving you $691). As of this writing you’ve got 6 days to take advantage of this offer.
BundleHunt is also offering 12 applications for $49.99, (95% off a full retail of $1,100). Six are design-oriented and six are general Mac apps. Included are 14 e-books, listed below:
- Mastering CSS for Web Developers
- Professional Web Design, Vol. 2
- Getting the Hang of Web Typography
- Mastering Photoshop for Web Design, Volume2
- Create Selling eCommerce Websites
- Mobile Design for iPhone & iPad
- Mastering Photoshop for Web Design
- Successful Freelancing
- Professional Web Design
- Creative Set for eBook Design
- Book 1: Where Stellar Messages Come From (55-page PDF)
- Book 2: Formatting & The Essentials of Web Writing (54-page PDF)
- Book 3: Headlines, Subheads & Value Propositions (52-page PDF)
- Book 4: Buttons & Click-Worthy Calls to Action (55-page PDF)
Email is Dead? So say the Pundits, but the Numbers Tell a Different Story
September 14, 2011
I’ve been a big fan of Leo Laporte and his This Week in Technology (TWIT) podcast for years. He’s been so successful that he now has a network of video and audio podcasts covering a wide range of digital topics; This Week in Google, TWIT Photo, Security Now, iPad Today, MacBreak Weekly, Windows Weekly, Tech News Today, All About Android and more. If you don’t already listen to one of these shows, start. It’s simple as that.
However, as a prognosticator he’s come up short a number of times. He predicted failure for things like the iPhone (“that’s not a business Apple should be in”) and Apple retail stores (“Remember Gateway?”). My personal opinion is that predictions are an area of chronic weakness in human intelligence; even the best informed experts have the same success ratio over the long run as a coin-flip. So I don’t really blame him for missing the boat with his guesses; I take them with the customary grain of salt.
But recently he’s been on a tear claiming that Email is Dead, replaced by social media like Twitter and The FaceBook (can you tell I’m not a fan of either?). I put social media in the same category as reality television: the most productive people I know consume very little of either. In the spirit of money talks and BS walks, let’s take look at the numbers in the infographic below.
- There are 3 times as many email accounts as there are Facebook and Twitter accounts combined.
- The total posts on Facebook and Twitter combined add up to 0.2% of all email traffic.
- The total number of searches on Google, Yahoo! and Bing combined equal just 1.1% of all email traffic.
- The total number of all page views on the Internet equal only 25% of the total numbers of email sent.
- Nearly 4 times as many emails are sent each day as the total number of Facebook/Twitter updates, Google/Yahoo!/Bing searches and Internet page views combined.
So, with no disrespect to Leo, the answer to the question Is Email Dead? has to be, not hardly.
This is leading.
Click image for larger size.
“Just My Type” by Simon Garfield: My Favorite Book So Far This Year in Any Category
September 10, 2011
Just My Type by Simon Garfield is a unique book about a subject that is all around us and, except for professional graphic designers, mostly ignored by the general public.
However below the radar the subject of typefaces may be, it is also abundantly clear that they exert an enormous influence on how we perceive the written word. In everything from brand logos, the headlines and body copy of newspapers and magazines and, of increasing importance, in all digital user interfaces from the Web, smart phones to eReaders and tablet computers.
This book is sure to be on this Christmas’ wish lift for every graphic designer you know, but I would argue his real achievement is to take a niche subject and make it thoroughly engaging for the lay reader. Everyone is confronted with a variety of fonts every day, they are literally unavoidable. So I’d make the case that this book can be rewarding to every reader, not just those with a professional stake in the game. Because the story of typefaces is, at its root, also the story of people and communication.
26 letters plus a variety of numbers and symbols (ligatures, accents, fractions and dingbats) yield an almost infinite variety of styles, past, present and future – new typefaces are being designed and released every day. And all more accessible than ever before to the average computer user – even if all you ever type is a business letter – from the drop down menu in your word processor of choice. We can thank Steve Jobs and his college course in calligraphy for the early emphasis on good fonts in the personal computer market.
Garfield uses short chapters and abundant illustrations of his subject matter that include both biographic and historic detail that I found fascinating. I learned perhaps more than I ever wanted to know about the personal life of the creator of one of my all time favorite typefaces: who would’ve thought that a book on fonts could include topics like incest and bestiality? (It’s ranked number 8 on the chart below).
The take-away? Just My Type is my favorite book so far this year in any category and carries my highest recommendation. Buy it, read it, give a copy to every graphic designer you know.
Here’s a wonderful chart that’s used as the end papers of Garfield’s book, the Periodic Table of Typefaces – Popular, Influential & Notorious.
Click on image for larger size. Note: Full image is 3150 wide by 2100 pixels high.
Web Design Round-Up: Muse from Adobe, HTML 5, Trends & Ideas
August 24, 2011
Adobe has released a free a beta of Muse, a new web authoring software that allows you to produce a high quality web site without writing code. In their promotion for Muse Adobe mentions that you can “focus on design rather than technology. . .as flexibly and powerfully as you do in Adobe InDesign.” So maybe this is neing pitched to print designers (and perhaps the average joe) who don’t want to get under the hood with HTML and CSS? People who want to learn more about web design sometimes decide to pursue online masters degree programs.
Certainly there’s a market for this, as an option for those who don’t need the power and flexibility of Dreamweaver, along with its steep learning curve.
I’ve always been amazed at how much of the functionality of the full Photoshop package that Adobe puts into Photoshop Elements. That’s one of the best bargains around for the non-print professional who wants to makes their personal photos look great. If the same ratio exists re: Dreamweaver to Muse, this could be a great niche product.
______________________________________________________________________
Wesley Fenion wrote a great piece on the Best and Worst Trends in Modern Web Design for the Tested site. I’d label it Highly Recommended Reading. Tested wants to be the site “for clever people who want to buy smarter, tweak better, hack harder and watch us destroy stuff.” Who can resist a Mission Statement like that?
______________________________________________________________________
Smashing Hub has a great piece on 10 Excellent HTML5 overlooked coding tools for creating games, forms, using the Canvas feature, determining browser compatibility and more. If you do web design on any level, you should check these out.
HTML5 vs Flash infographic
August 6, 2011
There’s a battle for animation in your browser that will begin seriously heating up over the next year. Will the video capabilities of HTML5 mean the end of Adobe’s Flash? How badly has Apple’s ban on Flash on mobile devices hurt the program? More than the poor implementations of Flash by web designers who value looks over content?
What about Adobe’s new Edge program; will it cannabilize Flash from within their San Jose headquarters?
My biggest complaint about Flash is that it slows down my access to the content I want to get at in web sites; restaurant sites are one of the worst offenders as a class in this regard. These animations also discourage repeat visits. It’s a very rare Flash animation on the web that bears repeat viewing, in my view.
Here’s an interesting infographic about Flash versus HTML5 (below). It will certainly answer some of the questions you have about the upcoming transition.
Click on image for larger size.
Where Does Your Data Live?
July 27, 2011
The folks at Mozy, who offer online, off site “cloud” based storage for the data that lives as ones and zeros on your hard drives, MP3 players, SSDs, external drives and network back-ups have created an infographic that shows where your information is stored geographically (along with other interesting statistics). Fascinating stuff, I think.
Click on the image for larger size.
The Evolution of Web Design by KISSmetrics
July 17, 2011
KISSmetrics, an online marketing and customer acquisition blog, has a great infographic about the history and development of web design. There’s also a lot of solid content on their site that’s informed by the use of similar excellent infographics.
Well worthing checking out if you’d like to understand things like say, the most effective day and time to post on Facebook or how often you should Tweet.
Click on image for larger size.
Free Photoshop brushes – Smoke Effects
May 30, 2011
There are 33 sets of excellent Photoshop smoke effect brushes collected here on the YouTheDesigner web site, all free and available in various downloadable formats. If you need smoke effects for a design project, I’m sure you can find what you’re looking for in this great collection.
