Philippe Starck is a french designer, whose scope ranges from deluxe objects to posh condos and hotels all around the world. I especially admire him for his believes and views on design and religion, which are very close to mine. Design should be done for the result. People, are going to use the product, so we should spent time thinking about how are they going to use it and make it the bast way, to create awesome user experience. This implies also on web design. I focus on usability while designing web sites and applications, because there are people going to use them.
“God is the answer when we don’t know the answer. God is a trap. When you do not know the answer, there is a God, that is ridiculous.”
Out of every £1 spent by British shoppers 17p goes to online retailers. That is amazing statistics published buy The Guardian. Online sales are up 38% over the first six months of this year. Bottom and top of the market seems to be performing best.
Embrace the unknown! This should be the slogan of every physicist, biologists, doctor… Well everybody. When was the last time you heard: It can not work. It is this way… Sometimes it works also the other way and probably it works even better.
In traditional chemistry, you can not create new elements without an enormous energy. True or false? Imagine a test. Feed chickens with a diet free of any calcium but containing potassium (element single step below calcium). Hen will lay perfectly normal eggs. Feed them without calcium and potassium and they will get sick and lay soft-shelled eggs. It seems that chickens can convert potassium into calcium without any trouble or use of enormous energy. Yes. Living systems are able to change one element into another without the use of enormous energy.
Always look at new things with open mind, do not get stick to what you already know. Challenge it.
As a web designer, I may see design in everything. But really, good design can drive sustainable development and reduce humanity’s ecological footprint. Watch Alex Steffen’s talk, who is the founder of worldchanging.com. He shares his thoughts about design of our cities, buildings and every day things.
“While the customer is not always right, he/she must always feel heard.” According to Danny Mayer who was named one of the most influential New Yorkers of 2006 and who is founder and co-owner of 11 Manhattan’s most influential restaurants. He wrote Setting the Table to share the lessons he’s learned while developing his recipe for restaurant success.
Traveling is something that I like very much. There is always something new to discover, wherever you go, even if you visit the same distant places you have already been to, again and again. It is a real adventure. Now I am in the UK but unlike most of the people who travel by plane or bus, I chose a train and ferry. On tuesday evening I departed from Poprad by night train to Prague. Early in the morning I was changing for a train to Berlin and at the noon I changed for a train to Amsterdam where I arrived slightly before 7. I had few minutes to eat some junk food on to me well known Amsterdam train station before I pop on train to Antwerp.
Luckily friend of mine was waiting for me in front of Antwerp Central station and I had a place to stay over night. It was very nostalgic, as in Antwerp, I spent the best time of my entire studies. I felt like I am traveling in time. Like I have never left this city or I am back in the past. I felt at home. Thank you Ieva. Early in the morning I pop on train to Lille which arrived late and I missed connection to Calais. But no worries, I had two more hours to relax and wait for the train to Calais. At 3:45 I was boarding ferry to Dover. In Dover I had a trouble to find local bus which would take me to Calais Priory train station. I get to know one traveler from Cologne who was heading to Ireland (also by train :). Luckily I managed and was sitting on local train heading to London. But new trouble occurred. I needed to be in Cambridge in the evening as my hostel was booked there. I was coming late and worried that I will not catch the train to Cambridge. I had only around 30 minutes to move from Bridge station to Kings Cross. On the train station I was so much stressed that I even forgot to take a change and the metro ticket cost me instead of 4 Pounds 10 which I left in a hurry. But I managed. Arrived to Cambridge around 9 o’clock on thursday. I left on tuesday evening and arrived on thursday evening. Pretty good, isn’t it? Two easy going days.
Next day I travelled from Cambridge to Leeds and from there to Manchester airport. This night I had no hostel and I needed to meet with friend of mine who flight to the Manchester airport. So after arriving to Leeds I was traveling three times the same route between Leeds and Manchester airport, there and back, and basically stayed over night in the train. Luckily there was constant night service, other way I would sleep on the train station :).
God bless InterRail. If you are looking for cheap train travel for longer distances in Europe, I recommend InterRail. You get pass for 150 Eur valid for 10 days. Plenty of time to get anywhere and back.
Few days ago I watched a cartoon which was my favorite one, when I was a small kid. That time it was like a fantasy for me. Now I understand it much better. I wonder how great the cartoons in my childhood were. Today it seems that there is only crap in the TV. However nice animation but no story, no education. This one from 80′ies has great story, nice animation and is educating. Enjoy it.
Today I came across interesting article asking a question whether college education is necessary. Sure, you do not need education to be successful. Many of successful people do not have any college or university education and the ones who do are more likely to have just basic safe job with daily commute rather than making big impact to the world. But for many, higher education means something more than knowledge which you can find through Google. First you must know what to search for, so you need to discover options and possibilities. Second, it is about people. You meet a lot of people at the university, I came across thousands of people during my studies and keep in contact with around hundred of them. This is a huge network. People inspire! Most important think is that for me it is a life style. Maybe you are lucky, and you enjoy sports and conferences even without university. But university is great place if you want to discover many different things alongside subject you are studying. It is great travel agency, I have travelled much of Europe throughout my studies (almost for free!)… it gives you plenty of free time for travel and your hobbies. So you can run a company like Clever Leap alongside it .
College, university, or any higher education is big advantage. It is perfect life style full of free time, traveling, parties and enjoyable moments. It is the best place to enjoy your life. I definitely do not agree that school is for people without internet access and you can find all the necessary information on the web. Google is for information, college is for experience. Now it is your decision, if you are searching for knowledge, information, or experience. I am definitely on the experience side.
Have you ever thought where does the stuff comes from? What is the cycle of average product you use? Annie Leonard nicely exposes the flow of stuff. From extraction through sale, use and disposal. From the point of view you probably never thought of. At the end of the video, you will find proposal for sustainable production and consumption. Enjoy it and do something.
I came across interesting article discussing 7 tips for designing and maintaining a large site. When it comes to growing web site, maintainability is probably the biggest issue. That’s why it is good to keep straight focus on it right from the beginning. Article nicely discusses various techniques from the development point of view. There are however few interesting facts I would like to share from the web site management point of view.
From this side it is very important to have the right content management system. CMS should allow you to easily add new pages, new content and update it when needed. CMS should handle various types of content e.g. texts, pictures, products etc. But most important is extendibility. It should be easy to add new type of content onto your site. Ability of CMS to manage site’s content should not be limited to type of the content you already have. It should be easy to add another format if needed. (e.g. you want to add new kind of product with completely different features as those you already have). “typevista” for example uses plug-and-play content models, system which makes it is easy to create new model if needed.
Second, design for scalability is important. Even if you have good CMS, pay attention to right information architecture and site structure. It is crucial to know where new pages will go, how they will interact and relate to other pages and what is the role of content on these pages.
There are many more things on my mind, but I will leave them for now so you don’t get overwhelmed. If you feel a bit technician read the above mentioned article ;).
