christine ibbitson's blog

My Worst Client

I have finally met my worst client – me. I am terrible at meeting my own design, content and timelines objectives. Forget about getting an answer or a commitment when I need one. The good news or bad news, I don't think I am alone.

Why is it so many designers have an enormous difficulty designing and updating their own personal sites?

My portfolio, which hasn’t been updated in two years, took me at least five years to put together. Oh sure, there were tons of concepts, sketches and colour palettes – some even making it all the way to be three quarters finished.

Geez. Just post something, was the design theme of my current online showcase.  How did I finally get one done? Simple. It was either create and post a portfolio site or starve. Apparently employers aren’t fond of you showing up at their offices offering to do a dramatic interpretation of your work. 

I found myself avoiding this blog because I disliked the ‘out of box’ design. So I started to commit an evening here and there to come up with some ideas and to even go as far as trying them out. Trying some paint on the wall so to speak.

So if you happen to stop by – I appreciate you patience and please excuse the mess.

OK/Canel - Time Well Wasted

 It is so easy to get sidetrack and end up spending considerable amounts of time online doing and accomplishing nothing. I seem to spend quite a bit of time reading blogs that are interesting but often irrelevant to the knowledge that I am currently searching for. I was happy to come across a very entertaining and informative blog about this industry.

"OK/Cancel is a comic strip collaboration co-written and co-illustrated by Kevin Cheng and Tom Chi. Our subject matter focuses on interfaces, good and bad and the people behind the industry of building interfaces - usability specialists, interaction designers, human-computer interaction (HCI) experts, industrial designers, etc."

An article accompanies each cartoon. The articles are honest, insightful and articulate ideas that are often being mulled over in most designer's heads.

Now if I can only remember what I was originally looking for.

Essential Mac OS X Applications

Mac Specialist has compiled a list of essential OSX applications. The app list is in alphabetical order with a brief description of each item.

Don't forget to check out the "What would you add to the list" comment section where users offer thier recommendations.

Do you hear what I hear?

Dean Garstecki, chairman of Northwestern's Communication Sciences and Disorders Department is warning people who listen to thier portable audio devices using earbuds to be careful or else be prepared for the likeihood of hearing loss.

According to research the "earbuds' close proximity to the eardrum, in combination with their ability to magnify the sound signal by as much as six to nine decibels, raises the intensity of the sound" thus promoting the likelihood of hearing loss.

"Garstecki and other audiologists want music listeners to adopt their so-called "60 percent, 60 minute" rule. The solution, they said, is to spend no more than one hour each day listening to an MP3 player or iPod with the volume level lower than 60 percent of the maximum.

"If music listeners are willing to turn the volume down further still and use different headphones, they can increase the amount of time that they can safely listen," Garstecki pointed out."

Read the full article.

Blogging Software and Blog Basics

Interested in starting a blog? Not quite sure what publishing tool you should use?

The University of Southern California: Online Journalism Review has written an article called Time to check: Are you using the right blogging tool?

The article explains the differnce between a hosted blog '"where all data and the publishing interface reside on the server of the blogging software company" and an independent blog "software that must be downloaded from the blogging software company and installed on a Web server."

Also included in the article: general information on blogging jargon, appearance and layout, tools, cost and launch time.

As a companion to the article, The Blog Software Comparison Chart outlines different standard features that allows users to compare various blog software such as Blogger, TypePad and Movable Type.

2005 Top Google Seaches

Google shares their top searches for 2005 in their 2005 year-end Zeitgeist.

                   

Google.com - Top Gainers of 2005 1. Myspace 2. Ares 3. Baidu 4. wikipedia 5. orkut	Google News - Top Searches in 2005 1. Janet Jackson 2. Hurricane Katrina 3. tsunami 4. xbox 360 5. Brad Pitt
Froogle - Top Searches in 2005 1. ipod 2. digital camera 3. mp3 player 4. ipod mini 5. psp<

Visit Google Zeitgeist to view results for; World Affairs, Nature, Moives, Celebrities and Phenomena.