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15 Feb 2010 10:17

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Tech: Windows Phone 7 Series a complete reboot from the top down

  • Former Nike designers gave Windows Phone 7 Series (that’s a mouthful) a visual reboot that focuses on simplicity over noise (as well as a consistent experience), and the result looks a lot like the Zune HD. Early reviews are super-positive; Engadget says that the OS “looks nothing like anything else on the market, and we think that’s to its advantage.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Feb 2010 23:34

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Tech: Jesus hell, Facebook, another goddamn redesign? Aargh.

  • Happy sixth birthday dudes, but for the love of God, stop it. In the past, we’ve been for Facebook’s constant push to innovate, but it seems like they’re redesigning again just because. We’re sure it’s powerful and does a lot of cool stuff, but your last redesign was plenty useful. There seems to be no reason to screw with it again so soon. This hits 80 million users tonight, by the way. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

04 Feb 2010 12:40

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Biz: Twitter considers the change to Heinz’s ketchup packets



Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Jan 2010 14:40

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Biz: The Adventures of Newsday Customer No. 36: Quick, kinda useless

  • We understand what Newsday is trying to do with its “Quick Read” format on its $4 million, paywall-ridden site, but the implementation is weak. We say that as warriors of the quick-read information format. We’re like Mel Gibson in the first “Mad Max.” Newsday’s implementation is just flashy, like Tina Turner in “Beyond Thunderdome.” How does a giant image with the lead of a story and a giant photo constitute a “quick read”? There’s no bullet points. There’s no attempt to contextualize the information. It’s just an entryway into another page with another ad – something that the quick read format has a lot of, by the way. Oh yeah, one thing we want to mention: We’ve been subscribers of Newsday.com for three days now, and we’ve yet to be contacted by anyone about paying for our $5/week subscription. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jan 2010 12:18

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Tech: Digg founder on site redesign: “People are going to be shocked”

  • We’re making some drastic changes, but they’re much-needed drastic changes. People are going to be shocked at some of the directions we’re taking. You have to be comfortable with completely tearing down and throwing away a bunch of ideas.
  • Digg founder Kevin Rose • Regarding an upcoming redesign of his site. Rose claims the site will be more photo-driven and with a stronger real-time focus, and he claims that most people won’t even think of the site as being the same brand as before. Sound intriguing? Yeah, pretty much. But considering his site isn’t the innovation front-runner it was when it launched (thanks, Twitter), it may be what it needs. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Jan 2010 20:42

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Tech: Mashable’s redesign sucks. Yeah, we said it. What what?

  • They look like the establishment now. Mashable’s always had a lot of clutter in its design, due to the fact that they tended to try a lot of things and throw them on the wall and see if they worked. It’s what the site’s always been about. They did need a redesign, and we’re glad they’re trying. But we’d rather have the old design back than this slick hodgepodge that feels like absolutely nothing at all.
  • Why does it suck? The colors of this design are so quiet, so muted, so similar to Yahoo!’s longstanding mid-decade quiet tones, that it doesn’t make us feel anything. Also worth noting: The headshots, which emphasized that this was a personality-driven site, have been de-emphasized too much, creating an anonymous, generic feel.
  • Changes worth considering Mashable’s a popular site, but it could stand to be hipper (like Engadget, which just got a great redesign) or more playful (like Twitter, which drives much of the site’s traffic). It should have as much personality as the words of its jetsetting founder, Pete Cashmore. Cleaner doesn’t mean lifeless. Never forget that, kids.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 9 Comments • Permalink

05 Dec 2009 10:22

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Tech: Reuters’ redesign is one of those designs that starts slow, gets better

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  • The interesting thing about Reuters’ redesign is the same thing that’s interesting about “All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem: It starts out not looking like much, but as you get further down the page you realize that there’s a ton going on here. That’s how it starts, the way it does in bad films. Except the part where the motor kicks in. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

06 Nov 2009 21:00

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Tech: Check out blogger tool 2Leep, now with a fresh redesign by us!

2leep1106a

Here's the before: 2Leep.com is a blogger link exchange service used by such well-trafficked blogs as Oddee and The Inquisitr. Despite being around only a handful of months, it's gained a lot of momentum of late and is a great way to find neat, often bizarre articles. Despite its great idea, its design didn't really do the site justice. A total diamond in the rough.


2leep1106b
  • Here’s the after: We offered our services to 2Leep pro bono, because we thought we could help a lot of sites by giving this neat idea a design that matched its ambitions. We’re still working (beware of falling bugs, especially if your browser starts with the letters I and E), but the basic idea behind the layout was to give it a more web-appy feel as well as organize and emphasize the often-bizarre and cloying subjects the site covers. Check it out and please let us know if you see any issues. And keep an eye out for 2Leep links on ShortFormBlog! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

03 Nov 2009 10:40

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About: It’s official. We have a redesign. It’s up. Check it out, kids.



So here it is. Our redesign. We've spent months working on this bad boy. We've been talking about this in bits and pieces over the last few months, but now here it is. And we hope you guys like it. Because you're awesome and make us look good when you like stuff we do.

  • What hasn’t changed The commitment to providing people with short, info-packed bites that provide quick insight into the day’s news. Most of the post styles are still exactly the same as they were on day one of the site. Oh, and Julius is still the mascot. (And one of the trademarks, referring to the site in the “editorial we,” continues unabated.)
  • What has changed Over the last ten months, it’s become clear what’s worked and what hasn’t, and what was needed to take that basic idea and turn it into something more useful for readers. So with that, we’re adding focus on navigation, improving our content focus and pushing a design that encourages exploration. Read more above. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 10 Comments • Permalink

25 Oct 2009 18:50

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Tech: So it begins: Facebook has a “change it back” group going strong

  • 787,030 kneejerk members so far source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 
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