Thoughts

Fontify Yourself

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

I have always wanted to create my own font, and have always planned on learning the software to develop various explorations in typeface design, but also for the vain purpose of having a typeface of my own handwriting.

In keeping up with the practices and various coding languages used in web design, I have had little time available to hone such a skill set. Fortunately for me, YourFonts.com provides exactly what I was interested in without needing to investing all the time, the opportunity to create a unique typeface both quickly and cheaply.

As soon as I stumbled across the site, I eagerly printed out the template.  For my first attempt I chose to stick with my own handwriting and quickly scratched out the alphabet and headed to the scanner.  I had a little trouble uploading a PNG, so I would suggest saving your file as a JPG. After a few minutes I had created “Sam’s Scrawl” and began playing around in Illustrator.  As I tested out my new font, I discovered that I was a bit to hasty with writing out the characters.  I then tweaked my initial scans in Photoshop and began the uploading process anew.

scrawlsample

I am pleased with the final result, however, the typeface would not be suitable for large size uses as it it is comprised of sharp vector shapes rather than organic curves.

Download Sam’s Scrawl for your own personal use.

Creative Commons License

The Supvertising Bowl

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Most Super Bowls barely grab my attention, I didn’t even watch the game the year my home team won.  Obviously, I am one of those people who “just watches it for the commercials.”  Perhaps I will admit to enjoying this year’s nail biter of a game, maybe it was due to  this year’s lackluster advertising efforts.  It seems that overly sentimental horses and slapstick tomfoolery don’t really do it for me.

However, I did greatly enjoy this imaginative gem from Coca-Cola:

Also of note, The New York Times posted this interesting graphical interpretation of Twitter posts during the game.

Answers about Analytics

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

I include the free tool Google Analytics on all of my website development projects, as it provides clients with a good overview as to where people are coming from, how they got there, and what they hope to achieve while at the site.

Despite my love for this addition to my collection of web tools, I often misunderstand a great deal of information about it.  I sometimes lack a precise definition as to what each metric is measuring or how to really extend use of the software to get as much out of it as possible.

Fortunately, Analytic’s grandfather, Google search, has once again delivered.

Official Google Analytics Blog
Go straight to the horse’s mouth for the latest information and goings on with features and updates on their own software.  On a related note, never underestimate the power of the Help section.

Google Analytics Maximized: Deeper Analysis, Higher ROI & You
This more advanced article provides 9 tips for making you into an Analytics Empress/Emperor.  My favorite being number 8, make use of Analytics ability to provide information about internal site searches.  I had no idea this aspect existed and activated immediately on the sites I manage with a search feature.
Also check out the author’s archives on analytics for more insights to what you can learn from your implementation of Analytics.

5 Google Analytics Features You May Not Know About
A repeat of some earlier suggestions, however, the last tip cannot be overstated. Filter out your own visits. This is especially important if you check your site frequently, which you should, or if you have hired any one else to assist in the process.  Get the static IP address of as many of your internal visitors as possible and filter them out now.

Google Analytics Interface Tutorial [YouTube]
An often underutilized place to find information on just about any topic is YouTube.  This video tutorial is a good overall introduction to Google Analytics, perhaps a nice link to send to clients unfamiliar with the software.  Although, I do often revisit basic tutorials on all of my skill sets as more technical documents may overlook basic features that I may have never heard of during my initial research.

Update, a wonderful article from Smashing Magazine:
A Guide to Google Analytics Tutorial and Useful Tools
Covers more angles than I thought existed. The review of tools provided extends the usability of Google Analytics.

Tap Tap Tap

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

If you were fortunate enough to receive one of the many gifts that were part of the financial boost to Apple over the holiday season, you might be interested in these 10 quick tips from Tap Tap Tap.

10 useful iPhone tips & tricks

I was lucky enough to find a touch under my Christmas tree, and since then it has become quite a valuable tool. This is actually my first iPod and, not surprisingly, I don’t really use it as a media player. For me, the touch is more like one of those so-called netbooks. I check my email, read the news, post to Twitter, and so on. And in those rare instances when I don’t have Internet access, I catch up on my classics by reading them on Stanza, or any of the various educational PDFs I have found across the Internet on Files Lite.

Essentially, those spare minutes in the day formerly spent waiting now add up to whole novels read, new coding languages learned, faster email response, happier clients, and in the end, a more in control me.

And of course it isn’t all work with no play, some of the more fun apps on my iPod touch:
Urbanspoon
Spore (Link is to the free version, this is the only app I have purchased so far, but Tetris and i Love Katamari are looking so tempting.)
Topple
JellyCar
Google Earth
iHandy Level (It is often quite enjoyable to help friends confirm the un-levelness of their living quarters.)

Overall, I have enjoyed the iPod touch in far more ways than I ever expected, and well, sometimes I forget that it plays music too.

Web Design from the State Perspective

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

An interesting assessment of web design over the past through years via the lens of US state web sites:

US State Tourism Web Site Design: Two Years On

My beloved home state of Maryland did have perhaps the most shameful before:

Maryaland's website before

Maryaland's website before

Maryland's Website After

Maryland's Website After

I recall seeing similar visual and functional upgrades across various sites back home, perhaps my favorite being: www.marylandstatefair.com. Before this update it was quite a mess, and very difficult to use. Now visitors to the site can submit entries to the fair online, which is quite useful for college students attending school out of state. But perhaps my favorite feature, that despite all the glittery imagery, you can still read the whole site with images disabled, a vital element since parts of Maryland still lack a high speed Internet provider.

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