Alex Hardy

I thought I’d take a moment to observe the first birthday of my website. A year ago today I went live with a basic WordPress install. So far the site has undergone:

• One WordPress upgrade
• A theme of my design
• The addition of a portfolio
• The release of simpleContact (now at version 1.1)
• A new, permanent domain (the move is in progress)

On blogging…

It’s still very early days for me on this score. I’ve been slowly narrowing my focus and finding my style. I think the quality of my writing has come a long way this last year, but still leaves a great deal to be desired. I want this blog to have worth (rather than just an account of my activities), so I am thinking about fleshing out some previous posts into articles and tutorials. I am open to suggestions in this matter.

On design…

I don’t feel an urgent need to change the basic design of the website, since this look-and-feel is only eight months old anyway. It has held up under additions without any signs of creaking, so I think it will be good for another year.

When I come to redesign the site I’ll be paying close attention to my statistics. I’ve gained some interesting insights into how this site is used (ie: what is popular and what is not) and these factors will be taken into account. One result is likely to be a blog that is more visual, with less categorisation.

On projects…

I have lots of ideas going forward. I plan to release simpleContact 1.2 in November, and version 1.3 is pencilled in for February. I’ve made no secret of my intention to release a commercial product next year, which will exist alongside the free version and offer more sophisticated functionality (custom fields, for starters).

I’ll start work on simpleContact 2.0 “Pro” in the new year. Watch this space…

This period of focusing solely on a free version is proving immensely valuable, because it allows me to gauge people’s opinions. I can get a feel for what people need, how much active support I will have to perform and respond to bug reports or compatibility issues (which I’m pleased to say have been very few).

As always, I am open for feedback and support. I have a roadmap in place for the application, but will give requests due consideration. Contact me with yours…

Back to work!

Pixelmator is available now to buy (there is a 30-day trial). This is slightly later than originally projected, but that’s life in the world of software

I remarked in a previous post that this application looked like a possible alternative to Photoshop for the casual user or designer on a tight budget. I guess it’s time to find out if that’s true.

For $59 you can’t go far wrong.

A new website by The Foundry went live this morning. Cheeky Monkey Business Solutions deliver “a human approach to innovation and change.”

Designed by our very own Mital Daya and built by myself, we had lots of fun working on this one.

Explore the site and see how many secret animations you can find!

In keeping with our accessibility guidelines, a HTML version will follow soon.

While I was playing around with colour palettes from my photos I thought it would be kinda fun to put some wallpapers on my site. Some of them work pretty nicely in portrait format so here are three to be going on with:

If you’re hungry for more, then check out the iPhone Wallpapers Flickr Group and Pixelgirl Presents.

I think between Flickr and COLOURlovers I have discovered a new addiction!

When you work as a developer full-time, it’s easy to feel that your design skills are wasting away. One reason I started this website was to give myself a creative outlet. I enjoy reading about what’s happening in web design on sites like Styleboost and Web Creme, but it’s more stimulating to be actively creative, even in a small way.

I found the COLOURlovers website over the weekend and joined it right away:

COLOURlovers™ is a resource that monitors and influences color trends. COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for ad campaigns, product design, or in architectural specification - a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews.

I’ve started out by visiting some of my favourite photographs and drawing inspiration from them. After all, the best palettes are in nature, no? I think the next design for my website will start here

Three articles from A List Apart on an often neglected aspect of communication on the web – the tone and words that you use. We could all benefit from learning how to be better writers because of one simple, rather unsexy truth:

All the Search Engine Optimisation in the world is futile if you’ve got nothing to say.

No one wants to read claims of market leadership in leveraging viral deliverables. They want to know what you can do for them, in the most straightforward way.

The articles:

Better Writing Through Design

How is it that the very foundation of the web, written text, has taken a strategic back seat to design? Bronwyn Jones argues that great web design is not possible without the design of words…

Reviving Anorexic Web Writing

Intelligent web content is the literature of our time. Amber Simmons argues that conventional approaches have starved the life out of web writing…

Attack of the Zombie Copy

The zombification progresses so gradually that you don’t realize it’s happening until your “About Us” page begins to smell bad and tries to bite your face…

In a riveting bit of non-news, Apple and Microsoft have extended their deal which allows Apple to supply core Windows fonts (such as Times New Roman, Arial and Verdana) with Mac OS X. In a joint statement the two companies said:

Apple customers, developers and web designers can safely specify fonts knowing that their documents, presentations and web pages will appear as they are meant to be seen on screen and in print.

While this is obviously good news (ie: any other decision would be unthinkable), I can’t help but feel like an opportunity has been missed. With Windows Vista only just released, and Mac OS X Leopard almost here, is consistency through mediocrity the best we can expect in the year 2007?

Must we resort to CSS image replacement or sIFR to create a simple heading?

Granted, Verdana is OK (at small sizes) and Georgia is nice too. Arial however is a sorry substitute for Helvetica and in widespread use simply because it was cheaper. Instead of a handful of “web safe” fonts, why don’t we have hundreds? Surely billion dollar corporations can take a font licensing fee on the chin to elevate design across the web? Helvetica, Gill Sans and Futura would be a good start…

While we’re dreaming of changes let’s ban Comic Sans

My good friend Stephen Meehan has relaunched his d3creative website. It includes his portfolio as well as details of his new packages, which he offers in addition to his freelance services:

Website Essentials £649.99

“Everything you need for a professional web presence, designed, built and published by d3creative.”

Newsletter Plus £359.99

“The perfect way to collect information via your website and distribute a highly targeted e-newsletter to your customers.”

Hosting Essentials £44.99

“Managed hosting for 12 months, domain registration, web space and email setup all in one simple package.”

Take a look. Stephen is not only a talented graphic designer but gives real thought to helping his clients devise and execute a strategy that will deliver return on their investment. If you need a designer for your next project he could well be your man.

Aidas and Saulius Dailide have announced a consumer level image editing application for Mac OS X Tiger called Pixelmator. It is expected to ship in late July for $59.

It’s built on an array of Tiger technologies including Core Image, Spotlight and Automator. It should provide a convincing demonstration of the power of these technologies. Core Image in particular seems to be quite untapped, except to add occasional bells and whistles.

Although the application has been referred to as vaporware (due to it’s unreleased status) it’s worth bearing in mind that the Dailide brothers are founders of Jumsoft, another mac shareware company that has delivered some pretty nice apps. Money in particular springs to mind.

I think their credentials are strong enough not only to believe that the application is real, but that it will be worth a download.

In fact, you can find a video of Pixelmator on The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

I find it encouraging to see that there are still developers who have the courage to try and carve a niche for themselves, in the face of intimidating competition. Pixelmator may find a loyal following among people who would love to dabble in image editing, but can’t justify the expense of larger apps.

With its ability to import Photoshop documents, it could even present a viable option for web designers on a tight budget. Team it up with Coda, and you have a decent web development toolbox for about £80. That’s a bit of a bargain.

Freehand is dead, which isn’t a great surprise. Adobe weren’t likely to maintain both Illustrator and Freehand as two applications for the same job. It’s a shame for the enthusiastic and vocal Freehand user community, but life goes on…

… Which brings me to another of Adobe’s unwanted stepchildren: Director. Still alive, but buried behind the “see all products” link on Adobe.com.

I vividly remember one of my first multimedia design lectures at university in 1996. The tutor told us to ready ourselves, and launched Director. The stage, score, cast and scripts panels appeared, as did a sinking feeling in everyone’s stomach. At this point I’d never owned a computer and only dabbled slightly with Photoshop at college. This new app looked like my worst nightmare.

I went back to halls, stopping at the uni bookshop to buy Director 4.0 Academic. I called my folks, and told them that waiting until the second year to buy a mac was out of the question. I needed one right away.

A project or two later, and I was comfortable with it. A complex tool, but it gave up its secrets easily. From simple slideshows to shockwave games, complex applications and CD-ROMs, I used Director for several years.

The only grievance I ever had with Director was its quirky scripting language “Lingo” where common concepts had unfamiliar names (eg: Director calls an array a list) and its unhelpful help. It was quite tricky to migrate to Flash. I found it easier to liken Flash to Adobe After Effects than to Director.

These days, I don’t use Director at all. Flash has assumed its place in my toolbox. That isn’t the case for everyone though – there is still a busy community there too.

Many apps have a storied life of development, acquisition and reincarnation. Flash’s history can be traced to a small company called FutureWave and a little app called SmartSketch (later FutureSplash Animator, Macromedia Flash, then Adobe Flash).

If Adobe doesn’t want to own Director and take it forward, they should sell it to someone who does.