“In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. This kind of art is not theoretical or illustrative of theories; it is intuitive, it is involved with all types of mental processes and it is purposeless. It is usually free from the dependence on the skill of the artist as a craftsman.”

- Artist Sol Lewitt on conceptual art.

In today’s tutorial, we’re going to take an in-depth look behind the process of creating a folder icon, and see how easy it is to build one from scratch using nothing more than a couple of basic geometric shapes, which we’re going to adjust here and there. So, assuming you already have Illustrator up and […]

The post Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create a Folder Icon appeared first on Bittbox.

In a blog, Opera Software Developer Relations team member Tiffany B. Brown looks at code injection, error throwing and handling and mobile debugging. She notes Opera Dragonfly and its remote debug features provide a way to debug mobile sites from their desktop. Brown mentions WebKit’s recently added remote debugging capabilities, folded into Google Chrome developer Read the rest...

Earlier this week, Adobe VP and General Manager Danny Winokur disclosed that the company has concluded that HTML5 is ”the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.” The company said it would stop building Flash to run on mobile browsers. In a blog post on the new focus of Read the rest...

Shim was developed within the Boston Globe’s media lab as a way to study how Web sites look on various devices and browsers. A laptop intercepts all wifi traffic – this is redirected to a custom node.js server – which inserts a javascript, or “shim,” at the head of each web page that is visited. Read the rest...

Node.js employs an event-driven architecture and a non-blocking I/O model, and it provides some blindingly fast performance to some types of data-intensive Web apps. It is about JavaScript on the server side. LinkedIn, Yahoo and eBay are among ardent Node.js users, and none other than Microsoft has discussed end-to-end JavaScript coverage on its Azure cloud. Read the rest...

WinJS is a JavaScript framework for Windows 8, and David Rousset uses it here to create a quick RSS reader. He shows how in a tutorial series. This first article shows the way to build a welcome screen that employs WinJS ListView control. Blend and CSS3 are employed. The second tutorial shows work on the Read the rest...

Building a stunning website is a tough job. Even if you have some basic understanding of things like code and […]

The post 10 Exciting Examples of the Beaver Builder Plugin in Use appeared first on WPHacks.

A special treat for Livecast fans, we are giving you a preview of the type of content you can expect...

The post METAL INJECTION LIVECAST Bonus Episode: Blake Harrison Interview appeared first on Metal Injection.

We're so excited to finally have British death match legend Jimmy Havoc on the show. We talked about how he...

The post Squared Circle Pit #57 - Jimmy Havoc Talks Death Match Wrestling appeared first on Metal Injection.

As the decade comes to a close, I thought it would be interesting to look back on the past 10 years. So, rather than posting my regular year in review, here’s an abbreviated trip through the past 10 years of my life, both personal and professional. 2010 The decade started for me in an almost […]

The post 2010 – 2019: Decade in Review appeared first on MOR10.

If you’re a remote worker, you may have plenty of experience with video conferencing as a way to communicate with clients, team members, or other colleagues. But with millions of additional...

Click through to read the rest of the story on the Vandelay Design Blog.

Web designers have skills and expertise that open up a whole world of possibilities. Many designers and developers choose to pursue personal projects in their own time, which can be a nice change of...

Click through to read the rest of the story on the Vandelay Design Blog.

There are a number of different ways to make money as a web designer aside from simply creating websites for clients. Many freelancers choose to supplement their income from client work by doing some...

Click through to read the rest of the story on the Vandelay Design Blog.

The galaxy far far away has items both big and small. The Star Wars Size Comparison Video created by MetaBallStudios brings droids, people and planets together from the Star Wars movies (episode I to VIII, Rogue One and Solo). See how your favorites size up against each other.

Comparison of many things from the Star Wars movies. Only movies from episode I to VIII, Rogue One and Solo. Obviously not everything appears, only the most representative.

Providing scale and context to your audience is one of the key tenets of data visualization, and this video does a fantastic job of giving you the context of the size of everything in the Star Wars universe.

Found on Gizmodo.com.

Michiel Dullaert, data visualization expert and trainer from the Netherlands, has updated his Chart Guide poster to version 4! A free PDF is available for download from his website, and introduces a new category, 19 new charts and 4 extra design tips. You can also purchase a full-size printed poster version.

As the November 2019 Giveaway, I have a pair of Chart Guide posters, that will be shipped to one lucky winner. That way you get one for yourself, and one you can give to a friend or coworker.

Register HERE by November 30, 2019 at 11:59pm CT, and the winner will be randomly chosen on December 1st!

This poster shows 84 charts to choose from and includes 16 chart design tips to help you make the Perfect Chart. The poster is available as a big poster or you can download the PDF file for free. Let this ChartGuide poster help you choose and design your Perfect Chart.

You can see his complete write-up about the new version HERE. I was able to ask Michiel a few interview questions about developing the posters:

Cool Infographics: What’s your background and how did you get into visualizing data?

Michiel Dullaert: Years ago I have been working in the boardgame and puzzle industry. Part of my work was discovering new boardgames and puzzles and introduce them to the market. I was working for two different companies, both at the time that a new product of theirs really changed the market. For the boardgame industry I worked for the company that introduced a new type of boardgame (the game of Catan) that made playing boardgames a popular hobby. After that, I worked for a company that created puzzle magazines at the time the Sudoku puzzles was introduced. And here the same happened again, a new type of puzzle that changed the way people would puzzle and talk about puzzles. Both were very nice jobs, with a lot of enthusiastic conversations with customers about new products.

In both companies I was working in the product development. I always had a large personal interest in the data behind the products. So it felt logic to do more with data, and I changed careers. I started working for a large company as an analyst. And it was not long that I found out that my colleagues were not interested in my reports. Although the reports contained interesting information it was shown in large tables and busy charts. People seemed to be not interested and if the looked into the numbers, they did not seem to understand them. My work did not seem to matter. The contrast between my previous jobs and the work as an analyst could not have been bigger. At that time I decided I would try to find a way to make people as enthusiastic about data as they were about boardgames and Sudoku puzzles. 

The first step was reading books on the topic of data visualization. Because I was working in the business intelligence field, the most logic choice were the books of Stephen Few. I bought them all and a whole new world opened for me. When Few was in the Netherlands to give a course I felt very lucky I could join. The workshops inspired me to learn more on this topic. So I bought more books and the next year I joined a class of Alberto Caïro. This gave me multiple perspectives on the same topic. The things I learned were applied to my work, and I was getting more and more responses on my visualizations. People actually started to read and understand them. 

My manager asked me to explain my choices in visualizations to my colleagues, so they could learn from me. And then I discovered how great it is to teach about data visualisation. I met a couple of UX designers and they inspired me learn more about that topic and to get an UX certification. The knowledge I gained in learning UX helped me in developing my own perspective on good data visualization. And in my workshop I try to inspire others to create such. For these workshops I wanted an overview of charts. Although there were already some great overviews, none of them had the point of view I was teaching in class. So I decided to design my own. That’s how Chart.Guide started. 

Cool Infographics: Who is the Chart Guide poster intended for?

Michiel Dullaert: The website and the posters are intended for everyone who makes charts. For me it does not matter if you are working as a data-journalist or a data scientist, a infographic designer, project manager or a financial analyst. As long as you need help or inspiration when making charts or tables, Chart.Guide can help you. Online in the form of the website and offline in the form of the poster. Because I want to inspire as many people as possible I made the PDF of the poster free to download. I know that the poster is used in business departments, newsrooms and in school classrooms.

Cool Infographics: What was your design process for the poster?

Michiel Dullaert: The main source for updates to the poster or website, is the conversations I have with people I teach or work with. If they have a need for certain chart types, or make design mistakes, I try to add that topic. 

The first poster edition (picture DPG Chart Chooser) was just a collection of charts I created for my students. For each chart a few words on when to use the chart and, more important, it gave advice on what charts were not recommended. On the second edition (the first under the Chart.Guide brand) I added chart design tips.  The reason, I saw people choose a good chart but then mess up the design. Last year, I got questions about maps, so I decided to add them on poster edition 4. 

The design process starts with insight I get from conversations I am having. Next step is cutting the old poster and rearranging everything. (see picture ChartGuide rearrange) now, will lead to more insights on the poster in the future. Although it make take some time to transform everything to the screen or paper. I still need to find some time to explain on the website why some charts are “not recommended”. 

Cool Infographics: You asked your followers to help choose the design of the new poster. How did that go?

Michiel Dullaert: The poster is made to help people. So it seems to be logic to give them a role in the design process. As a UX designer I like to test my designs before releasing them. Most of these tests are done in class, because I like to observe the users in how they use the new design. The online voting was suggestion of a student. It did give me a lot of useful feedback. Especially when people wrote a lot of text explaining their choice. For future editions I will do the same.

Cool Infographics: How can people follow you for updates?

Michiel Dullaert: People who have downloaded the PDF will get an email when a new poster is available, or when something interesting is added to the website. For this and more chart related inspiration, they can follow me on Twitter: @Chart_Guide or on facebook: /ChartGuide1.

This helpful reference guide is one of over 25 FREE data visualization guides I maintain links to in the Cool Infographics Tools pages. See them all on the DataViz Reference Guides page, and let me know if I’m missing any.

Visual explanations are a big part of data visualizations, and this video exploration of What’s Inside the White House? by animator Jared Owen gives viewers a great perspective of where the major rooms are located in context with the rest of the building. I would bet that most people don’t know that the Oval Office isn’t in the main, center building.

The White House is full of lots of interesting rooms. A lot of people don't realize that this information is public! Please join me as we take a walk through the different rooms and what they are used for.

Found on Core77

We’re all working from home, and that include job interviews, news interviews, class lectures, webinars, presentations to customers and even just business meetings. The 10 Things to Do Before Any Video Interview infographic from Kickresume is a great last-minute checklist before you turn on your webcam!

In the end, you can take this infographic as a checklist. You can use it to prepare for your job interview or any other video conference call.

And, oh boy, are we going to make many more of those. Sure, it took a global pandemic for companies to recognize the value of working from home but now there’s no going back. Video conference calls are here to stay. (I personally hate it but even I should probably get used to it. Damn.)

Anyway, good luck at your job interview!

I would have preferred more visual elements, but I like that this is a tightly focused infographic with a clear, useful message to a broad audience. This is one of the best uses for an infographic: an informative topic, related to the industry of the publishing company, with a popular, trending topic. This design checks all the boxes.

Designers have to remember that the infographic image file will often be shared by itself, so it always helps to include a few more thins in the footer:

• The Infographic Landing Page URL (not just the company home page). This will help readers find the full infographic and the article that went along with it. Don’t make people search for it on your website.

• A copyright or Creative Commons statement is always a good idea when you publishing an infographic

As everyone has made the temporary shift to WFH (work from home), many are surrounded by distractions. The 9 ways to focus a wandering mind infographic originally from On Stride Financial in the UK and now published on Headway Capital, offers simple ways to help you refocus.

It’s probably no surprise that the human mind has a tendency to wander. Scientific research has discovered that this trait is almost ubiquitous among humans, and most of us experience it regularly..

Constant mind wandering is a source of frustration for many people. In their study “A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind,” researchers found that that experiencing a regular lack of concentration has a negative impact on overall mood and state of mind. In short, people were less happy when their minds wandered.

Luckily, research into ways of combating this phenomenon is also plentiful. And while we may never be able to eliminate our mind’s propensity for wandering, there are lots of simple techniques that can help improve concentration and focus.

Next time you’re feeling a little distracted, try out some of these techniques and see if you can bring your mind back on task.

A little text-heavy design, but the illustrations help with each section. The comprehensive sources help establish the credibility of the information, and the infographic landing page includes clickable links to all of the source material. Nice touch!

Found on Creative Bloq

Center for Biological Diversity Press Release WASHINGTON – Four commonly used neonicotinoid pesticides can harm bees and other pollinators, according to a new analysis by California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation. The study found that current approved uses of the “neonics” … Continue reading →

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “This is a wake-up call,” says one Australian marine biologist. “Given sea temperatures usually increase as we get towards March, this is probably conservative.” Delivering yet another “wake-up call” after recent studies have shown that … Continue reading →

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “We face a stark choice [between] radical, disruptive changes to our physical world or radical, disruptive changes to our political and economic systems to avoid those outcomes.” As people across the globe mobilize to demand … Continue reading →

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams Far-reaching global assessment details how humanity is undermining the very foundations of the natural world     On the heels of an Earth Day that featured calls for radical action to address the current “age … Continue reading →

Andrew Rickmann posted a photo:

Le Chips: Food of the sportsman.

By David Suzuki The David Suzuki Foundation Seeing terms like “post-truth” and “alternative facts” gain traction in the news convinces me that politicians, media workers and readers could benefit from a refresher course in how science helps us understand the … Continue reading →

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “We face a stark choice [between] radical, disruptive changes to our physical world or radical, disruptive changes to our political and economic systems to avoid those outcomes.” As people across the globe mobilize to demand … Continue reading →

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “This is a wake-up call,” says one Australian marine biologist. “Given sea temperatures usually increase as we get towards March, this is probably conservative.” Delivering yet another “wake-up call” after recent studies have shown that … Continue reading →

By Jake Johnson Common Dreams And colleague says “global warming” no longer strong enough term. “Global heating is technically more correct because we are talking about changes in the energy balance of the planet.” Declaring that after three decades of … Continue reading →

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “We face a stark choice [between] radical, disruptive changes to our physical world or radical, disruptive changes to our political and economic systems to avoid those outcomes.” As people across the globe mobilize to demand … Continue reading →

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams Far-reaching global assessment details how humanity is undermining the very foundations of the natural world     On the heels of an Earth Day that featured calls for radical action to address the current “age … Continue reading →

By Jennifer Stitt Aeon In 1957, the world watched in wonder as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into outer space. Despite Cold War anxieties, The New York Times admitted that space exploration ‘represented a step … Continue reading →

By Harriet Gross Courtesy of Aeon What’s not to like about gardening? It’s a great way to get outdoors, away from everyday routines, and to exercise your creativity. It’s good for your health, whatever your age, and gardeners tend to be … Continue reading →

Everyday consumer products continue to frustrate people. The failure of companies to fully embrace UX is partly to blame, but there is also another reason -- one that is seldom discussed. Consumer product companies pay too much heed to their retail customers and, in so doing, they prevent the development team from getting first-hand knowledge of end users.

Doing UX research in a university is very different to doing UX research in a business setting. If you're an academic making the leap, what are the main differences you need to keep in mind?

Successful design manages cognitive load. Cognitive load is a technical term for “mental effort,” more specifically it’s the total amount of mental effort required for a given task. Completing any task requires some level of mental effort. This includes learning new information, analyzing stimuli, and working with short and long-term memory. Mental energy which has […]

The post What is cognitive load and why does it matter in web and interface design? appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

To design positive emotional experiences you must understand human emotion. The subject of emotions is complex largely because everything we do is either influenced by, or directly caused by, emotion. Factor in the range and capacity different individuals have for emotion, add in the fact most emotions occur subconsciously, and round this out with the […]

The post The Three Levels of Emotional Design appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

If you’re not familiar with cognitive load and how it impacts interface design, it’s worth reviewing our previous blog post. If you’re already convinced cognitive load is important, the next step is addressing it. Reducing cognitive load is accomplished by reducing or offloading mental effort (which are similar but different concepts.) Reducing mental effort is […]

The post 10 Design Principles to Reduce Cognitive Load appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

You’re hiring a web designer or providing web design services, what’s included in a normal project? In other words, what are the deliverables, and the use of a membership website builder could be essential for this. Let’s start by defining what a deliverable is. Wikipedia defines a deliverable as: …a tangible or intangible good or […]

The post Modern Website Deliverables appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

While most known for automotive, Michigan has a rich history in design. As a designer myself, I wanted to learn more about Michigan’s design roots. Not knowing what to expect, I found Michigan is home to many historic designers, several innovative design-forward companies, and top design schools. Automotive is a source of Michigan pride, but […]

The post History of Design in Michigan appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

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Abelardo Morell
Camera Obscura: Early Morning View of the East Side of Midtown Manhattan, , 2014
Website - AbelardoMorell.net

Abelardo Morell was born in Havana, Cuba in 1948. He immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1962. Morell received his undergraduate degree in 1977 from Bowdoin College and an MFA from The Yale University School of Art in 1981. In 1997 he received an honorary degree from Bowdoin College.

His publications include a photographic illustration of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1998) by Dutton Children’s Books, A Camera in a Room (1995) by Smithsonian Press, A Book of Books (2002) and Camera Obscura (2004) by Bulfinch Press and Abelardo Morell (2005), published by Phaidon Press. Recent publications include a limited edition book by The Museum of Modern Art in New York of his Cliché Verre images with a text by Oliver Sacks.

His work has been collected and shown in many galleries, institutions and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York, The Chicago Art Institute, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Houston Museum of Art, The Boston Museum of Fine Art, The Victoria & Albert Museum and over seventy other museums in the United States and abroad. A retrospective of his work organized jointly by the Art Institute of Chicago, The Getty in Los Angeles and The High Museum in Atlanta closed in May 2014 after a year of travel. Abelardo will be having his first show at the Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York opening October 23, 2014 and will run until December 20, 2014 featuring a selection of new pictures.

Bikefinder is a startup that I’m and advisor and investor in. They are making an integrated GPS tracker for bikes with a sim card, so you can track it anywhere via web or app. The online store was setup on WooCommerce using the Storefront theme, and I made a new custom design for it. Instead […]

Want to create a wholesale order form in WordPress? If you’re a wholesaler looking to get online, but don’t want to manage a full-fledged eCommerce store, then you might want to consider adding a simple wholesale order form to your WordPress site. In this article, we’ll show you how to properly create a simple wholesale […]

The post How to Properly Create a Wholesale Order Form in WordPress appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Are you looking for some good Divi plugins to extend your site features? While you can certainly use any plugins with the Divi theme and Divi Builder plugin, the Divi community has created some plugins specifically for the Divi users. In this article, we’ll show you some of the best Divi plugins that let you […]

The post 6 Best Divi Plugins That Work on Top of Divi Builder appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Adam shares a message of hope to those diagnosed with TBI and/or PTSD: Your life may be different, but you are still the driver and in control.