Q: The most powerful and communicative shape in art and design is the:
A: triangle.
It's the triangle, huh? Just... the triangle. Really?
Much of this quiz has the attitude of the overconfident journeyman. I'd rather listen to a master. (I'm not knowledgeable enough to criticize, but if I do maybe I'll get a little education from those here who know better. So please set me straight on triangle theory.)
"Overconfident journeyman" sums up a lot of the web design bloggers. There is a nice quote about the difference between "men who understand everything and appreciate nothing", which seems relevant here in the sense the author appears to understand 'art' but not fully appreciate it's nuances, shown by his very rote-style.
In an art history context a triangular shape is most often related to strength such as pyramidal composition in paintings. Perhaps this has transferred into modern design. It also can be seen in architectural design such as truss design etc, but the arch is always very prominent as well.
And for all the understanding the author has of design, none of it stops his website feeling lopsided and cramped.
I really think that interface design and user experience design are very different animals than plain 'ole graphic design. None of them are more important than the others, but they should definitely all be considered together...
Ah, Chrome becomes the new Opera for people who love to whine around that they are an ignored minority even with using Windows while they are unable to install Linux to become a real minority. Drama queen reloaded. :)
Except that Chrome uses WebKit for rendering. WebKit is used in least one other desktop browser (Safari — talk about a minority on Windows!) and a majority of the mobile web browsers.
Agreed. While the market-share of Chrome is still pretty low, if you're going to publish work on the 'net you really should make sure that it display properly in the browsers of your target audience...
Mac version of Chrome, from the very page you linked to:
"An early developer channel version is now available! While it's not at beta quality, it is coming along nicely. If you want to try it right now, see Early Access Release Channels for download instructions."
"Please enter your email address below and we'll let you know when it's released."
An early developer channel version is not a release, else Google would call it so.
Further, it's ridiculous to expect a designer to download a developer release of a browser just to make sure his personal blog is design compliant for a moving target.
Since it doesn't render correctly on Firefox it's very likely that he didn't design for smaller screen sizes, which I find to be a common usability error made by people with print design backgrounds.
The wikipedia definition is a bit abstruce. One of the links in the external links section has a much better definition, and is more relevant to usability rather than being the more general definition:
http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/term_66.txl
An "action possibility". In other words, something in the design that lets the user know that you can do something.
Once you start to think about affordances, you'll see them everywhere where good design is present. The classic example is with doors. If they have a knob, you know to turn. If they have a plate, you push there. If they have a vertical bar, you expect to pull on it. You can probably figure out how to get through the door without the affordance, but it would be frustrating.
Look at some other objects around your house, especially kitchen, and think about the clues that the designers have given you to know how the objects are to be used.
Edit: I highly recommend the Donald Norman's
The Design of Everyday Things for anyone interested in an introduction to design concepts. Classic book, and a worthwhile read for software developers too.
Much of this quiz has the attitude of the overconfident journeyman. I'd rather listen to a master. (I'm not knowledgeable enough to criticize, but if I do maybe I'll get a little education from those here who know better. So please set me straight on triangle theory.)