The state of web design in the news business has always been bad, but it seems to be getting progressively, demonstrably worse. It’s not just that the designs are bad. It’s that the people making the designs don’t appear to have any desire at all to make the experience pleasurable for the reader — how likely you are to click an advertisement (intentionally or not) is clearly the only measure of success in this type of design.

NOLA.com recently “redesigned” their site — I use air quotes there because the design of articles has not changed at all — they’ve just added a terrible webfont, a lot of yellow, and a bunch of extra links in the header. Once you get beyond all the yellow, the article still looks exactly like it did 10 or so years ago when the site first launched, Verdana body text and all. They did add a “responsive” stylesheet — one so responsive that it’s been broken ever since the day it launched (prompting this initial reaction from me):

That design is responsive. Its response is "fuck you."—
Matt Thomas (@iammattthomas) May 10, 2012

How bad does the business of publishing free news articles in exchange for banner clicks have to get before something fundamental changes? Hard to say — even NYTimes.com, which now requires a subscription to read regularly, still hasn’t even attempted to use the design talents of their staff or modern web technologies to roll out a site more focused on article readability than ad visibility. But looking at the example above, I’d like to hope that we’ve almost hit the bottom.

Reblogged from Fully Myelinated:

It's kind of shocking to see that Social Security hasn't really budged as a proportion of the federal budget in the last quarter century. International Affairs is exactly where you'd expect it, though.

Reblogged from KILL SHARP CHEDDAR:

So hilarious. Where is this building?

Reblogged from Queer Landia:

With all the stress of the North Carolina Amendment One vote today, we have some good news.

After a uninamious vote by the City Council Tuesday, San Diego will become the first city in the United States to name a street after Harvey Milk. Blaine Avenue, the street leading to the San Diego LGBT Community Center in Hillcrest, will be renamed Harvey Milk Street…

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"Harvey Milk Street" sounds so great.

Reblogged from bliss in images:

Reblogged from SIXAND5 - Inspiration webzine:

Reblogged from SIXAND5 - Inspiration webzine:

Reblogged from GigaOM:

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Design-centric commerce site Fab.com is going global in a big way. In a blog post today, the company announced that it is now available in 13 more European countries, bringing its worldwide total to 16 countries.

“Design is a universal language. It’s a lifestyle,” the company said on its blog. “Great design exists in every country and in every region of the world.

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Fab.com fascinates me on multiple levels (aside from remembering when I knew Bradford Shellhammer as just another blogger in Baltimore). I was a member of the original Fabulis.com, though every effort they made to monetize the service felt slightly scuzzy to me. When I learned about the "pivot" from a gay social network to a daily deals design store, I thought they were crazy. But their success shows why something that seems completely illogical to your existing users can sometimes be the key to saving the company. I never once paid for anything on the original Fabulis, but have bought a ton of stuff on the new Fab.com and have been happy with every purchase.

Reblogged from tekArtist:

One of the benefits of working at Automattic is that your coworkers always take great photos of our meetups, which is helpful if you're forgetful like me. This was my second time visiting Seaside with Automattic, and it's firmly cemented as my favorite meetup location (so long as it's not in August). :)

Enjoying our last day in Seaside.

Reblogged from instantbight:

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One more time! Today on instantbight.com we have another interview! I really like doing these things so if you don’t like them, your out of luck.

This interview is with Matt Thomas, a well-known blogger. Matt caught my eye when I read his “Something’s Unraveling Alright” post after it was linked to on Daring Fireball.

I was amazed by the post and the connections he made.

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David at instantbight.com was kind enough to interview yours truly for his WordPress.com blog. Check it out — I'm humbled to be included alongside some much bigger names (Horace Dediu, Philip Elmer-Dewitt, and who knows who's to come?)

Late into my last year of high school, Nicolosi had a final conversation with my parents and told them that the treatment had been a success. “Your son will never enter the gay lifestyle,” he assured them.

A few weeks later, our housekeeper caught me with a boy in our backyard. This marked the end of therapy for me. My parents were convinced it had failed because Nicolosi had blamed things on them rather than on my being teased by my male peers as a child. They sent me to another therapist. I had one session but refused to continue. While I still accepted Nicolosi’s underlying theory about why people were gay, I believed that all the talking in the world couldn’t change me. When I left for Yale, my mother sent me off with a warning: Were she to discover that I had “entered the gay lifestyle,” my parents would no longer pay for my education. “I love you enough to stop you from hurting yourself,” she said.

Long, but many points hit eerily close to home as someone who flirted briefly with the ex-gay movement.

A cookbook you can eat, via Grist:

and a songbook you can smoke, via Sixand5.

Pick these up and you’re halfway to a decent party. Has being green ever been so fun?

Reblogged from NOLAFemmes:

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It is my opinion that the City of New Orleans is being pimped out promoted at an unprecedented level (to a degree that gives rise to what could be described as “neighborhood fatigue”). Such heavy promotion rarely occurs without unintended consequences: for example, illegal, ugly, and damaging guerrilla marketing campaigns. This kind of defacement is unconscionable and must be addressed immediately.

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Coca-Cola defaces the French Quarter with ads. I wonder if this will go over well in New Orleans? Don't miss the first comment on the post, which notes that Coke's ad agency specifically mentioned it was illegal when looking for stencil artists. (For fun, also see Coke's attempt to respond on Twitter.)

And she listens to this, and she says, but you are not a businessman. And I say, that’s true, I am not a businessman. And she says, and you aren’t going to buy their products. I say, that’s true, I’m not going to buy their products. And she says, you will lie to them. And I say, yes Cathy, I’m going to lie to lots of people.

— Mike Daisey

I generally can’t stand to listen to people be called out to their face; it hits a visceral nerve within me that makes it painful to experience. Listening to Ira Glass confront Mike Daisey, though, was an amazing lesson in the importance of accountability. And listening to Mike Daisey defend himself was an amazing lesson in the futility of being the last person to still believe your own bullshit.

Oh how I love it when the neighbor’s dog comes over to play.

Just add an “-ism” there and it’ll be perfect for this town.

Norwalk HS 41students issues STOP Gasprices AfgNistan gaymArriage Iowa economy F16—
  (@ChuckGrassley) March 12, 2012

Sounds about right.

Reacting well to competition requires critical analysis of your own product and its shortcomings, and a complete, open-minded understanding of why people might choose your competitors.

They’re not fanboys. They’re not brainwashed by “marketing”. Your competitors’ customers aren’t passing on your product because they’re stupid or irrational.

They’re choosing your competitors for good reasons, and denying the existence of such good reasons will only ensure that your product never overcomes them.

Memo to Mayor Ron Davis of Prichard: When your city defaults on its pension obligations to its retirees, then finally coughs up a tiny fraction of what’s owed to them after 18 of the pensioners have died, an enormous Publishers Clearing House-style check is not an appropriate way to tender the payment.

Reblogged from Pippa Abston's Blog:

The anti-abortion social agenda being pushed in the Alabama state legislature is obscene in its disrespect for women. I can't believe we're having this debate in 2012.

While today’s Apple event unveiled a couple new improvements to an expected lineup of products, it also revealed a certain sloppiness that was absent from former, Steve Jobs-led launches.

[…] I think today’s Apple event shows that perfectionism fraying a bit around the edges. The bad pun, the goofy logo, the weird product name — all of it pointed to a leadership that either didn’t understand or didn’t care about consistency in iconography.

Obviously O’Dell is right — Tim Cook is failing to hold Apple to the high standards that Steve Jobs set for the company. Steve Jobs’s Apple never would have used an ambiguous product name like “The new iPad.”

Steve Jobs’s Apple never would have used a silly pun to announce a major new product.

And there’s no way Steve Jobs’s Apple ever would have used some weird special effects on the Apple logo.

Up until now I thought Tim Cook had done a pretty amazing job of taking over as CEO of the most successful company on the planet, but that VentureBeat article has really cast some seeds of doubt in my mind.

Matt sent Automattic’s designers these cool Pantone mugs — but this begs the question, will I have to reupholster my office every year now to match?