Mu-mon-kan

I understand the need to accommodate people and their various diablities, but, perhaps I’m being judgemental or I’ve watched too much Mind of Mencia, but I’m not sure if it’s entirely healthy in some cases. You can form your own opinions on this, but, in any case, check out these products.

Currently Rocking Out To: Caring Is Creepy – The Shins

OK . . . I understand the hype and fascination with Web 2.0–which, incidentally, is an unfortunate name since the web itself hasn’t really evolved, just the flavor of applications being run on it, but I guess you have to market it somehow–but I feel the interactivity is being used for trendy, unnecessary, inaccessible, and, sometimes, annoying purposes. I’m constantly inundated with flashing widgets with drag-and-drop functionality for . . . what purpose? Do I go to a website to play with the widgets? Maybe some, but, most of the time, no. Does this functionality benefit everyone? After listening to the EO Webcast today, these thoughts plagued me throughout the day. A great deal of this new technology is used for it’s slick “wow” factor and much of it that could improve the site’s accessibility falls by the wayside. Sure, I can make the site cool for 85% of the world . . . but what does that make the site for the other 15? I know that I sometimes fall prey to time constraints in my own applications. If I don’t have time to make it 508 accessible, then I skip that step. However, I am always XHTML and CSS compliant. Hopefully, that’s half the battle.

Simplicity is not a bad thing. I try to design the way I live. Objects don’t end up in my house unless they have a functional purpose (at least not the objects I buy.) So, I try to model my web apps the same way. Some of the greatest websites are the simplistically functional (check out dictionary.com if you’re looking for a great, recent example how simplicity can improve usability.) I absolutely encourage experimentation and the sharing of ideas and blogs are a great medium to accomplish this. So, by all means, let me know what you think about this issue. I’m not trying to keep anyone from doing cool things, but I am trying to keep the largest number of users in mind.

Currently Rocking Out To: Goodnight and Go – Imogen Heap

After a long hiatus–and an education of how blogs can actually help one organize and are not always a time-suck–I am back on track with the website project. So, for this week’s assignment:

1. Organize photos to send to Jon.
2. Get additional info for the store and merchant’s account squared away.
3. Get rest of the illustrator files hacked up.
4. Migrate the site to its final resting place.

Hopefully, I’ll maintain the regular updates. Once a night is what I’m shooting for.

We’ll see.