I randomly found this today, and it was just going to be a HEADLINE post. After some more clicking, it deserves to be a real post. Adobe has unveiled their system for creating icons for their current generation of products. Via an Adobe blog, I found this:

That’s how their icons all tie together, aside from the whole 2 letter, square thing. Neat.

But that lead me to the Icon Words Flickr group, where people make words out of the icons on their Dock. For example:

Some people are just bored, I think.

So, I’m spending part of my Friday at work like I usually do, working on prototype applications or product ideas I have. I’m working inside my XML Editor (OxygenXML 8) to validate my layout and I hit the pretty print button. All hell breaks loose with my layout. Firefox and Safari both render the layout exactly the same in the broken version, which told me that it probably wasn’t a “bug” but a misunderstanding of the spec on my part.

Here’s a sample of what happened. I went from this:

to this:

After several hours of close reading, double-checking everything, and generally pulling my hair out, I found out that the problem is that the XML editor turned an empty div in my code into an empty XML element. In other words, the only change to the source was from:

to this:

All of this stems from the fact that XHTML uses XML semantics without a real XML parser. The bottom line is that unless the element is defined in the XHTML DTD as EMPTY, you shouldn’t use the empty element notation. It’s better and correct to leave it as separate open and close tags. Many developers have run into similar issues with the script tag, which also has some weirdness when used in the empty element notation. This is why, apparently, browsers do this. I don’t know if they handle it well, though.

Continue reading if you want more information and some links on the background for this.
(Click here to read the rest of this post)

I know that the new redesign isn’t very popular with most of you (and I promise I’m still going to work on the colors), but I’ve found a redesign that’s worse. It was even done by a professional (even though it might not have been entirely her fault).

TechCrunch redesigned their site, and boy does it suck horribly. It sucks mostly because of the colors, especially the bright, bright, way too bright green. And the sheer volume of ads on the page. It’s amazingly dense.

The funny thing is that the only reason I knew they redesigned, since I read via RSS, is a related post on WeBreakStuff talking about the old design. The old design rocked, and I was trying to capture that feel on this blog with brighter colors. One day, I’ll work on rounded corners and truly get there.

The first link above goes into a detailed critique of the new design, and i generally agree with what both he and Fred at WeBreakStuff say about web site design. It’s hard for a amateur like me to get it right, but I try to follow those guidelines as best I can.

Of the other designs by the same designer that did the new TechCrunch, I love the effect of the font used in the header of businesstravelers.org. Some of her other work is quite good, too. Hopefully, people aren’t being too hard on her.

I don’t talk about how cool my job is much, but it’s events like the Super Bowl that remind me why ESPN.com is special. Is there any other web site, seriously, that does as good a job visually and editorially covering a game than ESPN.com? Just take a look at our home page compared to any others. The visual impact is so different and so unique. It’s one of the big reasons I always used to come here and why I’m really proud to work here.

Here’s this morning’s front page:

After an extraordinarily late night as part of the team that launched both the new ESPN.com and ESPN Deportes front pages last night, I really need some sleep.

I thought I’d pass on one bit of trivia about the launch, though. The most common complaint about the new design was the relocation of MyESPN from the far right hand column to below the fold on the second column. I didn’t participate at all in the design process for the new front page, so I have no real insight into why they decided to move it to the new location, but I do have to say that I’m surprised how many people complained about it. Of the negative feedback we’ve gotten, I would say fully half of it mentions the relocation of MyESPN specifically.

I’m surprised because I, uh, hated the MyESPN sidebar on the side. I like my browser windows to be taller than they are wide and having that fourth column didn’t really fit that preference. So, I rarely used it. I’ll see if I can get used to the new one, or see if I can build something a bit different that I like. (it’s nice to work there… )

Feedback in general has been mixed, but I suspect that most of the negative reaction will fade once the initial shock wears off. The new page is significantly different than the older design and will require getting used to. I do love some of the new design elements, and I’m not saying that because I work there… The new Spotlight section, for example, showcases brilliant images and photography. Our photo editors are among the best in the business and they really help set ESPN.com apart.

Of course, they didn’t bring back the awesome photo gallery tab we used to have, but I guess you can’t get everything.

Or, can you…?

Kottke blogged a talk given at Fenway Park about the factors that have affected the design of the park. The talk was part of the pre-conference events for the AIGA Design Conference, which he’ll be covering on his blog. If you’re interested in these sorts of things, add him to your aggregator.

Google announced their new personalized home page, similar to My Yahoo. I’m a big fan of Google’s simple, clean designs and their personalized home page follows in those footsteps. I like it. Yahoo, on the other hand, always seems cluttered to me. There’s just too much going on and a lot of it has to do with the infrastructure of the page. What I mean is that the boxes and the background and everything else just end up being too much. So, give the Google version a whirl. They also allow any RSS feed and have neat hookups to their email service among other things.