This weekend I managed to build my first web app from the ground up. It is shonky, it doesn’t do a lot, but I made it, from scratch.. Well, starting from the excellent HTML 5 Boilerplate and maybe with a few copy/pastes from Stack Overflow

View the app here: http://www.roowilliams.com/tag

It uses JavaScript, jQuery AJAX, PHP and and SQL queries to run. It posts the user submitted ‘tags’ into a database, then on the post’s complete callback it gets the most recent tag to display it in the page. I wasn’t sure if this was the best way to do it, and have not seen an example of this way (or any other way for that matter), but it kinda works.

I’ll catch up with the Dev’s at work and find out how to do it better.

I also made a few changes to this site’s layout this weekend; getting rid of a column, expanding the content area, adding a box shadow to the main content div and a random (of 7 possible), full bleed background image on the html element.

While I am talking about learning to code, this excellent video from Code.org:

I especially like what Zuckerberg says about learning>doing>learning>doing and building on something rudimentary to increase its capability.

For the last week or two I have been slowly teaching myself JavaScript by working through a project idea I had.

I am enjoying the process of starting with something quite simple, and then coding in new functionality in a step by step process.

The unripe fruits of my labour can be seen online here. It isn’t mind-blowing, but hopefully the idea comes across.

http://www.roowilliams.com/bubblebox/

Why not give every home appliance a low-powered Bluetooth/WiFi module and do away with interfaces? Less tooling, less material variation, less quality control, interface design costs and more hygienic are among the many benefits that I can think of off the top of my head.

What happens if your smart-phone breaks/gets lost you ask? Well that could be problematic if it is your sole computing device, but do you know anyone without at least one computer in their house that couldn’t provide an interface to these devices?

This might not be the most desirable solution for older generations, but it is definitely time to start rolling out home appliances without interfaces. I’d buy them.

Samsung already have a smart washing machine, controllable via app. Hopefully we wont see too many more touch screens, and horrible designs like this bad boy:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/demoing-the-app-controlled-samsung-smart-washer-and-dryer/

Whilst being blessed with the ability to get excited about aesthetics and also the ability to get excited about technology, it is easy to neglect one area in favour of another from time to time. Currently I have been pushing hard on the tech side of things, learning to swim in a deep pool of electronics and code.
So when I make some time to check my favourite design blogs, it’s as if being absent from the consumption of lovely aesthetics for a while makes getting back into it much more enjoyable!

A few cool things:

Valhalla from Sweetgrass Productions is a new snowboarding/ski film with a gorgeous aesthetic. The saturated, grainy imagery pushes the cross-processed trend far into psychedelia. Just by watching the trailer it seems the delivery is so rich and immersive, it causes me to feel a certain way.

It is amazing how far these films have progressed. No longer are we seeing rough edits shot by a camera man with one eye on the action and the other eye on where he’s going, these films are feature-length, sit down, grab some popcorn and have your mind blown, projector-worthy pieces of art.

This one courtesy of one of my favourite blogs, iso50.com

Designspiration.net is filled with bang-on visual trends as usual. Loving the emphasis on hand-drawn typography, truth to materials in interior design and minimal logotypes harking back to the days of old.

I am wondering if the emergence of this vintage, minimal aesthetic stems from a backlash to the ultra-slick, corporate design of web 2.0. Somehow it almost feels anti-corporate in its content, despite the following logotypes advertising businesses, the letterforms, and scratchyness hints at a time where companies were more human, honestly struggling along trying to make some money.

Visit http://typefornow.co.uk/simon-walker/ to see more examples like this.

If you gave a thought about how a the premises of business with this style of logo might look you’d be forgiven for expecting it to have a similar aesthetic to this:

There’s definitely an organic, human, minimal and vintage theme here. Furnishings, construction and objects that are honest and true to the materials used (as in not hidden or covered by some horrible plastic veneer.) Although this is actually probably someones home, it represents the same theme we are seeing within visual culture at the moment.

I like it.