Stefan Sagmeister: Yes, design can make you happy

www.ted.com Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister takes the audience on a whimsical journey through moments of his life that made him happy — and notes how many of these moments have to do with good design.TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes — including speakers such as Jill Bolte Taylor, Sir Ken Robinson, Hans Rosling, Al Gore and Arthur Benjamin. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, politics and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at http

Video Rating: 4 / 5

Neil deGrasse Tyson presents evidence to counter Intelligent Design and to demonstrate that the universe is often a hostile place that does not give preferential treatment to humans.

Is Circumcision an Intelligent Design upgrade or did God put out a product recall on Foreskins?

Question by The CAt in the Tin Foil HAtv18: Is Circumcision an Intelligent Design upgrade or did God put out a product recall on Foreskins?

Best answer:

Answer by Pryncess
ROFL….. recall on foreskins….. cute.

Give your answer to this question below!

Design Flaws to Avoid

Design Flaws to Avoid

A good web designer knows there are certain things that you just shouldn’t ever do to a website. Some of them have to do with loading times and others are just faux pas and will turn visitors away from your website. The problem is that many websites out there are outdated and thus display many of these qualities. Also, many websites have been designed by the owner of the company using a free design tool or by an inexperienced amateur who, while they may know some things, isn’t a seasoned web designer with a team of designers behind him or her. Does your website have these basic flaws?

Slow loading graphics or videos. The Internet is where people go to see what they want and when they want. If you are holding them back by posting a high-resolution video of your latest product on your homepage or having intricate logos and banners on every page, visitors will respond by not staying very long. This a web design flaw seen in websites from the previous “web generation.”

Browser Compatibility. Firefox reads different than Internet Explorer reads different than Safari reads different than Google Chrome reads different than Opera reads different than… well you get the point. There are tons of browsers out there and you don’t want to chance leaving some of your viewers out! Do plenty of testing with the biggest browsers and you should be covered if all looks the same with each browser.

Grammar or Spelling Mistakes. It seems simple this is actually something that turns me away from a website almost immediately.

Too Many Colors or Fonts. It’s definitely ok to integrate visual appeal into your web design and pretty fonts and colors are a great way to do it. I’m writing about the website that uses eight fonts on one page, all of them a different color. In my opinion, once you get more than three fonts or colors, you are out of the design theme and that’s when the clashing begins.

There are definitely many other common mistakes that web designers make… maybe we’ll see more in the future here. My suggestion is to look for these in your current website design or consider all of these as you plan for a new website. CODANK of Charlotte, NC can help you makeover your obsolete or otherwise outdated website. Call for a free quote.

Neil deGrasse Tyson – Stupid Design (Closed Captioned)

Neil deGrasse Tyson on “Stupid Design”. A little bit longer excerpt from Session 2 of the Beyond Belief conference, that includes remarks about the economic impact of “Intelligent Design”. Please contact me if you are willing to translate the subtitles into different languages. Source: video.google.com (32:00 min – 37:42 min)

Video Rating: 4 / 5

Same video with no background music. Comment, rate, and favorite if you like it! A compilation of a few clips illustrating the plethora of poor design in the biological and physical world. For the entire Nesse interview start here: www.youtube.com And for the entire documentary featured start here: www.youtube.com

Video Rating: 4 / 5

Q&A: if that stupid contest to design your own paint scheme is over?

Question by know it all: if that stupid contest to design your own paint scheme is over?

than why are they still running the commercials?
@40: what a waste of an answer. “because they are?” you’ve got a bright future in the fast food industry kid.

Best answer:

Answer by mbl
I didn’t know the contest was over. But I think those commercials are entertaining….for commercials. 95% of the time, I turn the channel during commercials.

What do you think? Answer below!

Aluminum Macbook 2.0 Design Flaw

Found a problem with the battery cover. From what i’ve researched, this is common on almost every Macbook/MBP yet. One forum user stated it will take three weeks for the Apple Store to get in replacement parts for a new product. Some have exchanged their laptops for new ones but found to have the same issue. UPDATE 27th OCT 08: Received s new Macbook as an exchange from the Apple Store – this one is fine.

A Few Web Design Tips

A Few Web Design Tips

Don’t bother with splash pages.

A splash page is normally a pointless page people put on their websites as an introduction. The page normally contains some sort of image on with a big click here to enter sign, or sometimes people don’t say anything and just hope you will click on the picture to enter their site. Splash pages are fairly pointless and it is just creating more work for your visitor as they have to click the mouse button an extra time just to see the content of your site. By removing the splash page the visitor can get to see the best parts of your site straight away, without having to wait for a pointless page to load.

Keep your navigation simple.

To put it simply if your navigation is too complicated and people don’t understand how to get around your site this is a huge web design fault. If a visitor doesn’t know how to navigate around your site they will get frustrated and end up leaving. Keep your navigation simple and try to avoid using scripts or complicated flash based menus, not all browsers support scripts, so some of your visitors might be missing out on important.

Keep your paragraphs reasonable readable lengths.

Although having lots of relative and informative content on your website is good, it is a bad idea to have the blocks of text to big. Not everyone likes reading and to much can deter a visitor. If you keep your paragraphs in reasonable lengths it is much easier for a visitor to read and absorb.

Use CSS for style.

Make sure your text is readable by using a standard font which is compatible with other systems. While some fonts may look good on your computer other people might not have that font installed. It is good web design practice to use CSS when building you site. CSS or Cascading Style Sheets are a perfect way to set and adjust your websites font and size settings. The great thing about using CSS is that you can change the look of your whole site simply by editing the one file.

Test how your site looks in other web browsers

When you are building your site and still in the web design stage it is important to check how it looks on other browsers, just because it looks fine in internet explorer doesn’t mean it looks good on Firefox or Opera. A lot of people use alternative browsers and if the website looks like a complete mess then you will loose that visitor for good. You can check your websites web design to ensure it complies with the web standards at the w3.org website. Validating the page will help to ensure it is cross browser compatible.

Related Design Fault Articles

What possesses people who should know better to design stupid products?What planet/ drugs are these dudes on?

Question by tell’emaboutdahoney: What possesses people who should know better to design stupid products?What planet/ drugs are these dudes on?

I mean-Toothpaste with a red stripe-when you rinse out-you think your gums are bleeding!!

Green golf balls-FFS-have you ever tried to find even a white ball in the rough after you’ve hooked or pulled a tee shot?

The list is endless……………………………………………………………………..

Best answer:

Answer by RNW
I’ve heard it said that it’s morally wrong to allow a fool to keep his money. Perhaps the stupid products are just a way to extract money from the fools.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Neil Degrasse Tyson – Stupid Design

Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia. Tyson’s professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. Tyson obtains his data from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as from telescopes in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and in the Andes Mountains of Chile. In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a 12-member commission that studied the Future of the US Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security. In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a 9-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the “Moon, Mars, and Beyond” commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which will help guide NASA through its perennial need to fit its ambitious vision into its restricted budget. In addition to dozens of professional …

Video Rating: 4 / 5

Some Design!-Christopher Hitchens This present-day version of God of the gaps goes by a fresh name: intelligent design. The term suggests that some entity, endowed with a mental capacity far greater than the human mind can muster, created or enabled all the things in the physical world that we cannot explain through scientific methods. An interesting hypothesis. But why confine ourselves to things too wondrous or intricate for us to understand, whose existence and attributes we then credit to a superintelligence? Instead, why not tally all those things whose design is so clunky, goofy, impractical, or unworkable that they reflect the absence of intelligence? And what comedian designer configured the region between our legs-an entertainment complex built around a sewage system? Stupid design could fuel a movement unto itself. It may not be nature’s default, but it’s ubiquitous. Yet people seem to enjoy thinking that our bodies, our minds, and even our universe represent pinnacles of form and reason. Maybe it’s a good antidepressant to think so. But it’s not science-not now, not in the past, not ever. -Neil deGrasse Tyson Religious fundamentalists may deny that evolution exists, but in the natural world it is religion that does not exist. -John Maisey of American Museum of Natural History

Atheists: What is your favorite stupid “intelligent design” argument?

Question by Blasphemy is fun!: Atheists: What is your favorite stupid “intelligent design” argument?

I personally like “Irreducible Complexity” because it is just so easy to mathematically disprove.

A
(A&&B)
(A||B)<Best answer:

Answer by lainiebsky
I like the one that says that the amazing similarities in DNA prove that one single deity made everything.

Give your answer to this question below!

« Previous Page — Next Page »