Facebook Inconsistency
Facebook don’t seem to be able to keep it together when it comes to consistency. That’s bad design and for such a large company it really is quite shocking.
Anyway, I felt the need to vent my spleen about some design inconsistencies. You’ll see what I mean if you look at the header in the video. Watch it closely and be annoyed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPZDv1MDJrg&feature=autoshare
Ads that block content until you do something
There is a trend in advertising to block content from readers until they actively do something. Usually it involves answering a short survey like the one below, or it could be selecting a preference for a particular type of product. Whatever the specifics, the content only appears after you have responded to the advert.
So the question is, how do you respond in situations like this? Do you leave the page immediately and the article unread? Do you skip the interstitial (that’s the technical term for this sort of advert) and read the article, or do you in fact do what the advert is telling you to do and then read the article?
Auto playing videos – Oh how I hate thee
I am seriously getting annoyed with auto playing videos on websites these days. It feels like a plague that is spreading quickly through the internet.
Now in the context of video sharing services like YouTube, I really don’t have a problem with adverts that start playing before a video.
But on a flipping newspaper or magazine website? Come on. That just makes me navigate away from the page and the brand.
Now I know web pages are amazing things and are by their nature multi media experiences, but I think there is a time and a place for these things.
What say the rest of you?
Oh and I just needed to get this off my chest. I feel better now and can relax for the rest of the day. 😉
How to add Google+ hovercards to your website
Nice little tip here.
Originally shared by Robert Wallis
Add @GooglePlus hover cards to any web page.
To add Google+ hover cards to any web page just add the class “g-profile” to any profile links you include in your web page.
The hover cards should work as long as the page calls the platform js file, which your site will already be doing if the site uses any Google+ feature, such as the plus one button.
Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later
There is a lot of talk about ad blocking software, good website design and also the decline of the newspaper industry. Traditionally newspapers have been funded by a combination of a cover price and advertising. The rise of digital mediums has vexed many publishers, because people don’t like to subscribe in lieu of a cover price and advertisers only want to spend money if a website can guarantee x number of eyeballs seeing their ads. The end result is that more and more advertising is thrown onto publishers websites, making for a very poor user experience.
Hence the rise of ad blockers and the continuing decline of journalism and independent websites.
The Dutch startup Blendle just may have found a way round all of that.
Spot the copy competition
Can you find it?
This is a screenshot from a local paper’s website. I won’t name it, but wanted to use it as an example of abysmal design.
And advertisers wonder why people use ad blockers?
Sizing fonts with rem
I found this excellent piece that explains the differences between using px, em and rem when sizing your fonts.
http://snook.ca/archives/html_and_css/font-size-with-rem
