According to Mashable, Facebook is getting a redesign. After looking at the screenshots, shown below, it’s seems to be quite a substantial tweak to the architecture. Personally I find Facebooks current design hard to navigate and lacks basic usability. These new visuals show an appreciation for the less IT savvy facebooker. Search seems to be pushed more with a larger search box in the header and an inbox preview on the homepage seems a great idea.

Screenshots of new Facebook UI currently in user testing

News feed

Requests

Inbox preview

Notifications

Account settings tab

Your thoughts?

Let us know your thoughts on the Facebook design, both current and new, in the comments below.

This year General Motors (GM) began the fourth largest bankruptcy proceedings in history, joining the many other large and venerable companies that have sunk to the bottom during this economic crisis. In fact, eight of the 20 largest bankruptcies have happened during the last two years of crisis. This infographic from Good illustrates visually the magnitude of these collapses.

Aren’t they the same thing?

After being shot down by an over enthusiastic designer for calling a typeface a font to a client over the phone this particular developer would now disagree. You see to Joe Bloggs A type and a Font are the same thing, to a developer it’s like saying a Gerbil and a Hamster are the same thing. To them they’re both a small, furry and sometimes smelly caged pet. A designer of the other hand is a little pickier when it comes to detail, after all they are trained to look at the smallest details. He would say to the developer..

“A Gerbil is nothing like a Hamster, Hamsters for a start like to live alone and seem to wake up when you go to sleep. Gerbils on the other hand are the complete opposite, they are happiest in groups and love being active, chewing and gnawing at the bars till you play with them.”

So yes, fonts and typefaces are technically different though relate to the same thing.

What is a typeface?

Think of a typeface as the ‘design’ of the design of the alphabet, the shape of the letters that make up the typestyle. The letters, numbers, and symbols that make up a design of type. So when you say “Arial” or “Garamond” you’re talking about a set of letters in a specific style, a ‘typeface’.

What is a font?

Think of a font as the digital file that contains/describes the typeface. Think of the font as a little piece of software that tells the computer and printer how to display and print the typeface.

Adobe’s type glossary description

According to Adobe’s type glossary: “A font is one weight, width, and style of a typeface. Before scalable type, there was little distinction between the terms font, face, and family. Font and face still tend to be used interchangeably, although the term face is usually more correct. A typeface is the letters, numbers, and symbols that make up a design of type. A typeface is often part of a type family of coordinated designs. The individual typefaces are named after the family and are also specified with a designation, such as italic, bold or condensed.

F*** you designer snob!

Next time you encounter a stuck up designer who likes to take every opportunity to correct you on design related jargon, just think, here’s one small dollop of typography info to counter his attacks. I’d be so blunt as to knowingly misdescribe the font/typeface then counter his verbal nonsense with your new found knowledge.

Time to brush up on your typefaces

Check this out…Typeface Periodic Table

What’s your favorite Typeface and why?

Now if you don’t comment below we’re going to presume it’s Comic Sans and you wouldn’t want that would you?

Photoshop files (PSDs) can be huge in file size, especially if you are working on a large format high resolution file. Here’s a quick tip that can save you valuable HD space, anywhere between 10% – 90%, simply by turning off layer previews when you save.

Before you save

It’s best to organise your layers in groups and delete any unwanted layers before you save. This isn’t a crucial step but it can drastically reduce the size of the PSD when saved. To do this header on over to the layers palette, click the icon in the top right corner and click ‘Delete Hidden Layers’ (shown below).

Turn layers off

Now that your layers are tidy and organised it makes this next step easier. To the left of each layer you should be able to see an icon of an eye (shown bottom left image), simply click on each eye icon to hide the layers (shown bottom right image).

Compare file sizes

In theory the PSD with layers hidden should be smaller in file size than the same file but with layers shown. The graphic below is an illustration showing the same PSD with and without layers shown. In this case the file with layers hidden is over 50% smaller in file size than the same file showing the layers.

Is it right for you?

In most cases yes. Personally I use the approach on backup versions of a design only. I tend to keep the layers in an active working copy shown for speed. If I get to version filename-01F however, I’ll use this approach in all previous files, A through to E. Finally once the project is finished I will ZIP up the folder, after erasing all unnecessary layers and archive them away. On one project alone I ran through 13 PSD versions and saved a total of 2.3GB in disk space with this technique.

If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments below, I’d be more than happy to answer them.

I have been quite vocal about my switch from the iPhone to the Droid in my immediate circles, but I haven’t really been detailed about it. I promised a writeup to The Floating Frog, but I just haven’t been able to get around to it. There has been some unknown block keeping me from really getting into the nitty gritty of a phone vs. phone comparison.

I think I’m finally able to address that. I was frustrated with the iPhone experience and I really wanted to change. So I did. It was as simple as that. There was no lengthy montage of me comparing the two phones over the course of two weeks. There was no dramatic music that played when I finally walked into the Verizon store to pick up the Droid. It just happened, and in retrospect, I should have done it earlier.

The iPhone has a massive catalog of apps. The Android OS doesn’t tell you the best way to use your phone. It’s as simple as that. There are many more subtle pros and cons to each device, but that is really all you need to know about each phone. They are both capable of almost the same things, it’s just a matter of how easy it is for you do them, or if you need to do anything at all.

The iPhone has some fantastic app standards in place and has really made it easy for developers to craft a quality app. Tweetie 2 is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of modern app development. The problem with the iPhone platform is the platform itself. The ridiculous app approval process stifles creativity, and the lack of background processes severely limits the potential of apps in our always-connected lifestyle. This is never going to change.

Android is the antithesis of the iPhone platform in that it is completely open and they put the responsibility of the user experience on the user. Yes, there are some standards in place and a “google experience” that the devices attempt to deliver, but, outside of that, you can put whatever developers can cook up on your phone the minute they are done with it. I like that freedom. That is why I have decided to switch to the Droid. It’s my phone, not Googles’.

I did not come to this decision easily, for the sole reason that I felt it shouldn’t have been an easy decision to come to. I waffled for way too long about things that just didn’t really affect me. So here’s my advice if this kind of decision has fallen into your lap: don’t stress out over it. Just pick a device and learn to love it, because it’s going to be with you wherever you go. After all, it is just a phone…

The internet is big, as as this illustration proves, it’s growing faster than the Solar System. It’s amazing when you put all these figures down in one place, it makes you feel quite inadequate in comparison. 210 billion daily emails is staggering, if I just try a little harder I’m sure I’ll be able to increase that to 211,000,000,000 emails. Simply leave your email below and we’ll get the ball rolling

Created by Online Education

Peter from Peopleoftheday.co.uk dropped us an email to ask if we can help publicise their range of celebrity caricature books and prints in time for Christmas. Normally we ignore these types of marketing emails but Peters request stood out when he explained it was an initiative that supported Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Personally I have never explained CF personally, nor through any family members but through reading up on the subject it’s a life-threatening inherited disease which affects over 8,000 people in the UK.

Around 1 in 25 people in the UK carry the faulty gene, that’s over two million people.

Each week five babies are born with CF and three young lives are lost to CF.

CF affects a number of internal organs, especially the lungs and digestive system, by clogging them with thick sticky mucus resulting in infections and inflammation making it hard to breathe and digest food.

There is currently no cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

A perfect gift

Whether it’s for dad for Christmas or your Grandad for his birthday, these books and limited edition prints make a fantastic gift. You’ll also be supporting Cystic Fibrosis.

People of the day, £8.99
Buy online at Amazon →

People of the day 2, £8.99
Buy online at Amazon →

People of the day 3, £7.99
Buy online at Amazon →

People of the day 4, £7.99
Buy online at Amazon →

Limited Edition prints

View the gallery of over 200 celebrity caricatures and buy the limited edition prints.

Buy online at Peopleoftheday.co.uk →

Also, any referral fees we collect will be donated to the Cystic Fibrosis charity fund.

Christmas isn’t far away now, 38 days to be precise, and if you’re even a little bit festive there’s a chance your place of work may do a Secret Santa. It’s a fun way of buying a colleague a Christmas present without them knowing who sent it. It’s also fair because everyone normally has a small set budget in which to purchase the present. We use a simple online Secret Santa organiser that randomly pairs present givers and receivers. Simple enter the names and email addresses of each participant and each person will receive the name of the person they need to buy for, all done surreptitiously.

The Site

The process

4 simple steps

1. Enter your name, email address, and a group name
2. Select the number of presents for each participant.
3. Enter the names of the participants.
4. Click on the Pick Names button.

Visit the Free Secret Santa Random Name Generator →

Design by committee is a coined phrase to describe a collaborative approach to designing and, as I experience way to much, is bound to produce suboptimal results. Best described by the maxim “A camel looks like a horse that was planned by a committee”, I firmly believe this approach is severly handicapped. To illustrate it better let me regale you on a fictional example from the web design world, roll the tape Jack!

A typical design process

A tried and tested approach to efficient, time saving, quality controlled design.

1. Initial design consultation with client
2. Design spec developed and pre-agreed
3. Ideas generation and presentation to client
4. Feedback
5. Revisions
6. End artwork produced
7. Signoff

A typical committee based design process

1. Initial design consultation with client
2. Design spec developed and pre-agreed
3. Ideas generation and presentation to client
4. Feedback
   • Susan gives her thoughts
   • Clive gives his thoughts that contradicts Susans
   • Malcolm gives his thoughts 2 weeks later that contradicts Susans and Clives
   • Mike loves it and doesn’t want any changes making
   • Clives wife adds her two cents
   • Two members of the committee fail to give feedback
5. Designer makes revisions
6. Feedback
   • Susan loves it
   • Clive hates it
   • Malcolm gives his thoughts 2 weeks later that contradicts his original changes
   • Mike wants it how it originally was
   • Clives wife adds her two cents
   • Two members of the committee fail to give feedback
7. Designer makes some more revisions
8. Feedback
   • Susan hates it and wants revision 2
   • Clive has a shouting match at Susan and demands further changes
   • Malcolm gives his thoughts 2 weeks later that contradicts his second set of changes
   • Mike wants it how it originally was
   • Clives wife ends up having a fight with Susan
   • Two members of the committee finally give some feedback on revision 1
9. Designer can now either A. Quit. B. Call a design clisis meeting. C. Demand all changes funnel through one person only. D. Goes on a manic killing rampage.

Luckily the designer chose C and Susan was the designated first contact

1. Revision 3 evaluated
2. Amends agreed
3. Susan passes on feedback from all comittee members
   • Clive wants to try another strategy
   • Malcolm disappears for a month to his villa in Spain
   • Mike wants it how it originally was
   • Clives wife apologises to Susan and gives her two cents
   • Two members of the committee finally give some feedback on revision 2
4. Designer rightly demands further design budget… the committee say no!

I think by this point to see it’s not the ideal situation for any designer to be in. They can set out a strict spec, claim a deposit before the work is started but there’s always this middle grey area that can very easily go out of control. Too many cooks spoil the broth, and it takes a strong and experienced person to manage feedback. Some are changes, some are just ideas but at the end of the day it’s just not a situation a cherish being in.

Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington enlightens us further

There was a really funny exchange between Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington on his podcast the recently. They started talking about Chinese proverbs and quickly devolved the conversation into Noah’s poor decision to let similar animals onto the Ark.

This is paraphrasing, but you get the idea…

Ricky: “One of my favorites is, ‘A camel is a horse designed by committee.’”

Stephen: “Carl’s already wondering who’s on that committee.”

Karl: “I was just thinking why would you request the hump bit, cause that’s just gonna get in the way, innit?”

Ricky: “Ok, Karl. I’ll give you an animal, and you tell me where it has gone wrong. The Octopus.”

Karl: “It should have some bones. I never understood why it would like to get in a jar anyway.”

Ricky: “A Giraffe.”

Karl: “Noah should have seen some of the animals coming in and said, ‘Hold on. Just saw one like you.’ and then throw it out.”

Not sure if I captured the humor there, but, regardless, I like the premise of the initial statement. Design-by-committee is bound to produce suboptimal results, and I recommend to every designer to think carefully before accepting such projects, they can be more trouble than they’re worth.

Did you know 95.1% of users connected to the Internet in the UK are on broadband connections, according to Weboptimization.com. Here’s a quick roundup of some other interesting technology based statistics.

Latest Internet Stats Roundup: Technology