What’s Changed?

There is a much smaller focus on blog posts (since I don’t write often), and a much larger focus on the things I do elsewhere (Twitter, Flickr, Last.fm etc). Individually, I don’t contribute a great deal to each of those services. But collectively, I feel like it’s a good amount of content to showcase (as seen on the home page). And something that feels like a really good representation of “me”.

What About the Design and How the Site Works?

I have to say, I’m incredibly proud of the design you see here. I don’t think it’s perfect by any means, but I do think it’s some of my finest work to date …and a very good indication of my design style and talent.

Code wise there are some cool css and html 5 things going on underneath. For example, the entire color scheme can be changed by replacing a single background color thanks to transparent pngs and rgba text and borders. The typeface I’m using for headings is Goudy Bookletter 1911 from the League of Movable Type. Sadly, not everyone will see these enhancements, but since this is a personal site, I’m not too worried about that.

And that’s it. I hope you enjoy your stay at my little internet home.

http://madmenyourself.com/

A few weeks ago, the profile skin I designed went live on virb.com. Enjoy!

I’ve joined team Virb as IA / Designer. Yeah, it’s pretty fantastic.

UPDATE: Here’s another video that may put this into more perspective for you:
What is geek chic

If you don’t know and understand the presentation layer… how can you effectively design for it?

This post somewhat inspired by Jeff Croft’s But who owns Javascript?.

If you see me at the conference, say hello and whatnot. We can chat about politics and religion… you know, casual conversation. Or web stuff – that works, too. And if you’re interested, come to my “Core Conversation”:

Examining the Different Ways We Can Work

Tuesday March 11th (11:30 am – 12:30 pm in Ballroom E)

As professional web designers and developers, we have more options than ever for how we want to spend our days. Maybe we do our best work at home? Or maybe it’s amongst a large group of people where we really shine? Regardless, technology (and flexible employers) have given us more freedom to examine these new avenues. Join us as we discuss and share the pros/cons of these new venues. What works? What doesn’t? And why?

TransitCamp (Feb 23rd-24th)

When: Saturday February 23rd (2:00pm in Room 2)
Where: Palo Alto, CA
What: “New Rider Stories” Panel (Joshua Lane, Tara Hunt, etc)

TransitCamp will highlight the public transit system in the Bay Area Region and will bring together transit officials and citizens to discuss stuff like: getting schedules on the go, the future of the Bay Area transit system, experiences and observations (not complaints, though), the websites, cool ideas for attracting more riders, etc.

SXSW (March 7th-11th)

When: Tuesday March 11th (11:30 am – 12:30 pm in Ballroom E)
Where: Austin, TX
What: Core Conversation: Examining the Different Ways We Can Work

As professional web designers and developers, we have more options than ever for how we want to spend our days. Maybe we do our best work at home? Or maybe it’s amongst a large group of people where we really shine? Regardless, technology (and flexible employers) have given us more freedom to examine these new avenues. Join us as we discuss and share the pros/cons of these new venues. What works? What doesn’t? And why?

HOWEVER, I’m pretty happy with how the site turned out. Everything is more logically organized, and the product shots are front-and-center for customers. There are A TON of other little things I did on the site (and will comment about in further blog posts), but for this instance, I’d like to focus only on the grid.

Primary Grid

The primary grid is made up of 6 columns that are 140px wide with 10px of space in between. The screenshot below shows the grid overlaid on a “Product Category” page.

Smaller Grid

The smaller, secondary grid is made up of 12 columns that are 65px wide with 10px of space in between. The screenshot below shows the grid overlaid on the “Shopping Cart” page.

Grid Usage

Every single page on the new UrbanOutfitters.com follows the same grid structure… from the home page, to the shopping cart, to all the form fields on the site. Take a look around the site and I think you’ll start to pick up on it. And if you need a little help, check out my flickr set where I’ve dumped a bunch of screenshots with grid overlays.