homer gaines

Apple’s HTML 5 Demo Fail

homer — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:19:02 +0000

First let me say i’m somewhat tired of the HTML 5 vs. Flash debate. I am a fan of BOTH and plan on using them both in my projects as needed. And i’m even more tired of Steve Jobs saying the same thing over and over. We get it, he doesn’t like flash. He want’s everyone to buy the iPad, and he want’s everyone to use HTML 5 instead of Flash because it’s, in his opinion, better and open.

But when I see things like the HTML 5 Demo on Apples site that only works in the Safari browser I am reminded of one thing, Internet Explorer. Now granted, it’s not a 100% direct translation of the problems IE caused but when something is labeled as a “standard” that DOES NOT WORK IN ALL BROWSERS ON ALL PLATFORMS then it’s not STANDARD!

Just for clarification, I have a PC (Win 7) and a Mac (Snow Leopard). Currently i’m on my PC and my browser of choice is Chrome which is a web-kit based browser that supports HTML 5 and CSS 3 .

Visiting the site and trying to view the HTML 5 demos in any other browser that supports HTML 5 gets you this nice little message.

After you have switched to Safari, the demos work and perform just fine until you get to the VR demo which gives you this alert..

“ This demo requires a browser that supports CSS 3D transforms.

To view this demo, you’ll need Safari on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Safari on iPhone OS, or the latest WebKit Nightly Build.”

So now I need to be on a Mac Running Leopard. This demo is platform dependent and this is standard? Really? Standard only applies to Apple products at this point.

Fail.

Project : Art Advisory Service Website

homer — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:19:05 +0000

Just launched a new website project that I did for the Art Advisory Service. One of the reasons I enjoyed working on this project was the opportunity to do a minimalistic design.

My initial thoughts after speaking with them about their project was to design a site that came to life with brush strokes inspired by sumi-e. But after further exploration and conversations, the design evolved into what you see today.

Client: Art Advisory Service

Built using: HTML / CSS / Flash

Apple “Bans” Use of Adobe Flash CS5 to Build iPhone Apps

homer — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:20:05 +0000

“When the elephants fight, the grass suffers!”

I often say that when referencing political, self serving, chest pounding, pissing contests that get in the way of good ideas or people doing good work. I, as were many others, was looking forward to the updates in adobe’s new CS5, especially the ability to develop an app using flash and export it as an iPhone app. But after reading this, it’s clear that myself and anyone else with those same ambitions will have to focus our attention on other mobile platforms such as android.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/demos/

Not happy with Apple right now for such a schoolyard stunt days before CS5 is launched this Monday.

Elixsir Podcast Interview With a Designer: Homer Gaines

homer — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:16:28 +0000

Late last week I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Tyme White who runs elixsir.com. It’s a Q&A session about various issues and topics related to web design. At the bottom of the post is a link to the audio file. Check it out when you have a chance.

Interview With a Designer: Homer Gaines

iPhone Project & Storyboard Sketchbooks

homer — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:17:45 +0000

As of late, I have been working on the UI for an iPhone app. The overall experience has been exciting because it’s a change from designing websites. While I was sketching my ideas out on basic graph paper, I was thinking wouldn’t it be nice to have a project book where I can sketch out my ideas and keep everything organized. So I took some time to design my own iPhone application sketchbook. I showed the first edition to a friend of mine, Barry Ezell who builds iPhone apps and he loved it.

After taking some time to tweak the sketchbooks a bit based on feedback, I have released my first three iPhone application sketchbooks online for sale.

The iPhone Application Project Sketchbook is structured for developers and has plenty of space for notes and sketching.
The iPhone Application Storyboard Sketchbook is structured for designers and has more space for story boards and planning UI and UX.
The iPhone Developer : Barry Ezell Edition of offers the same features as the firstiPhone application sketchbook.

I have many more sketchbooks on the design table right now and I will be posting them as they are available. I also have a few request for personal projects so if you are interested in the possibilities, drop me a line.

Photoshop Fun: Alien

homer — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:26:48 +0000

Taking a break from the regular Photoshop design work, I had a bit of fun with a picture that I took while at work. Walking into the mens restroom I noticed the access panel in the ceiling was left open. A very creepy sight which reminded me of the scene from Aliens 3 where the warden was yanked up through the ceiling tiles. When I got back to my machine, I had a bit of fun with Photoshop and came up with this.

Here’s the original images i used

And here’s the final…

Redesign of smworkshop.com

homer — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:49:07 +0000

This past week, I had the privilege of presenting at the first ever Barcamp SWFL / Juniorcamp here in Fort Myers. My presentation was about 3 traditional Japanese concepts and how they could be used in the minimalistic web design process. A few days later, a friend of mine, Social Media Strategist Murray Izenwasser asked me to review his current site (smworkshop.com) and let him know my honest opinions about the design from a minimalistic point of view. After pointing out some things he could improve on, I put together a suggested layout he could possibly use if he chose to do so. This morning I received a tweet letting me know that his site was going to be redesigned following my suggestions.

Bellow are images of what the site looks like currently and my suggested design.

My suggested layout

4 Ways to Help Haiti Now

homer — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:01:25 +0000

As most of the world knows, Haiti was hit by a whopping 7.0 earthquake early yesterday evening that has caused massive damage. Many people here in the US and other countries have friends and family there who are in desperate need our help. Here are a few ways to donate to the rescue efforts.

CNN

Text YELE to 501501 to donate $5 to Haiti relief.
You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.
The State Department toll-free number to call for information about family members in Haiti is 1-888-407-4747
UNICEF: Help children affected by the earthquake in Haiti https://secure.unicefusa.org/site/Donation2?df_id=6680&6680.donation=form1

Reference:

New Project: Sumi-e inspired Web UI Using Artrage

homer — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:44:13 +0000

I have been thinking about this for a while but just have not had the time to get it going. It’s a personal challenge to establish a different look and feel outside of my Photoshop habits. I know I won’t finish tonight but I will be gin working on a Web UI that is hand drawn using a program called Artrage.

The ideas going through my head are in water color. Sumi-e inspired, faint wet traces of paint on rice paper. Minimalistic layout giving just as much value to the negative space as the content.

For now the UI. Maybe I’ll build out the design as a WordPress theme or a flash site. We’ll see.

Death to Lorum Ipsum?

homer — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:46:35 +0000

I was just reading a post on lukew.com about issues with using Lorum Ipsum in graphic and application development. The post points out how the use of Lorum Ipsum gives a misleading impression as to what the final product will be.

Using dummy content or fake information in the Web design process can result in products with unrealistic assumptions and potentially serious design flaws.

Personally I don’t think using Lorum Ipsum is a bad thing. I don’t think the problem is the use of Lorum Ipsum but more an issue with requirements and understanding what the outcome should be. The above mentioned “issue” would be the case if the requirements were incomplete or loosely written and ambiguous. In that event, the use of Lorum is the least of the problems.

I do agree with the fact it gives “unrealistic assumptions” of what the final will look like, but it’s not meant to be the final. In my experience as a designer, Lorum is often used in the prototype phase of a project where ever that is in the overall business process. The idea at this point is being hashed out and tweaked to meet the initial vision of the requester. Most of which should be fairly close, provided the requirements are good.

I feel the post assumes there is data or copy to begin with, when in some cases content hasn’t been created. However, if the necessary data and or copy exists, it would only make sense to design and build the prototype with it in place. This would provide a closer “real world” picture of what the final will be. Another assumption made is that the data is dynamic which also is not always the case. Again,this is the type of information that should be in the requirements. Yet, if a project does require a level of flexibility in the way it’s presented, it’s the responsibility of the designer to understand how to design the layout to be flexible. All which should be reviewed and approved while still a prototype.