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The 2010 kucrl.org Redesign

After a (not so) brief hiatus from writing, I’ve been welcomed back to write a monthly post for the Stratepedia blog to share some design-related thoughts and useful tools. For my first post back, I wanted to give a quick overview of a major project that has been in the works for several months now – a complete redesign of the www.kucrl.org website!

Julie Tollefson, CRL’s Director of Communications, and I headed up the redesign effort. What prompted our initial thinking on this was the rollout of a new web design template at KU last year. As part of the university community, we wanted to meet the design criteria set forth by KU. We were also finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the day-to-day content updates that were coming to us from all reaches of the Center. For this reason, we decided to look into using a CMS (Content Management System) to help us organize our content and make it easier for others to help us keep things up to date. After doing some research, we decided to go with ExpressionEngine because of it’s ease of use, vast flexibility, and great user support.

Once we decided to go ahead with the redesign, we had to go through and organize all of KU-CRL’s web presence to figure out how it should all piece together. We created a 9 page sitemap that allowed us to look at what we needed, what we didn’t need, and what we wanted to improve upon. We also hoped to incorporate some new features of the web into our site to make it easier to communicate with the public about the kinds of things we do at the Center.

So, without further ado, here’s the website before our update:

And here’s the site after our update:

A few of the new features we implemented are:

A rotating slideshow featuring important KU-CRL news stories at the top of the front page
A news blog with RSS enabled
A front page listing of all 6 of our research divisions
An events calendar
A page to showcase featured KU-CRL people, projects, and stories
Searchable research article and staff presentation listings
and visible links to the KU-CRL Twitter and KU-CRL YouTube accounts

We also wanted to consolidate some of the content and clean up the design, allowing for more white space and easier navigation.

Head on over to www.kucrl.org and take a look for yourself! We welcome any feedback you might have, so feel free to leave us some comments at www.kucrl.org/feedback.

I should mention that this is the first stage of a broader web site upgrade for nearly all of the KU-CRL affiliated websites, so I’ll be posting again next month with more information on other parts of our site as well as some more thoughts and tips on design.

By Dave | February 2nd, 2010 | Comments

Streaming Video Capture

I just came across a website that will allow you to capture streaming video to your computer from sites like YouTube or Google Video. A possible use for this might be for video clips that you’d like to use in a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation. Please keep in mind that there are copyrights on most of the published content online, so use this tool with respect for the work of others.

http://keepvid.com/

By Dave | January 16th, 2009 | Comments

LIFE Magazine’s Photo Archive

One of the top buzz items across the internet this week is that LIFE Magazine, with the help of Google, has scanned and archived millions of photographs from its archives and put them online. This collection includes photographs and etchings dating back to the 1750s and by the time everything has been put online (only about 10% is there now), there will be more than 10 million photos available worldwide. The archive includes photographs taken by some of the most well respected photographers in history including Margaret Bourke-White and Robert Capa .

Of course, this isn’t the first time a valuable image collection has been put online. In early 2008, the Library of Congress put a section of their collection online and invited Flickr users to help them add tags to the photos. Shortly thereafter, several other institutions followed suit and helped create the The Commons on Flickr.

These online resources are a priceless way to learn more about history and culture that was previously only available in museums. Now, people all over the world can enjoy these treasure troves of photography.

By Dave | November 19th, 2008 | Comments

Font Management

For me, fonts are kind of like t-shirts. They tend to accumlate over time and, although they’re all fun to wear, I don’t necessarily need all of them them in my closet all of the time. As a designer, I use a ton of different fonts for the work I do (and clearly, metaphors as well!) If you’re loading a lot of fonts into your system every time you start your machine, you may find that it needlessly slows your computer down. That’s why I’ve been trying out some font management software lately to help alleviate the problem. These software programs allow you to install your fonts into their interface and then turn them on and off as you need them. They can also scan your computer for damaged fonts that might be causing problems.

If you are a Mac user, there is a program that comes pre-installed on new machines called Font Book. To be honest, I haven’t had much luck getting this to work the way I need it to. If you want to give it a try, I’d definitely recommend reading the help documentation before giving it a shot.

Another program that I’ve been using for a few years now is called Extensis Suitcase (now called Fusion 2). This piece of software is relatively inexpensive ($99) and works extremely well. The interface is very simple and it even interacts with some pieces of software like those from Adobe. They have software available for Mac and PC.

A third option is one that I just started using a few days ago. It’s a free program called Linotype Font Explorer X created by the Linotype Font Foundry. The interface is similar to iTunes and the setup is extremely easy. They even have a “store” so you can buy fonts that you need directly from them much like buying music in iTunes. After just a few days of using it, I’m extremely impressed.

If any of you have had similar problems or successes with fonts, be sure and leave a comment below!

By Dave | November 13th, 2008 | Comments

The Importance of Design

After casting my ballot this morning at the polls, I was reminded of a real life example of the importance of good design. During the 2000 election, there was a very large debate about the use of the “Butterfly Ballot” in Palm Beach County and whether the terrible ballot layout changed the course of the election that year. Aaron pointed me to an article on the Presentation Zen site, which provides some great information on this seemingly simple design problem.

At its core, graphic design is all about using a visual language to communicate information. The Palm Beach County ballot is a great example in support of the importance of quality design. Good designers are trained to find new, innovative, creative, and CLEAR ways to present information to people. They take into account the audience that they are designing for and carefully research what the needs of that audience might be. A failure to do so is a fundamental failure in the design process. This quote from David Kelley, founder of IDEO, looks at this from the product design angle:

“Bad design is where the customer thinks it’s their fault that something doesn’t work. So, if you can’t make your GPS device work in your car — I mean, there should be a riot because they’re so poorly designed! Instead, the user thinks, ‘Oh, I’m not very smart, I can’t make this GPS thing work.’ People should demand more from the things they own; they need to demand that things work.”
– David Kelley, IDEO

We can all learn a lesson from the poor ballots of 2000 and try to make sure that we use visual elements and design to help clearly communicate our message and not take away from it. Try thinking about this the next time you put a PowerPoint presentation together. In addition to the great information Aaron and Amber provide, I’ve written some thoughts on design that might give some more suggestions and I encourage you to post your ideas in the comments!

Oh, and don’t forget to vote today (and be sure and double check that ballot, just in case!)

By Dave | November 4th, 2008 | Comments

Online resources for free images

Just a quick addition to Aaron’s article on Creative Commons images. There are a couple of other great resources for finding free images online that I wanted to share. The first website is called Morguefile.com and, despite the morbid sounding name, it is a fantastic depository for high resolution images that are free for the taking.

Another good place to look for images is the U.S. government. Most of their material is in the public domain, and so you can often find photo libraries on governmental websites. For example, NASA has a large gallery of images online and there is also a big collection at the USDA Forest Service. The US National Library of Medicine also has an interesting collection of older medical images and those are just a few of many public collections available online. Because of copyright laws, anything created before about 1920 is entered into the public domain, so older images are often free to use. Check out www.fromoldbooks.org as a resource for older images.

This entry would be incomplete if I didn’t mention copyright briefly. When looking online for images, it is extremely easy (and tempting) to run a quick Google Image search and grab anything that looks useful. For children doing schoolwork or for quick small-group presentations, this is probably fine, but it is really a good practice to use ONLY images that you have permission to use. As a victim of online image theft myself, I can say firsthand that it is frustrating as an artist to put the time and energy into creating something, only to have it stolen by someone for free! It is usually clear whether an image is copyright free or not, so a little investigation is all that is needed.

Aaron has done a great job of gathering some very useful online resources together and I will continue to add things here and there and I find them. There is a wealth of free material online, just waiting to be used to make your next presentation pop!

By Dave | June 3rd, 2008 | Comments

Playing videos and DVDs

I recently ran into the problem of having people not be able to play a DVD that I had burnt for them. They were using it on their computers and it seemed to be isolated to the PC users and I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what was causing the problems. However, I think I now have a solution!

PROBLEM:
It is my understanding that when a computer company installs a DVD player in their machine, they package a player and set of video encoders/drivers with that machine. This is why the DVD seems to play on some machines and not on others. Different manufacturers use different software to interact with their DVD player and it’s not consistent across the board. Mac computers seem to have this pretty well covered and are able to process a wide range of media with no problems. Also, since it’s one company, they have standard hardware/software installations. If you’re on a PC, it’s kind of hit and miss. The standard Windows Media Player requires that you have a plugin to handle certain burnt DVDs and I believe it costs a small sum to purchase. Or it could be just a problem with older versions of the software, I’m not sure.

So what can you do about this?

SOLUTION:
A very helpful IT person at my office recommended a free, open-source program called VLC Media Player. You can download it at: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

This program is supposed to be very versatile at playing any number of video formats including DVDs which is great since video is becoming increasingly popular. Although I have not used it on a PC, the MAC version seems to work great and some internet searches reveal it to be a legitimate and popular solution. There are versions for all different types of operating systems, so all of you Linux users out there can enjoy this as well!

If you try this with (or without) any success, please leave a comment and let me know how it works!

By Dave | May 7th, 2008 | Comments

To serif or not to serif

“Most people think typography is about fonts.

Most designers think typography is about fonts.

Typ
ogra
phy is more than that, it’s expressing language through type.

Placement, composition, typechoice.”

-Mark Boulton

Read the rest of this entry

By Dave | April 29th, 2008 | Comments

Thoughts on Color

Every now and then, I’m sent a Powerpoint presentation or poster or document and am asked to “clean it up” a bit. One of the things I often end up changing is the color that is used in the document. Color is tricky to deal with because it is hard to know where to start and how to choose colors that are effective. Color is so complex, in fact, that I was actually required to take an entire course on color theory in school!

My goal here is to try and give some basic pointers on color and how to use it to your advantage to help with your communications and not to turn people away from what you’re trying to say. I will use a Powerpoint slide to demonstrate, but I think these ideas will translate to everything from a presentation cover to a website to an invitation and even to photography.

In terms of visual communications and design, color serves a few different purposes. The first is purely aesthetic; it makes things look attractive.

The second good use of color is to establish a sense of hierarchy and to make certain elements stand out that are important.

A third use of color is to evoke meaning and emotion. What do you think of when you see the colors red and green? Maybe Christmas? What about something that is dark and neutral colors? It might be sad or sinister. Most colors have associated symbolism that is globally accepted, for example, blue is seen as calming or peaceful and red is energetic or angry. This is something to keep in mind when you’re setting up the color on a document.

By Dave | April 24th, 2008 | Comments

What’s your type?

For many people, knowing when to use a certain type of graphic or image file is a confusing matter. Most of us have heard of “JPEG files” and maybe the “GIF format”, but what about EPS and TIFF? When is it appropriate to use certain file types and not others? This is a brief guide explaining what each kind of file is and when it is appropriate to use it.

When people refer to a “file type” they are most often talking about the letters which come after the period in the name of a file. This is also known as a file extension. For example “filename.doc” has a “.doc” file extension which is most commonly associated with the Microsoft Word program. Most common file types for graphics and photos are .jpg, .gif, .png, .tif, and .eps.

JPEG files (Joint Photographic Experts Group) are most commonly seen with a file extension .jpg or .jpeg. Both refer to the JPEG (pronounced Jay-Peg) format. This is a compressed format that is best used for on-screen application, such as in PowerPoint documents and on the Internet. Its purpose is to provide a high quality image with a small file size. On the web, JPEG files have been formatted to 72dpi which means there are 72 dots-per-inch, which refers to the resolution. This resolution may be acceptable for printing documents for personal use, but is not high enough quality to use for professional printing such as on business cards, brochures, books, and any other printing for circulation.

Best used for: On-Screen PowerPoint presentations, web sites, emails, and other situations where a small file is needed.
Not ideal for: High quality printing projects like brochures, business cards, book covers, etc. unless you can verify that it is a high resolution image (200+dpi). In that case, JPGs are acceptable for print use.

GIF files (Graphics Interchange Format) are seen with a file extension .gif. The GIF format was created exclusively for use on the web and is known for its ability to animate and also retain transparency. GIF files are limited to 256 colors and are best used for graphics with a small number of colors such as a logo. They do not reproduce photos well, unlike the JPG format which handles far more colors.

Best used for: Web sites, emails, and other situations where a small file is needed with limited colors.
Not ever used for: High quality printing projects like brochures, business cards, book covers, or any printed materials using CMYK color.

PNG files (Portable Network Graphics) are seen with a file extension .png. This format has been recently created as an alternative to the GIF format. Although it does not allow for animation, it handles a wider range of transparencies and colors, often with far better compression. It is becoming widely supported in most every modern web browser.

Best used for: Web sites, emails, and other situations where a file is needed with transparency, large number of colors and a small file size.
Not ever used for: High quality printing projects like brochures, business cards, book covers, or any printed materials using CMYK color.

TIFF files (Tagged Image File Format) use the extension .tif or .tiff and is pronounced TIFF. TIFF is an uncompressed format that is suitable for high quality printing and is the most universal and widely supported format across all platforms (Mac, Windows, Unix, etc.). The only drawback is that the file sizes are much larger than JPEG files. For example, TIFF files have a resolution of 300 dpi which is more than enough resolution for most printing needs, but can be rather large (1MB+).

Best used for: High quality printing of brochures, business cards, book covers, published articles and other print materials.
Not ideal for: Web sites, PowerPoint presentations, files that need to be emailed

EPS files (Encapsulated PostScript) use the extension .eps and is pronounced as an acronym (E.P.S.). This format is unique in that it is a PostScript file that is resolution independent. Since it is based on vector points and not pixels, it can be scaled to any size with out any loss of quality. This makes the EPS format one of the most versatile formats for graphic designers and desktop publishers to use. It is commonly used with graphic programs like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and other vector-based programs.

By Dave | April 23rd, 2008 | Comments