patnakajima.com: Posts

Twitter / nakajima — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 02:31:28 +0000

Just got word of a great opportunity via email. And from Nigeria of all places! Only thing is I need to act quickly! Where's my checkbook?

Twitter / nakajima — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:34:22 +0000

Cleaning the apartment is like refactoring. Much better to do constantly in small bits than to let things pile up and start to smell.

Pat Nakajima — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:01:00 +0000

Open Source is for free and Consulting is for money. In both cases I like to work hard, write lots of code, and accumulate and share knowledge.

My Cuil experience

Pat Nakajima — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:17:05 +0000

With all the hubbub about Cuil these days, I thought I’d give it a whirl. And what better way to try out a new search engine than a self-search?

Cuil found most of the pertinent details about me, though there were a few unanswered questions. The biggest mystery, of course, was who on earth is the guy that they pictured next to the result for patnakajima.com?

The only other weird thing about Cuil is how much their results just look like Google ads, which I strive so hard to ignore when looking at regular Google search results.

Pat Nakajima — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:38:45 +0000

Before you use a method in a legacy system, check to see if there are tests for it. If there aren't, write them.

Remember the :active styles

Pat Nakajima — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:45:40 +0000

The hyperlinks of today look way better than they did five years ago. Designers and developers have become better and better at styling links to not only be usable, but beautiful as well. We know how to indicate the basic behavior of a link using only color (for example, red usually indicates a destructive action). And we know how to style links to give them a stronger affordance of click-ability.

Most web applications make clever use of the :hover pseudo-class, which allows us to tweak link backgrounds to add an even stronger affordance of click-ability, and draws the eye to the link, which focuses the user on task at hand. All of 37signals’ apps provide great examples of tasteful rollover link styles.

When we begin to think about rollover styles, we’re no longer thinking about how the app looks. We’re thinking about how it feels. Different styles for link rollovers make a page feel much more responsive. Everybody these days knows this, and takes advantage of it.

Unfortunately, few people take advantage of the :active pseudo-class, which allows you to style the link differently while it’s being clicked. This is just as important, if not more important than the rollover state. Changing a link’s :active style provides immediate visual feedback that the link is being clicked.

Try clicking each of the following links. See which feels better.

This link does not have an active state.

This link does have an active state.

The chances of a person successfully completing a task increase with the level of feedback that that he/she receives before, while, and after performing that task. (if you’ve read The Design of Everyday Things, you know what I’m talking about). With links, the “before” feedback can be achieved using :hover styles, and the “after” feedback is usually just the browser doing something, be it going to a different page or just updating something dynamically. The “during” feedback can be achieved by simply using a good :active style.

Now, just as much thought must be given to a link’s :active style as to its :hover style, if not more. Usually, a click is less than a second, so changing the style too much can be distracting, and actually do more harm than good. I’ve found that the best :active styles tend to just make the background a bit darker. I first saw this on flickr (which was where I first noticed the :active state in use and fell in love). You might also think about adding an underline during the click. Experiment and see what works best for you.

One thing’s for sure though. Once you feel the difference in your web apps between a good :active style and a non-existent one, you’ll wish every site made use of them.

Twitter / nakajima — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:44:36 +0000

At the Field Tested Books reading. Can't really hear anything, since there's a private party going on in the same area.

Twitter / nakajima — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:52:46 +0000

If I wrote a story on toilet paper about how (Apple|Google|37Signals) is the new Microsoft, then flushed it, it'd still get on Hacker News.

Twitter / nakajima — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:38:02 +0000

Waiting for my hyper-mustachio'd gravatar picture to propagate to GitHub. Much forking will ensue.

Twitter / nakajima — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:44:47 +0000

Star Wars debates with self-proclaimed "warriors from the ghetto" umm... FTW