The 10 Commandments of Web Design

After a few busy months, I’ve finally got a spare few minutes to update my blog.

And where better to start than with a BusinessWeek.com piece, ‘The 10 Commandments of Web Design.’ They provide basic knowledge for web developers and designers but like everything, a good reminder is never a bad thing.

1. Thou shalt not abuse Flash.

2. Thou shalt not hide content.

3. Thou shalt not clutter.

4. Thou shalt not overuse glassy reflections.

5. Thou shalt not name your Web 2.0 company with an unnecessary surplus or dearth of vowels.

6. Thou shalt worship at the altar of typography.

7. Thou shalt create immersive experiences.

8. Thou shalt be social.

9. Thou shalt embrace proven technologies.

10. Thou shalt make content king.

A good list covering all bases. Personally I think the final point is the most important – no matter how attractive a website design, as long as it is easy to navigate and the content is quality you can’t go wrong.

History of the hacker

Interesting report from the BBC looking at the first incident of hacking 20 years ago, titled ‘Victim of its own success.’

A solution will have to be found that does not destroy the whole system. And it will have to be one that does not destroy the creativity and openness that made the internet such an enormous success in the first place.

Ten things journalists should know…

Ten things journalists should know about surviving in a high-tech industry

Interesting post on Media Shift Idea Lab that discusses the changing environment of journalism. My particular favourite is number 6:

Breaking things is a privilege. Progress is about alternating breaking and fixing. Anything 100% working is 100% dead.

Google Moon

After looking at some good examples of how people have used Google Maps to display information, I came across Google’s ‘reconstruction’ of the moon landing. I’d never seen this before, or heard anyone ever mention it, despite it being done in 2005.

Aptly called ‘Google Moon‘ it uses imagery to represent the surface of the moon and provides a set of placemarks that show the key stages in the moon landing.

Whether you believe man ever landed on the moon, well that’s a different matter. Anyway, Google Moon is good fun.

Interesting blog – ‘Google Maps Mania’

Martin Stabe posted a link to Google Maps Mania, a blog that tracks other sites that are using Google Maps, and just how they use them.

I’d never come across this site before but it’s very interesting… it definately gives me a few ideas about what I could do with mapping.

The blog owner has also done their own Google Map, mapping crime in London. It definately puts crime rates into perspective looking at it like this.