aaron barker archives
All this talk of Rock Band playing and shirts reminded me of the Guitar Hero spoof shirts… Band Geek Hero. My favorite being the Cowbell Hero (above) which is a great nod to the hillarious SNL skit with Christopher Walken.
More cowbell anyone?
posted by
aaron
on Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008
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1 comment
What is going on here? The most commonly used button on a browsers toolbar was made a little easier to see and given a bigger hit area. Probably good for the general population who uses it often (alt/apple-left arrow people!). For those that don’t like it luckily you can easily make it the same size as the rest of the buttons. (/me waits for John to come throw something at him)
posted by
aaron
on Friday, Jun 20, 2008
“Nothing has no color”
Sam Grigg(s) during the color part of our design class today
posted by
aaron
on Friday, May 30, 2008
An alternative, rotary traffic signal designed by Charles Marshall in 1936 & used from the 1940s through 1970s in Australia. 2 rotors pointing at colored sections denote whether traffic in either direction should proceed, prepare, or stop. Based on a traditional clock face, it has the advantage of clearly showing signal phase timing.
It’s downfall was apparently the ability to cope with changing traffic loads. Wikipedia Entry
posted by
aaron
on Thursday, May 29, 2008
You know when, as a parent, there are those quiet times when you wonder if your kids are getting into trouble? Yes… yes they are.
Thankfully all came clean with some mineral spirits and some elbow grease. I still love you Dallin!... barely ;)
posted by
aaron
on Tuesday, May 13, 2008
A question came up today that when floated around to a few people we didn’t have a good answer, so I thought I’d toss it out to the interwebs. Is there any rhyme or reason for the separation of CSS properties that start with FONT and those that start with TEXT (including a few others like color, line-height, etc). For reference here is W3C’s pages on font and text.
Since we don’t have a method for easy response at the moment I’ve created a NorthTemple twitter account to provide your abbreviated responses. As an aside, several of the team here have started twittering recently, and so we may use this NorthTemple account for other stuff in the future. Follow us and wait in eager anticipation for that future day =)
posted by
aaron
on Thursday, May 01, 2008
Here’s what you do when you’re a student in the Belgian town of Leuven. You don a blue plastic poncho alongside 1,499 undergraduates, all standing in line at very long table, on which is placed a bottle of Diet Coke and a Mento. On the count of three, having raised your hood, you drop the mint in the plastic bottle, and 1,500 fountains of sticky drink erupt simultaneously.
posted by
aaron
on Friday, Apr 25, 2008
What makes a design "Googley"? A small team gathered to discuss these questions and define the Googley Design Principles:
1. Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people’s trust.
10. Add a human touch.
A worthy set of goals. Check the article for links to more in-depth descriptions of each.
posted by
aaron
on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008
Orbital Sacrament shares some information of what I am guessing was the first sacrament service held in space by an LDS astronaut. Which also reminded me of the trials that needed to be overcome for the first Islamic astronaut. With questions like How does an Islamic astronaut face Mecca in orbit? and How many times a day to pray if they orbit the earth every 90 minutes and are supposed to pray and sunrise and sunset (in addition to other times).
It’s interesting how the experience of religion changes as you enter new frontiers. Similar questions are currently being asked on our team, as we wonder how to make the relatively new frontier of the internet a religious experience.
posted by
aaron
on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008
“A lot of you are going to have to make decisions above your level. Make the best decision that you can with the information that’s available to you at the time, and above all, do the right thing”
Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, in a memo to area managers in preparation for hurricane Katrina
posted by
aaron
on Tuesday, Apr 01, 2008
When Rob Foster, Todd Ericksen and I went to Washington DC to attend a Tufte Conference we made a point to stop by the Vietnam Vetrans Memorial . It was just after twighlight and there were only soft lights illuminating the memorial. The dim lighting set the mood and invited you to look harder to see the detail of the names. You couldn’t help but to find yourself touching the stone and feeling the names of the fallen as you walked along side the memorial. We went to several other monuments and memorials and heard tourists chattering and even yelling, and then to come to this one and hear only the wind in the trees was a very spiritual experience. You were compelled to whisper and show reverence for the hallowed ground on which you walked. As close to the feeling of the temple as I have felt outside of those walls.
This memory was brought about by a link from Cameron to the Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial A great way to interact with the wall and see the actual names if you aren’t able to see them in person. The ability to add photos and stories to each name is another great method of making it a very personal experience.
(Art is “Vietnam Reflections” by Lee Teter)
posted by
aaron
on Monday, Mar 31, 2008
Our recent launch of the Jesus Christ, The Son of God website was listed on a recent post of 50 of the Best Church Website Designs There are some great looking sites on the list.
posted by
aaron
on Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008
Jason Fried (from 37signals) suggests that you question your work
“These are questions we ask each other before, during, and sometimes after we work on something. That something can be as small as a couple-hour project or as big as something that takes a few weeks or more. Either way, it’s important to ask questions like this in order to make sure you’re doing work that matters.”
posted by
aaron
on Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008
The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger seen in Chris Mayfield’s bookshelf. I wasn’t even sure he could read, let alone write a book (Arnold… not Chris =)
posted by
aaron
on Thursday, Mar 13, 2008
Secrets of UX Design Productivity from Google Jake Knapp, a very well-spoken user interface designer, entertained a packed house with a speech on 17 tactics that he uses for creating strong UX work in “the flood” of projects that pour through his UX department from month to month.
posted by
aaron
on Thursday, Mar 06, 2008
Street View is now available in Salt Lake City. Time to go looking for fun local sites. Update: See other temples along the wasatch front.
posted by
aaron
on Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008
I love the new paper-clipped note that has been added to Backpack from 37signals. What a great way to bring the real world into the virtual world in a subtle yet appropriate way.
posted by
aaron
on Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I wasn’t listening to you”
Randy Hall as I was asking him opinion on something
posted by
aaron
on Monday, Feb 11, 2008
