"The mad road, lonely, leading around the bend into the openings of space towards the horizon Wasatch snows promised us in the vision of the West, spine heights at the world's end, coast of blue Pacific starry night---nobone halfbanana moons sloping in the tangled night sky, the torments of great formations in the mist, the huddled invisible insect in the car racing onwards, illuminate." - Jack Kerouac, "Visions of Cody"Reid Stott has maintained a fascinating web site for years at Photodude.com. His weblog is one of those rich and rewarding pages packed to the edges with ideas, insights, opinions and a photo diary. But the real riches are to be found off the main page in Stotts' selection of his own photography around various themes. Chief among these are his hymns to one of the central myths of America: The Road Trip.
The image above is from his 8-day Red Rock Road Trip. By itself, it is an iconic image of all those roads that connect to all the other roads that let Americans travel at will, without internal passports, across the vast land sea that lies between the coasts. Taking a journey through Stotts' images, from the Grand Canyon to Monument Valley, won't be the same as doing it yourself, but perhaps it will inspire you to do the same the next time the open road calls.
Until then, if you see an image that moves you, and you will, think about dropping by Stotts' online store and ordering an archival print.
Posted by Vanderleun at September 1, 2003 08:03 AM | TrackBackIf an application is designed well, the reward for users is that they will learn it faster, accomplish their daily tasks more easily, and have fewer questions for the help desk. As a developer of a well-designed application, your returns on that investment are more upgrade revenue, reduced tech support, better reviews, less documentation, and higher customer satisfaction. The rewards of building a good-looking Aqua application are worth taking the extra time.
Posted by: Cuthbert at January 13, 2004 09:15 AMBy building an application that takes advantage of Aqua's many facets, you help ensure that your application will not only look good, but have a chance of becoming a raging success. After a new user clicks on the icon of your program, the first thing he or she sees is the application interface. I know that when I review a product, I am very critical of its visual design. I usually have a short time to learn the new software, so design and ease of use are very important. Aside from those who marvel at the beauty of the command line, most users tend to react the same way.
Posted by: Wymond at January 13, 2004 09:15 AMHelp! Did you include help tags in your applications? (I'd be lost without them.) Also, be sure to take extra time to develop your other help files. The Apple Help Viewer supports HTML, QuickTime, and also AppleScript. Take advantage of it! There isn't anything I hate more than going to the Help menu and finding there isn't any help.
Posted by: Reginald at January 13, 2004 09:16 AMYou Must Promise. To call your mother, to help old ladies cross the road, and to turn your cell phone off at the movies.
Posted by: Joan at January 13, 2004 09:17 AMFor example, if you see an AIM window peeking out from behind your browser and you click on it, that window will come to the front, but the main application window will not. The Mail.app/Activity Viewer is another example. The Aqua system of layers works well in many instances, but not in all. Thank goodness that the Dock is always there to come to the rescue. I know that clicking on an application icon in the Dock will always result in not only the application coming to the front, but also any non-minimized windows associated with it. And if the application is active but no windows are open, clicking on the Dock icon should create a new window in that application.
Posted by: Cecily at January 13, 2004 09:19 AM