Jenifer Hanen – A Minimalist’s Guide to the Mobile Web – BDConf, April 2012 from Breaking Development on Vimeo.
Thurs 08.30.12 – The nice folks at Breaking Development have published the video with slides from my presentation at BDConf April 2012 in Orlando.
If you say to yourself “I must know more about designing and developing for the mobile web and beyond the desktop”, then get yourself on down to the Breaking Development Dallas coming up in a few weeks – September 24-26, 2012!
Mon 04.16.12 – Here are the slides from my presentation on “A Minimalist’s Guide to the Mobile Web” from Breaking Development Orlando.
Here is the official description of the talk for the BDConf website: “Designing and developing for mobile devices can be overwhelming in the sheer amount of factors to consider. Questions of where get started or how to retool for fast and lovely mobile sites can send one screaming for the supposed safety of Webkit before running and hiding under an iOS rock. But such fear and trembling is unnecessary and we can go forth in confidence with the minimalist’s guide on data sipping as a legitimate lifestyle, serving responsive images, how to strip that code, and do I really need all this Javascript?”
A video the presentation will be available soon on the BDConf Vimeo channel.
If you are a mobile or web design and/or developer who really would love to attend a great one track, intimate conference on the mobile web, Breaking Development Dallas will held in September 2012.
Due to being deep in my second “Blackout” period of the year whilst working away on a web app, I have no interesting thoughts or photos for you all today. But I do have a few tidbits:
1) Magnus the Pom-huahua (or Chi-meranian) came over to visit and have a play date with Scruffy today. A few notes on Magnus:
a) Magnus dropped off a few fleas and shared them with Scruffy. The fleas bit and then jumped off Scruffy due to his Frontline protection, but now Scruff has a bunch of inflamed flea bites on his tummy. I need to call the vet to ask what to do about this when we are only two weeks since his last Frontline application (minimum time between Frontline applications = one month, maximum = 2 months).
b) Magnus is as bad as Belle about letting me work. He repeatedly climbed on me and my computer trying to get attention.
2) I have made a To Do List breakthrough… The highly detailed list with over 32 points on it that I made a few weeks ago… Well, I checked off the final undone activity today when I washed my apartment’s curtains. They are now very clean and slightly wrinkled.
Do I seem like the sort of human to own an iron? No, the iron is loaned out right now. Do I seem like the sort of human to iron my curtains when they come out of the dryer?
((She runs for the hills, screaming…))
3) I have entered, as mentioned above, my 2nd “Blackout” period of the year. This is where I sweep out all distractions and work on an a web application for two weeks. Day one is going very well so far. Am excited. Since my last Blackout in late March, I have been able to piece together a lot of code bits, IA and UI bits, as well as the large picture structure, and am as a result, I am prepped, ready and very excited.
My goal is to have the app to Alpha Testing phase by Saturday. I think I can do it. Why Saturday? Well, I am speaking Saturday night at an Art / Music / Writing / Web Salon and it will be the perfect time to recruit testers. An Art Web App needs Artists to test it, right? Right.
Impetus. Determination. I promise I will not try to procrastinate with housework, as I have got 95% of it done*, well, except bleaching the bathroom ceiling**.
4) After struggling most of last year with trying to realize my application ideas in Ruby on Rails or PHP, I have tossed both to the winds and am now developing in Django and am MUCH happier. PHP is too messy for my minimalist streak. Ruby on Rails really is oriented for the programmer to do web developement, but Django is a lovely framework for web designers to get into development with. With no apologies, I will say that I am having a lot of fun with Django only a few struggles. Yeah.
******
* This past weekend, Erika very kindly helped me completely rearrange all the furniture in my living room & bedroom, except my corner cabinet, bed and 3 bookcases. We did all of this so I wouldn’t be distracted this week.
** This is my favorite inside joke, as when I was writing my Master’s thesis, I got so stressed out that I stood on the toilet to bleach my bathroom ceiling and thus broke the toilet and dripped bleach on to me. When the repair guy came, he did not believe the truth whatsoever , but thought I was up to some sort of naughty on the toilet. No naughty, just serious out of control procrastination – totally different.
ArtLex defines Horror Vacui as:
The compulsion to make marks in every space. Horror vacui is indicated by a crowded design. In Latin, it is literally, “fear of empty space” or “fear of emptiness.”
My mom has refigerator horror vacui. Every nook and cranny must be filled, even if the condiment or leftover is 4 years old. When I was a teenager, the only time leftovers would leave the family frig is when I would eject them into the trashcan before they evolved into sapient beings.
As an adult, I love a minimalist refigerator. Other than a few condiments, an onion or carrot or apple or two, I like to buy my food as I am going to cook it. I generally don’t keep leftovers past a day or two or three.
Whenever my mom comes to visit for longer than a day or two, the items in my frige multiply. And multiply and multiply, until one can’t get anything in. Last night Lauren and I looked in the refrigerator with horror as it was overflowing with food we didn’t recognize: a whole cooked chicken, fruit salad in a bag, a large container or milk (both of us are lactose intolerant), a case of beer, etc. etc. etc.
Here is the thing: my mom won’t be back to collect the food when she leaves to go home tomorrow. She will leave it. She will take Freckles and his dog accroutrements, she will take her clothes and towels, but she will leave the chicken, the milk, the beer, etc. whether we will eat it or not. These items will join the whey protein shake, the 2 or 3 jars of olives, the pickles, and other items she left last time or the time before.
She will leave happy, knowing that my refigerator is full.
