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I guest-edit .net magazine

Web 2.1. Zeldman guest-edits .net magazine.

A List Apart and .net magazine have long admired each other. So when .net editor Dan Oliver did me the great honor of asking if I wished to guest edit an issue, I saluted smartly. The result is now arriving in subscriber post boxes and will soon flood Her Majesty’s newsstands.

In .net magazine Issue No. 206, on sale 17th August in UK (and next month in the US, where it goes by the name “Practical Web Design”), we examine how new standards like CSS3 and HTML5, new devices like iPhone and Droid, and maturing UX disciplines like content strategy are converging to create new opportunities for web designers and the web users we serve:

  • Exult as Luke Wroblewski shows how the explosive growth of mobile lets us stop bowing to committees and refocus on features customers need.
  • Marvel as Ethan Marcotte explains how fluid grids, flexible images, and CSS3 media queries help us create precise yet context-sensitive layouts that change to fit the device and screen on which they’re viewed.
  • Delight as Kristina Halvorson tells how to achieve better design through coherent content wrangling.
  • Thrill as Andy Hume shows how to sell wary clients on cutting-edge design methods never before possible.
  • Geek out as Tim Van Damme shows how progressive enhancement and CSS3 make for sexy experiences in today’s most capable browsers—and damned fine experiences in those that are less web-standards-savvy.

You can also read my article, which asks the musical question:

Cheap, complex devices such as the iPhone and the Droid have come along at precisely the moment when HTML5, CSS3 and web fonts are ready for action; when standards-based web development is no longer relegated to the fringe; and when web designers, no longer content to merely decorate screens, are crafting provocative, multi-platform experiences. Is this the dawn of a newer, more mature, more ubiquitous web?

Today’s web is about interacting with your users wherever they are, whenever they have a minute to spare. New code and new ideas for a new time are what the new issue of .net magazine captures. There has never been a better time to create websites. Enjoy!


Photo by Daniel Byrne for .net magazine. All rights reserved.

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Design Apps for Fun and Profit

Josh, Williams, CEO of Gowalla. Photo: Keegan Jones.

Update! Episode 14 is now available for your listening and viewing pleasure at 5by5.tv.

Josh Williams, founder of Gowalla, is our guest at 1:00 PM ET today, July 29, in Episode 14 of The Big Web Show. Whether you’re a social media user/creator, an entrepreneur, an application developer, an iconist or illustrator, a freelancer with big dreams, an API wizard, a devotee of marketing 2.0, a web designer, a Gowalla fan, or what, you won’t want to miss this episode.

The Big Web Show is taped in front of a live internet audience, and you can be part of it. Join co-host Dan Benjamin and me at 1:00 PM ET today to participate in the live taping of Episode 14.

If you miss the live taping, you can watch the show on our website or via iTunes later tonight.

The Big Web Show (“Everything Web That Matters”) is taped live in front of an internet audience every Thursday at 1:00 PM ET on live.5by5.tv. Edited episodes can be watched afterwards (often within hours of taping) via iTunes (audio feed | video feed) and the web.


Photo: Keegan Jones.

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Episode 13: Voices That Matter

Editor Michael Nolan walks writer Aarron Walter through the fine points. Photo: Ari Stiles.

Editor Michael Nolan walks writer Aarron Walter through the fine points. Photo: Ari Stiles.

All our Big Web Show interviews are personal to me and feature people who make a difference in our community, but this week’s guest is especially special. Michael J. Nolan (@mikaln) is the acquisitions editor who “discovered” me, and who has brought to light (or should I say brought to print) more web leaders with distinctive voices and visions than just about anyone out there.

Michael works as a senior editor for Pearson’s New Riders and Peachpit imprints, focusing on web design and development. His first book in the genre, David Siegel’s Creating Killer Websites, was a mega success and jump-started discussion on how to design the web. It was followed by a long list of books from a Who’s Who of digerati, including Jeffrey Veen, Clement Mok, Richard Saul Wurman, Derek Powazek, Jesse James Garrett, Christina Wodtke, Dan Cederholm, Garr Reynolds, Joshua Porter, Dan Brown, Kristina Halvorson, Marty Neumeier, and Jeffrey Zeldman (that’s me!).

Michael is proud of the positive impact books these Voices That Matter have had on the medium, which he sees as humankind’s best last chance to survive and prosper. I’m proud to know Michael and to be his friend.

As always, Big Web Show co-host Dan Benjamin will join me for this special hour of insights into how publishing really works, where it’s going, and how it will survive—plus, I hope, plenty of stories about your favorite authors and designers, and tips on how to identify talent for those who are hiring, and how present yourself as a talented and desirable catch for those who are trying to boost their visibility and career prospects.

Please join us this Thursday, July 22, at 1:00 PM Eastern for the live taping of Episode 13.

The Big Web Show (“Everything Web That Matters”) is taped live in front of an internet audience every Thursday at 1:00 PM ET on live.5by5.tv. Edited episodes can be watched afterwards (often within hours of taping) via iTunes (audio feed | video feed) and the web.

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Episode 12: Web Conferences

Andy McMillan of Build conference.

Thursday 15 July 2010 at 1:00 PM ET, Dan Benjamin and I will try to find out what makes web design conferences tick by interviewing the founders of two of the best. During the live taping of Episode 12 of The Big Web Show, the weekly podcast on everything web that matters, our guests will be Andy McMillan, founder of Build, an annual “hand-crafted web design conference” located in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and CSS godfather Eric Meyer, co-founder of An Event Apart, the design conference for people who make websites.

Andy (@goodonpaper) is a six foot tall ape descendant who enjoys working on the internet, organizing @buildconf (a small, yet perfectly formed, design conference taking place this November in Belfast, Northern Ireland), cowering in @corebelfast, and drinking tea.

Eric (@meyerweb) needs no introduction to readers of this website, but we’ll provide one anyway: He has worked with the web since late 1993 and is an internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Eric coordinated the authoring and creation of the W3C’s CSS Test Suite, and in 1998–1999 was a member of the WaSP CSS Samurai, an elite team within The Web Standards Project that helped the engineers at Opera and Microsoft improve the CSS support in their browsers.

Eric co-founded the css-discuss mailing list, and has written numerous historically important books on web design, including Eric Meyer on CSS (New Riders), Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide (O’Reilly & Associates), and CSS2.0 Programmer’s Reference (Osborne/McGraw-Hill).

The Big Web Show is taped live in front of an internet audience every Thursday at 1:00 PM ET on live.5by5.tv. Edited episodes can be watched afterwards (often within hours of taping) via iTunes (audio feed | video feed) and the web.

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37signals Acclaim Announcements Appearances Applications apps Authoring Best practices better-know-a-speaker business Chicago client services Code Coudal Partners Design ethics HTML Ideas industry interface Interviews Journalism at its Finest Press Products Publications Publishing Respect Ruby on Rails Small Business State of the Web The Big Web Show The Essentials The Profession User Experience

37signals’ Jason Fried live today on The Big Web Show

I have known 37signals CEO Jason Fried since he was a young copywriter who reminded me of me, only smarter and more confident. Like many of you, with a mixture of awe and pleasure, I have watched him change our industry, along with book publishing and business generally. Dan Benjamin and I are delighted to announce the mercurial Mr Fried as our guest on The Big Web Show. Join us today, 1 July 2010, for the live taping at 1:00 PM ET.

Jason’s official bio is brief, but he can write at length when he wishes: see Rework, Getting Real, and Defensive Web Design, each a classic, and to each of which he was principal co-writer and guiding force. Besides saying no to meetings, contracts, and VC money, Jason and 37signals are famous for godfathering a speedy, iterative form of web application design; for gifting the industry with Ruby on Rails; for creating a suite of beloved (yes, really) business productivity web apps; for mastering and then abandoning client services in favor of making stuff; for somehow, in the midst of all that busyness, churning out tons of fine content on their popular blog; and for being roommates with the equally fantastic Coudal Partners.

Can’t wait to interview Jason Fried in front of a live internet audience today. Hope you’ll join us.

The Big Web Show is taped live in front of an internet audience every Thursday at 1:00 PM ET on live.5by5.tv. Edited episodes can be watched afterwards (often within hours of taping) via iTunes (audio feed | video feed) and the web.

Photo © John Morrison – Subism.com

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Episode 9: Web Standards

Today at 1:00 PM EDT, join Dan Benjamin and me live as we interview designer, developer, author, lecturer, and bon vivant Ethan Marcotte (bio | blog | Twitter) for Episode 9 of The Big Web Show.

Ethan is the author of an upcoming A Book Apart treatise on responsive web design; my co-author on Designing With Web Standards 3rd Edition; and the co-author with Dan Cederholm of Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design.

Join us for a lively discussion as we talk about designing and coding for the likes of the Sundance Film Festival and New York Magazine, and the joys of responsive web design, working remotely, and swearing profusely on Twitter. We may even get Ethan’s take on Microsoft’s dazzling new IE9.

As always, watch and participate in the live broadcast by tuning to live.5by5.tv at the appointed time.

A few hours after the taping, the permanent, edited video and audio podcast will be available for your bliss at 5by5.tv/bigwebshow/9 and via the iTunes Store (iTunes audio feed | iTunes video feed).

The Big Web Show is a weekly video podcast on Everything Web That Matters, co-hosted by 5×5 network founder Dan Benjamin and yours truly.

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Big Web Show Roundup

The Big Web Show

The Big Web Show is a weekly video podcast on Everything Web That Matters, co-hosted by 5×5 network founder Dan Benjamin and yours truly. Here’s a roundup of recent shows:

  • In Episode 2: HTML5, Dan and I talk with Jeremy Keith, designer, writer, featured An Event Apart speaker, and author of HTML5 for Web Designers. We discuss the goals and inspiration behind the book, as well as what HTML5 means for both web creators and those who consume the web, covering topics that range from structure to accessibility and implementation.
  • Melissa Pierce’s new film, “Life in Perpetual Beta,” asks the question, “is the planned life worth living?” and sketches an answer via interviews with the likes of Baratunde Thuston, Irina Slutsky, and Twitter’s Biz Stone. In Episode 3: Re-invent Yourself, Dan and I interview Melissa about the unplanned life, Facebook privacy, and using the internet to re-invent yourself.
  • In Episode 4: Content Strategy, Dan and I get down to cases with Kristina Halvorson, CEO, Brain Traffic and author, Content Strategy for the Web (New Riders, 2010), and Erin Kissane, content strategist with Happy Cog, and author of Incisive.nu.
  • In Episode 5: Web Education, we talk with special guest Liz Danzico, author of Bobulate, and chairperson of the MFA in Interaction Design program at New York’s School of Visual Arts. They discuss web and interaction design education, user experience design, how to structure a program and teach a class, acquiring and editing content, and much more.
  • In Episode 6: Mobile First, Dan and I chat with leading interaction designer Luke Wroblewski about designing for the mobile space, and learn why the mobile experience for a web application or site should be designed before the PC version.
  • In Episode 7: Usability Testing, we schmooze larger-than-life user experience design guru Jared Spool about usability testing in the real world. Jared is the founder of User Interface Engineering, the largest usability research organization of its kind in the world, and has been working in the field of usability and design since 1978, before the term “usability” was ever associated with computers.
  • Most recently, in Episode 8: User Experience Design, Dan and I talk with Happy Cog’s senior UX designer Whitney Hess about social networking, getting clients, and user experience design—from research to wireframes to testing and beyond.

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Whitney Hess, Ethan Marcotte, and Jason Fried on The Big Web Show

Update! Episode 8, featuring Whitney Hess, is now available for your listening and viewing pleasure at 5by5.tv.

Whitney Hess

This Thursday 17 June at 1:00 PM EDT, join Dan Benjamin and me live on The Big Web Show as we interview Whitney Hess (bio | blog | Twitter) on on the ins and outs of user experience design—from research to wireframes to testing and beyond. Just what goes into making stuff online easier and more pleasurable to use? What kinds of projects (and clients) enable great user experiences, and which have bad UI written all over them? If a tree falls in the forest, will Whitney tweet about it? Join us for these topics and more.

24 June: Ethan Marcotte

Then on Thursday 24 June at 1:00 PM EDT, join us live as we interview Ethan Marcotte (bio | blog | Twitter), co-author of Designing With Web Standards 3rd Edition with me and Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design with Dan Cederholm. We’ll talk about designing and coding for the likes of the Sundance Film Festival and New York Magazine, and the joys of responsive web design, working remotely, and swearing profusely on Twitter.

1 July: Jason Fried

And then on Thursday, 1 July, join us as we coax 37signals CEO Jason Fried (tiny bio | book | book | book | blog | Twitter) into telling us how he really feels about bells and whistles, contracts, meetings, buzzwords, software that requires training, and startups that need investors. The controversial Mr Fried is a true rebel and innovator and one of our favorite people on the internet. Tune in and find out why.

Turn on, Tune in

The Big Web Show is taped live in front of an internet audience Thursdays at live.5by5.tv and can be watched afterwards via iTunes (audio feed | video feed) and the web.


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podcasts The Big Web Show The Profession Usability User Experience UX

Episode 7: Jared Spool

The Big Web Show Episode 7, featuring usability guru Jared Spool.

Episode 7 of The Big Web Show is now online for your listening and viewing pleasure. In this most excellent episode, co-host Dan Benjamin and I talk with special guest Jared Spool about usability testing in the real world, with practical advice for designers, UI engineers, and developers alike.

Jared Spool is the founder of User Interface Engineering, the largest usability research organization of its kind in the world. He’s been working in the field of usability and design since 1978, before the term “usability” was ever associated with computers.

The Big Web Show features special guests and topics like the future of publishing, art direction online, content strategy, web fonts and typography, CMS shootouts, HTML5 and CSS3, building an audience, and more.

Watch on our website or via iTunes. If you like the show, review it on iTunes or become a member of the 5by5 network.


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Episode 6: Mobile First

Designer Luke Wroblewski.

Update! Final audio and video are now available for your listening and viewing pleasure at 5by5.tv.

This Thursday, June 3, 2010, at 1:00 PM EDT, join Dan Benjamin and me for the taping of The Big Web Show Episode Six, as we chat with leading interaction designer Luke Wroblewski about designing for the mobile space, and learn why the mobile experience for a web application or site should be designed before the PC version.

Designing for 700 million people

Luke Wroblewski is an internationally recognized digital product design leader who has designed or contributed to software used by more than 700 million people worldwide. He is the author of Web Form Design (“That rare book capable of transforming the way an entire field does its business.”—Communication Arts) and Functioning Form, and an extremely popular speaker at leading web design conferences. After long stints as Chief Design Architect at Yahoo! and Lead User Interface Designer of eBay Inc.’s platform team, he is currently Chief Design Officer and co-founder of a stealth start-up.

Watch, Listen, Participate

Participate in the live taping by sharing your questions for Luke via chatroom or phone.

Soon after taping, video and audio versions of the Episode 6 podcast will be posted in the iTunes store and on our website and announced here and via Twitter. (The complete schedule of 5by5 podcasts is available for your pleasure.)

The Big Web Show

5by5 is an Internet broadcasting network, home to podcasts like The Pipeline, The Big Web Show, The Conversation, The Dev Show, and more, with over 120,000 downloads per week. The Big Web Show features special guests and topics like the future of publishing, art direction online, content strategy, web fonts and typography, CMS shootouts, HTML5 and CSS3, building an audience, and more. Previous episodes are available for your listening and viewing pleasure.


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Web Education on Big Web Show


Update! Final audio and video are now available for your listening and viewing pleasure at 5by5.tv.

Liz Danzico (@bobulate), author of Bobulate, and chairperson of the MFA in Interaction Design program at New York’s School of Visual Arts, is today’s guest on The Big Web Show.

Join co-host Dan Benjamin, Liz, and me live at 1:00 PM EDT today as we discuss web and interaction design education, user experience design, how to structure a program and teach a class, acquiring and editing content, and much more. Watch the live program at live.5by5.tv. Your call-in and chatroom questions and comments are welcome.

After the live “taping,” the show will be edited and posted in video and audio podcast form, available from 5by5.tv and the iTunes store. (Audio on iTunes | Video on iTunes)

Liz Danzico is an independent consultant, and user experience consultant for Happy Cog Studios. She is a columnist for Interactions Magazine, former editor of Boxes and Arrows, former director of experience strategy for AIGA, and former IA director at Barnes & Noble. She directed product development at Daylife and Rodale Digital, and before co-founding the MFA in Interaction Design program with Steven Heller, she taught at the New School University, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Columbia University.

Join us for a very special interview today on The Big Web Show.


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BWS4: Content Strategy

The final cut of The Big Web Show “Episode 4: Content Strategy,” recorded in front of a live internet audience earlier today, is now online for your viewing pleasure.

Hosted, as always, by Dan Benjamin and me, this episode features Kristina Halvorson, CEO, Brain Traffic and author, Content Strategy for the Web (New Riders, 2010); and Erin Kissane, content strategist, Happy Cog, and author, Incisive.nu. It’s 60 minutes of insights to die for! Brainpower like you’ve never! Don’t miss it.


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The Big Web Show

Episode 3 forever

Melissa Pierce, filmmaker, on The Big Web Show.

The Big Web Show Episode 3, featuring the delightful Melissa Pierce on using the internet to reinvent yourself, is now available for your viewing and listening pleasure.

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The Big Web Show: Melissa Pierce

Melissa Pierce

Photo: Steve Garfield / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Update! Final audio and video are now available for your listening and viewing pleasure at 5by5.tv. This is a wonderful episode about filmmaking and using the internet to reinvent yourself. Don’t miss it.

Live tomorrow, Thursday May 13, at 1:00 PM Eastern, my co-host Dan Benjamin and I interview Melissa Pierce, producer of the documentary film, Life In Perpetual Beta in The Big Web Show Episode 3: “Re-invent Yourself.”

Melissa Pierce’s film asks the question, “is the planned life worth living?” and sketches an answer via interviews with the likes of Baratunde Thuston, Irina Slutsky, and Biz Stone. Watch us turn the tables on the interviewer (now our interviewee) to find out how a homemaker with no filmmaking experience became the darling of the Chicago Independent Film Festival. As always, your live phone-in questions are welcome.

And don’t miss these upcoming Big Web Show episodes:

Episode 4: “Content Strategy”

Thursday, May 20
1:00 PM Eastern

Featuring Kristina Halvorson, CEO, Brain Traffic and author, Content Strategy for the Web (New Riders, 2010); and Erin Kissane, content strategist, Happy Cog, and author, Incisive.nu.

Episode 5: “UX and Higher Ed”

Thursday, May 27
1:00 PM Eastern

Featuring Liz Danzico, chair, MFA in Interaction Design program at School of Visual Arts and author, Bobulate.


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Dan Benjamin HTML5 Ideas industry Interviews podcasts The Big Web Show Zeldman

Big Web Show Today

The Big Web Show

Live today at 1:00 PM Eastern, watch Jeremy Keith, author of HTML5 For Web Designers, discuss markup and other matters with Dan Benjamin and me on The Big Web Show. Your live calls are welcome.

  1. The Big Web Show
  2. Episode 1: Web Fonts
  3. HTML5 For Web Designers
  4. Jeremy Keith