July 08, 2004 | View Comments (48) | Category: Our Thoughts
Summary: Who has had the greatest influence on people for the first half of the year?
I am working on an entry that I will publish next week, but I need some input from all of you. When we think of influential designers in our community names such as Zeldman, Bowman, and Shea usually always come up. But for the first part of this year what bloggers have had the most influence on how you view things?
The influence of a designer/blogger can come for their designs or their writings. It makes no sense to be considered strongly influential if the blog is only updated once every month or something so that knocks out a few of the big names for me.
For example, arguably Boman might be considered a better designer than either Cameron or Andy (hey I said arguably), but I would say that those two have been more influential to the community for the first half of the year through their writings. And although they might be considered mildly popular I would venture they are far from the celebrity status of Zeldman, yet are still more influential.
See where I am getting at? So who are the big movers and shakers for the first half of 2004?
The peeps that run the Open Source project, Spam Assassin, have asked me how to best promote their contest so I told them I would post it here, the Vault, and FG. For a good cause and would look nice on anyone's portfolio so check it out.
Trackback URL: http://9rules.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/277
For me, Anne Van Kesteren has been pushing in some directions (more technical) and yourself and Keith have made me think more about IA and users.
Though they haven't been posting much, the redesigns at mezzoblue and stopdesign, and for that matter here, at simplebits and sidesh0w have been inspiring for the improvements that they have made. (Less help thru posting, more help thru actual implementation).
Combining posting and implementation help, Keith's 'designing the band website' thingy has been good fun and quite helpful.
Mike P. (http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com/sandbox/weblog/)
Cameron Moll, Andrei Heramsichuk (sp?), Eris Free.
The "big names" have been somewhat dormant these first 6 months. Most of their posts are either beyond my league (about various conferences, etc...) or about things that don't really concern me.
francey (http://www.francey.org)
Keith, Andy Clarke and Andrei have been my main influences as far as reading goes.
Andy Budd, Cameron Moll, Ryan Sims and Inman have been my main influences as far as visual style goes.
Michael Watts (http://www.amobea.com)
I would have to say that everyone collectively writing articles for A List Apart have had the greatest influence on me this year. A List Apart is one of those publications that I get all giddy about with every new article. High quality work, lots of insight. Every issue teaches me something new about working on the web, and each issue is thus incorporated into my future projects.
Yeah, I couldn't pick just one.
Chris Vincent (http://dris.dyndns.org:8080/)
I don't know about designers, as I very rarely delve into the portfolios of those bloggers I read regularly, so I can only really assess their design skills through their own blogs.
For me, bloggers fall into two camps - those who write well about design, and those who write well about life.
In the former camp - Bowman, Budd, Keith, Moll, Andrei, Mike P, Jon Hicks, Malarkey.
In the latter, and those that I enjoy reading rather than 'learning from' - Dunstan, Greg Storey, Ethan Marcotte.
In a league of its own - whitespace, for straddling both camps, covering so much more than design, and being updated a hell of a lot more frequently than most.
Matt (http://thewatchmakerproject.29digital.com/)
Daniel Bogan - hands down. His simple design along with his 'home made' backend are the major influences for me. He also has this weird yet deliteful sense of humour.
Last year it would have been Mr. Shea though.
Ian McFarlan
That's asterisk* Keith, not adactio Keith, just to clarify.
Matt (http://thewatchmakerproject.29digital.com/)
It goes without saying, Scrivs, that you are definitely an influencer. But you didn't write this post to get compliments so I'll move on.
As far as writing goes, Greg Storey and Keith Robinson keep the wheels rolling for me. Recently, I have really enjoyed Mike Davidson's blog.
From a design inspiration standpoint, the offerings by Cameron Moll and Andrei Herasimchuk have really helped me turn a design corner in my mind this year.
chuck (http://telerana.f2o.org)
Those that influence me and still do:
Jeremy Keith
Andy Budd
D. Keith Robinson
Those that I enjoy reading, whether it's technical or about life:
Scrivs
Dunstan
Sergio
Kitta
Robert Lofthouse (http://www.ghxdesign.com)
I'd have to go with Keith Robinson, Nathan Borror, Ethan Marcotte, Ryan Sims, and Jason Kottke (has anyone noticed just how search friendly Kottke's redesign is?)
SM Korzdorfer (http://www.bitsofdecay.com)
I wonder why nobody has mentioned Shaun Inman, his design just rocks and that IFR technique is the major damn thing happening in web design this year
sosa (http://www.nolimit-studio.com/yosoysosa)
It could be argued that every site that I subscribe to influences me on some level - hence the reason why I subscribe to it. All of them have their hi-lites and their ho-hum moments.
Rather than submit influences, here is a short list of specific posts from my "general" category which have affected me emotionally one way or another or provided me a moment of insight -
----------
- "Four Days Into" - Gilbert Lee
- "When Black is not Black" - Didier Hilhorst
- "Interface Design Tip: Find the Epicenter" - Jason Fried
- "Acts of Volition Radio" - Steven Garrity
- "My Wife Left Me" - Ben Reed Johnson
- "Senators you are wrong" - Don Schenck
- "Weve Got a Winner (Best Ever)" - Chris Tingom
- "Gmail - Fun While it Lasted" - Derek
- "A quick note to the man" - Dunstan Orchard
- "Jelly Beans" - Greg Storey
----------
There are more obviously, this is just from one category. I might post some more later.
Mark (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)
Shaun Inman gets my vote!
The guy who writes Whitespace is pretty good too ...
Rob Cameron (http://www.ridingtheclutch.com)
I would say Shea. I can see now that if your a designer, it's okay to have a horrible personal website - because you'll still get asked to speak on the subject of design.
Colin D. Devroe (http://theubergeeks.net/)
I don't agree about disqualifying people for only posting once or twice a month. How much you post is inversely relational to how busy you are and being busy on important projects does not make you less influential. Furthermore, I think we're going to see a *lot* more slowdown in blog updates now that bloggers can rely on RSS to notify readers of new material.
I personally have a bit of a problem with some people posting random shit every single day just to keep things fresh. If you don't have something interesting to say, then don't say it at all. Yes, I know, it's your blog so do what you want with it, but I really don't need to click over to your site from my newsreader just to hear about how you ate a bad hamburger the other day. If there is entertaining humor in that story, then ok, but ultimately audiences will judge you based on what percentage of your posts are relevant to them. Once that percentage creeps too low, you will be removed from their blogroll. I find myself deleting blogs every month or so based on this.
On the flipside, when someone like Zeldman or Bowman posts these days, I pretty much *know* it's important. I prefer the once-a-weekers as opposed to the twice-a-dayers because they exercise more restraint in being relevant.
That said, my dual vote goes to Shaun Inman and Zeldman the Jedi Master.
Mike D. (http://www.mikeindustries.com)
Another person who now influences me:
Mike Davidson
I didn't say that because he just posted before me, but because i've only noticed his work the past two days due to 1. His name being mentioned on eris meyers web site for the book writing opportunity and 2. His post with the link to his web site.
I shall be visiting your site more often Mike.
Robert Lofthouse (http://www.ghxdesign.com)
Well actually I do think the amount of postings you have reflects on how influential you be. Another part of it of course is the quality of those posts. As you mention Mike, someone who posts everyday *looks the other way* won't do anything for us if the posts do not have some meaning to them. Inversely, someone can have a really great post (Bowman), but if that comes only once every 2 months then that posts better be a hell of a lot more influential then the 10 posts that someone like Shea would get in that time.
That was more my point.
Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)
Sergio Villarreal and Dunstan Orchard have influenced me in both design and blogging this year and Mike Hudson, Ethan Marcotte and Andy Budd have all influenced me in design.
Kitta (http://kitta.net)
No designers have greatly influenced me. Most designers have influenced me a little bit. Steve Krug's book "Don't make me think" has been my biggest influence. Oh, I should mention Eric Meyer and Zeldman for CSS and Snowden? for styleswitching.
Peter (http://www.01010.org/)
The two kings of the web design world right now, IMNSHO, are Doug Bowman and Shaun Inman. They innovate, and are copied constantly. Look at Shaun or Doug's portfolio and tell me if you see anything there that isn't inspirational and amazing.
First half of 2004 was characterized by the major redesign of Blogger by Doug. I can't think of a redesign that has had so many people in the blog community saying all positive things about it, with almost no dissenting opinions.
Dave Shea redesigned, and some people ripped on him. Kottke redesigned, and some more peopled ripped on him. Then Shaun Inman redesigned and everyone heralded it as the CSS Messiah, took notes, and left praising comments. See a trend here?
Doug and Shaun (and some others) come out with a redesign, or a fresh commercial project, and leave everyone stunned. Everyone likes it. Everyone takes notice. It's as though they are playing on an entirely different level (to steal a quote from Scrivs).
I think what really separates those two from the rest of the pack is that they don't get bogged down in controversy. Andrei pisses some people off cause he tells it like it is, and holds no punches (not me, we need more bloggers like that), Shea upset some people with his comment coloring system that emphasized who was talking over what they had to say, Kottke et. al. tore down the Whitespace community when Kinja came out and Paul started asking "the wrong questions", etc. etc.
But you never see Doug or Shaun getting upset at people, calling others names, backtracking or stirring up controversy. The reason I look up to them is because they are true professionals — they do amazing work and don't sit on a high horse when they show you.
Kudos to them for being my favorite designers/bloggers for the beginning of 2004.
Mike (http://phark.typepad.com)
Yep, agreed Scrivs. The important thing for me is the amount of signal that gets through. This is affected by both the signal strength and the signal-to-noise ratio. Signal strength would be quality and amount of posts... signal-to-noise ratio would be ratio of relevant-to-irrelevant posts. If both readings are high, that's your most influential people right there. Short of that though, I'll take the infrequent quality poster over the posting maniac anyday.
Mike D. (http://www.mikeindustries.com)
Two people have had the largest amount of influence on me in recent months (weeks even): Andrei Herasimchuk and Dan Cederholm.
Andrei's incredible insight into design, whether it be print, web, or otherwise, garners him my praise.
Dan Cederholm's recent book, Web Standards Solutions, still sits next to my PowerBook after I read it cover-to-cover two weeks ago.
Honorable mention goes to Cameron Moll and Keith Robinson, both of whom have inspired me to keep coming up with cool, fresh ideas for projects.
Brian Rose (http://www.heimidal.net)
I also wanted to give a shout to ESPN Mike. I sent him a question through a feedback from on his old all-flash website regarding how to make it in this crazy design world of ours, and he took the time to write back to me and give me some great advice. Advice which I followed, and ended up landing me a job at a major design house in Chicago.
You're the man.
Mike (http://phark.typepad.com)
Thanks Mike. Glad everything has worked out so great! With regards to your comments about Doug and Shaun:
Yep, I agree. Anyone who reads my site knows that barely a post goes by without mentioning The Wolf. I think what you're talking about is a diplomatic quality which goes well beyond design. Dave Shea and Zeldman also exhibit this type of diplomacy even though they may do controversial things at times (like the mezzoblue redesign).
As for me, I'm plenty diplomatic in the workplace, but in the blogging world, I'm all about controversy. I cross boundaries and push limits whenever possible. If a blog is just an article filled with 50 congratulatory comments, what fun is that? Controversy breeds revolution.
Mike D. (http://www.mikeindustries.com)
Kottke et. al. tore down the Whitespace community when Kinja came out and Paul started asking "the wrong questions", etc. etc.
Ah, those were the days...:-)
Mike D.: Spot on. We are in total agreement. Hopefully I am the quality posting maniac though ;-)
Too many damn Mikes showing up.
Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)
<throws hat in for Shaun Inman>
For whatever reason I thought Shaun redesigned last year. Oops.
</ hat tossing>
Mike D. → I loved your old Flash site.
Mike P. (http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com/sandbox/weblog/)
Hang on a minute, I thought Mike worked for Business Logs lol.
Do you guys still hold down other jobs while you're waiting for Business Logs to get going or something? That's always confused me.
Robert Lofthouse (http://www.ghxdesign.com)
Hey Robert, I'm Mike Rundle (aka, "Mike" in all comments on all weblogs... not many web designers are named Mike I guess and I'm pretty sure I was the first one to comment by only using the name "Mike"). Now for the second question :)
Right now I'm a Usability Engineer for the Department of Defense down here in D.C., but when September rolls around I'll be heading back to NY to finish my undergraduate degree. All the guys at B-Logs have "full-time" jobs *cough, Scrivs, cough* but we're all crossing our fingers that the biz takes off and we can't escape the corporate (or gov't) world at some point.
Mike "The Original Weblog Comment Poster" Rundle (http://www.businesslogs.com/)
Haha, I have a fulltime job like Mike has...hell nevermind.
I am the sole B-Logs man without the fulltime gig. Yet I seem to be the happiest :-)
Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)
For me, it would have to be:
Ryan Brill, Shaun Inman, Cameron Moll, Dave Shea, and Paul Scrivens...and Verlee, I would add!
Zach Blume (http://www.subsilvernet.com)
Question: Does anyone think web design will ever produce the celebrity-master of the craft? Will there ever be a the web design equivalent of Josef Muller-Brockmann or Neville Brody or Paula Scher? Does it matter? The current web community is truly amazing in its inter-connectedness and philosophy of sharing, but it also seems very self-contained, and this post proves it with a small group of the same names being listed over and over. Zeldman seems to be the closest thing to a widely know "celebrity" figure (and deservedly so), but I doubt many print designers or architects have ever heard of him. Is it because the internet is so new? The range of skills so wide? Or is it because web design has an element of socialism to it? Perhaps web design is the people's design discipline and we work for the greater good, not the awards and accolades.
Any thoughts?
Geoffrey (http://www.lookatlao.com)
You're only as good as your last controversy.
I don't care if it's a mike, keith or samuel that has something new and/or inspiring to bring to the table. I would say that I love the table, because the persons sitting in front of it can change in an instant. My goal is to sit there, even only for a week.
A big shoutout to the community!
[m] (http://mantaworks.nl)
"I would venture they (Cameron and me) are far from the celebrity status of Zeldman..."
You would, would you Scrivs? Well I'll have you know that among our local sheep population here in Wales, I am bloody famous... and the girl at the petrol station knows my name too! (OK, so it's written on my Visa card...)
Infact, when I come to think of it, they even have my picture on the wall down at our local nick (police station), so I must be some kind of celebrity! So "PAH!" to you.
;)
Malarkey (http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk)
Well, I guess I stand corrected. But I could've sworn I met celebrity as famous and not infamous. Hmph, oh well. Crazy sheep.
Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)
With out shadow of a doubt it has to be Andy Clarke for me! The work done with the form fields was pure genius, and the DL article was another thought provoker.
James Stevens
As a programmer, rather than a designer, most of my influencers are those who describe programmatic issues. That said, the following blogs are those that I never miss a post on (in no particular order):
Do I need to mention whitespace? :-)
Ouch, that's quite a big list. I should have just pointed you to my blogroll! :-)
Jonathan Hollin (http://blog.urbanmainframe.com/)
Actually, as the question is about most influential, as in people who actually try and succeed in giving the world an insight into idea's of theirs,
I'd have to go with Shaun Inman (although he seems to develop lot's of solutions that only get out into the world after someone asks for a solution on a blog he reads)
and
Douglas Bowman and Dave Shea (he can implement or point to a (css) technique and a few weeks later *all* redesigned incorporate it).
But those are just the people with the most sheep following (not counting Kottke), the peeps who make you think on the web are, in my mind, Scrivs and Andrei Herasimchuk, as their posts often spark insightful debates. Also, they're not affraid to join in the debate. This really helps enormously to the community feel that these sites create.
Eris still holds the best non-standard* designed site, and Scrivs the best lay-outed one, as all elements of whitespace are pretty much optimaly placed and spaced out*2.
*1: when I say non-standard I'm not relating to any code, just uncommon placement of elements. By contrast, Dave S has everything placed in the most common spot, and Scrivs is somewhere in the middle.
*2: Except the preview page Scriv, it seems rather broken.
AkaXakA (http://www.AkaXakA.tk/)
Sorry about that, I keep on forgetting people use the preview page. I will get that fixed up tonight.
Scrivs (http://businesslogs.com)
That's so much better Scrivs! Looks excelent now, but if I scroll to the right, I see this error to the right of the menu bar:
MT::App::Comments=HASH(0x810ac68) Use of uninitialized value in sprintf at lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 1187
Apart from that it looks solid.
AkaXakA (http://www.AkaXakA.tk/)
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#1
For all i'm concerned, it was that guy from whitespace ;-). Last year it was Zeldman for me, but he aint posting that much no more.
Hayo (http://www.hayobethlehem.nl/)