Finding quality in layers

If we try to define quality we will use many different parameters to make it measurable. These parameters differ from subject to subject. This makes it almost impossible to compare quality of a movie versus a book, even if they have the same story. But the medium does not simply allow us to say that one is better than the other, we mostly use our gut feeling to judge this. Although subjectivity is a big part of quality we still want to make it measurable, making it more objective.

We tend to measure quality to very specific parameters that apply to a medium or subject. This does not allow us to compare two different pieces. Even comparing a comedy movie with a action movie becomes really hard. But is there a universal way to measure quality?

I think there is!

color in design 101

Color is a big part of our life. Color influences our emotions, it tells us things about our surroundings and it is often seen as a form of beauty. A well colored plate of food will taste better with nice colors. The food on your left will look tasty even if you might not like the taste of it. How come?

Imagine getting a place of French fries in front of you but instead of golden brown the fries are light blue. Would you eat it?

Graphic design is not really different from food design. Color is important to give the viewers a proper impression and the right message.

Web-forms: a first look

Getting users to fill in a field to give you their information is hard. Even when it is to do something the user would like to have it always seems to be a break-off point in the process. A user want to respond to a blog post but he needs to fill in a name and an email. It is more likely that the user will leave the form and not comment at all then fill in the form. Things like external account integration (facebook login), asynchronous  forms (javascript and ajax) and natural forms are a way to solve this. Web-forms are as much a science as they are an art. Nuances can make or break a good web-form so let’s give the science of web-forms a better look!

What will our next laptop need?

I’ve been thinking about getting a new laptop for a while now. The only thing holding me back is actually finding what I want… I’m a “traveling” web developer and designer and I work a lot at flex workspaces. When I get there I try to get a hold of an extra monitor and I’m ready to go. Everything I need should be in my bag… WRONG. I’m finding things I could really use on a daily basis.

I do have a lot of ideas how a new generation of laptops could look like. is it possible? maybe…

CBAC: The Rails Barrier

Today I created the ALPHA stying for CBAC (Context Based Access Control). CBAC is a security gem for Ruby on Rails and adds an extra abstraction layer to the well known RBAC (Role Based Access Control). With CBAC you can add context based security to your Rails app in just a few simple steps. I’m proud to be the first to blog about this new security system for rails!