Mar 22 2007 at 10:38am
The Secret to SEO, Design Methods + more (link roundup)
The Secret to Ranking at the Search Engines (it’s not what you think) – at SEOmoz
In the old days, webmasters would compromise content and usability to fit in more keywords and better “optimize” their sites (see the first diagram in that aritlce). Now we are looking at compromising our content and usability to better target linkers and therefore search results. Is this a good thing??? (Check the long comment by “identity” towards the bottom). I have seen some sites that are obviously attempting to cater to the digg crowd and, to be honest, I find it really annoying.
But really, it’s not just about catering to the Digg crowd. Rand has a few follow-up posts in the series that explain what he means by “linkerati” (anyone who can link!), how to appeal to them, and that every site is link-worthy.
Energy-efficient web design – via Lighter Footstep
Energy-efficient web design takes advantage of the fact that computer monitors require more power to generate lighter/brighter colours. Mark Ontkush of the EcoIron blog and Jon Doucette generated the the Emergy-C low-wattage palette based on the EnergyStar wattage ratings for different colors.
The Monitor Energy Information site also mentions that “the use of dark screen savers can mitigate bright backgrounds, reducing monitor power up to 20%”.
Design process and inspiration – at the Design Observer
When I do a design project, I begin by listening carefully to you as you talk about your problem and read whatever background material I can find that relates to the issues you face. If you’re lucky, I have also accidentally acquired some firsthand experience with your situation. Somewhere along the way an idea for the design pops into my head from out of the blue. I can’t really explain that part; it’s like magic.
This is quite similar to the way I go about designing sites - on a good day, that is. Sometimes the ideas don’t come, or the actual creation doesn’t turn out anything like the mental picture. When I designed this site I had a very specific idea in mind. It happened to turn out just like the picture this time 
When topics like this come up I’m always reminded of an interview I saw with Michael Jackson quite a few years ago. The interviewer was asking him about his songwriting process. Paraphrased:
Interviewer: When you write a song, like, say, Billie Jean, where does that come from?
MJ: From above.
I think this is the definition of talent. Where does it come from? How do you do it? It’s a gift. Or remember that scene in Good Will Hunting when he’s talking about how he can do all that hard math? And he brings up Mozart – when you sat him down in front of a piano, he could just play.
I don’t consider myself to have a huge amount of creative talent. I do okay. I always liked art when I was younger, but I was never able to go beyond immitation. I have a lot of admiration for people who have that strong creative talent. Once in awhile I’ll get that hit of inspiration and a strong mental picture for a design. That’s what happened with this site.
Just for fun: Improbable Research
Reporting on things such as non-biological hair and an automatic squirrel ejecting bird feeder. They also have their own version of the Nobel Prize, rewarding research on topics such as why, when you bend dry spaghetti, it often breaks into more than two pieces and that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.
In 2003, Lal Bihari won their Peace Nobel for leading an active life while legally dead, waging a posthumous campaign against “bureaucratic inertia and greedy relatives”, and for creating the Association of Dead People. Or how about one for the Linux fans out there: In 2005 Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow and Jozsef Gal won the prize for fluid dynamics for using basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin, as detailed in their report “Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh — Calculations on Avian Defaecation.”
