You have left me deflated, hurting, and burnt out. I am disenchanted with you!

But as I have done many times before its time to begin the courting period again. Its time to remember why I had this affection in the first place. Its time to go back to the beginning of things and start over. Its time to walk those roads that bonded us in the first place. So, lets begin!

I am an engineer! It means I examine things, extensively. It means I continually analyze a problem or situation and systematically break them down into smaller problems or situations. I do this so that the big problems can be solved by simpler and smaller means. I have to admit I like it. I like beating a topic, problem, or issue into submission by examining it until by sheer will I can out think the issue at hand, and thus nullify its occurrence.

However, there exists a force in the universe that does not appreciate this. This force is a mile wide and an inch deep. Its nature is to be superficial. Its desire is not to gaze upon any issue or problem for to long because the reality of the details might slow it down. I am at odds with this force. But, it would seem in fact that I am engaged in a relationship with it. It might be better said that there exists a balance between us. I do however question its validity. I question not its function, but its amount. I question the value of these amounts when it comes to being reckless, unrealistic, and blinding. In fact, I hate it and need it as much as it hates and needs me. Because without it I would likely never find a new problem.

All that is left to say is, it sucks, but I can see that it has some value. Its not much in comparison to my own, but then again without it could I be an engineer at all?

One venti cappuccino, extra wet. Pump the Led Zeppelin and I’m off. Thats how I’ve been rolling these days. Up at 5:30am, work until 6:30pm. If I am lucky I get to eat lunch, train for a half ironman, and possibly use the restroom.

Somewhere in between all this I attempt to be a good father and husband. But its not easy. And lately adversity has been my companion. Which, I love and hate. I hate the struggles but I love the reward. I enter the ring, I give it a go, and then win or lose I’ve learned something. I’m better. If there be any reason that god allows us to endure this world, it must be so that we can better ourselves. But first we have to risk, we have to enter the ring, and resolve to swing like hell, win or lose. So, today I say bring it. I have my cappuccino and I’m ready. Are you! Are you!

A while back I did some page weight research on homepages. I thought someone else might find this data interesting.

Top U.S. sites 2007:

• amazon – 518k, 112 http
• aol – 235k, 56 http
• cnn – 656k, 144 http
• ebay – 143k , 53 http
• google – 10k, 2 http
• msn – 205k, 56 http
• myspace – 131k, 40 http
• wikipedia – 131k, 17 http
• yahoo – 219k, 39 http
• youtube – 248k, 51 http

Top U.S. retailer sites (based on 2006 results):

• amazon – 518k, 112 http
• staples – 293k, 45 http
• office depot – 155k, 53 http
• dell – 277k, 44 http
• hewlett packard – 289k, 57 http
• officeMax – 405k, 72 http
• Sears – 147k, 56 http
• CDW – 266k, 63 http
• SonyStyle – 591k, 48 http
• Newegg – 359k, 102 http

Outdoor Companies:

• patagonia – 506k, 75 http
• marmot – 137k, 23 http
• mountain hardwear – 180k, 20 http
• arcteryx – 229k 97 http
• columbia – 246k, 28 http
• llbean – 267k, 41 http

Outdoor online retailers:

• backcoutnry – 467k, 69 http
• mgear – 419k, 68 http
• rei – 122k, 35 http
• moosejaw – 422k, 48 http
• summithut – 202k, 12 http
• paragonsports – 207k, 38 http
• travelcountry – 186k, 54 http
• altrec – 391k, 79 http
• usoutdoorstore – 252k, 66 http
• rockcreek – 290k, 59 http

Based on your opinion of the users intent when using a pagination interface, which do you prefer, option 1 or option 2?

After several months of random development, and a bit of help from a few friends, javascriptant.com is live. Please leave any feedback concerning the site here.

  If you want to create successful user experiences through web interfaces hire engineers that understand, care about, and nurture interaction design.  

 -  me

I find it very interesting that jQuery has four published books in the works from real publishing companies. Actually, one is already published. This could be interpreted a lot of ways. Regardless, good or bad, one thing is for sure the masses love jQuery! And the suits are backing this notion by hedging a bet that someone will buy these books.

Lets see how the others stack up.

Prototype = 1 book
EXT = 0 books
YUI = 0 books
Mootools = 0 books
Dojo = 0 books

Whats up with this?

For the record, I don't consider myself an interaction designer. My day is mostly spent working with CSS, (X)HTML, JavaScript, and ActionScript. Because of this, I consider myself a client-side engineer. However, I'm often questioned about, or simply stuck with, the responsibilities of an interaction designer. Over the years, these situations have fostered the knowledge and hands-on experiences that most professional interaction designers should have.

Real, hands-on experience is difficult to come by, but knowledge is not. Knowledge is just out there, waiting for you to take it. And the fact is that the knowledge needed by most interaction designers is freely available to anyone with an Internet connection and the ability to read. If you have a few bucks or a library card, you can even read books on the topic. To be fair, this hasn't always been the case; applying the proven HCI and UI design methodologies of software development to the web has been a slow process. But I'm here to report that that time is over. Between the online resources and the amount of books being written on the topic today, an interaction designer designing for the web simply has no excuse for not being knowledgeable about what they do.