Clear January

A Very Busy Year

2008-01-12T10:23:00.000Z

First of all I must apologize for not updating this blog in a while. There's been three reasons mainly. My wife and I, this year, have been very busy. We've sold our flat, our first rung on the property ladder in favour of buying our first house. It's a lovely Victorian terrace which is about 100 years old. It's lovely owning a period property in such a historic town but over the 100 years or so that this house has been standing it's accrued it's own set of problems. So, my first reason for not updating the blog in a while is that I've been busy nursing our geriatric house.

My second reason for not updating the blog in a while is that my wife and I weren't husband and wife until November 17th 2007 so the past year has been busy preparing and organising everything for that day. Photos will be coming soon but there's just so many to get through that it's taking us ages to find the time to go through them in the first place to decide which ones to use and which to leave on the DVDs but we're getting there. For that very reason the wedding blog that I set up has suffered as well as I never knew just how much stuff there was to organise. Now, however, I'm a fully fledged wedding planner though Nu (my wife) and her mum did most of the work! When the photos are online I'll update this post with the location of the photos.

The last reason is more of a consequence of the last two but is worth noting. Because of the house move and wedding I decided not to accept anymore work as I was already up to my eyes in Skill Swap Shop work from the wedding. Now, however, it's a new year and with the house move and wedding behind me I'm ready and raring to go with new work. So, my last reason for not updating the blog is that I've not been doing any work. For more information about me and my work and what I can do for you, please have a look through Clear January and get in touch with me with your requirements so we can talk them through.

Hindi Classes (Slough)

2007-06-30T14:35:00.000Z

Clear January have just finished work on a project with a very short deadline. In just over a week I designed and built the HinidiClasses.co.uk website for the Hindu Cultural Society (Slough).

The Hindu Cultural Society (Slough) wanted a website to promote their work in teaching Hindi in the area as well as other centres up and down the country they are affiliated with through the Hindi Samiti. The secondary aim of the site was to be scalable in the future to allow it be potentially become a website that would cover the needs of all the Hindi teaching centres all over the country.

The process worked really smoothly with the client creating all all the content in advance, Clear Jauary creating wireframes/scamps from that content and then I moved into Photoshop so get my thoughts from my head and onto a blank starting document. From there I moved into Dreamweaver to cut the design up using standards compliant, valid XHTML and CSS . Just like a project should go.

Visit HinidiClasses.co.uk.

The London Olympics 2012 Logo

2007-06-05T12:39:00.000Z

Although I dislike the logo, they keep banging on about it not necessarily being a logo, but more of a brand. A brand is always more than the sum of what you can see in the logo and as Sir Sebastian Coe says it's trying to engage with the youth of the country and London. In that respect I think that it's trying too hard in that it's very obvious looking at it that those shapes and colours are in fashion with the youth of the moment. In five years time those people attracted to that style will no doubt be the same people repulsed by it's then uncool colour palette and silly sharp edges.

Who's to say that they know this will happen and as either a get out clause or an acceptance of the fact, they have said openly that the logo will evolve almost saying we're trying to get today's youth on side so that they can evangelise the youth to come that being involved in the this project is a good thing. So in that respect it's a very clever idea/brand to have developed.

Remember as well that the people in charge of this project, the client, are people that would have wanted a say in what the logo looked like and what it stood for and we all know that the client isn't always right. The project took a year. That wouldn't have all been development and thought process time, that would have been meetings, meetings, meetings, everyone having their say and in the end the concept that Wolf Olins may have come up with could well be now so diluted that it's ended up being as obvious as it is now.

The problem is that they've not explained why and where they've come from to get to the design they've put together so people are taking and making their own opinions of it with regards to the immediate youth/cultural climate. Instead the spokespeople have merely tried to defend the logo showing that they don't know what's going on with it either. There should almost have been a separate microsite devoted to the logo and the brand so that they could convey the message of what it's all about through interaction, video, interviews, funky design and a good user experience. With that people wouldn't have to make their own minds up, they could simply be told what to think. That would have solved this whole issue and if there's one thing the government like to do it's tell us what to think, but that's another story (blog entry).

A quick jolly over to Wolf Olins' website shows they don't want to tell people what it's about/don't know what it's about/or are just damn creative if you don't understand it then you don't deserve to look at it anyway.

So, what do I make of it? I don't like it visually but if I'm right about it then I like the concept/brand. I just think it could have been executed better as a project. I just feel a little sorry for the guys at Wolf Olins if they don't appreciate paradies because they're going to be coming thick and fast.

Back Online

2007-02-06T09:24:00.000Z

Today sees Clear January back online after a couple of days of up and down hosting problems as I've moved it over to a better supported server a little closer to home as well. It's now in the capable hands of Alchemy Systems and is being managed by my good friend Chris of Cold In England.

Cheers guys!

The iPhone and User Interfaces

2007-01-10T09:00:00.000Z

What Apple acheived with the iPod's UI was brilliant; a UI that had never been seen before. The iPod didn't do anything it didn't need to and it did it with just 4 physical controls. These controls were multi-purpose and intuative. Lists were managed via the scroll wheel, selection by the central click button, getting back to the menu through the menu button and going backwards a step through the back button. Simple, elegant, thoughtful design giving the feeling that the software was designed before the UI of the physical device - the best way. The iPhone takes these same principles along with Apple's wonderful OS design skills and the result is one of almost perfect flow.

Keep it Simple!

The idea is the same as the guys over at 37Signals preach (and I'm a massive fan of as well) - the idea that less is more and instead of thinking about what more you can add to an interface, you should be thinking what more can I take out. Where this line blurs is with the iPhone. You could argue that the iPhone doesn't need to play MP3s, take pictures or browse the net but as with most things the youth of the world are showing us the way the world should (and is) going. The 13-18 bracket is an Internet generation that requires more than just a mobile phone with silly ringtones, they want video, social networking, texting, music and a good camera!

So people are more and more wanting all their media in one place. Gone are the days of people having numerous remote controls for their electrical products, they want one remote that does everything. The idea with media is the same. In a world where time is ever more money consumers are demanding things faster and all in one place and with pretty much everyone accessing the Internet everyday now taking the capabilities of your PC/MAC away with you when you leave your desk is becoming a massive requirement.

Use The Flow Luke...

So where does this leave the state of the UI of the iPhone? The flow between the different tasks a user can perform on the device is as flow should be smooth and seemless. How does it acheive this? Navigation? Animation? Easy access to key areas? Well, all of those things really; the navigation altough traditional in appearance means that all mobile phone users will understand how to use it straight away and new users (of which you're not going to get many buying this product) will be able to pick it up with a couple of minutes playing time.

Apple have designed the interface to give a feeling that you're not performing different tasks - you're just communicating. This is the key to the flow. When you pick up the iPhone you're presented with the usual navigation options SMS, Calendar, photos etc with the device types at the bottom of the huge screen. From there you can launch off to take a picture, play a song, check your calendar or call a friend and when you're done, the only physical button, the "home" button brings you back to the root navigational page.

Apple, the brand

I can't say it's genius because it's like all great design, it's just common sense. I say common sense because it's designed like something should be; simple and elegant. If I was to sum up the Apple brand I'd use the same two words but that's a whole new post that I'll save for next time.

Addactive.net

2006-12-30T11:45:00.001Z

Addactive.net is a brand new community based website for people with an active lifestyle.

As people that enjoy getting out there and getting fit and being people that love the Internet and it's communities and knowing that there was nothing out there that fitted our needs Cold In England and Clear January teamed up with another partner to create a community that enabled people to interact with each other on all sports and activity based subjects.

Addactive.net will allow users to join for free, find clubs and groups to befriend and become members of both online and offline. For example, if John wants to get involved in martial arts but has no idea where to start or what type he wants to do he can search Addactive.net for martial arts clubs in his local area that he might want to try out. From there he came talk to the clubs and find out more about them before making a fool out of himself on his first day. Or if Jenny is finding it hard to train on her own or wants to add the social aspect to going to the gym then she can search Addactive.net for people that go to her gym and start chatting online with them before meeting up and helping each other train offline.

Currently, Addactive.net is still being built but if you're interested in learning more then drop your email address (do tick the "a friend told me about Addactive" checkbox and add mark@clearjanuary.com so we know where you came from) in the form over at the Addactive.net pre-register page and check out the Official Addactive.net Blog to learn more about how we're getting along building it.

Christmas and The New Year

2006-12-30T11:26:00.000Z

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to everyone!

Well, despite it being Christmas and being on holiday from my day job I've been hard at work making sure everything is ready to hit the ground running in the new year. Coming soon will be the first installment of Nu and I's Skill Swap Shop in the form of a new website for photographer Paul Caudell. Nu will soon be out meeting and greeting the people that matter, the local community aiming to make them aware of us and us aware of them!

Business aside I've had a brilliant Christmas. We've been doing all the usual things like seeing each other's family, eating far too much, drinking far too much and enjoying our presents, which in my case was a xBox360 Premium Pack and a subscription to DotNet magasine!

I think I've managed to put on a fair few pounds over Christmas and seeing as the years are ticking by now the new year holds the classic fitness regime that I was accustomed to a couple of years back before finally knocking it on the head in favour of more socialable hours because those early morning gym sessions are a killer. But, I'm a very determined fellow and once I have something in my sights I'll go hell for leather to try and get it and this time that means fitness so I'll be back on my wonderful online personal trainer and racking up the scores in now time. Let's just hope that I've still got the time with all these new projects I'm looking to take on next year as well.

Well, I'd better get off and enjoy the rest of my well earned holiday because Nu and I are heading off for a mad night of dancing up at The Shepards Bush Empire for Extreme Euphoria on Sunday (New Years Eve) and we're going to need all the sleep we can get for that so enjoy yourselves whatever you get up to and be safe.

Skill Swap Shop

2006-11-26T19:14:00.000Z

Sunday morning, tired and with lots of housework to do I sat down to get out Nu (my girlfriend/business partner) and I's new venture Skill Swap Shop up and running. The key to this project was to be the word flashy so surprise surprise I did it all in Flash. The idea behind the project is to pay for our wedding a different way as we realised that we don’t have a lot of money but we do have years of experience in our chosen fields.

As the new website says, I'm a digital designer of 7 years. I specialise in creating user friendly, accessible websites that not only look great, they feel great to use as well. Over the years I've created loads of CD-ROMs, animations, presentations, banners, rolling demos, static websites and ecommerce solutions. Anything digital - I can do and do well. I've worked with clients such as O2, Honda, Tefal, Carlsberg, HSBC, The Royal of Scotland, Reed, Johnson & Johnson, Centrica, Honeywell, Regus and Marriott.

Nu is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, helping a number of areas. If you're an excellent photographer who wants more confidence in stressful situations, or you have a child about to go through their GCSE's who needs help with focus, revision and concentration, hypnotherapy is an excellent tool. There are many more area's that hypnotherapy can help with and if there's a specific issue you'd like to discuss then Nu would be happy to speak to you in person.

So if you might have something to offer us in exchange for our services, or even if you don't but would still like to get a new website or hypnotherapy session, then please get in touch.

Brand New Website

2006-10-13T09:49:00.000Z

Welcome to Clear January!

Clear January is the design and build studio of Mark Caudell, a freelance web designer specialising in user friendly, attractive and accessible websites. Together with Cold In England we create web solutions and applications for all walks of life from blue chip through to SMEs.