Ben Dunkle

Blog

  • Futura vs. Verdana

    OK all you typography snobs out there, up in arms over Ikea’s recent switch to Verdana (google ikea verdana), ask yourselves: If you had one store to shop for all of your furniture, what would it be? Ikea, right.
    If you had one font to use on everything you designed, what would it be? Well, you basically have to choose a web-safe, sans-serif font to maximize utility, so here are your choices:
    Arial
    Tahoma
    Verdana
    Trebuchet MS
    Lucida

    Personally, I’da gone with Lucida, but Verdana’s as good as any.

  • Stop using px as a measurement

    The size of a pixel is relative to its output device, aka screen resolution.

    Some screens are 72 dpi. Some are 300 dpi. So if you specify your font size to be 12px, it should rightly appear legible on the 72 dpi screen, and tiny on the 300 dpi screen.

    Instead, use point, or pt. A point is 1/72 of an inch. 12pt will appear legible on any screen, regardless of its dpi.

  • Depeche Mode

    Always been one of my favorite bands, but their songs are hit or miss. Actually, the segments of their songs are like that. At times they can blow me away with Gahan’s vocals and the layers beneath, and then lose me with a shift into something that’s just not right.

    E.g.:

    http://youtu.be/XfG8O_Fq_vg?t=1m34s

    The chorus there is as good as anything DM has done, but the rest of the song is just eh. Still, I’ll take it.

  • CodeKit fan art

    CodeKit fan art

    I really like CodeKit, but the icons leave a bit to be desires. So I fixed it up.

    codekit icons

  • Lichess Patron Icon

    Lichess Patron Icon

    I probably am on lichess.org more than any other single website, mostly losing chess games. It’s an absolutely perfect example of the best open-source software can be.

    As an open-source project, the developers do not charge for membership. It’s totally free. There’s something extraordinarily humane and selfless about open-source, especially when it rises to the usage levels that Lichess and others (Linux, Blender, WordPress, e.g.,) have achieved.

    Alternatively, closed-source projects usually offer a free membership, but include motetization strategies such as ads that only go away, or features that can only be accessed if you purchase a membership.

    That’s not to say they don’t need money, but almost all of the revenue open-source make comes from donations.

    One of the interesting ways Lichess monetizes is via the “patron” badge. If you donate at least $5, you get a little wingy icon next to your username:

    That’s it–instead of a boring little circle, now you have a bit of “flair” that distinguishes you as someone who supports the hard work it takes to make an open-source project great. It’s a brilliant strategy to encourage donations. But I have to wonder, is it a feature? In other words, does paying for Lichess actually improve your chess skills and help you win more often? Does it help your rating improve?

    I think this would be a great study. Lichess has a monumental open data set. One could conceivably analyse the data and determine that become a member does, in fact, make you a stronger player. At the very least, it would make you a stronger player on Lichess.

    Symbolism and iconography have a powerful effect on us. They form our communication methodology and influence our decisions. When you play someone with a wingy badge, you may feel empathy toward them, and thus not play with your typical competitive drive. Or you may feel intimidation, or some other form of distraction that might throw you off your game, even if it’s just the tiniest bit. Placing the Lichess dataset under a microscope might reveal patterns that show that patreons are not only being supportive, they’re being tactical.

    Here’s my hypothesis: becoming a Lichess patron makes you a better player. Time to get the abstract written.

  • Operating System developers should stick to developing operating systems.

    Apple and Microsoft make some of the most popular OS’s in the world: iOS, macOS, and Windows.

    As software goes, that’s about it. Everything else they force down the users’ throats is pure garbage. I’m talking about iTunes, Mail, MS Office, Photo software, and the list goes on.

    I honestly don’t know why this is. Google Docs is so superior to Office in every possible way. Gmail absolutely blows Apple’s Mail off the planet. iTunes is so confused about what its purpose is, so filled with layers of disconnected functionality, but it’s stuck on us users because that’s just how it is. I don’t know.

    I do know that on my Macbook, Mail and iTunes and Photos are always opening unexpectedly, for a variety of reasons, none of which make much sense. It’s a shame that I can’t just make them go away completely.

  • A standard for user interface icon design

    A standard for user interface icon design

    Editing this article to discuss general icon design standards, which I believe are needed. Icons should down-rez gracefully to small sizes, with vertical and horizontal edges aligning to the pixel grid at sizes as small as 9 pixels. A 3×3 sub grid should be adhered to when designing icons.

    [codepen_embed height=”265″ theme_id=”1″ slug_hash=”EvqZQZ” default_tab=”html,result” user=”empireoflight”]See the Pen <a href=’https://codepen.io/empireoflight/pen/EvqZQZ/’>base-8 grid icons</a> by Ben Dunkle (<a href=’https://codepen.io/empireoflight’>@empireoflight</a>) on <a href=’https://codepen.io’>CodePen</a>.[/codepen_embed]

    As you can see in the last icon, the 3×3 subgrid isn’t honored and some edges get blurry: