Doing Words

Font Viewer – myFontbook.com

// November 9th, 2009 // 0 Comments // Reviews

Sometimes we all want to use a new font. Apple gives me a free Font Book app in OS X but it frustrates me because I can’t just flip through a book of type samples — it makes me click on each font name before I get to see a sample of type. Grrr.

myFontbook.com lets me flip through a library of fonts and see type samples just as I’d like to do in Font Book. It’s cool because it loads fast and looks just like an app running in OS X, not at all like like a browser-based app it is. And it’s slightly spooky because it’s not just displaying a generic library of fonts — it’s displaying the fonts I have installed on my Mac. Learning how it does that will probably make my simple brain hurt so let’s not go there; instead lets just wonder at the magic that allows it to happen.

It works with all modern browsers (that does not include you, IE6.x users) and only seems to have rendering problems with some condensed versions of some font families.

myFontbook.com is free and you don’t even need to register (though if you do it’ll remember your font library and the collections and tags you add to manage them.)

I particularly like that it will display a few columns of body type in 8, 10 and 12pt sizes. It’ll even print out a nicely-formatted proof sheet.

Once again, I am a font of all knowledge.

iPhone apps that help me mock Blackberry users

// November 17th, 2008 // 0 Comments // Mobile, Reviews, software

Me at WebJam, fiddling with my iPhone when I should be paying attention

So far I haven’t written much about iPhone apps, considering they’ve changed my life, and all. They help me get more productive, stay organised, record thoughts, check directions, split bills, mock Blackberry users and fill in the many interstitial moments of nothingness in my day that I should really spend focusing on remaining in the present, observing my ahamkara… rather than fiddling with my iPhone. Ah well.  

Today all that changes (iPhone apps continue to change my life, but today I write about some of them.)

I’m promped to get recommending because Kate over at The Zeitgeists has a good short list of iPhone apps she finds helpful and fun, but like many Web 2.0 dreamers, she has an aversion to paying for things, even good things. So while she’s got some good apps on her list, she’s really missing some of the cream of the crop.

So, after the click, here’s some iPhone app recommendations from me: (more…)

Spellrus.com redesign feedback

// November 8th, 2008 // 0 Comments // Reviews, Startup

Here’s a surprise: I hate spelling mistakes. But correct spelling is nothing without appropriate grammar, and good grammar won’t save you if you’re not writing or designing well. To see what I mean, let’s zoom in on some of the details of this redesign mockup for web spelling startup, Spellrus.com.

Kudos to the Spellrus team for putting an early stage redesign mockup up on their blog and asking for feedback from visitors. It takes courage and commitment to customer relationships and makes us users feel like part of the team.

Spell.rus redesign: could it be too free?

But it’s a shame that a spelling startup has itself a prominent grammar problem – the two different meanings of “free.” In this case I’d recommend removing both instances of “free” from the homepage because neither is as good as it could be.

Instead of “Free trial” consider something like, “Find the spelling errors on your site free!” (since that is the benefit of the offer). Don’t say “Free your site from spelling errors” because nobody’s looking for ‘freedom from spelling errors’ (or if they are, I haven’t seen the bumper sticker.)

Over-using “free” on a homepage makes you look a little desperate and cheap. Making it all upper case and adding exclamation marks everywhere heightens that impression.

Finally, consider moving the video tutorial to a ‘learn more’ section of the site. Casual visitors can skim and glean what they need from 4-5 bullet points and a few screendumps more quickly than they can from a 2-3min video.

Remember you have <10 secs to attract and retain a new visitor’s interest. The right time to use a video walk-thru is when the visitor is looking for more detail, especially for more detail on how the interface works. When they’re still making up their mind about committing 2-3mins to your product, hit them with punchy, brief bullets.