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Alan Houser

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  • December 18, 12:29 PM

    24 Frames Per Second

    Download 24 Frames Per Second

    1. Northwestern Girls » Say Hi
    2. Zero » Yeah Yeah Yeahs
    3. Your Ex-Lover is Dead » Stars
    4. All for the Best » Thom Yorke
    5. Be Here Now » Ray LaMontagne
    6. Xavia » The Submarines
    7. Social Currency » Children Collide
    8. Peacetime Resistance » Kings of Convenience
    9. On Glaze » Department of Eagles
    10. The Light Pours Out of Me » Magazine
    11. The Last One » Cary Brothers
    12. Tripoli » Pinback
    13. Primitive Man » Fruit Bats
    14. In the Sun » Joseph Arthur
    15. Sweet Disposition » The Temper Trap
    16. Kelly » Van She
    17. Photobooth » Friendly Fires
    18. Hold Time » M. Ward
    19. Battery In Your Leg » Blur
    20. All I Need » Mat Kearney
    21. Counterpoint » Delphic
    22. Banshee Beat » Animal Collective
    23. Droned (In Love Version) » Starflyer 59
    24. Re: Stacks » Bon Iver

Posts

  • March 09, 02:24 PM

    The Sign-up Form: Soundcloud got it right

    I've always wondered if users ask "why do I need to re-type my password?"

    Soundcloud keeps it simple for humans. Nice job!

  • March 08, 02:13 PM

    Adobe Flash Catalyst for Advanced Wireframes

    Adobe Flash Catalyst is currently in its second beta, and I thought I would try it out.

    The product is designed to be used between design and development teams, if your end product is Flash. I don't work in Flash, and know very few Flash developers to try, so why would I bother using Catalyst?

    As a UI Designer, I work with many front-end and back-end developers. I will often create wireframes depicting page interactions, and will move-on to specify a higher-fidelity design. I've found that one of the more-difficult things to communicate are interactions or animations with moving parts. It's sometimes too late after a component is built to say "no, it should move like this".

    After a few hours of playing with Adobe Flash Catalyst, I can say that it’s not as fast for rapid prototyping (as Fireworks or iPlotz) but once you learn the basics, it is fast for showing page interactions, and even animations within those interactions.

    Here's a teeny, quick example I built. (on a parked domain)

    To Summarize, I'm trying to use Catalyst to better-communicate to developers and clients, by showing advanced interactions on a wireframe.

     

    Exporting
    I thought I would use the exported SWF file within a Confluence wiki, but considering there are so many linked files, it looks like the exported files should be installed on a traditional hosted environment. I may even consider running interaction demos locally, while connecting to clients via WebEx/Skype.

    You can also export a complete, installable AIR application, which is way-more portable.

    Try it out!

  • March 03, 10:44 AM

    A Winner Emerges

    For the past few weeks I've been running a Twitter contest, asking designers to tell the world why they love design.

    There were some incredible entries, but I'm particularly-fond of this one:

    I cannot agree more. Design is not art or necessarily making something pretty. While art is partly made from designDesign should be though of as SOLVING PROBLEMS. And when solving those problems, I get a high from it as well.

    I don't consider myself a "blogger" or a writer, so I'll point you to a great article on the topic. Joshua Porter is known for his controversial "Design is (sort-of) not Art" stance. Design is Not Art, Redux (bokardo.com)

    So congrats Dani Kelley! @accidentalArt | accidental-artist.com

    Subscribe to this journal's RSS and friend me on Twitter so you won't miss the next contest!

  • March 01, 02:58 PM

    CreativeXpert: "Web Content Strategy" - the Kristina Halvorson interview

    Our next episode of CreativeXpert Design Interviews is now live.

    43 Kristina Halvorson {43} Content Strategy by CreativeXpert Design Interviews

    This week on the show, we had the great opportunity to talk about Web Content Strategy with Brain Traffic's founder, Kristina Halvorson, one of the leading practitioners in the web content world.

    Listen to the show now!

  • February 22, 11:12 AM

    CreativeXpert - Back in the 2010

    That's right, you heard it here first— CreativeXpert Design Interviews is swinging back into action with more design interview awesomeness.

    Our first stop will be an interview with guest Kristina Halvorson, Design Strategist/CEO/Founder of Brain Traffic.

    We're recording with Kristina this week (2/25), so if you have any questions for the show, send them through the CreativeXpert form, or call and leave us a message at: 317-57-CREATE (we'll play your message on the show).

    Be sure to subscribe to CreativeXpert in your iTunes machine, and follow @CreativeXpert on the twitternets.

    Until next time, Keep Creatin' Stuff!

  • February 18, 08:59 PM

    Win the I Heart Design Pack

    It's the first Creative Component giveaway, and you'll love it.

    You can win 4 design books, a 4-pack of Monster Energy Drink and a 3-pack of Field Notes. The only thing better, would be to include a pack of bacon, but shipping may be an issue.

    Here's how to win:

    You must tweet to the world why you love design. That's it.

    Tweet all you want — I'll be looking for my favorites. Just include this block of text in your tweet:

    I'm a winner. #iheartdesign http://bit.ly/hrtdsgn

    No strings attached! Except for design cheer, I have nothing to sell here. All I want in exchange is more traffic and more Twitter followers. The winner will be announced March 1st on Twitter, so be sure to follow @alanhouser.

    Win Four Design Books

    Win Monster Drink

    Win Field Notes

    The four books include Front End Drupal (Konstantin Kafer, Emma Hogbin), CSS The Definitive Guide - Third Edition (Eric A. Meyer), Design Accessible Web Sites: 36 Keys to Creating Content for All Audiences and Platforms (Jeremy Sydik), CSS Web Site Design Hands on Training CD-ROM included with 60+ Step-by-Step Tutorials (Eric A. Meyer).

    Your choice of one Field Notes Brand "Three-Pack" of notebooks in graph, ruled, plain or mixed. While supplies last. (details)

  • February 14, 12:07 AM

    Photos: How to capture a snowflake

    We've had several mornings in a row where there was a dense fog. When the fog freezes on everything, it sometimes forms what amounts to snowflakes. When the breeze hits the trees, it starts to "snow".

    I was lucky-enough to be outside with my DSLR + 200mm zoom lens. When selecting "sports" mode (auto-focus), I basically followed individual snowflakes as they flew through the air. I shot over 200 of these shots until I could no-longer feel my fingers. 

    Enjoy the set (featured in Distractions)

  • February 08, 04:35 PM

    I'm working on a new product brand

    I'm really excited about this project, and hope to reveal it to the world soon.
    Here's a hint: it's really, really fun.

    For now, here's a glimpse of the logo progress...

  • February 03, 10:36 PM

    FontStruct

    Lately I've been playing with various pixel-fonts, and I landed on FontStruct, where you can build custom pixel fonts right in your browser. You can play a little but here, but click-on through to the site and sign-up for a free account. If you've ever wanted to create your own typeface, then you'll dig it.

  • January 19, 09:36 PM

    Using Posterous for Images and Video in Tweetie 2

    I want to show you how to use Posterous to handle all of your Twitter media. The biggest benefit is, you can now customize and apply your own branding to Posterous, so why wouldn’t you use it?

    Currently, my posterous is only used for twitter media, but it's certainly capable of doing much more.

    I read a little information about this on the Posterous site, and scoured the web for information on integrating Posterous within Tweetie 2. Besides the hundreds of successful tweets of people testing, I couldn't find how to do it, so after I figured it out, I thought I would give-back.

    Why use Posterous combined with Tweetie 2?

    1. If you’re like me, you’re a little tired of all the ugly apps out there that deal with our Twitter videos and images. There’s yfrog, twitpic, tweetphoto, Mobypicture, Twitgoo, and more. There are way too many ugly apps who are making money from their ugly ads.

    2. 140+ characters. No more "Twitlonger" garbage. If you like to ramble-on, then at-least take comfort that the reader will land on your own site.

    Now, as far as Twitter apps for iPhone, of-course there’s only one: TWEETIE 2.

    View the tutorial below. It's cake, so let's do this.

    My styled Posterous blog is here: http://alanhouser.posterous.com

    You'll want to follow me on Twitter

Posts

Posts

in a nutshell
i'm a designer and podcaster who lives in a barn.


outside a nutshell
I'm the honcho behind Creative Component, an Indianapolis-based design studio. There, you can view some of the sites I've designed, read a few design-related posts, or silly updates from The Lighter Side.

I produce CreativeXpert Design Interviews and listen to lots of music, take occasional photos and Tweet way too much.

// contact me

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