Metro.net Before

Metro.net After (Beta Redesign)

I’ve been really interested in the new beta redesign for LA’s transit system, metro.net. I never thought the design was terrible, but it did take me some time to find what I was looking for before I had it memorized. The new design is seems pretty minor, but there are some important differences.

• All the random tidbits toward the bottom of the page to find frequently needed content (i.e. Maps, timetables, rider info, etc.) are not longer graphically presented. Instead, the top tabs have a nice little menu system with each section’s contents broken down.
• Service updates now live on the homepage, presenting which lines are currently affected. Before, there was a link which then would take you to a listing of service updates. Less clicks and also, more urgency attached to the alerts.
• A typographic improvement to the Trip Planner.
• Popular pages listing, which is useful for riders who use the site for specific information again and again.
• Nifty icons for E-mail Alerts, the RSS feed, and Twitter at the upper-right hand corner. I think some of the other social media icons could have gone there as well.
• A news section (”The Source” blog) with post titles and summaries on the lower half of the page. The JavaScript tabbed content system (one of my favorite scripts for displaying large amounts of content) here is used throughout the site for other pages.

• Awesome illustrations are used throughout the site, and very strategically on the Projects & Programs pages to draw interest to the projects and programs that the public may not know about.
• Neat semi-new areas (some existed before, but were not easy to find unless you were looking for them) like the photo gallery.

In other words, I very much approve. One of my favorite features is the Developer website. I think it’s part of a general movement by the different branches of government, led by the awesome Obama web team, to embrace web accessibility and social media (will be doing a piece on the awesome resource Usability.gov soon, though I’m not a huge fan of the type treatment).

I am so happy to have a post about a good design change. It’s been quite a while. The LA Times launched a website redesign back in August, and I’m happy to say it’s looking good. For a short period of time, I will say, they had some issues with their ads not displaying properly, but they seem to be resolved.

First off, I love the use of the masthead. Before, they had totally separate branding for their website than they use for their newspaper. I’d always wanted their site to look more like the New York Times site and it finally does. Some have complained about the poor design of the NY Times site, but I think it’s just because they’ve outgrown their layout, both in terms of online ads, as well as new sections and how to navigate to them. All in all, I think the NY Times should move in a similar direction for their homepage, as it’s gotten messy over the last couple years. But I digress. The LA Times has a clean header– love the date and time at the top, which makes the whole thing really feel like a newspaper. The tabbed navigation system is really quite lovely and easy to use.

I like the simplicity of each featured section on the homepage, whether it’s Sports or Photos & Video. The typography is great– no tiny size font; crisp, clean Georgia.

What I do not love:

• The black in the masthead doesn’t look like black, but some PMS black that wasn’t designed to be viewed on-screen.
• Since there is no set style for links, it can sometimes be hard to tell which part of the content is a link and which isn’t until you actually hover over it for the underline.

And I am definitely no fan of their dynamic content for Weather, Traffic, etc. It’s overly “Web 2.0″ style as many call it and those silver buttons are bigger than they need to be. They could have easily have only used the charcoal +/- button only and reduced the padding involved.

The footer may very well be my favorite part of the website. Very clean and very functional. The ink blot in the corner is a nice touch.

Things get less awesome when you delve deeper into the site– dynamic content (embedded video players) look randomly placed and once again are designed with a “Web 2.0″ feel. The column layout breaks down as ads take up random amounts of space (top banner ad does not extend all the way across, but instead appears centered as the first part of the page’s content; the Google ad box is wider than the video player, leaving less padding between it and the headlines). The actual article pages are slightly better, but the crazy ad space remains.

My verdict? It’s a vast improvement from the previous design and I like it.

I’ll be walking in the AIDS Walk LA next Sunday with my cousin and her team from Univision to support the search for the cure and helping those that are infected get the treatment they need. Even though there has been a lot of publicity about drug treatments which are prolonging some people’s lives, they don’t work for everyone. Here are just some of the ways that AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) uses the funds raised by AIDS Walk Los Angeles:

• Today, APLA will distribute 275 bags of free, nutritious groceries through the Necessities of Life Program, the nation’s largest food pantry network for people living with HIV/AIDS.
• Today, APLA’s freestanding and mobile dental clinics will perform more than a dozen dental procedures for people living with HIV/AIDS in underserved communities.
• Today, APLA will provide prevention education to three of our hardest hit communities: young people, black gay men and people suffering from drug addiction.

Please consider offering your support! Even just a few dollars can help. The team has already raised what you see at right. Let’s try to reach $3000 by Sunday!

Click Here to Donate

While driving or riding as a passenger at night, I have a propensity to put up club (house, dance, etc.) music. Now that I’m in California again and thus driving a lot, I’ve realized why.

I used to do a lot of cross-country flying between LA and New York (JFK to be exact). I’d get on the plane around 11am and land around 8pm, stepping out into darkness. I’d grab a cab home and often, get a young cab driver, who’d be listening to club music on the radio. Usually around that time, the tunnel isn’t the best route to take, so we’d end up driving over the Queens-Midtown Bridge. It was always a beautiful view– the lights from the city, moving into the view of the skyline. And then the club music, but nothing too annoying, you know? It was perfect. It would gear me up to get back to my life, back into my routine, into my apartment– a feeling of coming home, but also of going somewhere, because New York was never quite home, but neither was LA.

Now, putting on that music in my car gives me back that feeling. I still don’t feel like I really live anywhere or in any one place (probably because I don’t), and I really don’t enjoy my routine now. But driving, in between going anywhere, is refreshing. Thus, I thought I’d share some of those songs with you! (Also check out Satoshi Tomie ft. Kelli Ali – Love in Traffic…I couldn’t find it to add on).

What in the world has happened to the Duane Reade identity? This was my first thought when I saw this interactive feature on the new DR design on NYTimes.com.

Granted, I know they were having some corporate issues and decided to “clean up” their identity, but like this? There is no connection whatsoever to the previous identity. They have been recognizable for years in NY and they’re just going to throw away all the brand equity they’ve gained? I cannot believe it. Sure, their store interior looks a little better, but that’s where it ends.

This new identity is not contemporary– it feels like the 80s or 90s. The color scheme is odd, the type treatment is odd. The logo vaguely reminds me of a film countdown or the Telepictures Productions logo, which makes no sense since Duane Reade is a NY stronghold and is a drugstore.

And then there’s the website. It’s like, New York as portrayed in movies and TV sitcoms in the 90s. Black and white, mixed with their logotype and choice of NYC photography…it’s like the opening themes/bumps for Friends or Mad About You or Fired Up in a design identity.

I wanted to think the new identity over in hopes that I would like it better, thinking that my reaction may just be an aversion to change, but I don’t think it is. It’s just not a good move, in my opinion. What is happening in the world of identity work? The last thing I remember really loving was the Snickers campaign, and that was last year. Since then I’ve watched Pepsi, Sci-fi, and Duane Reade, among a few others, throw their identity away. It’s just not right.

If you’re in the New York area or will be on Monday, September 21, check out Kristi Spessard Dance Projects’

– a dance tale about a young man’s sexual awakening over the course of a Southern meal.

at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. It’s a Southern-style cabaret and party to raise funds for the company. Kristi Spessard caught my video, “Beans and Cornbread”, on YouTube and contacted me to use it in the show! Because of work, I can’t attend the show myself, but I would love to hear from anyone who does. It sounds like a lot of fun.

Tickets are available here. For more information about the show and Kristi Spessard Dance Projects, visit kristispessard.com.

Came across the illustration at left in this Web Designer Depot post. I immediately fell in love with it. It makes me think of New York, but not just New York in general, but it take me back to the mindset of living in New York– the good, the bad, and the ugly (it’s glitzy and grungey, somehow at the same time).

The artist is Sophie Henson, and she has a great design style. Check out her work. I have a great admiration for typographers or those who can do a wealth of different hand-drawn typography. I used to do hand-drawn typefaces, myself, a long time ago. I remember I used to always do the names on the envelopes of greeting cards, all special– my family members used to give them to me to do for them since they all liked the different ways I drew the names. I wish I could get back into it. Maybe I will…I’m still young.

Anyway, upon e-mailing Sophie, I found out she’s got an online store in the works and will be selling the New York illustration as a poster quite soon. Can’t wait!

UPDATE: Guess what? My limited edition print is on its way to me in the Royal Mail! Thanks, Sophie!

My photo collection of roses is gratuitous, but I’m posting this nonetheless. In a martini glass on our table at Spaghettini in Seal Beach last month. I must also mention that the band there performed an awesome jazz version of “Blame it on the Alcohol” at a very quick, jazzy pace. Highly entertaining.

now you’re just scaring me.

Jeff Koons, Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988, The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica. [Via LACMA]

I could have continued through life not knowing this existed– I’d gone 20-21 years already– but then again, maybe I couldn’t have…

From theseventhletter on Flickr

Quite right.