blog.fredrikohlin.com
A weblog by Fredrik Ohlin (@fohlin),
CompSci Lecturer and PhD student,
from Malmö, Sweden.
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Thank You, Posterous
If you’re a frequent reader of my tumblelog (which, let’s face it, you’re not) you’ll have noticed that I in fact don’t post that much. I’ll spare you the reasons for this, and instead focus on the future. In doing so, I’d like to extend a thank you to Posterous.
This super simple blogging tool is the reason why I’ve today redesigned (slightly) my tumblelog, and decided to actually produce some content in the future. Why? Posterous have shown me how easy it is to produce something value. Some key points on Posterous:
- You can’t change the theme of you blog. This takes a lot of pressure away, letting you focus on content.
- Your main interface to your blog is email. This puts you into email mode, which leads to posts that are short, instant and to the point.
User interfaces tend to use simplicity as a means to reduce mental load. Posterous uses simplicity on a whole other level, and changes the entire mindset of its users. They make it easy to post - and to be inspired.
I haven’t yet decided the frequency with which I’m going to post. But I’ll try a couple of times a week, and take it from there.
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Tumblr, simplicity and 210 lines of HTML
I’m a big fan of simplicity as a design principle. Whether it’s a website, an application or product packaging, it should fulfill its purpose in the simplest possible fashion. This means removing elements that do not support the core functionality, as well as reducing users’ mental workloads by providing a clear interface to access this functionality.
This is why I’m now writing in a brand new tumblelog from Tumblr, instead of a traditional blog, based on software like Wordpress. There are no sidebars, no blogrolls, no plugins. There is just content.
“But Wordpress has custom themes,” you might say. “Why not just make a simple theme?” One reason: 210 lines of (mostly) HTML. That’s how long the entire theme for this blog is. I’m pretty sure that you can read 210 introductions to Wordpress and still not know how to make the theme you want.In the spirit of simplicity, I plan to post short to medium form content. Insightful but not pretentious, to the point but not boring - that’s my goal. Just to give you an idea, here are some thought that may or may not accumulate to a post:
- Design principles of Twitter clients.
- Pinging of blog services is no better than email spam.
- Why Balsamiq Mockups makes you happy and creative.
You can also expect screenshots and some photos that don’t make it into my Flickr feed. Hope you’ll enjoy it!
