Pemaquid Communications

If you’ve been following our tweets @pemaquid (you *have* been following our tweets, haven’t you?) you know that our first intern, Jordan Warren, began working with us last week. You also know that we’ve tweeted a couple of the books I’ve recommended to her from our library.

Here’s a list of some of the books that I’ve read and referred to over the years that have been invaluable resources for Web design:

Don’t Make Me Think – Steve Krug. Steve shows how people surf the Web, and that should affect how you build Web sites

The Design of Everyday Things – Don Norman. How people use a tool, a door, a switch, a Web site depends upon how it’s built (see affordance).

Designing with Web Standards – Jeffrey Zeldman. What it means to design with Web Standards, and why that’s better.

Bulletproof Web Design – Dan Cederholm. Why it’s smarter to lay out sites with CSS, rather than using <table>.

Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design – Andy Clarke. A great read from one of the world’s most talented Web designers. Andy explains how to use CSS to render your design visions beautifully and accessibly.

The Inmates are Running the Asylum – Alan Cooper. Explains why you want an Interaction Designer – not a programmer or a graphic designer – to build your Web site.

Designing Web Usability – Jakob Nielsen. An oldie but goodie. How to make Web sites easy to use.

Defensive Design for the Web – 37 Signals. Another book that’s been around for awhile, from one of the Web’s premiere usability consulting groups. The principles they espouse are timeless.

What’s funny is that lately I read fewer books and follow more blogs (that’ll be the subject of a future post).

Do you Web designers out there have any essential reads that have helped you over the years and that we should recommend to Jordan? (We know our short list above is far from complete) If so, please let us know in the comments.

South by Southwest, the annual Super Bowl of Web design, is underway in Austin, Texas this week. If you dropped a bomb on the convention center you’d likely vaporize 80% of the world’s top Web design talent.

It’s a great place to meet the cream o’ the crop. I attended “South By” in 2007 and 2008 and had the chance to meet and converse with Jeffrey Zeldman, Dan Cederholm, Andy Clarke and Ryan Carson, among others. I also kindled new friendships with other designers from the New England region with whom I’ve often been able to bounce ideas around from time to time.

You always hear about the latest and greatest at SXSW. I first heard about Twitter, which has exploded into the mainstream in the last three months or so, at the 2007 event, just a few months after it had launched.

That’s usually how it is with SXSW. One year it’s blogs, the next, online video, then social networking. What’ll be the new wave in 2009? I recommend keeping an eye on innovations involving the mobile Web.

This year I opted to do other things, but now, as I follow the Tweets (SXSW has been the most-popular-tweeted-topic for the last several days), I’m wishing I was there.

Last night I trekked down to Salem, Mass, with Wendy Clark to a special meeting of the Build Gulld, a fun-loving group of Boston area Web slingers.

The meeting was special for two reasons: it featured the revival of another group of Web designers, the Markup & Style Society, founded by Dan Cederholm and Ethan Marcotte (members of the M&SS were on hand), and CSS wiz Eric Meyer, who had blown into town to meet with some East Coast Clients, was on hand.

How did I find out about this? Twitter, baby (if you’re not following people in your sphere on Twitter, you are missing out).

I got to reconnect w/Josh Porter of Bokardo, whom I’d met at SXSW and who works out of the North Shore area.

My real reason for going was not so that I could write up a nifty blog post and drop names (really). It was because I think Portland needs a group like this. Sure, there are Tweetups and Maine UX is a great group for all things relating to usability, but I think there’s still room for a group devoted to discussing the latest trends in Web design – and imbibing good ale.

I talked to several of the founders of these groups on their experiences and fortunately starting an interest group is not rocket science, it just takes “interest”. Free beer doesn’t hurt, either (libations were on the house last night).

Patrick Haney (Refresh Boston) – “The people were out there. They just needed a place to come together. We created that. We joined about 30 other Refresh groups located in cities across the country.”

Dan Cederholm (Markup & Style Society) – “You just get together with people who share a common interest, do it regularly, and eventually others find out about it and it grows.”

Folks said the interest groups usually start out their meetings with a 15-30 minute presentation, often by one of the members, about a hot topic. Then, social networking in meat-space takes place. Only rarely does a saloon-style brawl break out.

The organizers I spoke with said one of their biggest problems nowadays is finding a place to meet that will hold all the people who attend. I naively expected last night’s meetup to be a fairly intimate gathering of 30-40; yeah, no, it was more like 120 people.

Boy, wouldn’t that be nice here? I’d settle for a group of 5 or 6.

What do you think, Portland? Can we do it? Do I hear “Ayuh”?