BrainFuel

Wow, that’s a little bit epic, if you ask me!

This whole site started 10 years ago today, with the first post being made to a simple little HTML file that I uploaded to my server. Initially, it was a simple little page that linked to interesting web sites, and then grew into a massive collection of thoughts, design inspiration, and articles.

Click here to see screenshots of what BrainFuel looked like over the years.

Some stats! There have been 3,121 posts in 17 categories over 10 years. More than 15,081 comments!

Yes, BrainFuel has been less of a priority for me personally in the last few years, as I’ve focused on business with Tornado, with working on a startup (it’s going to launch!), and getting married, and now expecting a baby in July.

I’d like to personally thank the people that have made this site what it is. Without you, BrainFuel would have been less-interesting, and probably gone offline. Special thanks to Kent Downer for contributing interesting posts, and for heading up the recent BrainFuel redesign. Thanks to Tom Chapin for interesting posts. Thanks to Ben Wood for his interesting posts and for managing multiple iterations of the site and for coming up with the name BrainFuel. There are also several others who have contributed posts over the years. Thank you!

I’ve had the opportunity to meet many very interesting people as a result of this site, and made friendships I treasure.

So, here’s to another decade of BrainFuel! Thanks for being a reader!

A Modern Eden is a cool little design firm with a few iPhone applications… based around cute drawings of animals. Very nice layout, clean and bright colors and simple language.

One of my favorite TV ads of all-time is this one for Discover Brokerage.

Whoever designed the web site for the Desert Botanical Gardens did a very nice job. It’s nearby the Tornado office, as well, and I’m thinking it would make a sweet excursion some time soon for the team.

Budweiser has an interesting visual layout for their ‘age-check’ screen. I’ve never seen anything like this before, so wanted to share it.

Have you ever been working on a design and need to insert a placeholder image to show where a graphic will go? The typical process is something like this: open photoshop, create a new image, enter the size you need, change the background color, add some text and then save it. Here’s a handy web-based tool to replace that process: http://placehold.it/ .

Mundane task, done in less time, equals a happy designer.

The web team for Southwest.com deserves praise. Look how beautiful and usable their web site is! It’s amazing. Especially when you begin to compare it to the American Airlines web site (or most of the other airlines, for that matter).

“We have a ‘strategic’ plan. It’s called doing things.” — Herb Kelleher, founder Southwest Airlines

Maybe that’s their secret. They do things.

But in all honesty, their web site keeps getting better. Three years ago they started down this path towards having a nice site, and they’ve been refining ever since.

I just finished reading the Elevator Button Problem. A short story about how even something as simple as the elevator button needs to be designed.

Even crazier, the article mentions a Paternoster. A sort of elevator that never stops. Watch this video for a demonstration. It does not look safe!

Inspired by a post on Hacker News.