The fonts generated by font-family:'dmedium',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; come out looking terrible on FF 3.5.2. Screenshot on request--it really makes reading a pain.
craig | travelvicec.om
· 3 months ago
Agreed -- looks painfully bad.
eddit
· 3 months ago
Instead of taking the time to create interesting artwork (like the eyeball for day 2) for the header, save yourself some time and just put a photo from that day that relates to the post. Take it easy on yourself and give us some contextual content at the same time!
Vlad Kaltenieks
· 3 months ago
Dustin,
you've met a multimillionaire hedge fund manager who flies jetBlue and drives a Prius - what was his story? What are your experiences with the airports, services and the airline - what is great and what could be done better. This of course will take time to write, but I think these are very interesting.
Otherwise - good luck with flying and hope you get some sleep too! :)
James Brown
· 3 months ago
Hello. I'm reading because I think you and J.S-M are the only people I've found who are great designers and are applying art direction to individual blog posts. I'm interested in seeing all your different approaches, in the same way I enjoy NYT Mag covers, or unusual Wired Mag layouts.
As for this 30dayflight site, I'm interested in your infographics, but I suspect you'd do better to approach these after the project is finished.. so for the moment I'm just enjoying the story! Some quick pics of each of the airports would be fun?
mattdempseycom
· 3 months ago
I'll keep coming back mainly to see how you adapt the design and present the data in interesting, innovative ways, and hopefully to see how you evolve that design language as the 30 days pass. If the days have even a quarter of the design class you apply to your main articles, I'll keep coming back.
Doc Nielsen
· 3 months ago
I'm just here for the coffee - Have a nice flight, sir :)
Paddy
· 3 months ago
First of all, I am absolutely loving the project! Have been a big fan of your work for a while now and this project is great to follow every day. I'll keep coming back anyway, but perhaps an 'almost' live map of all the flight routes you have taken so far would be a cool visualization. It would keep getting more and more illegible after each flight as more and more lines would be added, and it would be interesting to see after the whole journey.
Maybe including some of the chats you have had with interesting people would pull people in also?
Good luck!
Jeremy Lenzi
· 3 months ago
have been following this with great interest since you first brought it up - truly like what you're doing and know that you're pressed for time, but today's font choice is extremely difficult on the eyes...
David Steinmetz
· 3 months ago
I've been following you for a while on Twitter because I loved the design of your site. It works particularly well with vertical monitors. I first came across your letter to American Airlines on a news aggregator site.
I would like to hear more about your "single-serving friends", as Tyler Durden would call them. I like flying because sometimes the people you meet on the plane live livestyles so far removed from your own that you would probably never meet them otherwise.
Good luck with making the rest of your flights! I heard TUIfly has a similar offer in Europe.
@wickedgeekie
· 3 months ago
Hi Would love to see timelines and if ever you manage to crack down the visualisation of timelines over timezones Also I love flying (and can sleep on planes) so am being a bit there with you too! All the best
SF
Gary Gehiere
· 3 months ago
I'd like to see some photos and of course more of your interesting infographics.
Koroshiyasha
· 3 months ago
This is a great project! I'd love to see some photos and hear more stories about what's happening while you're in the air.
ddn
· 3 months ago
I just hope you can make it. All this flying is gonna take a serious toll. Load up on vitamins and water. Other than that, I bet the experiences to talk about will present themselves.
Samantha
· 3 months ago
I'm interested in your opinion about the various airport designs you experience. Which layouts work well and which don't? Or are there changes in services that airlines or airports could make to provide a smoother experiences for travelers? I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of this experiment. Thanks for sharing it!
dusoft
· 3 months ago
I am fan of your writing and design of the articles (not blog) part of the website (I work in usability field as well). This flying project is kind of fun, although I don't envy you the sleep or rather the missing sleep.
tom
· 3 months ago
how bout a seat map that shows which seats you guys had on each flight. since jet blue has 2 basic planes, it would be interesting to see which seats got used the most/least.
also a fan summary would be fun - favorite airport / concourse / food /
you could make customer service agents into rockstars - give an award for best safety briefing / baggage handler / landing / etc. Name them, photo them, (permission them) The opposite of that United Breaks Guitars guy - who made villains of all airline employees.
Paddy
· 3 months ago
That's a fantastic idea. Some sort of visualization of what seats you had the most often would be really interesting.
Michael
· 3 months ago
With all of the places you are traveling to, even if only briefly, I would imagine that there would be plenty of opportunities to snap interesting photos. I'm sure you also overhear interesting things as well.
michaelaleo
· 3 months ago
I've been following you for a while on your blog, and even put up a post inspired by your American Airlines post. We have a lot of the same interests, namely design, planes and travel, so once I heard about the idea I was hooked.
Now if I could just figure out how in the world your posterous page works...
popephatt
· 3 months ago
To me, it seems like you two are having an experience that many of us never will. You're seeing more airports than I hope to see in my life. You'll be spending more time on airplanes and in airports than anyone should. You're meeting people from all walks of life with all kinds of backgrounds and stories. So, I would love to hear your observations. I'd love to see and read about the idiosyncrasies you encounter. I've enjoyed the tweets you sent out about the hedge fund manager and the cost of showers at JFK because those are things I probably never would have had.
Mostly though, I'm hoping that you make it through this in good mental health.
Steven Kovar
· 3 months ago
Interviews would keep people coming back. Or at least mentioning the characters you meet along the way.
Laura A Compton
· 3 months ago
Hello Dustin and Alaska,
What fun it is to hear about this adventure. I'm coming back as a regular visitor to your original website and/or twitter, being one of the more interesting and well spoken of those I follow. You mentioned earlier about obsession with numbers. I'm excited to see those numbers, whether they describe pairs or socks used, types of free/or not drinks consumed on the plane etc. Either way I'm psyched to see more of whatever you dish out. Good luck and happy coding!
Stephen Parker
· 3 months ago
Hello. I'm here because you fascinate me. I think the most interesting part for me is watching you work out a new navigation/stand alone scheme for this site, figuring out how to document your trip. I wish you were devoting 30 days to this subject alone with lots of sleep, but will take what I can get :) Have found myself drifting off in thought the last couple of days -- wondering if you are putting together articles on laptop (mid flight), suffering from extreme sleep deprivation, running around like a chicken with head cut off -- perhaps all of the above.
I think you are very likely to become unbalanced somewhere along this trip. It will be interesting to see how you design for necessity when that starts to happen. Not trying to be negative, just trying to focus on the reality of the situation and gleam what a designer might in the process. Best of luck to you :)
Ben
· 3 months ago
I'd love to see pictures from all the airports, people you meet etc. Interviews with flight attendants, airport people, passengers. Maybe even very short video clips via iphone or flip camera.
I think this project is awesome, had the same idea myself but not the time or money to do it. I think your site looks great, but I'd love to see content, to be able to follow along with your travels.
Mikkel Paulson
· 3 months ago
I agree with David. The most interesting part (and I'd say half of the point) of this project is the people you meet along the way. You're in the unique position to profile perhaps hundreds of travellers, many (if you'll excuse me saying so) with more interesting stories than yourself. Hearing about your bloodshot eyes and hunt for a shower has been entertaining so far, but it will get old after a few days. For you too, I suspect.
However, given your mental state, I will forgive you a certain drop in standards. This site is about the trip, not about design. It's the content itself that interests me, and if the design process is getting in the way, that's what should be nixed.
I agree with him again that the site does look pretty good at 1024x1280, although many fixed-width sites do work well with that resolution. Unfortunately, you're 1px too wide to display without a horizontal scrollbar in Safari at that resolution.
Photos are always a nice way to add interest to a design with very little work, but I have taken a number of airport photos and they always end up looking samey. I don't even bother anymore. Architecture aside, every airport is more or less like the other.
Josh Powell
· 3 months ago
Would love to see a google map with a line drawn along the flight path you've already taken and another one along the upcoming days trips.
Doug Vander Meulen
· 3 months ago
It would be cool if you did a design study of the different terminals and locations you visit. I come back to see what html/css tricks you are using to spice up each day...
Adam Wride
· 3 months ago
Hi Dustin - great fun. Wish I could have taken advantage of the same program. I worked one summer for Jetblue and love the people in the company. Great times.
How about mapping/annotating the stories/people you meet?
Name
· 3 months ago
video from your iPhone
Edward Abrams
· 3 months ago
I wanted to build upon something Mikkel Paulson wrote. I think the most awesome part of your project is the plan to meet people, hear their stories and learn about people who are on airplanes. Statistically, you are likely to meet people who are on airplanes a lot. I think that's fascinating.
But I'm worried. On day 4, it sounds like both of you are having a really hard time with sleep related issues. I'm worried you won't be able to hear and tell these stories without going somewhat easier on yourself.
If you were forced to make a choice between adherence to the original plan on the one hand, and sacrificing a few cities in order to do a deeper, better, more profound job of telling stories on the other, let me be the first to cast my vote that you opt for the latter. It could even be that the balance is achievable where you are able to meet 90% of your initial flying goal and do 100% better a job staying awake to hear people's stories.
Like I said, my motive for mentioning this is merely worry. Perhaps by day 6, we'll find you in a groove, awake, alert and able to do it all, storytelling and hitting the insane number of flights you originally hoped for. If so, go kick some ass. But if not, I hope you will favor the more flavorful and rich goal of getting to know people even if it comes at the expense of the original tactical goal.
Best of luck whatever the future holds.
Jay
· 3 months ago
Did you bite off a bit more then you can chew with this one? I'm hoping the takeaway you get from this 30 day flight experiment is that outside influences are quite real and can suck the passion and joy out of a project. Your "create the filter" posting on your main site seemed to display the attitude that if you compromise your product/vision for any reason then you have failed.
And yet here you are only 4 days into this project and you're already considering how you can compromise and edit your original vision for this project. I will continue to read your blog long after this project ends, but I hope you can learn to roll with the punches a bit more and realize that it's utterly impossible to knock every project out of the park.
Post photos of interior of airports. Keeps things interesting.
Siim Esko
· 3 months ago
It's why I started reading it in the first place: Great plan to meet (possibly) great people! With interesting stories to tell. Perhaps you can record some thoughts on a voice recorder for later transcription? Like your iPhone? Would possibly ease the pain.
Best of luck in your journey!
Digital Seed
· 3 months ago
I'm here for the stories. Through your very trained eyes, the people you meet can be a great subject for a book or even a movie. Heck this should have been a doco! But I can see the problem with sleep.
Keep going... we're following
Digital Seed
Onur Aybar
· 3 months ago
Suggestions-> Take note of your mental state of mind and tie it into how that makes you interpret your conversations with others and your environment as a whole. For instance, if you are drained physically then you will most likely be very mentally fatigued as well. Write about how that effects your understanding of the information that you are taking in. The hedge fund manager mentioned below...since you were exhausted did it effect your opinion of his work, his conversation, appearance, social skills, etc.
Maybe discuss the experience of flying the airline day in and day out. Does it give you a better understanding of user experience in the service industry? How would you better this particular company's use of inter personal communication to make your time with them more pleasant. Compare your UX work with their marketing departments.
Get more into design. How do different aircraft effect your mental state of mind and comfort level in general and relate that to UX in the tangible goods industry. I can write for days about how the MD-88 makes me nauseous in flight compared to how calm I feel on a 737 and so on and so fourth. Even get into color choices on the aircraft and the placement of branding and give us your opinions on how that effected your experience. What would you have done differently, can you relate that to Web UX?
Either way I am sure that you will find some great things to write about and jazz it all up with awesome graphics.
I' m really excited for you guys and can't wait to see what you take away from this experience. Please do take photos!
Michael Pascal
· 3 months ago
Perhaps come up with a standard question to ask every person you meet, "what's your favorite airline? Or airport? Or what are the 5 must-have personal items you always bring with you for a flight? etc."
You may get some fun answers.
Martin
· 3 months ago
I'd also love to see photos and/or video from your journey. I absolutely adore your design work, but it would be nice to actually see what's going on.
Best of luck!
PIctures?
· 3 months ago
Dude, I've been tracking this since the start. But put up a friggen picture! If I wanted to vicariously experience literature I'd go pick up a novel. Seriously: (1) take picture, (2) post picture, (3) make readers happy, (4) make you happy, (5) world is happy.
Richard (Englishman)
· 3 months ago
Dustin. Don't even flinch at the "Terminal Man" article. That's the great thing about this country. Competition baby!
But seriously, maybe forgo the "perfect" design for just some content and pictures. :\ I know you're losing sleep but ..... well... I know you'll figure it out.
Peace man and good luck!
Scott Gamble
· 3 months ago
I'm here for the stories, too. Of course I would enjoy pictures and video as well. Your twitter posts remind me to check the site for updates.
I'd also be interested in hearing your assessment of airport amenities - wifi, showers, etc. I have been getting stuck in airports more often lately, so a recent survey would be helpful.
Ron
· 3 months ago
Like many others, I have been following you since the American Airlines post. I like your site designt, but please take care of your self before taking care of us.
I originally started following you because of your web design and suggestions for the other web sites that are out there, I only with I had half the talent that you do.
As an owner of a Travel Agency, myself (and other agents) enjoy hearing about travel related experiences (such as this) that we can learn from and share with our friends and clients.
Keep up the great job and good luck with the rest of trip.
nickhowe
· 3 months ago
As per some others, a Google map would be fun. Sorry I missed you guys when you came to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, would have bought you lunch or shown you the sites (if you had time)
iomy
· 3 months ago
You should have one big list of all the flight segments and cross them off as you go. Would be interesting to see it all at once. Also, your photos link isn't working very well.
All Comments
you've met a multimillionaire hedge fund manager who flies jetBlue and drives a Prius - what was his story? What are your experiences with the airports, services and the airline - what is great and what could be done better. This of course will take time to write, but I think these are very interesting.
Otherwise - good luck with flying and hope you get some sleep too! :)
As for this 30dayflight site, I'm interested in your infographics, but I suspect you'd do better to approach these after the project is finished.. so for the moment I'm just enjoying the story! Some quick pics of each of the airports would be fun?
Maybe including some of the chats you have had with interesting people would pull people in also?
Good luck!
I would like to hear more about your "single-serving friends", as Tyler Durden would call them. I like flying because sometimes the people you meet on the plane live livestyles so far removed from your own that you would probably never meet them otherwise.
Good luck with making the rest of your flights! I heard TUIfly has a similar offer in Europe.
Would love to see timelines and if ever you manage to crack down the visualisation of timelines over timezones
Also I love flying (and can sleep on planes) so am being a bit there with you too!
All the best
SF
also a fan summary would be fun - favorite airport / concourse / food /
you could make customer service agents into rockstars - give an award for best safety briefing / baggage handler / landing / etc. Name them, photo them, (permission them)
The opposite of that United Breaks Guitars guy - who made villains of all airline employees.
Now if I could just figure out how in the world your posterous page works...
Mostly though, I'm hoping that you make it through this in good mental health.
What fun it is to hear about this adventure. I'm coming back as a regular visitor to your original website and/or twitter, being one of the more interesting and well spoken of those I follow. You mentioned earlier about obsession with numbers. I'm excited to see those numbers, whether they describe pairs or socks used, types of free/or not drinks consumed on the plane etc. Either way I'm psyched to see more of whatever you dish out. Good luck and happy coding!
I think you are very likely to become unbalanced somewhere along this trip. It will be interesting to see how you design for necessity when that starts to happen. Not trying to be negative, just trying to focus on the reality of the situation and gleam what a designer might in the process. Best of luck to you :)
I think this project is awesome, had the same idea myself but not the time or money to do it. I think your site looks great, but I'd love to see content, to be able to follow along with your travels.
However, given your mental state, I will forgive you a certain drop in standards. This site is about the trip, not about design. It's the content itself that interests me, and if the design process is getting in the way, that's what should be nixed.
I agree with him again that the site does look pretty good at 1024x1280, although many fixed-width sites do work well with that resolution. Unfortunately, you're 1px too wide to display without a horizontal scrollbar in Safari at that resolution.
Photos are always a nice way to add interest to a design with very little work, but I have taken a number of airport photos and they always end up looking samey. I don't even bother anymore. Architecture aside, every airport is more or less like the other.
How about mapping/annotating the stories/people you meet?
But I'm worried. On day 4, it sounds like both of you are having a really hard time with sleep related issues. I'm worried you won't be able to hear and tell these stories without going somewhat easier on yourself.
If you were forced to make a choice between adherence to the original plan on the one hand, and sacrificing a few cities in order to do a deeper, better, more profound job of telling stories on the other, let me be the first to cast my vote that you opt for the latter. It could even be that the balance is achievable where you are able to meet 90% of your initial flying goal and do 100% better a job staying awake to hear people's stories.
Like I said, my motive for mentioning this is merely worry. Perhaps by day 6, we'll find you in a groove, awake, alert and able to do it all, storytelling and hitting the insane number of flights you originally hoped for. If so, go kick some ass. But if not, I hope you will favor the more flavorful and rich goal of getting to know people even if it comes at the expense of the original tactical goal.
Best of luck whatever the future holds.
I'm hoping the takeaway you get from this 30 day flight experiment is that outside influences are quite real and can suck the passion and joy out of a project. Your "create the filter" posting on your main site seemed to display the attitude that if you compromise your product/vision for any reason then you have failed.
And yet here you are only 4 days into this project and you're already considering how you can compromise and edit your original vision for this project. I will continue to read your blog long after this project ends, but I hope you can learn to roll with the punches a bit more and realize that it's utterly impossible to knock every project out of the park.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/tag/terminal-man/
Best of luck in your journey!
Keep going... we're following
Digital Seed
Maybe discuss the experience of flying the airline day in and day out. Does it give you a better understanding of user experience in the service industry? How would you better this particular company's use of inter personal communication to make your time with them more pleasant. Compare your UX work with their marketing departments.
Get more into design. How do different aircraft effect your mental state of mind and comfort level in general and relate that to UX in the tangible goods industry. I can write for days about how the MD-88 makes me nauseous in flight compared to how calm I feel on a 737 and so on and so fourth. Even get into color choices on the aircraft and the placement of branding and give us your opinions on how that effected your experience. What would you have done differently, can you relate that to Web UX?
Either way I am sure that you will find some great things to write about and jazz it all up with awesome graphics.
I' m really excited for you guys and can't wait to see what you take away from this experience. Please do take photos!
You may get some fun answers.
Best of luck!
But seriously, maybe forgo the "perfect" design for just some content and pictures. :\ I know you're losing sleep but ..... well... I know you'll figure it out.
Peace man and good luck!
I'd also be interested in hearing your assessment of airport amenities - wifi, showers, etc. I have been getting stuck in airports more often lately, so a recent survey would be helpful.
I originally started following you because of your web design and suggestions for the other web sites that are out there, I only with I had half the talent that you do.
As an owner of a Travel Agency, myself (and other agents) enjoy hearing about travel related experiences (such as this) that we can learn from and share with our friends and clients.
Keep up the great job and good luck with the rest of trip.