post-next -Ted Drake’s sketchbook

I can’t wait to call my mom and let her know. She’ll be soooo proud of her little baby.

Seriously, Joe Clark referred to Yahoo! Tech as an antidote to some of the horrible re-designs of gay-game sites. It’s a bit disjointed but appreciated.

We tried to make Yahoo! Tech as accessible as possible. User-testing with Victor Tsaran, Yahoo’s accessibility guru led us to make many small and large changes to the code. I’ve written one article about how we made our home page flash movie accessible and have two more on the way about our comparison tables and how we are displaying our ratings and reviews.

Visit www.last-child.com for my notes and articles about web design. It’s got the geeky side of me and stay on this site for the well… less geeky side. Thanks Joe for the nod and the push. Now I’ll need to get busy on publishing those other articles.

I’m hitching a ride with the big birdie to San Diego tomorrow and grabbing Jim for the big hop, skip, and a jump to Europe on friday. It’s going to be a fun time for all. I’ll be attending the @media conference in London and spending many days eating cheese and chocolate in Paris.
I’ve finished printing a small portfolio of my photographs from the cemetery in Paris’s Montmartre district. Hopefully, I can find a place or two in Paris that would be interested in exhibiting a series.

Tech for Red State Moms. I’m going to get killed at work for actually saying that. It’s been a mantra around the office for too long, but it’s true. We’ve launched Yahoo! Tech and I couldn’t be more proud.

When I was interviewed for a job at Yahoo! six months ago, I was asked about my preference of projects. Would I like to work in Santa Monica for News or for this new project about making tech easy for the average person. “Yes!” Pahleeease… like I would have said no to either of them?

However, I wanted to work on whichever would be the most challenging. Tech certainly filled that requirement.

I pictured Tech as a mix between Cnet and Netflix. A place where you could get the information you needed, but also feel like it was personlized just for you. I think we’ve done just that.

Yahoo! Tech is full of great information, specifications, price comparisons, and everything else you’d ask for in a tech site. But it’s also got personality, something you don’t always hear in conjunction with Yahoo! sites. We get a kick out of reading user’s questions, especially when they get a bit risque. The ability to save products, share them, and compare them with a few clicks makes shopping so much easier. One of the last features we added was content from Dummies and McGraw-Hill. It’s great to be on a page looking at digital cameras and see an article about removing red-eye.

So take some time and enjoy Yahoo! Tech. I know I will. It’s been a long 6 months with many, many 70-80 hour work weeks. Now I’ve got a computer filled with recordings of Top Chef, Flavor of Love, and other horrible television shows to catch up on.

Keep an eye on www.last-child.com, my CSS/Web design site for some articles about what’s behind the code in Tech.

The coverage is starting to appear. Here’s what Forbes has to say about Yahoo! Tech.

6 days… 6 more days before I can take a rest. In less than a week we’ll be unveiling the largest project that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on. My neck is numb from the headphone strap, my shoulder, forearm, and hand are sore, my eyes are tired, but my spirits are up. I’ve worked an average of 10hrs/day for the past 8 weeks and only taken 4 days off in that time period.

Tired? yes. Worn out? almost. Unbelievably anxious? most definately. Proud? You bet. I’m going to be one big ass grin 7 days from now.

Me, me, me, me… I, I, I, I… no, I’m not forgetting everyone else, just taking a little self-absorbed moment, thank you. It’s too early for the tearful acceptance speech. Just peel your eyes away from the CSS Reboot list on monday and come back here for the big announcement.