American’s love coffee. Could this be the reason the cup-o-coffee is such a common design element? While perusing through many sites, I have come across a hot beverages as design elements, all to often. While this may be fitting for sites like Tazo, what is the importance for design firm sites, or other genres that have nothing to do with warm caffeinated beverages?

I will be the first to admit that it is a great, generic design element. The problem with that statement is in the need for the element. Many sites would probably still work, maybe even better at times, with just the space. I guess I am addressing the idea that every element in a design should serve a purpose.

Coding Monkeys is a design studio. They have layed out their site in a way, that portrays their service as an everyday need. What a great idea. The thought that everything could have a good design is so compelling to people who like to look at things. And last time I checked, this would included most everyone. The cup fits in their design because most people can relate to a cup of coffee, as with an iPod, mouse, or micro-recorder. (Please excuse their apparent apple bias.)

GNV & Partners is another design firm that thought coffee would trigger some curiosity. This cup has been place to compliment the desk feel. I think this says the company is calm and easy going. It suggests this workplace will work on your project from morning till night.

I am not sure that I have an answer for the cup of coffee or any other design element that simply fills space. While many objects say something, I am not sure every object is needed to convey a company’s message. My fear, as is with many sites, is the cup of coffee has been added simply because it looks good. Design should go beyond just looking good. Design really says something more then “my, what a beautiful collage of elements.” The web seems all to often to be a collage of elements. Well designed sites take it farther then that.

As I was trying to fall asleep last night, I thought to myself, “when was the last time I slept in a bed with a box spring?” To my dismay, I couldn’t think of a time that lasted for longer then a night or two. When I was a child I have a trumble bed with no box spring. Then when I went to college, I had a bunk bed. Now I sleep in a bed with drawers underneath. Guess what? No box spring.

I have never really had bed sores or had trouble sleeping, but I am curious about all the advertisements for beds. I know many people have back problems that occur later in life, but am I setting myself up for problems later on? One of the most common names is a Tempur-Pedic bed. I went researching on their website, to find the science behind their mattresses. I was dissapointed to find almost none. Even on the science section of their website, they basically suggest that when you sleep on their beds your spine is straight, and on other beds it is curved. Is this bad? I was surprised to find no research or evidence to back this up.

I sleep fine. I wasted 5 mins of sleep last night, wondering if I need to get a bed with a box spring. I am sure that their are different levels of comfort with different beds, but I am comfortable. Maybe I just need to go to a mattress store and spend the night on a couple and really give one of those expensive beds a try.

So, at my current job I get to look at a lot of websites for inspiration. After trudging through thousands of sites, I have noticed a reoccurring theme. Well, not so much a theme, but a single picture. What is it with this woman? I have not only run into this picture on many sites, but numerous other pictures that appear all over the internet on professional sites.

You could quickly blame the top stock photo sites like istockphoto and shutterstock for commonly feeding people the same images. These sites however, have hundreds of thousands of photos. If this is the case, you would think their would be plenty of pictures to choose from that fit the need.

My guess is that people are just lazy. Even when using a stockphoto site with lots of images we still search for generic terms like “woman” or “girl”. While I am a big advocate of making people smarter, technology is supposed to BE smarter. It should be simple and straight forward for the user. I may be asking for too much here, but wouldn’t it be great if once a photo was downloaded that it was somehow kicked back on the search list?

I know this poses many problems. The best photographer shouldn’t be punished because everyone wants to use his photos. Also, these sites may already do something like this, but with so many sites out their what are the chances really of someone picking the same picture for their homepage as you? I guess this is something that the internet is going to run into for these budget projects who cannot hire a professional photographer or buy a photo that can only be used by them. I am just sick of seeing this woman.

After recently seeing some pictures printed from an online store, I decided to do some research of my own and find a place to print my own. Being I am more of an artsy person, I get picky with things like photos, and paper, and style. The list goes on and on. After looking around a little bit I found out their is some correlation between photos and cutesy names.

I stumbled across sites like Shutterfly and Snap Fish, both of which I was referred to by others. What flies and fish have to do with photos, I am unsure. These two animals aren’t even photographed by the casual photographer all to often. I moved past those two services and still found myself finding sites like Winkflash. I guess this name took me a little closer to a logical name for a photo printing company, but winking still kinda wigs me out, especially if it were captured in a still. I finally landed on dotPhoto which seemed to sit most comfortably with me.

After I got past the naming schemes of these sites I thought I might take a look more seriously at what you might get from each service. While price was the most heavily weight reason for settling on a photo service, I think there are a couple of other things to look at as well. So, let throw the giants out the window (Walmart, Wallgreens, etc.) and lets move to these smaller sites.

Shutterfly

I have been recommended to Shutterfly numerous times and have seen some of their prints. They are a quality service. Coming in at 19¬¢ a print (for 4×6) they are tailing behind other printers. You can customize your prints right online by adding over 500 different borders. I didn’t see an option to get matte instead of glossy, but the highlight of this service for me, was they will store as many photos for free and you can even show a friend your collection online at any time in a nice gallery view. Shipping varies on how many prints you order, but for 24 prints it would be $2.49.

Winkflash

This service seems to be a bit of a baby amongst the others. While the site is okay and it has 12¬¢ a print, I am not sure about the quality of their product. While I am judging this simply by the design of their site, I think the quality of a site makes a big statement when you only have a web presence. I did see that you have an option for glossy or matte, but this service just doesn’t quite have as much to offer as some of the others. They also have a variable shipping cost ($1.99 to ship 24 prints).

Dot Photo

Dot photo comes comes in with a tie at 12¢ a print, though the site advertises lower then that throughout. There seems to be some membership you can join to get as low as 7.5¢ a print. There are limited options here and it is hard to find out about what they offer. While they have a great promotion (currently of 50 free prints) I have not tried this service. Shipping comes in at $3.99 for each order.

Snapfish

Snapfish is a great service. At 9¬¢ a print they come in at the lowest. There are no strings attached and no deals to be made. Althought, you do get your first 20 prints free. They do have an option for a white border, a torn border, or no border, but currently they only offer glossy prints. They are backed by Meijer (I know I said lets avoid the big wigs) and they offer a solid service. While they don’t have a viewing option like Shutterfly for other to see, they give you good prints at a good price. Once again with variable pricing, you will get 24 prints shipped for $2.46.

I am not sure you need to stick with one photo service. Shutterfly seems to be the only site that really matters long term, but at 19¢ they are almost double the other services. If you like to have your photos stored somewhere and like being able to show them off to other people, Shutterfly seems like the way to go. Snapfish seems like the best if all you need are some prints. I doubt that any place really gives you a sub par print, as companies have gotten the printing of photos down pretty pat, but I hope to see these services grow more this year and really give the user more options and maybe even lower pricing.

So I received my almost daily Bacn from staples this morning and to my surprise, there was something that was of interest to me. Most of the offers in this e-mail are geared towards business and I am typically not enticed by them (envelopes, paper, etc.). I scanned through the e-mail and saw that they had a 24-pack of Poland Spring Water. This may not intrigue everyone, but it took me by surprise. Why would a business/technology store carry bottled water? Sure, people drink water at work as well as much as anywhere, but I found it amusing that they were advertising this misfit product.

Bottled water is interesting. So much so, that I decided to dig a little deeper and see what is really going on with bottled water in America. I quickly found that our Natural Resources Defense Council has already done a four year study on bottled water. You can find the complete documentation of it on their website. This study is a in depth look at whether bottled water is better for you then tap water. It seems it can sometimes be worse for you and isn’t really better for you.

According to our favorite site wikipedia, “In 2006, the US bottled water sales surpassed 8 Billion gallons of water.” Wow! I cannot even fathom how much that is. Bottled water is something many of us (at least in the U.S.) can live without. Is it not amazing that people would spend so much money on something they already have at their finger tips for virtually free?

I grab a bottle of water almost every morning out of my refrigerator and take it to work to drink. I usually fill it up a time or two at work and then at the days end, I throw away the bottle. My initial response as to why I perform this behavior would be for the sake of convince, but I have to goto the store, lug home a crate of water, and then put 5 or so in the refrigerator every week. Doesn’t just filling up the same water bottle everyday from the tap seem a lot easier? My next thought it I do it because the water is better for me. As the NRDC has already pointed out bottled water can actually be more harmful in some cases. Plus, I fill up the bottle after its original contents have been emptied with tap water.

I am not sure why Americans have become so accustomed to grabbing that plastic bottle of water and paying that $4 to $5 for a case. I do not have exact figures, but I know that the water bottle market is now over a 10 million dollar industry. With everyone becoming concerned with being green I thought I might do my part. This year is the year to start tapping the tap again.

It seems we run through the holiday season with the hustle and bustle of everything, but in the end we end up right back at the beginning. We buy our presents and make our food. There are family gatherings with smiles and tension from problems past. At the end of the day though we go to bed, back to our normal lives and are left with a pile of stuff. Some of these things with sentimental meaning and others with none. Some presents left in the box, knowing deep down we will re-gift it because we would not be caught dead wearing that monstrosity. We lay waiting for the next confetti loaded party.

After the season we walk away with the same problems, the same short comings, and the same family that we started with. There may have been healed relationships or forgiveness, but we know those same petty troubles may come around again. I have been asking myself what happens after this emotional seasonal high? What happens when we resume our normal activities and jump right back into the swing of things? What happens after Christmas? Do we just¬? go into seasonal depression until the sun is out and buds bloom?

I think these questions tell me it is all fake. I don’t think things really get answered during holidays. There is too much media hype and “what gift should I get them” stress to really address life. I think it is great to put aside everything, and have family and friends gathered around a tree. But how many people go home feeling alone and caught in an endless loop of holiday high to weekdays alone.

Everyone loves to love. Everyone loves to be loved. It is a natural human desire to have relationships. Sometimes we get caught up in the experience of the holiday to really caress some of our friendships. In the end, I think this is what relationships really need. They need time, not the swiss army knives of holiday presents. Friends need an open ear. After a couple of recent events I have realized, it is easy to miss out on a great conversation during the holidays. One question, one caring comment, or one extra phone call after the holiday tide has settled, can really reveal what is on someones mind.

I was at a work party the other day and I heard someone mention the weather. Living in Michigan this topic does not normally turn my head, as it is typically superficial. I would even suggest it is the most universal conversation for any region. The comment that caught my ear and made me think though, mentioned the decline in the amount of snow in the last decade followed by “that’s global warming for ya.” That phrase stuck with me.

While it seems that a comment on abortion or the death sentence can taboo in our society, a comment on global warming is often heard and easily accepted. When someone had made this comment, I quickly started to think about all the other basis this person may have due to this view. I am not trying to spark a discussion on the validity of global warming ?Äì I am however taking a look at what you can deduce from such a seemly random comment.

I instantly analyzed a couple of other things that have been spoken by this person and quickly defined that they were a very liberal business person, who’s goal was to make a lot of money while still impacting others. Some or none of these ideas may be true about this person, but I wonder how quickly others are able to see what type of person I am, and what beliefs are inside of me. Sometimes all it may take is one comment for a person to “know” you.