As a search-obsessed UX designer, the best part of the project was not the size of the collection, but the richness of their metadata. Most items are described with media type, language, age level, owning branch, subject, author, and more.

TPL Web Team Manager Dara Renton and I recently gave a presentation at UX Show & Tell so we thought we’d post the presentation for people to see the thinking that went behind the current design. We couldn’t get permission from our volunteers to post their Silverback sessions online, but their participation proved invaluable in helping us prioritize the interface.

Best viewed full screen!

Thanks to the magic of Google, I figured out that the Great Canadian Sox Company is located in Toronto on the northeastern edge of East York, so my brother and I took a trip to their outlet located in an industrial park on Waterman Avenue.

What a find! On sale were the Icelandics as well as the socks they produce for Sorel, L.L. Bean and others. It turns out that their flagship brand J.B. Field’s was founded in 1877 to make socks for the Canadian logging industry. It’s a shame their branding doesn’t really reflect the pedigree because these could be the next Canada Goose coat.

A decent pair of winter socks from MEC costs around $20. I walked out of there with 7 pairs of -30°C 70% merino wool socks (pictured above) for under $25. They were apparently seconds but I still haven’t found a flaw on them. Regular pairs are $8.00 or 3 pairs for $20.00.

Store hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 10am – 5pm.

Ideally the TTC can move to a vastly more efficient printed layout, but in the meantime a little CSS hack will do. Today I spent a few minutes looking at Greenwood Station – 31 Greenwood and have coded some CSS that can be appended to their print stylesheet.

My suggestions:

• Removed the route diagram from the printed version. It consumes vertical space and is not readable as a thumbnail.
• Removed the “Next 3 scheduled buses” block. The full timetable is below, and once printed it’s obsolete.
• Removed inactive tabs (e.g. Saturday, Sunday, Monday) to avoid confusion.
• Set width of time containers to automatic to prevent wrapping

Here’s what it looks like:

And here’s the CSS code (please comment improvements!):

Route 31 is a peculiar stop because the northbound bus waits facing south on the west side of Greenwood, instead of facing north on the east. It does this because it makes the next two rights and a left to get back onto Greenwood. Unless it’s the alternate B line which runs for a few hours a day and appears on the more obvious east side of the street.

On many occasions I have had to inform (and startle) people because they waiting on the wrong side of the street. It boggles my mind that our city spends thousands on glass bus shelters, but cannot manage to equip these shelters with a basic schedule. TTC, please equip at least the main stops on your routes with information about those routes. Not to Deride the Rocket, but how are we to know The Better Way?

My wife and I are on their basic $10/month plan and over the course of the year incurred $25.25 of “Idiot Fees” (last minute cancellations, extensions by phone, etc.). We are very happy with the service and whole-heartedly recommend it. If only the nearby Beer Store would cooperate and provide AutoShare a spot, it would save us a 1km walk to the closest car!

A nice bonus was a $25 referral fee in August! Those are very welcome, so keep us in mind if you sign up!

One frame every two seconds, handheld and all super-8y. I must get one of those plunger-style tripods because stuck to the door window and covered in black is probably a better way to capture the dark tunnel.

Feel free to embed and distribute on your blog just like the other one. If you’re curious as to how it was made, I used the movie timelapse mode of my Canon Powershot SD850 IS.

One frame per second with a bit missing from the middle when I readjusted the camera. Check the last few frames for the guy near Sherbourne spotting the camera and then ducking.

I met Leila and Paul at the first BarCamp in 2005 when they demoed their image identification software. Few companies in Toronto have so clearly found their calling. Their mission to propel the image business forward drops more jaws every month. Last September I took on some freelance design work with their wunderteam. Shortly thereafter I was offered a full time position as Senior Designer.

In the first few months alone we have gotten a ton of things done. New names and brands for Idée’s two products PixID and Piximilar. A site redesign. Interface design for the labs. A new blog. Print materials. And top secret projects which, if revealed early, would ultimately result in your death.

It’s an amazing environment where everyday everyone gets gently nudged into outdoing themselves. The results are surprising and incredibly rewarding. If you’d like to join us, we (me + Idée) are hiring!