9Rules is a popular blog network that Juxtaviews is proudly a member of. We caught up with Mike Rundle, co-founder and Chief Design Officer to talk about 9Rules, design inspiration, and why design matters.
For those of you who don’t know what 9Rules is I suggest you read their about page, but here’s the quick low down - the 9Rules network consists of some of the best content producing sites on the web that cover everything from programming, design, art, politics, sports, education, marketing, web 2.0, etc.
The 9Rules site is essentially the hub to all these great content producers and I’m not kissing arse when I say the content is great. The only reason 9Rules is succesful is because of its contributors, and the founders will be the first to admit that. It doesn’t hurt that the site is easy on the eyes either, and that’s where Mike Rundle comes in.
Mike Rundle is the designer who makes the 9Rules network look so pretty. It’s not an easy task taking such a wide variety of content and fitting under one roof. The beauty of the 9Rules design, to me, is in both its simplicity and organization.
Mike was kind enough to answer some questions about 9Rules and his design process. He also talks about his other projects Business Logs where he designs sites like Gigaom and his contributions to the popular Vitamin web design resource where he’s a member of the advisory board. Thanks Mike for your time!
Name, age, favorite new website, and when you sleep at night you dream about?
Mike Rundle, 23 years old. Favorite new site or blog has to be Violent Acres, a site written by an anonymous, angst-ridden female who has the most hilarious insights into other people’s lives… definitely not for the easily offended 
At night I usually fall asleep thinking about code or whatever design I was working on, but then end up dreaming about falling off a cliff or something odd like that.
Who is Mike Rundle?
I’m just a guy trying to do good work, trying to creatively solve all the various problems that designers, entrepreneurs, and 20-something males have to deal with. Oh, and if you say my name fast enough it turns into My Grundle, where “grundle” is slang for a particular body part that is definitely NSFW. It’s always awkward when I introduce myself to someone and I say my name too quickly, because then I get that stare of bewilderment
You have a lot of things going on right now with both 9Rules and Business Logs. Describe your role in each and any other projects you are now working on.
9rules has been steadily taking up more of my time for the past 6-8 months, and will hopefully take up 100% of my time in the near future if things continue going well. Just like with most small companies, Paul, Tyme and myself all wear different hats and do a lot of different things. Currently I’m designing (and developing) an entirely new version of the 9rules.com website that should be launching this month barring any unforeseen server disasters. At Business Logs I write about things I think are interesting and/or aggravating, like startups that take more money than they need or websites that lock-out Mac users. I also selectively take on some very cool client projects to pay the bills, currently I’m working on the new Mozilla Labs website and blog and some other fun stuff.
I was reading a recent post of yours on Business Logs where you wrote an article titled “Web 2.0 Design Is Disposable Design”. I got two things from that article - 1) A call to arms to the design community to innovate and create 2) Calling out all those sites that look like work you’ve done. So, how is your design different than the disposable design you make reference to in that article?
Great question, and to be honest here, I don’t know if it is. My only real goal as a designer is to continually put out quality work that people think has a great look to it, and I suppose if someone thinks a website I put together doesn’t have “that look” then my design immediately falls into the category of disposable design and I should have worked harder. Fortunately I’m my toughest critic, and since everything that I put on the web impacts my own reputation I take a more critical look at what I pass over to clients so that it’s never hastily thrown together or too cliché. One thing I try to do with every piece of creative work I produce is use one new effect or technique within the layout that I’ve never used before — a particular line pattern, icon, color scheme, box, illustration — mainly so I learn more as I design and always produce layouts that look fresh.
Wouldn’t you agree that just like everything else, web design trends go in cycles? A few years ago every site had small pixel fonts, and small pixel icons, +++ and arrows, and now its almost the opposite with larger fonts, smooth gradient, etc. These trends will fade away, new trends will surface, and the cycle will continue. I’m not saying this is a good thing, but it seems inevitable. What new trends can we expect to see in 2007 and what would you like to see?
Design trends for the web definitely go in cycles, but the fault of the designers isn’t in the trends they pick to reproduce, but in the execution of those trends. Pixel fonts, plus signs, small illustrations, large type, gradients, they can all be merged into a design that’s elegant, beautiful, and useful. Or on the opposite end, a misuse or overuse of any of those design trends can easily cause the entire layout to look like a disaster zone. Good designers can execute a trend or pattern in such a way that it compliments the layout as a whole, but bad designers simply imitate trends they see on other sites without thinking about the total impact of that particular rounded corner or diagonal line.
I’d like to see 2007 usher in a return to aesthetic minimalism, better usability, cleaner layouts, and less fluff. If the design gets in the way of the content you’re trying to show readers, then you’re doing a disservice to everyone who visits your website. At 9rules, I’m continuously trying to remove superfluous design elements in favor of ones that “show” rather than “tell”.
Design matters. Why?
Design matters because it’s the communicative medium that stands between the user’s goals and the website’s goals, and without a design that merges the best of both those worlds the site will fall apart. If I surf to a website and want to participate, but nowhere in that interface does the site show me how to do so, then the site has failed me as a user because of the design. On the other hand, if I go to a site and don’t have any intention of participating but the design draws me to do so, then it just converted a non-user into a user. Good design can make mediocre applications look more polished and mature, but bad design can make the most absolutely perfect applications impossible to use and frighteningly ugly.
What are the popular design portals these days? Where do you get your inspiration and design news?
I try to keep my feedreader light on subscriptions so I don’t spend all day reading blogs, but I currently have 43 feeds that I subscribe to across various industries like design, technology, business, cars, gadgets, etc. What’s nice about 9rules is that I can pop over to the site and immediately get caught up on the design industry since so many brilliant people are in our community. I never view a website and immediately get inspired to do something similar to what that designer did, because you’re doing yourself and that designer a huge disservice, in fact I advocate the complete opposite of that. I don’t crowd around the various CSS gallery sites analyzing each pixel or view a dozen portfolios to “get inspired”, I’d rather try to think about what problem you’re trying to solve and then work from that to find an elegant solution. Much of the design work I do currently revolves around a specific problem set and how to use design to solve it, so there’s little room for superfluous “Web 2.0″ design elements… but I love my gradients!
What inspires your designs?
I try to get a feel for the personality the site should have once it’s completed, who the target audience will be, what attitudes they bring to the site, their goals, etc. By looking at the endgame scenario and emotions I’m trying to bring forth I try to work backwards and see what design is necessary to accomplish those goals. I love how typography interacts on the page to align or contrast itself with other elements, so working with the few fonts web designers can work with usually inspires me to be creative with their usage.
Walk us through your design life cycle. Does it begin with a sketch? With photoshop? etc.
Usually I start in Photoshop with some idea of where I’m headed, but if I don’t have that concept in my head to start I like to sketch some concepts out on paper. I’m a geek so I’ll normally leave little notes in the margins of the design with CSS code scribbled in or some colors I think would work well, just as a reference for later. I do 100% of the design and XHTML/CSS work for projects so thinking about the code in my head while I’m pushing pixels in Photoshop is useful. After I have enough of the layout put together in Photoshop I’ll write the XHTML first, as a complete document, and then when I’m finished I’ll go back and write the CSS afterwards. I like seeing what elements of the page have yet to be styled, so by having all the XHTML done before getting into the stylesheet I can see what I’m missing.
Best site to get design tutorials?
Definitely Veerle and Wolfgang Bartelme . Two best designers on the planet in my opinion, and they do amazing tutorials.
For years. the role of front-end developer and a designer were two different disciplines. But those roles have cross-polinated. When someone says I’m a web designer - what do you think they do for 9 hours a day?
Well in the design industry a lot of people work for themselves and do client work, and to be successful on your own you need to know how to write code as well as produce great designs. If you’re only proficient in Photoshop but have a partner or contractor work the XHTML/CSS part, then you’re essentially making 50% less money then you could be making if you wrote the code yourself. Or to take it a step further, if a designer who knows XHTML/CSS learns PHP or Ruby on Rails then they can start producing/coding web applications for themselves or for clients, again keeping costs down and having more money in your pocket. At 9rules I push the pixels in Photoshop, write the CSS, code the PHP, tweak the database, and write the Ajax/Javascript stuff. By keeping the entire development cycle essentially self-contained I can immediately produce prototypes of new features and implement them the same day, or the same afternoon, without relying on anyone else to “code my mockup for me”. I definitely think that having skills beyond Photoshop or Illustrator is key to being a successful web designer because you can design, code, and execute anything you want.
You’re located in North Carolina. What’s the design community like down there and how do you stay motivated?
Honestly I’ve never been one to connect with the local design community, mainly because I think that everything I do on the web is extraordinarily uninteresting to my friends or people who aren’t immediately associated with a project. I hate when you meet someone and they go into great depth about their work when you have absolutely no clue what they’re talking about, so I do my very best never to bring up my “online life” because I just don’t think it’s fun dinnertime conversation. Most of my waking hours are dominated by work or computer-related stuff anyway, so the few hours I can spare of downtime with my fiancée or friends just hanging out is normally 100% tech-free
I work at home and “run” my lifestyle, so I think my main motivation is to do whatever I possibly can to continue living how I live right now. I’ve done the 90 minute commute each way, the terrible bosses and coworkers, so my motivation is to always appreciate the fact that I can get out of bed at noon and no one will yell at me and to make sure I never screw up that amazing luxury.
In reflex to your article on Vitamin titled “How C.R.A.P. is your site design” could I ask you to critique Juxtaviews? What is wrong with the desing - and be as critical you you like. How C.R.A.P. is Juxtaviews?
First, I think the layout and information architecture is great, and usually those are the two most important parts of the design. At first glance I’d say that the contrast of the site as a whole is low, it seems as though everything is on the same visual plane with nothing jumping out to grab my attention. To remedy that I’d suggest inverting the color scheme in your header area by making the background of the header a dark blue with a white text logo, and then make the tags stand out more by using a bolder font weight and darker coloring. Another idea would be to use some visual indicators to separate blog entries so they’re not rushing into each other: alternating background colors or lines in between would make the site easier to scan and would ultimately lead to more clickthroughs from your homepage. Just some ideas!
What websites must you visit every day?/
I hit Digg, Drudge Report, CNN, Techmeme and Reddit all day long, with Bloglines perpetually open in one tab. I’m not one to browse through Delicious or Ma.gnolia to see what other people have thought individually, I’m more into the automated systems that work on number of clicks, links, or diggs. Of course I’m on 9rules.com constantly too to see what the popular Notes are, who’s writing about what around the community, and if there are any questions/comments I can address.
If you could kill the term web 2.0 how would you kill it?
I like that scene in an old James Bond movie, where he’s strapped to a metal table and there’s a laser beam slowing making its way towards his crotch. If Bond didn’t escape he would have sat there and counted the seconds down to when the laser would cut him down “to size” if you will… now that’s the way to kill Web 2.0!
What’s the next new technology you’re excited about?
I’m really excited about “always on” web/desktop applications, where something like a widget sits on a user’s desktop all day long and continuously runs some Javascript and updates itself with data. Currently Microsoft Vista has “gadgets” and Mac OS X has “dashboard widgets” but they’re basically the same thing. I’m sure there will be a day when the browser as we know it will disappear, and our desktop will be merged with Internet content 24 hours a day, providing live data streams on topics/industries that we like. Bring these widgets together with TV over IP and you have some killer entertainment features set to go.