A photo of Jason Clarke from the waist up, smiling at the camera wearing a brown corduroy sport coat and blue sweater

Hi, I’m Jason Clarke. I’m a family guy, writer, and digital strategist based in Orono, Maine. More about me →

web design

  • Do I need a new washing machine? How can you tell, and why it matters to web development.

    Appliances like washing machines — even though they now come in purple and red, and sing pleasing tunes when our clothes are clean — are still pretty invisible, and boring, to most people. We want them to work, relentlessly, while being easy to learn, easy to use, and generally remaining as quiet as possible. Now,…

  • Wilson’s Miner’s “When We Build”

    If you make anything – websites, cars, fasteners, jewlery, anything – I think you’ll really love watching designer Wilson Miner’s talk on the art and process of building. It’s been a great source of inspiration for me. Wilson Miner – When We Build from Build on Vimeo.

    Wilson’s Miner’s “When We Build”

  • Let’s see more context-aware design touches

    I hope, and I predict, that we’ll start to see more of a trend in web and software development in the coming months and years that probably already has a great name, but since I don’t know it, for now I’m giving it my own name: context-aware design. Loosely, I define context-aware design as a principle…

  • Collins launches campaign website

    Eager to capitalize on recent negative press surrounding her opponent Tom Allen’s association with far-left activist group MoveOn.org, Senator Susan Collins’ re-election team launched an early version of the campaign’s official website this week. SusanCollins.com features videos, photo galleries, and blog. On Collins’ site, the freshly launched blog features a post written by the Senator…

  • Soon to be a five-column world

    I thought I was a bit off when I launched a redesign of my TV blog, Network Landscape, with not 3 but 4! columns. Today though, I stumbled across the Hartford Courant’s website, courant.com, which features 5 columns above the fold! I’m still not sure how I feel about that, at least not until everyone…

  • Dang, that’s a nice site!

    Via Glenn, we learn that Tennessee Governor Phil Bresden is now blogging at his state’s official website, Tennessee.gov/governor. (Too bad they didn’t call it tennesse.gov/ernor, right?). A couple of thoughts on this: * Did Bill Hobbs get Gov. Bresden blogging? Or was it his state’s larger (and surprisingly larger) blogging community that got him started?…

  • Stopdesign re-designs

    Stopdesign– one of the two original inspirations for my argous transition into standards-compliant design practices- has scrapped their world-famous design in favor of a clear, leaner, whiter look. Bowman’s new look is shocking, especially for him. While it may seem confusing for one of the early inventers of the rich, stylized capabilities of CSS to…