When you want to catch a slice of the ever-shrinking attention span of web surfers, when you compete against hundreds of similar sites but don’t really have anything new to say, when you want to see your web server crashing under the load of visitor from social link aggregators, all you need to do is to create a list post.

But wait – everybody else is already doing it! What can you do? Just follow these 8 easy steps to unlock the secret doors that will bring forward a rush of AdWord-click-hungry visitors right to your blog:

  • Step 1 – pick a subject. For example – adding image galleries to blogs
  • Step 2 – pick a reasonable number of different techniques to address the subject from step 1. In most cases it will be 5 or less.
  • Step 3 – multiply it by 7 and round up to the closest multiple of 5. Now you have a nice round number to put in the title.
  • Step 4 – create marginally indistinguishable versions of the original techniques from step 2 to make the list of techniques that add up to the number from step 3. Invent new terminology if necessary.
  • Step 5 – combine the number from step 4 with the subject from step 1. For example – 45 techniques to add image galleries to your blog.
  • Step 6 – pick the most unsettlingly inappropriate superlative from the list below and stick it right after the number. For example – 45 overwhelming techniques to add image galleries to your blog.
  • Step 7 – invent an imaginary benefit that will convince your readers to spend the next 20 seconds on skimming the list. The benefit doesn’t have to be real, since they won’t spend time on objectively assessing it. For example – 45 overwhelming techniques to add image galleries to your blog and blow your competition out of the water.
  • Step 8 – make sure that the title is under 100 characters. If it’s too long, nobody will be able to retweet it. You do want to be on Twitter, right?

A handy list of superlatives:

  • Overwhelming
  • Mindboggling
  • Amazing
  • Otherworldly
  • Overpowering
  • Astounding
  • Breathtaking
  • Staggering
  • Stunning
  • Bewildering
  • Awe-inspiring
  • Hair-raising
  • Heart-stopping
  • Spine-shivering
  • Magnificent
  • Thrilling
  • Inconceivable
  • Phenomenal
  • Unimaginable
  • Unfathomable
  • Stupendous
  • Unprecedented
  • Unbelievable

You’re welcome. And oh, I’m on Twitter too, and I’m eagerly looking forward to being followed by 10,000 people who will unfollow me after three days if I don’t follow them back.

I am extremely pleased today to announce the availability of release candidate for version 5.3 of Substance look-and-feel (code-named Reykjavik). The release notes for version 5.3 contain the detailed information on the contents of this release which include the following:

Click on the button below to launch a signed WebStart application that shows the available Substance features.

The following sub-projects are also available as release candidates:

You are more than welcome to take Substance 5.3RC for a ride and report any problems in the project mailing lists, forums or issue tracker. The final release is scheduled for September 28. Only bugs will be fixed until that date.

Sample screenshots of Substance 5.3 in action:




Jitterbug is a visual editor for creating and editing color schemes in Substance look-and-feel introduced in release 5.1 of the library. It primarily addresses the scenarios where you need to translate design mockups or emulate existing UI visuals as a Substance skin. The original version of Jitterbug had two major constraints – it operated on a single color scheme, and did not address the full flows of creating, editing and saving color schemes.

Jitterbug had a major revision in the upcoming release 5.3. Targeting the creation of both Magellan and Gemini skins, it has been redesigned to provide the seamless flows of creating, as well as editing the color scheme definition files that can be used to create complex Substance skins. You no longer need to switch between Jitterbug and another text editor to save color schemes. You no longer need to work on multiple color scheme files, each defining a single color scheme.

The following screenshot shows the new Jitterbug in action (click to see full size view):

To see the Jitterbug in action, run the following signed WebStart demo:

The new version of Jitterbug aims to address deficiencies in the flows of creating and tweaking color schemes. I did try to make the flows straightforward and intuitive, as well as making Jitterbug the only tool you will need to create collections of Substance color schemes. However, i cannot be an objective judge of my own creation. As such, i am not detailing any instructions on how to use Jitterbug. If you find yourself stuck in the middle of the process, or the flows do not simply make sense, let me know in the comments.

Starting a new tradition, each month i’m going to post a meta-list of posts that track the latest design trends and collect the best examples of modern web designs. Here is the list for August 2009: