1. Reflections - 2011

    Sometimes it depresses or saddens me that I am not working for a ridiculously awesome and talented design agency (your Carrot Creatives, Vigets, even Landor’s of the world[just some examples that were in my head, there are many more out there]). Even moreso when I think of all the talent THEY have that I don’t. Evenmoreso that I am not developing certain aspects of my talents. My family, friends, GF, are so super supportive it’s uncanny, but sometimes they just don’t see like I do, exactly HOW far behind the curve I am. But then I realize that I AM kicking ass and taking names, just not in the niche I expected or even wanted to be in 1, 2, or 3 years ago. That’s something too…I’ve only been doing this for 3-4 years…and I am still growing, just in different ways.

    This year I’ve heralded myself as an Agile Design/Development and User Experience expert within my company, affording me more responsibility and opportunities therein…showing ‘the man’ that they pay me for good reason, and have much more good reason to pay me more. I might not design much lately, or kept up much with the social design world, but in my own way, I am doing right for myself and my future. Building an experiential platform only builds and never detracts from your future career goals. Only one way to go and that’s up. Here’s to unexpected goals being met and exceeded, and to future unexpected opportunities in the coming year for all of us.

    Next Years Goal:  Javascript and PHP kickassery….the former being the most valuable as a skill in this field. 

  2. I think we have for too long been enamored of this idea of the genius designer, or design as this thing that some really cool person produces. I have to say, with respect, I think that’s bullshit. I think that design is a thing that anybody does, guy does, gal does to actually take all of the ideas that everybody has about what a product can be, and to bring them together in a way that creates an elegant, appropriate, cohesive solution for the end users. -Leah Buley

    — 

    http://www.ugleah.com/ux-team-of-one/

    Great talk from SXSW ‘09 titled “Being a UX Team of One”. I encourage you to watch!

  3. I want to say something about this. I used to say this. Then I realized that the only one stopping me getting “Experience” was myself. Just because you don’t have a client doesn’t mean you can’t spend time doing conceptual client work. A future employer would rather hire someone who has been busting their ass improving their craft then someone who just sits around and complains they can’t get a job while they bus tables. I was a member of the latter, I know I could of done more, but I was a fool, Luckily I got a job. To those having trouble….DO ALL YOU CAN to improve your craft. Sketch, do concept work, Do work for companies that don’t know they need work done, then try to sell it to them, you never know what may happen!

    I want to say something about this. I used to say this. Then I realized that the only one stopping me getting “Experience” was myself. Just because you don’t have a client doesn’t mean you can’t spend time doing conceptual client work. A future employer would rather hire someone who has been busting their ass improving their craft then someone who just sits around and complains they can’t get a job while they bus tables. I was a member of the latter, I know I could of done more, but I was a fool, Luckily I got a job. To those having trouble….DO ALL YOU CAN to improve your craft. Sketch, do concept work, Do work for companies that don’t know they need work done, then try to sell it to them, you never know what may happen!

    (Source: kellitoris)

  4. Achieving Browsing Zen

    middaylatte:

    Since posting about Being Better at Browsing, I’ve made a few big changes to the way I browse that have dramatically improved my habits. The simple, focused experience I was seeking? Nailed it. Here’s what I use. 

    1. Pinned Tabs

    Solves the problem of… getting sidetracked when hunting for an often-used tab (like Hype Machine); distracting notification counters (Facebook, Twitter, Campfire).

    Holy fig, guys. I should have known about this! In Chrome, you can find Pin tab in the context menu for any tab. It shrinks the tab down to its icon and moves it to the left of the non-pinned tabs.

    2. Autoclosing tabs

    Solves the problem of… leaving tabs open for reminders/to-do tasks; opening too many tabs at once.

    Autoclosing tabs are some serious tough love for tab addicts. It’s a little scary—I, uh, screamed the first time one closed on me—but nothing has been more helpful. It trains you to be choosy about what you open, forces you to address tabs right away, and discourages too much multi-tasking. Now I concentrate on single tasks, rather than being all over the place. I use Tab Wrangler for Chrome.

    Read More

  5. My Response to “The “Content is King” Myth Debunked”

    Read the article I commented on HERE written by Derek Halpern.

    I wouldn’t say Content, OR Design is king. The USER is King. The saying ‘Content is King’ is twofold in meaning. One: Do not let your design distract from the content. Two: Your content must shape your design. You have to deliver a cogent diatribe between content and user, aesthetically, coherently, and comprehensibly.

    You CAN clearly, create a design without knowing any/referencing any content that will be therein, but then your design lacks the soul of the piece. At it’s simplest form, it’s like painting the baby’s room hot pink without knowing the sex, or even knowing you are pregnant yet.

    Content(or I could go as abstracted to say, the ‘expected content’) needs to be present in your mind whilst you design, otherwise as I’ve said, the design will be ultimately lack-luster to the users. Take another for-instance. Say you believe that the Flickr site is a good design. Now take that site, but feed it different content, say the content from the New York Times. Sure it might WORK but it won’t FEEL or READ right, thus hindering the trust between the user and your site.

    I agree that Design is greatly important at many different levels depending on the execution (aka whether or not you are designing for something as well known as Drudge or Craigs), but overall, Content needs is the x to the x+y formula.

    Content + Design = Usable, trustworthy websites. It’s a symbiotic relationship, neither is more important.

    What do you think?

  6. Chris Trude, Fundraiser, Bike MS →

    I wanted to create a quick HTML5 semantic page to display my fundraising links. was a quick fun, project, what do you think??

  7. Playing around with a 1 page site design for fundraising. Here’s a sample. What do you think? Organization of my sections and overlaying stuff is tough, but I’m loving the fonts im using thru google fonts. ‘Candal’ and ‘Arvo’. Not quite finished. A few more small tweaks and it’ll go live, I’ll be sure to link it here.

    Playing around with a 1 page site design for fundraising. Here’s a sample. What do you think? Organization of my sections and overlaying stuff is tough, but I’m loving the fonts im using thru google fonts. ‘Candal’ and ‘Arvo’. Not quite finished. A few more small tweaks and it’ll go live, I’ll be sure to link it here.

  8. Super 8 App Website Design

    hawkstudios:

    Just like the app, I had fun designing the website. The idea was to let the Super 8™ app speak for itself.

    Great work!

  9. Possible style for a new site design. Pretty cliché but I haven’t given this style of web design a shot yet. What do you think?  Green is samples, brown is content…not sure what/if im feeling yet…prolly going to just scrap pile this.

    Possible style for a new site design. Pretty cliché but I haven’t given this style of web design a shot yet. What do you think? 

    Green is samples, brown is content…not sure what/if im feeling yet…prolly going to just scrap pile this.

  10. knewtonux: Great image!  A good primer on landing page best practices trifunkalicious: Anatomy of a Landing Page. Seen on Design is Blank. Like this. But don’t love the “Above the Fold” part. Users are known now to scroll thru a whole page before they really get into reading content most the time now.

    knewtonux:

    Great image!  A good primer on landing page best practices

    trifunkalicious:

    Anatomy of a Landing Page. Seen on Design is Blank.

    Like this. But don’t love the “Above the Fold” part. Users are known now to scroll thru a whole page before they really get into reading content most the time now.