Ancora Imparo

I started a new, challenging side project that forces me to improve my photo manipulation skills. Here’s a look at what I’m working on:

It’s all very secretive.

I make things, too

I have to say, sometimes I suffer from jealousy of other designers/artists sites because they just put out so much cool stuff. Usually my projects are a little more long term or aren’t allowed to be broadcast on the internets. Well get ready world, because I can show this one off:

The Texas Exes are celebrating 125 years of supporting the University of Texas and providing opportunities for scholars. This site was designed by Jamie Appel and I, and developed by Andy Thompson, Randy Ramirez and myself. What’s that? You see a similiarity in twitter birds? I couldn’t help myself. They’re incredibly cute and hey, this one is different because it has a longhorn…right?

Go check it out and click around!

Outlook

Outlook fails in a variety of ways. But today it was just too good.

When outlook encountered an error, it gave me this message:

When it asked was this helpful, I clicked the link.

I hit no, the error message ‘operation failed’ was not helpful. How could I possibly fix the problem if the system only told me it had failed, and not how to fix it or what might be causing the error? After I clicked no, this came up:

It failed to record how it had failed. That’s pretty much the epitome of worthlessness.

Action Packed

The minds behind the Venture Bros., a cartoon that airs on Adult Swim, put an amazing level of thought and detail into their DVD design. My favorite is the homage to Atari video games.

Design Envy

There are three ladies that immediately come to mind when I think of rock star designers that I aspire to be like. They work hard, do a brilliant job, and are extremely successful. Oh yes, and they love what they do (as they should!). These women are definitely shining examples of the success you can achieve when you pour your heart into your work. I’m just one of many recognizing them, and I hope you can draw some inspiration from them as well.

Meagan Fisher has a brilliant eye for design and a great handle on writing clean, accessible code. She shares some great links, tutorials, and ideas on her blog.

Jessica Hische is well known for her beautiful typography and amazing illustrations. She has become an extremely successful freelancer shortly after leaving school. She attributes her amazing typography skills to drawing it day in and day out for three years.

Nubby Twiglet covers design, typography, business, fashion, and many more subjects on her highly popular blog. Her  keen sense of design and grasp on a well run business has taken her far, and she’s happy to share her tips to success.

I try to keep an eye on emerging designers to draw inspiration and am happy as I watch them grow with each success. Along with that, their work is enviable, and as Jessica Hische says, “Envy can be a big motivator.”

The Young Grasshopper Reflects

Inspired by this blog entitled 101 Things I learned in interaction design school, I wanted to take a moment to document a few of the things I’ve learned from the school of hard knocks, i.e. being tossed in the pit of software development. I was very lucky to work with a dynamic team, and these are just some of the thoughts I came out with. Naturally, reading awesome blogs like Smashing Magazine and A List Apart definitely helped.

And lo! I give unto you a few of the things I learned while in conference rooms, standing before a whiteboard, and while hiding behind a sketch pad.

1. Open minds and active listening are key to success.
2. Always ask, ‘Why?’ How is this feature providing benefit to the user?
3. Mapping out purpose will provide the pathway to functionality, design and flow of the product.
4. Developers and designers come from two different viewpoints and have so much to share with each other, so always respect each other’s role in the process.
5. Clearly define scope of a product from the outset and beware little additions along the way.
6. Drawing on a whiteboard together will provide clarification of ideas and more often than not save a lot of time.
7. Your design is going to continually change. Don’t get hung up on your “vision” because you might just be blocking improvement.
8. Learn to take criticism well, and learn to give it constructively.
9. Taking a lo-fi wireframe or sketch to a meeting typically encourages a more lively exchange of ideas as people realize that this is just the first iteration of a final product.
10. Never hesitate to take an incomplete idea to a team member and brainstorm; it can help you get past roadblocks and provide some really amazing ideas.

Hiding behind your iPhone

In the latest issue of my alma mater’s magazine, The Alcalde, the Dean of Communication, Roderick P. Hart, states that the assumption that new media will change the nature of human relationships is false.

“The new media, we are told, have changed the world. The new media, we are told, have even changed what it means to be human.”

Hart goes on to say that this is not really the case, that the new media changes the medium but not the message.

“The new media have changed many things but not all things. We no longer have phonograph records, but we somehow still have music. Newspapers are thinner, but the news continues to thrive. X-boxes have declined, but video games have never been more popular. Teenagers still ogle one another, but they do so first on Facebook. When finally getting together, they film their antics and post them on YouTube, thereby bringing mountains of despair to their parents and their parents’ attorneys.”

I think this is an excellent point, but I believe more is changing than just the medium. The nature of human interaction, in my opinion, is being altered by this new media. I would say that my biggest concern is isolation. We communicate through facebook status updates, tweets, blogs, and many other channels on the internet and though we are technically interacting with more people at once, it almost feels as if we’re isolating ourselves. Instead of discussing a strange event one on one with a friend, I find myself throwing it out as a status update for anyone and everyone to catch or ignore. Yes, we are putting more information out there about ourselves, but we have no idea who is reading it and if anyone even cares. It’s quantity instead of quality interaction, and that has repercussions. While most people can maintain a balance of impersonal vs. personal communications, it seems to me a slippery slope that some might find themselves sliding down.

Beyond that, the new media gives us avenues to avoid interactions with other people. On the bus? Put on your headphones and listen to your iPod. Even better, surf the web on your smart phone and see what your friends are up to. Ignore the people around you, their conversations and easily avoid any possible communication by being engrossed in your own isolated activity.

But despite my fears and groans about how society is crumbling and all is lost, the new media is capable of enriching human relationships. Technology helps us span thousands of miles, allowing us to communicate daily with people that perhaps 50 years ago we would have only been able to maintain as pen pals. Friends in Europe seem so much closer when I can interact through Facebook, sharing messages, having conversations and exchanging pictures with little effort. Technology is definitely on its way to helping us bridge gaps where communication was previously not easy or feasible.

Ultimately I believe society is going through some growing pains. We have the means, but we have yet to fully harness technology to create rich social interactions that are more meaningful then a quick status update or witty comment. Technology is still taking shape and is becoming so prevalent that we must be aware of how it is impacting our relationships, lives and overall outlook. It’s a brave new world and we cannot dismiss that the means in which our interactions are executed will affect us.

On the Future of Technology and Panda Diets

While putting together a presentation for Austin UPA’s World Usability Day event, I was having a hard time with one particular proposal to cut down on waste: design products that are meant to last. Sounds simple, right? Make longer lasting, durable products that simply need software upgrades so that our landfills aren’t full of discarded technology.

This hopeful suggestion has two major holes in it that I’m having a hard time solving:

• Businesses want to sell you the next new, shiny thing and get a lot of money for it.
• People love new gadgets and computers. Early adapters are likely to throw out the old and welcome the new with open arms, if for anything else, to be the coolest kid on the block.

We have a vicious cycle on our hands; they want to sell us something and we as a society openly consent to a wasteful consumer culture.

The only hopeful suggestion I can offer is that we must augment our perspective on buying new products. As we use up more resources and create more waste, I can only hope it will become more apparent to people as a whole. The current trends point towards that, and I’m optimistic. People use canvas bags instead of plastic, we’re careful about the amount of gas we use, we recycle. Perhaps the waste that comes from technology will become a heavier weight on people’s mind and the public’s opinion will force businesses to seek money in other avenues. They might be forced in some sense to create sustainable designs that simply need internal upgrades, or that have parts that can be upgraded to the new shiny standard.

Another, and perhaps more realistic offer, is that companies start building technology from easily recyclable resources, such as this bamboo hard drive. I know that if I my technology could be easily broken down and reused, I wouldn’t feel guilty making upgrades. Even better if it was made completely of bamboo and could be given to an adorable panda to gnaw on. Now that’s just heartwarming.

Mmm, delicious sustainability.

Any thoughts on this? Or even current examples that have these traits? I’m all ears.

Link Wrangling, part deux

Things have been pretty hectic over here, and I couldn’t begin to tell you everything that have been flying around since early July. But a few recent things of note are preparing a presentation for the World Usability Day event here in Austin, writing a proposal for a site realignment (using this article as an excellent guide), and switching this site over to new hosting. I was worried about switching due to having to backup and restore my blog, which is powered by Wordpress, but in the end I was shocked at how easy it was. I can’t recommend Wordpress enough.

These days I’m working closer to home, which leaves more time for my latest endeavor- honing my graphic design skills. I’ve found some amazing Illustrator Tutorials on Smashing Magazine, and highly recommend you browse around.

Basically, I’ve been busy. But I’ll have more scintillating ramblings on design soon, don’t you worry. In the meantime, check out a few links:

Swiss Miss, a great blog for whimsy, ideas, and inspiration.

Ffffound is a site “that allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user’s tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!” Very cool way to find and share ideas.

In the vein of taking inspiration from the “analog world”, here’s a cool little blog full of surface pattern designs: Print & Pattern.

Another Smashing Magazine link, naturally. The Ultimate Round-up of Print Design Tutorials intrigued me because I don’t have much exposure to the do’s and don’ts of print design. Especially helpful to me were the multiple business card tutorials.

Finally, A Beautiful Mess is a crafty girl’s blog that I love checking every now just to see what she’s making. I always find it inspiring to see people creating beautiful things, so it’s a good blog for me to check in my afternoon slumps.

Hope all is well with you!

Aligning Inspiration

When a friend is trying to get their name out quickly with a promotional site, I tend to recommend that they choose an image they love and begin to build a theme off of that. When my friend Stephanie, the soon to be famous Brooklyn based editor, requested a quick site that would serve as a launching point for her demo reels and video clips, I suggested she patrol istockphoto and see what she found. When she returned a few images, I quickly threw together a couple of suggestions that mainly relied on colors from the image and alignment. My other concern was that they could be coded quickly, so I kept it simple.

We passed ideas back and forth in this way and iteration was quick- the beauty of working on a two person team. This isn’t always a feasible method, but when working with a friend it was an enjoyable experience. Nothing beats playing around with a meaningful image and subtly making fun of your friend in the dummy text. It’s one of those priceless gems I hold dear when working for free.