Tailor-Made

The truth is that as a designer there is no way to completely predict everyone and in every way they will use your web site. As a result some strong arguments for a “context-aware” approach have been made. Designer/Coder Jeff Croft challenges responsive web design by saying:

“By and large, mobile users want different things from your product than desktop users do. If you’re a restaurant, desktop users may want photos of your place, a complete menu, and some information about your history. But mobile users probably just want your address and operating hours.”

This argument is well-founded and definitely can be proven to be the best solution for some design problems given certain circumstances. There is a time and place for a sharp focus and expansion of certain features or content types. Some would argue that that’s where a “context-aware” web experience comes in.
Coming from background of designing web apps and more recently native mobile and desktop applications there is often one question I wrestle with. Is there enough need, features, and user requirements to necessitate a full native application? Or, could the same benefit be gleaned from an improved and more flexible web experience? The same holds true for the question of whether a device-specific, “context-aware” web site is necessary. Is it worth the extra time and effort to build, when maybe half of the effort would be needed to improve and adapt your web site for mobile users? It might turn out that you have the need, but not the time to create your vision of what a tailored mobile web experience is. Enter the shining beacon of light that is responsive design.

Responsively Agnostic

A recent and recommended read of mine by Ethan Marcotte, Responsive Web Design, explains the world of fluid grids, media queries, and designing a sites with a “flexible foundation”. Essentially he suggests that you should design something (one thing) that will “work” on most devices that you anticipate it being viewed on. More than likely you won’t be able to hit every possible requirement for every Windows Phone 7 user (for example), but you’ll be able to get to most of your users what they need.
Marcotte’s approach is efficient and in the long run can save time for designers and developers alike. This device/platform agnostic approach doesn’t just serve as a “quick fix” solution to check off your “mobile presence” requirement, but it gives you a bridge to the next step. As mentioned earlier you have to examine the need and in many cases you’ll find that the needs of a designer to reach mobile users can be met with a responsive, device agnostic solution.
With the power of media queries, determining the way your site is displayed is fairly straightforward. It’s like getting a desktop, tablet, and mobile web sites all-in-one.

It Works!

The number of designers and developers using responsive web design techniques seems to be growing. This becomes evident when you visit their personal websites. Speaking as one who has been meaning to “mobile” my site for quite some time now the personal sites of “cool kid” designers such as Meagan Fischer are rather inspiring.

Her site adheres to these ideas to a tee. At most common screen resolutions she has designed a layout that best displays her content in a legible and visually pleasing fashion. By my count there are 4 different layouts: one for desktop viewing, one for larger portrait-oriented tablets, one for smaller portrait-oriented tablets, and one for phones. You can experience all of these layouts by going to her site and and resizing your window to different sizes. Thanks to media queries it is possible for her site to know what layout to display.

A Responsive Bridge to the Future

It’s nearly impossible to keep up with every new device and web browser being created, but with a responsive design, some research, a savvy developer, and perhaps a little luck you can help make the growing pains that come with testing for new things a little easier. I’m not saying that responsive web design is ultimately the best solution for every situation, but what I am saying is that it can definitely serve a useful purpose in most cases. With it you empower yourself and your website to be better experienced by most people that come across it. Even if you have the eventual need for a dedicated mobile website, a well-designed and planned responsive site buys you time to make it great with fairly minimal effort. It gives you a means to something, whatever it is you need it to be.

Originally Posted by Max Foundry – http://maxfoundry.com/blog/2011/12/07/responsive-web-design-a-means-to-something/

Ignoring the emergence of male carry-all bag, I carry things in my pants pockets. But for me, there have always been right-pocket things and left-pocket things. By that I mean that 92% of the time (with obvious exceptions for running shorts, swimming trunks, and some tuxedo pants) the things that I have on my person reside very specifically in either my right pocket or my left. It feels natural and to me; it just makes sense.

The Logic

The thinking is that I want to have things that require the most finger dexterity use in my right pocket, easily accessible by my dominant, right hand. The objects receiving interaction from the right hand or receiving interaction from right-pocket objects go in the left pocket.

Here’s my current right pocket configuration: keys, coins, chap stick, and retractable pen.

Current left pocket pocket configuration: iPhone, and assorted paper.

Testing

Occasionally I’ll consider making an addition to my already crowded front pockets. This often happens with new memo books. Typically I will give any new “pocket-carry candidate” a two-day test. If in that time it feels too unnatural, could damage something in that pocket (ex. iPhone screen), or even worse, makes my leg sweat, it fails. Sometimes if the new object proves its utility but fails the 2-day test, it gets a stint in one of my rear pockets before inevitably ending up back in my messenger bag.

End Notes

Now I know that it seems like I’ve put way too much thought into this, and maybe I have. Despite my keen awareness of my pocket contents I sometimes break these rules. I’ll sometimes take objects out of my pockets in anticipation of immediate use, or remove my phone in hypochondriac avoidance of prolonged radiation exposure. But in the end of the day, I know what I am getting when I reach into my pockets. It’s familiar. It’s reliable. It’s (for me at least) good user experience.

Ten things that I took from SXSWi this year:

• “Mobile” is becoming the new “web 2.0″
• People listen a lot better than you might think they do.
• Apple knows how to make its presence know, without officially doing it.
• Large is most popular t-shirt size at geek-centric conferences.
• The use of the words “analog” and “physical” is now necessary prefixes when describing actual objects.
• People are still impressed with a well-done letter-pressed business card.
• Not all the “cool kids” live in New York.
• Just because you are a “VIP” for an event it doesn’t mean you can get in to it.
• 80′s retro is still chic.
• Everyone loves a good meme.

So, I decided to take advantage of the early upgrade that AT&T so graciously offered me. I was an early adopter of the iPhone, and have been relatively pleased with the device. My biggest complaint being issues with AT&T’s service. This became evident as soon as we moved into our curent rental and discovered that we now lived in an AT&T dead spot. Amid rumors of a possible Verizion iPhone this winter, I considered waiting for that and jumping ship. Then I realized that I still had another year on my current AT&T contract, so to move I would have to pay an early termination fee. Lose, lose…sort of.

Call me impatient, and I was a bit unsure about making this upgrade; “Antennagate” and all, but I was intrigued by the new features. Today I purchased a 16GB iPhone 4, my third iPhone (6th if you count the Apple Care claims that I’ve had). I have to admit I’m pretty pleased. HD video is great, the Retina Display is as advertised Spectacular. Any concerns I had about antenna issues were eased by the reassuring words of the sales person I overheard while I “dropping eaves” in line at the Apple Store:

“It’s just media hype! I can prove it!”

Eight hours in I can say I’m pretty pleased. I still haven’t gotten a chance to FaceTime with anyone, so please fellow iPhone 4 users give me a call, I want to make sure it’s not just “media hype”.

For many people (myself included) there is a need to find an outlet to express yourself. You want a place to share you opinion about everything from politics to religion to the very details of your daily personal routine. I get it. For many of us we find that outlet on our blog, Facebook or Twitter. Once those thoughts and words are out there they are out there for every one to read, to Google, to “stumbleupon,” or to judge. With every post you are, as Gary Vaynerchuk in his book Crush It! put it “building your personal brand”. So what does your personal brand look like?

It amazes me how often people misuse their social media outlets. The most obvious culprits are the people that use these mediums as their personal (and very public) diary. These chronic over-sharers like to fill you in on the blow-by-blow details of their latest doctors appointments, make veiled references to personal relationship problems, and tell you about even their latest “euphemized” bowel movement. The end result has a great effect on personal brand and diminishes social value.

As someone in his late-twenties, I was in high school when LiveJournal and other seminal social media efforts began, and college when Facebook came to be. Needless to say there have been some growing pains and hard lessons many of us early “Gen-Yer’s” have learned about the misuse of social media. At first we could get away with posting pretty much anything we wanted to our various social media profiles. Soon though, as communities like Facebook opened to not just college students, but anybody who wanted to join, we had to think twice before posting the latest kegger pics on our profiles. Eventually we started getting friend requests from our parents, our parents’ friends, and even our grandparents. Soon, everyone could have a very public personal brand, and all the baggage that comes with it.

We live in a world where some employers consider their potential hires’ social media profiles as much as their resume when making hiring decisions. Some company’s don’t even allow their employees to have these accounts, or at least heavily police them for fear of being embarrassed by potential employee misconduct. Yet at the same time a well-written, carefully-meditated social media presence can do wonders for you and your career.

With each mused key stroke, these smart or “boss” social media contributors not only build a strong personal brand for themselves, but also contribute to the general canon of human knowledge. They are the ones have the know-how to sort through the muck, find the useful and informative and bring it to the masses. Their power is pretty incredible, almost as incredible as the influence of those who are thoughtless and reckless.

To me, no matter if you are a college freshman looking for fun on a Friday night or a mid-level manager on his way to the top, the way you present yourself on the “interwebs” really matters. Just as in real life, if you present yourself as an intelligent and relevant professional, people will take notice. Your worth to them will be more than just a blip on their rss reader feed; it will be an opportunity to learn.

It has been my at-times-frustrating pleasure to use Google Voice for the past year and half. Thanks to Steven Ray, I was an early adopter to the service, using the service since the time that it was called Grand Central. In so many ways it’s been fantastic: allowing me the freedom to have an essentially free business line (my 512 number), screen calls, make discounted international calls, and get text message transcriptions of my voice mail messages. It’s amazing!

About those transcriptions: for anyone who has used GV for any amount of time could tell you, those transcriptions are pretty useless. Whether it’s “Brother” (I’m an only child) “calling to expose Bravo” (no clue) or a friend calling to inform me of his “DMC a claim quick bottle automatic form”. Google Voice has been doing a mediocre job of putting my voice mail messages into written form for over a year now, and not once have I found it helpful. If nothing else it has served for some good entertainment. Let’s hope while google continues to improve and perfect Android OS and its many other technologies that it doesn’t forget about Google Voice. Because 90% of the time I’m a huge fan.

“Regarding that Russian or your interest in the dogs.”
- Google Voice, 3/26/2010

Recently Ryan Feerer and I completed the first-ever official Abidesco project, for Mary McBride promoting her up-coming summer tour.

About the tour:

“As part of the release of Mary’s new album “The Way Home,” Mary and her band will be on THE HOME TOUR, a concert tour of “places people call home” – including long-term health care centers, homeless shelters, prisons, homes in low-income communities, homes for people living with HIV/AIDS and homes for people living with mental and physical disabilities. They’ll be playing for the elderly in Washington, DC; for Navajo families living in supported housing in New Mexico; for children in the Treme’ district in New Orleans; for immigrants seeking asylum in Detroit; for a farm worker community in rural Washington State; and for veterans recovering from injuries and living indefinitely at a VA hospital in Long Beach, CA. And these are just a handful of their stops. The band has partnered with a not-for-profit organization in each city which will host the concerts. The videos below represent many of these organizations and the tremendous work they are doing to improve the lives of people every day.”

You can follow the tour and and here tracks from Mary’s latest album “The Way Home” at http://thehometour.org

As has been the trend for the past nine months of my life, from getting married, to moving, the changes keep coming. April 1 will be my last day at Telligent. I’ve been offered an exciting new opportunity at NBC Artworks as a Senior Interactive Designer.

During the time that I’ve been at Telligent I’ve learned a lot and have made some great friends. I want to thank everyone at Telligent for this great opportunity and the experience that I gained during my time here. Specifically to my fellow current and former creative team co-workers, I thank you for you patience with me when I was starting out and your continued mentorship. I have many great memories for our time together and hope to see that continue.

And now on to new things, I’m ever grateful to all of you. Thanks for a great experience.

-Ben