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.

I’ve recently become aware of the fact that I’ve let “things” go. Now, really I think I could say that truthfully about a lot of areas of my life. Sure, I’ve not been the best at helping my wife out with the dishes, doing laundry, or sorting through junk mail. Some might say that I’ve even “let myself go” a bit lately (that’s another post for another time.) But I think that the reality of my situation is that even professionally, it’s been a while since I’ve really taken inventory, got rid of some junk, and really focused on what it is that I want to be “when I grow up.”

It hit me the other day, when I was updating my LinkedIn profile after a recent job change, that I couldn’t decide what to put for profile headline, and don’t get me started on my bio. I’ve always prided myself on being good or at least proficient at many different and often unrelated things, but as I’m learning it’s pretty exhausting. To be frank, I think my days as a “Professional Interactive Designer and Amateur, musicologist, illustrator, sound engineer, camera operator, video editor, director, baseball historian, and all-around know-it-all” are likely numbered.

Too many extracurricular activities, Max. Not enough studying.

Sometimes I feel like Dr. Guggenheim would have those words for me as he did for young Max Fischer. I suppose the good thing in all of this is that I’ve decided what I’m going to do, at least until it’s made obvious that I suck at it or it’s no longer fulfilling, which ever comes first. But I’m no quitter, so I feel pretty good about my path down the UX road. And I’m alright becoming merely an enthusiast in my other interests, an avid enthusiast. I don’t do anything half-way.

In my relatively short career, there is one over-arching lesson that I have learned. It being that the word “no” is not a “four-letter word”. It isn’t (since it has two letters), especially when dealing with a client. Slowly, I have and continue to learn that word’s importance my relationship with clients. Being (as I have recently been describe) a natural-born “yes-man” it goes against my very nature to say no. For many creatives who are truly passionate about what they do this is a very easy trap to fall into.

Managing Expectations is hard to do.

It goes without saying, managing client expectations is at the core of the client-designer relationship. Educating your clients as to why something takes as long as it does, why something is done a certain way, etc. are all parts of the job that you sometimes don’t think about when starting a new project. For many of us who have worked in the world of project managers and account reps, we enjoy a level of insulation from the the client and his needs/expectations. We take their requirements (often already filtered and negotiated) and do our thing. This is especially true for young designers who have everything monitored and checked by two or three people before a client ever lays eyes on their design. It is often a crash-course in client relations the first time that you work on your own project for your own client. As most savvy business people go, your client will most likely try to get as much work, time and product out of you for the least amount of cost to them. And, if expectations on what they are getting, when they get it and for how much are not clearly set from the beginning, then you will have problems. I have learned that the best way to keep everybody (mostly) happy is to have a clear, explicit contract that both parties have agreed upon, before the first pixel is pushed. With that place you will always have back-up in the event that you do have to use the “n” word.

Like A Mule

Sufficive to say, you’ve had or will have a client with a bad idea for something related to the project at hand. As with anything, consistency and sticking to your guns is imperative. I’m not saying that you should stubbornly argue for cobalt blue if your client prefers perry winkle, but stubbornness does have it’s place. I like to think of myself of as much a teacher to my clients as I am designer. Your client has hired you because as at some point down the line he recognized that you have a knack for design, and they don’t. Sometimes they need to be reminded of this and to trust your judgment. This isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Speaking as a chronic, life-long conflict-avoider this rings especially true for me. The idea of openly and vehemently disagreeing with the person paying me is hard to swallow sometimes, but completely necessary. You should take a cue from so many terrible corporate training videos and stand by your convictions especially when you know you are right. When thoughtfully argued, you further establish yourself as an authority, who is worth the money they are paying you, even if you don’t win the “battle”.

The Optimistic Naysayer

When it comes to actually saying no, obviously it’s important how you say it. The hardest lesson that I continue to have to learn is how to respond to bad idea or ridiculous request with patience and positivity. It’s all simple manners, letting people finish their thought before chiming in. It’s something that I kind of suck at, but is key to really getting your point across. In the end though, I’ve found that the best argument is not what will go wrong if I do something I advise against, but rather, what amazing thing will be accomplished if my idea is executed. Learning to spin things positively is always valuable, especially when saying no.

Pick Up The Pieces

I would hardly consider myself an expert on dealing with customers and have made my fair share of mistakes, mismanaged expectations, and gotten myself in over my head on many occasions. But, I’m learning. I’m finding that the secret to having happy customers and clients is knowing what to say and how to say it. It takes finesse, patience and nerves of steel. Though in the end, if handled correctly both client and designer usually emerge pleased with the results.

Recently we (Abidesco) launched a web site re-design for Abilene, TX-based marriage and family therapist Kurt Boyland’s counseling practice, Cedar Creek Counseling Service. My IA and mark-up development support fellow Abidesco partner Ryan Feerer’s simple, single-page design.

Our challenge was simple, to design a site that featured information about Kurt, what he does, what his clients are saying about him, and was easy to update for him. Our solution was built on WordPress and featured a jQuery-driven acnhor-tag navigation, and a killer wood-panel background.

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

As long as I can remember I have loved movies and film. Really, all aspects of cinema from making it, to experiencing it. Recently I’ve found myself leaning heavily on the later. I’ve become purely a consumer of this media, and wondering how I’ve lost my way. I’ve alluded to this problem before, that I can easily excuse myself from these types of projects because of my lack of pro-grade video equipment. Boo.

The dream: is to have a couple prosumer HD cameras, portable audio recorders, MacPro with 8 gigs for ram, and a crew of at least 3 other people. The reality: is I have a Flip Mino HD, an audio recorder , an almost 4 year-old MacBook Pro, and the occasional help from my wife. Clearly, not the same thing, but I see hope out there. I’ve discovered as-of-late just how many people are doing amazing things using a pretty minimal equipment set-up. (I know, I know, “it’s not the equipment that makes the film maker but the talent”), but it’s easy to forget sometimes.

I seem to have fallen in to an all-to-common trap of giving up or making excuses because it’s the path of least resistance. “But my Flip Mino only shoots 720 x 480!” (I say, while adjusting my imaginary glasses that have just slipped down my nose). I think it was me that once said, “I want to live my life as a reality show.” Maybe it’s not quite on mark with all this, but there’s something to that. I mean I turned my marriage proposal to my wife into a film, and I think that may have been the last really film project that I did. This whole post feels a bit like a Catholic confession.

“It’s been almost a year since my last production.”

Okay, well here’s to belated New Year’s resolutions. This year, I’m going to become a producer of media not just a consumer. Someone want to hold me accountable on this one?

I’ve heard both sides of the debate about whether a “web designer” should be able to code his own designs. I know the reasons for and against, and frankly it worries me. I’ll be the first to admit that nothing puts my mind at ease more than knowing that the design that I’ve put together in Fireworks will be marked-up with highest level of accuracy and care the the developer (me). But, I know this is unrealistic. I don’t have time to do it all my own, nor do I know everything, I need help. Try as I may, I am a designer first, developer, a distant second, and I’m okay with it. What worries me is the disturbing trend that I keep seeing on places like craigslist and job boards everywhere; ads that read more like a entrepreneur’s Christmas wish list than a job description:

“Looking for a web designer to finish an online shopping site that is under construction now. MUST have at least 3 years experience building online shopping sites. MUST have deep knowledge of methods and ways of search engine optimization, customers database, shopping carts….etc. After finish building site position might be available to maintain and upgrade site all the time.

Compsensation: $14-15/hr”

The line between web developer an and web designer have become a bit blurred as of late. I can’t tell you how many times I see people call themselves web designers that are really only developers who how know just enough photoshop to themselves into trouble. The result is well developed site with sub-par design, for less money than if a true designer had been involved. Side-effect being that the potential client pool on both sides now has an overall diminished perception of quality and lower acceptable price-point . This in-turn devalues every designer and developer’s work.

Let me be clear designers are just as guilty of this, I’m just as guilty of this at times. I can, at times write pretty some ugly css, I know it I admit it, and I’m working on it. What I don’t do is tell a client that I am a be-all, end-all, without-a-doubt, full-fledged developer. I can do a lot of things, but not all, and I’m okay with that. I don’t use Terminal to write my code, I use Code and have to use Firebug to make sure my page matches as close as possible to what I did in my design comp. I code like a designer, and I advertise myself as such.

But the damage has already been done. Perhaps it’s a result of the 1990′s mentality of the internet, specifically web design and development being overly technical and unaccessible to a lot of people especially those of the “50 and better” persuasion i.e. potential clients with money to spend. The shrewd business man (and now AARP member) does more with less and the idea of a utility man- web designer is very appealing. This has lead the way for companies like elance.com to further lower competitive prices for design and dev. work by promoting low-priced, foreign vendors. Also, the door has been opened for services that offer bargin-basement prices on bottom-of-the-barrel web site design and development.

Welcome to my nightmare:

None the less its still healthy to dream big, push yourself and expand your skill set, its the only way things get better. Good, true hybrids do exist, but are not as common as you may think. I want to be one when I grow up.