Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I’d like you to take a look at the tools you use each day, for work and for play.  They can be computers, music players, phones, golf clubs…anything.  Now look at which tools and toys you enjoy using and what you are, for the lack of a better word, forced to use.  What’s the difference between the two? The experience or, more importantly, how enjoyable the experience is for you.

Finding tools that suit your style.
I’ve brought up the fact that I’d much rather type and do work on my iPad to co-workers on a few occasions.  Their responses are mixed with puzzlement and disbelief whenever I make that claim, but it’s a true statement.  That device gives me the best experience for viewing and handling digital content.  Why not use something that makes a job more enjoyable rather than just tolerable?  Why not find a tool or set of tools that remove themselves from the picture, if only by illusion, and let creativity and focus rule the day?

I challenge you to find tools that you enjoy using and see how they’ll fit into your workflow.  Don’t just take a high-level look at them either.  Try them out and see what works and what doesn’t.  You might surprise yourself.

Monday, September 19, 2011

I’m not sure why I didn’t ask Chris Sherman to put his iPad ownership thoughts into writing sooner. We’ve had many discussions about it’s usefulness (and weaknesses) over the past year and I’m glad that Chris was willing to spend some time to write down some of his thoughts.

Why did you get an iPad?
I love Apple products and I wanted to bridge the gap between my iPhone and my MacBook Pro.

Is it an original or iPad 2?
It is the original iPad

Are you happy with your decision?
I am, although I know now that I didn’t need the model on steroids.  The 64gb w/3G is more than I need.

Did it fill a need or was it a impulse buy?
I have to be honest here, it was more of an impulse buy.  I would have been totally happy with the 16gb wifi model.

How has the iPad changed your “normal” computer-use habits?
I handle most of my social media needs on the iPad so it has become my feed screen even while I am on my regular computer.

What are you doing with the iPad that has made your life easier or has surprised you?
I feel that the iPad is a larger version of my iPhone so I am still using my iPhone for a lot of my on-the-go needs.

Have you been able to integrate the iPad into your work life?
Aside from the social media use as stated above, I have all of our sample photo’s on there so when we visit with clients, we use it as a digital portfolio.  Awesome tool in that respect.  Also, FTP On The Go is very helpful with the large files.

How would you grade the iPad as a work tool, specifically in the area of design?
It is amazing.  The “Palette’s” app is awesome.  I can pull out color palettes on projects to work with when trying to create corporate images etc…  Sketchbook Pro and Adobe Ideas are great for designing.

Are there any business apps or content creation apps that you rely on?
Nothing in that respect have I tried yet.

How often do you use your iPad for business/how often for personal?
It is pretty much business use. I would say almost daily at work.

Is that use more that you’d expected?
Not now, but at first, I almost never used it until I started searching for apps and researching online what is useful.

Do you still use your other computers as much?
Yes.

Are there any apps you’d recommend for either personal or business use?
Audio Note is great if you attend seminars.  You can record the audio and then whatever you type in as a note, it will time-stamp the recording for fast reference.  Very useful.

What would you change about it or what features would you add/take away?
I wish it worked more like a laptop.  It would be nice if it had a desktop like OS with a cursor and a USB port for file transfer if you are not in a WiFi setting.

Friday, September 09, 2011

Scrap-booking and crafting creativity are a favorite pastime for many of my friends and family members. A few years ago a friend of mine decided to turn that pastime into a business and launched Escape Route. I’ve been fortunate to “tag along” and assist with the branding and Web marketing aspects of this business and am very pleased with the latest collaboration.

Replacing a placeholder.
The first incarnation of the Escape Route website was meant to be a placeholder. It would host contact information, basic details about what could be expected from the business and also serve as a catalog for creativity podcasts. The placeholder was in place for more than two years. Life get’s in the way of things from time-to-time and this was one of those instances.
With a renewed spark, Pat relayed a new direction for the site and I went to work planning the next evolution for her Web presence. Much had changed in those two-plus years. Escape Route had leapt into the social networking sphere with Twitter and Facebook. We had also collaborated to produce some video tutorials for some select creativity apps and she wanted to launch a blog. With all of these items in mind, the realignment phase was in motion.

There’s no place like home.
The homepage is often the starting point of many site redesigns/realignments because it sets the tone for the site structure. While all of the elements don’t carry though, the core DNA is there from one page to another (at least that’s how I approach it). The new homepage for Escape Route would be comprised of four main elements. The first is a larger hero image/message area that would showcase projects, products, blog posts, or any other item that Pat would see fit.
Nestled underneath that area would be compartments for the latest blog post, email signup, and Twitter feed. These areas are as important, if not more than the hero image that hovered above so I was careful to not let these items fade into obscurity.

Crafting the content container.
The content pages all share a similar layout to the homepage (remember, it’s in the DNA) with some subtle adjustments to better-suite the purpose of the detail pages. A sidebar was added to act as a secondary navigation area as well as give an opportunity to cross-promote the Twitter stream and e-news enrollment. I borrowed a page…or a bar, from some of my favorite blogs and added a subscription area at the head of all blog pages.

Textured treatments.
One reason I enjoy working with Escape Route is the tangible and textured nature of craft and scrapbook materials. The finished products are as much treat to hold as they are to look at with the contrasts in materials and embellishments. I wanted the site to mimic these aspects as much as possible but not go overboard. The final design has touches of stitching, fabric tabs, and embroidered labels sitting over the blue striped and lightly-distressed blue background (which began it’s life as a desktop image that I had made for Pat’s laptop). True to scrap-booking “form”, we found an element that worked and were able to carry it on for future use.

There are other extensions of this site that are still in planning phases, namely a custom mobile layout and some iPad-centric goodies. It’s good to love what you do.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Credit: Free images from acobox.com

When you’re at work, what kind of an environment do you work in? Is it noisy, quite, or somewhere in between? No matter how you answered that question, the more-important question is this; do your work surroundings work for you or against you?  No matter what line of work you’re in, your work environment plays a large part in how you work and how productive you can be.

My “9 to 5” work environment and my home-office environment couldn’t be any more different if they tried. By day I’m in my office where I have a good amount of quiet and solitude, which matches up fairly well with my work style. There are times I wish I could make some drastic changes to that space, or just crank my music up once and awhile, but that wouldn’t end up well. For those times, I rely on my home office to pick up the slack.

There’s no place like home.
My home office has taken on many shapes and forms over the years. After graduating college I turned a guest bedroom of my apartment into my office but my actual desk space was relegated to One corner of the room.  Not ideal, by any means, but it worked.

After moving into a condo I, once again, got a guest room as my office but this time I was able to absorb the entire area and make it my own. All of the decorating may not have been exactly the way I’d wanted it, but it was close. When we bought our house after three years of condo-living, I was hopeful that I’d have an opportunity to get even closer to my “perfect” office.

Organized chaos.
Back in college I vividly remember my roommate and I being at odds regarding the physical and aesthetic state of our dorm room. My side of the room looked like a bomb went off, followed by a series of natural disasters that only affected my living quarters. His side, however, was organized. Very organized (at least when compared to me).  While my area was a constant clutter, it worked.  I knew where things were (most of the time) and I was able to get done what I needed to do.  That said, married life has changed me (slightly) as I now follow my two boys around picking up their clutter and wishing things were more tidy.  That leads us to my current home-office/studio.

When we bought our current house, I fell in love with the basement as soon as I saw it.  A finished basement with mint-green walls, it had enough room for our desk, bookshelves and my other workstation necessities plus it would let our kids have some space to play as well.

As we’ve settled into our house, the basement (my office/man-cave/studio) has gone through some transitions and received a coat of paint (goodbye green, hello burgundy).  While I do have to dance around children’s toys from time-to-time, the more I think about it, the happier I am with my current setup.  I have multiple locations that I can set up shop and work, either at my desk, at a standing project table, or at a very nice ( and dangerously-comfortable) couch.  When I need a break from work I can fire up the Wii or shoot Nerf guns across the room or crank music up as loud as I’d like.  It’s a dream office that keeps improving.  It works with me rather than against me.

How about your workspace, does it work with your style or against it?

Monday, July 25, 2011

Speaking from personal experience, there is no other type of project that I enjoy more than a site redesign.  Starting a site from scratch is fun, don’t get me wrong, but there’s something about taking an existing interface and massaging and improving on it to achieve greater results.

I’ve been looking at how my site exists now and how I need it to exist, with the realization coming that changes are in order.  Before I fire up Penultimate (ok, I’ve fired it up and have started noodling on ideas), I wanted to share some thoughts on the process that goes into a redesign, or as it was put oh-so elegantly by Cameron Moll a few years back, “realignment”.  

What’s the purpose of your site and how has it changed or evolved? - Personally speaking, my site has changed in it’s purpose and direction.  What started as a site that existed as an online portfolio and “sometimes” sounding board for geeky ramblings has become a content creation factory.

What are your customers looking at/for? - Don’t be afraid to look at your site statistics (you should be using some sort of analytics package, btw).  Where people are spending time on your current site should give you an indication of where they’ll want to go in the future.

Just because you can do “X” doesn’t mean you should. - There are so many different technologies, script libraries, and development frameworks that you can sink your teeth into when building a site that it’s easy to go overboard and overdo things.  Using some JavaScript libraries and jQuery effects as tools to enhance the user experience are fine, but don’t make them the main reason for visiting a site.  Focus on the content and build hooks around it.

Start with a list and work towards the wrapper. - Back in my earlier, pre-pro design days, I would begin a design by focusing on the look and feel of the site more than the layout and the distribution of content.  As I look back at that approach now, I realize it was wrong.  The emphasis was misplaced on making the “wrapper” look good and not giving as much consideration to the product behind it.  

I’m not suggesting that the “wrapper” of the site isn’t important.  The aesthetic design of a site is as important to the overall project as the layout and information flow, but there should be a solid foundation underneath your well-crafted shell.  Make a list of the content items that you want to have on your site as well as those that you no longer need.  This will help you when you get to the layout and visualization stage of your design.

Look at how you interact with other sites and services and see how those apply to your own site. - Don’t be afraid to look at other sites and use other sites before tearing up your own.  Pay attention to the sites that you enjoy going to.  What’s enjoyable about it?  Is the content well-written or well-arranged?  Does the navigation have an inviting, intuitive feel to it?  Don’t lift elements directly from these inspirations, but keep them in mind when you begin crafting your projects.

This isn’t a definitive list, but it’s what I use as my “pre-flight” check list.  What are your tips on approaching redesign projects?