New Job and Conference News

I've been at Rosetta Stone for about 15 months and the things I've learned during that time - both personally and professionally - will stay with me the rest of my life. I've had the opportunity to work with and learn from some really bright and talented people. I have no doubt the company will continue to grow and be successful, but the future of my career lies on a different path. On September 17th, I'll begin writing a new chapter in that book. I'll be joining the über-talented UX Team at Sabre in Southlake, Texas.

I'm a little nervous about it because these guys are good and they know their stuff. The bar is definitely set pretty high for me, but that's a good thing. I'm really looking forward to the challenge and to working with people like Travis Isaacs, Jeremy Johnson and Stephen Anderson. The work I'll be doing is very exciting and the environment and people are top-notch, so I'm geared up.

Wish me luck!

Webmaster Jam Session

Today I registered for Webmaster Jam Session, a conference here in Dallas on September 21-22. If you're looking for a conference that is friendly to your time schedule and your wallet, you should definitely check it out.

They've got a great line up of speakers, some fun after-hours parties, a posh hotel and it's in a pretty cool city, too. I hope to see you there!

Tweaking the Google Notifier

I’m a huge fan of Google’s GMail. If you’re looking for a new mail client, you should definitely give it a go; it’s a pleasure to use. If you’re a GMail user, you’ve probably also downloaded the Google Notifier – a tiny application that displays mail alerts in your menu bar. This is where I have a bit of a problem with the Notifier. Actually, this is more of a personal problem than an issue with the application itself. But with a little tweaking, the Google Notifier could really help me out.

The Scenario

For those of you not aware, the Google Notifier usually shows up in your menu bar as a specialized mail icon.

When you receive an email, the icon changes color and also shows a number next to it representing the number of new email messages waiting to be read.

You can click on the icon in the menu bar to see a message preview or go to your inbox, among other actions.

Or, if you’re in the middle of something, you can ignore the alert and read your emails later. My problem is that when I see that little red icon up in my menu bar, I cannot concentrate. Something deep inside is calling me to action. I can’t just ignore it. It's not so much that I want to read the email. The problem is that I don’t want to see that little red icon. I want it to be grey. The little red icon gives me the feeling that I have to check on something, that there’s some rogue task that needs to be tended to. So what I usually do is click on “Go to Inbox” and either read the email or just mark it as read and read it later.

But that is just a workaround - an annoying and time-consuming workaround that distracts me from my work, albeit only for a minute. I don’t really want to mark the email as read, because next time I visit my inbox, it would be nice for unread messages to stand out somehow.

The Fix

Instead of marking the email as read, what I actually want to do is clear the notification. I just want that little red icon to turn grey again so I can go about my work.

It seems to me that Google could make a very small tweak to the interface that would save me much time and grief. Why not add an option to “Clear Notification”, which would turn the icon back to grey?

Adding that one little option would make my life so much easier. It’s the small things in life that make the biggest difference, right?

The Conclusion

I agree that perhaps I let the little red icon bother me too much. But, it would be much easier for Google to tweak their app than it would be for me to change my OCD tendencies.

C’mon, Google, can ya help a guy out?

Good to Great, Part 2

I once worked with a marketing professional that dabbled in SEO and Usability. She would often say, "We need to talk to our users like they're 3rd graders." She was fond of talking down to users and then adding clarification text in parenthesis. And nothing could ever be left to user intuition, everything had to be labeled - with bright colors like green and red, not subtle, "grey-ed out" labels. Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

What is your billing address?
(Where do you receive your credit card bill each month?)

This always bothered me and just felt wrong. I mean, is there something too vague about "billing address"? What's not to understand? The notion behind it all was one of trying to make it more user-friendly, with helpful verbiage and a friendly tone, but to me, it misses the mark. Instead of getting a better user experience, it seemed like all that resulted in were pages cluttered with instructional chatter. When you have several "instructional messages" on one page, its starts to get out of hand. That leads us to Part 2 of this series.

Good to Great, Part 2: Good designers add more detail to clarify; Great designers take away detail to make things more clear.

Perhaps you're familiar with the popular quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

We designers need to know when to get out of the way of our users and design the interface so they can "just use it" without thinking too long about it or without having to read something along ever step of the way.

This is not only true with the visual aspects of an interface, but in the content as well. In the highly acclaimed book, Don't Make Me Think, Steve Krug suggests:

"Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what's left."

My philosophy is that if you find yourself having to footnote everything or add help verbiage for every action item, then you probably need to step back and re-evaluate what you're trying to say. Think about how you can use design elements, intelligent metaphors or other visuals to lead a user to a specific task instead of saying "look here" or "click on this button".

Ask yourself these questions the next time you are faced with creating a user experience or trying to improve an existing one:

• Is most of my content about explaining "how" rather than "why"?
• Have I needlessly broken any conventions that would force the user to think twice about how to interact with a particular element?
• Are there places where I can use visual elements or metaphors instead of verbiage?
• What exactly does the user need to do on this page and how can I make it ridiculously easy for them to do it?

Difficult questions to answer, no doubt. But when we're conscious of these things, it forces us to design intuitive user experiences, rather than merely explaining how to use an interface.

Good to Great

In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins asserts:

"Good is the enemy of great."

I read the book a few years ago and that statement resonated with me then as it does today. Over the past few months, I've had the opportunity to work with other designers, critique other designers' work, have my work critiqued, defend my own design decisions, defend web standards and see up close and personal examples of good design and examples of great design.

What I'd like to do, in a series of forthcoming blog posts, is to talk about some areas in which designers can move from merely "good" to truly "great". With your help via the comments, I expect to learn some things along the way, too. Before I begin, let's talk definitions. I'm using the term "designer" very broadly here. For purposes of discussion, let's say "designer" applies to your typical web designer / developer / front-end developer / web producer- type "web person". Also, to make sure we're all on the same page, let me be clear that in this discussion that good does not mean bad - obviously. This is not a good vs. evil comparison. Good is good, but who wants to be good? Don't we all aspire to be great? I hope so, but I digress. Let's jump in to Part 1 of this series.

Good to Great, Part I: Good designers write valid (X)HTML, great designers understand the value of semantic markup and code accordingly.

This is a subject near and dear to my heart, because I just happen to love (X)HTML. I love the order, logic and structure that can be harnessed with (X)HTML. But this isn't about a Utopian approach to writing (X)HTML, its about doing what makes sense and using the markup language to provide a logical structure and meaning to web pages. Writing markup that validates perfectly against the W3C specifications does not make one a great designer. Indeed, this goes further than mere code validation.

In my projects, I definitely try to ensure that my code validates - in most cases. But I could write perfectly valid (X)HTML that is junk in terms of achieving a semantic structure for a web page. A great designer is able to write valid code, but also takes it a step further and writes efficient, well-structured, easy to read, semantic markup that enables future flexibility, lends itself to accessibility and reduces page weight as much as possible.

Let me illustrate below two ways to code the same information:<div class="headline">My Favorite Music</div>
<div class="text">Following is a list of my favorite bands (or artists), sorted alphabetically:<br />
Cofield<br />
Coldplay<br />
Collective Soul<br />
Frank Sinatra<br />
Switchfoot<br />
The Fray<br />
Third Day<br />
Tim McGraw<br />
U2<br /></div>

<h1>My Favorite Music</h1>
<p>Following is a list of my favorite bands (or artists), sorted alphabetically:</p>
<ul>
<li>Cofield</li>
<li>Coldplay</li>
<li>Collective Soul</li>
<li>Frank Sinatra</li>
<li>Switchfoot</li>
<li>The Fray</li>
<li>Third Day</li>
<li>Tim McGraw</li>
<li>U2</li>
</ul>

Both of these code examples are valid (X)HTML, but the second one is more semantic, making use of appropriate tags to create meaningful relationships between the pieces of content. Which is the better code? Well, the critics would say they are the same - that you get the same result visually in the browser. But a great designer knows that what lies beneath the visible is just as important as what the users actually see.

So what's the big deal?

Have you ever had a conversation with someone that liked to use the word "thing" too much? For example, "Hey, could you hand me that thing over there? Its there, next to the box thing. No, not that thing, the other one. Thanks." If you've had such a conversation, you'll remember that while you were probably able to understand them in the end, it was not as easy as if they would have used more descriptive words. To me, non-semantic markup is the same way. Code like <div class="title"> gets the job done on the surface, but does not use the tags that were meant for describing a heading, which makes it much harder to understand, by humans and by machines that will read the code.

I think Joshua Porter and Richard McManus said it best in their article, written for Digital Web Magazine:

"Practically speaking, however, semantic markup is markup that is descriptive enough to allow us and the machines we program to recognize it and make decisions about it. In other words, markup means something when we can identify it and do useful things with it. In this way, semantic markup becomes more than merely descriptive. It becomes a brilliant mechanism that allows both humans and machines to “understand” the same information."

Therein lies the power of semantic markup. Good designers writing valid, yet non-semantic markup are able to put a check in the "valid code" box, but they are missing out on the flexibility and forward-compatibility that is attained when great designers build a website with semantic, well-structured (X)HTML.

So do you have what it takes to be a great designer? You're on your way if you understand the value of semantic markup and practice writing meaningful, rather than merely valid (X)HTML.

Tips for Working from Home

I am fortunate to have an enviable telecommuting arrangement with my employer. I work remotely, at my home in Texas and travel back to company headquarters in Virginia to work on-site for a week every month or so. Its been working quite nicely for the past 6+ months as far as I can tell. During this time, I've experienced some things that work well and some things that don't work particularly well when it comes to working out of one's house. I decided to put together a few tips for others trying to make a go of it working at home. There are many ways to be productive and happy working remotely. Factors such as personality, physical space limitations and the social landscape of your home all contribute to your ability (or lack thereof) to successfully work from home. I can only account for my personality and the constraints of my particular situation, but I've come up with a few tips that I think can help. Your mileage may vary.

Elbow Room

One of the first and most important things to do is to make sure you have a place to work. It doesn't have to be a huge space or a whole-room office, as long as you have a place to sit comfortably, keep some books, write some notes and stage the necessary computer and peripherals. For me, I've got a small desk in the corner of our bedroom, which is exactly enough space to do everything I need. If you try to work at the coffee table one day, the patio table out back the next day and then the breakfast table the next, it may be difficult to establish consistency and an environment where you can actually get some work done.

Establish a Routine

Your routine may vary depending on your work arrangement (are you your own boss or do you have co-workers in the office to work with?) but regardless, it is important to establish some type of routine. Set a schedule for work and follow it. The biggest challenge here is self-discipline. Balancing work and life can be difficult and doing it independent of the traditional parameters of a commute, a cubicle and co-workers makes it even harder.

Come up with a schedule that works for you - and your clients, co-workers or others depending on you. Perhaps you're the type that likes to sleep in. That's fine, schedule a 10:00am to 7:00pm work day. Or if you're an early bird, set up a 7:00am to 4:00pm day. The point is, schedule your day. Make sure it has a consistent beginning and ending each day. Getting into this type of routine helps draw boundaries between work and life and makes balancing them much easier.

If you don't, you'll end up playing Wii when you should be working and working when your wife (and/or kids) wants to spend time with you. Don't be fooled thinking a schedule will only hinder the freedom you finally have by being able to work from home. I'm not proposing a militaristic approach to your day with no flexibility. But I do believe setting some parameters for your day will help you enjoy that freedom and get some work done while you're at it.

Put Some Clothes On

Working from home means you get to hang out in your jammies and bunny slippers all day, right? Well, perhaps, but I'm recommending the opposite on most days. Even if you know you're not going to be leaving the house that day, put some clothes on. Now that its summer time, that may mean shorts and a t-shirt, but the process of getting up, showering, brushing teeth and getting your clothes on will help you establish the routine mentioned above.

Personally, I feel more productive on the days I wear normal clothes. Sometimes I even wear shoes. It helps me feel like I'm actually working - like I've got somewhere to be and some important business to take care of - which I do. Dress for success, right?

Get Out

Sometimes you need a break. A break from sitting in front of the computer screen all day. If you were in an office setting, you may spend time away from your desk in meetings or going to the printer or collaborating with co-workers. But at home, it seems like the only reason I would have to get out of my chair would be to get something to drink or go to the restroom. So I have to get out periodically, just to walk off stress or reinvigorate my brain. If not, I feel I start to get drained mentally.

I look forward to days when I'm able to meet a friend for lunch, but that's not everyday. Most days I'll take 10 minutes a couple times during the day to walk outside if its nice out and stretch my legs, enjoy the sunshine or check the mail. Maybe take a walk, go running or do some other exercise during your "lunch break". Or, if you're not up for exercise, perhaps go run some errands at lunch; a trip to the bank, the post office, pick up dry cleaning, whatever. The point is to get away from your desk, even if its only for a few minutes a couple of times a day. When I do that, I always return feeling refreshed and ready to go at it for a few more hours.

Take Advantage

One of the nicest benefits to working at home is the idea of having more time available that would otherwise be eaten up by commuting to and from work each day. I've never had less than a 30-minute commute to and from work at previous jobs; most of my career, close to an hour in the car each way was pretty normal. So I definitely feel like I've got more time to work with in my day now.

Question is, what do you do with that time? My advice is to take advantage of it and use that time doing something worthwhile. For me, not having an hour commute in the morning means I get more time with the family each morning. Sometimes I'll take that time to go run or exercise. And yes, sometimes I do let myself sleep in a bit, too. How often in today's crazy busy world are you actually given time back? Not often.

There are probably dozens more good tips for working from home, but these are the ones I've found success with over the past several months. How have you been successful at the work from home game? I'm open to advice, so feel free to add your ideas in the comments.

Murmurs, No. 1

This is the first installment of Murmurs, my sort of stream-of-consciousness method of blogging. I'll deliver a new Murmur every now and then to keep things loose around here.

Freelance Switch

There's more good stuff here than you can shake a stick at. It's chock-full of great content geared toward those that freelance or those that aspire to one day. And to top it all off, the design of the site is superb. But don't just take my word for it, go check it out yourself (after you read the rest of this list, of course).

Rediscovering the Button Element

The guys at Particle Tree give us another great article. Rediscovering the Button Element, walks you through how to get the most out of the common Submit button in terms of consistency. I haven't actually tried to implement the <button> tag yet, but I can't wait for the next project to try this on.

Google Analytics

Yes, I know, this is not a new tool, but I just signed up for it last week. So far, I've really enjoyed using Google Analytics - it was easy to set up and the reports are pretty intuitive for the most part. This is much nicer than the default stats package offered by my hosting company. Maybe not as robust or elegant as Mint, but if you're looking for a free solution, you won't be disappointed.

Ruby Blue TextMate Theme

One of the great things I like about TextMate, everyone's favorite text editor for the Mac, is the power to customize your theme to control syntax highlighting. Ruby Blue is a great theme because it is so easy on the eyes. If you have to look at code on a computer screen all day long, you want something that won't strain your eyes. I downloaded this awhile back, but recently started using it, much to my satisfaction.

Adobe Fireworks CS3

If you know me well, you probably know that I'm a "Fireworks guy" - as in the software, not the explosive. Recently it was suggested to me that I start to use Photoshop instead of Fireworks - you know since Photoshop is the industry standard and all. I'll save my opinion about "industry standard" for another time and just say that Fireworks CS3 couldn't have come along at a better time. Now that I have the ability to open and save PSD files with layers intact from Fireworks, who needs Photoshop? The interoperability with Adobe apps like Photoshop and Illustrator will definitely keep me a "Fireworks guy" for sometime to come. Thank you, Adobe!

That's it for this edition of Murmurs. What have you been murmuring about? Do tell.

What Are Wii Doing?

After reading about the latest trends in web design commerce, I got a sickening feeling. I am referring to two fellow designers, engaged by a client to do some design/development work in return for a Nintendo Wii. First, let me preface all of this by letting it be known this is not a personal indictment of Jesse or Drew at all. On the contrary, I don't know either of them personally; I'm a huge fan of Jesse's work and what he's done for the community. When I first read the Happy Daddy blog entry on Jesse's blog, I thought nothing of it and was, in fact, amused by such an agreement. Perhaps it is no big deal if both parties agree and mutually benefit in a payment-for-services agreement like this, but after reading about the same thing on Drew's site, I don't know if this is a trend I'd like to see continue. Bartering has been a common trade practice for centuries, but is it in the best interest for designers/developers in general?

I'll play the alarmist devil's advocate here and question how many designers would welcome a bartering arrangement from their clients? I mean, a Nintendo Wii is a pretty cool form of compensation, but where do you draw the line? Services rendered in exchange for the latest software? Or perhaps an iTunes gift card? I guess the reason this bothers me is that it could further undermine an external perception that the field of web design/development is little more than a hobby for most. I would hate for clients to think they could hold up a shiny object in front of an aspiring designer and get him/her to jump. Our industry already has enough perception hurdles to overcome in the effort to express our craft as a legit business model. I wonder how many other businesses would be open to this idea. Maybe the next time we need family pictures, I'll offer The Picture People a new logo. I doubt that would fly.

Cash pays the bills. Cash grows in a savings account. Cash is the lifeblood of a business. I'd hate to see freelancers jeopardize that.

Feel free to call me out if I'm being overly sensitive, but I just found this a bit disturbing.

What are your thoughts?

Why You Should Care About Markup

Sometimes when I'm in hurry I'll write a quick note on my hand instead of on a notepad. I've also been known to be too impatient to go hunt down a pair of scissors to open a package from Amazon.com, so I'll use my a car key instead. Such shortcuts work just fine when you're in a pinch. But if you are performing an important or very repetitive task, using the right tool is much easier and more efficient. Similar scenarios are played out in the web development world all the time, which is not the place for taking shortcuts or misusing your tools. What we're talking about here is semantics.

Semantics

Most tools were designed for a specific purpose, to do a specific job. HTML markup was formulated the same way.

I'm an advocate of clean, standards-based markup. When I talk about markup, I'm referring to HTML. When I refer to standards-based markup, I'm talking about semantic HTML written in such a way as to separate the structure of the page from presentational elements. I'm a firm believer in keeping HTML virtually free of presentational elements and avoid using <br /> (line breaks) and  (non-breaking spaces) to position information on a Web page and using HTML tags for their intended purpose, such as using a <ul> (unordered list) to markup a list of items, be they items in a grocery list or a navigation menu. All presentational elements can and should be defined in separate CSS files.

Who Cares Anyway, Right?

The upside to developing Web sites in this manner is tremendous. Depending on your perspective or role in a given Web project, you may appreciate a wide array of benefits - fortunately there are enough to go around for everyone involved.

Web Master: If you're the guy responsible for updating and making changes to a Web site, you'll enjoy the ease of maintenance that semantic code provides.

Marketing Manager: Does driving more traffic to your site sound like a good idea? Semantic HTML practices produce well-structured documents that are easy for search engines to read, so developing sites in this manner is good for enhancing SEO.

Owner: If you're the owner, you're sure to see all the benefits, but you'll especially appreciate the increase in performance. Cleanly coded Web pages are usually smaller in file size and make for faster downloads, resulting in less bandwidth waste, which makes this a cost-cutting measure. Who doesn't like to save money?

The benefits of developing with standards-based markup is well documented and highly recommended for reading.

So the next time you're in a hurry and reach for the nearest butter knife to turn a screw instead of a screwdriver, remember semantics and how they save time and effort over the long haul, especially if you're developing Web sites.

What is Good Design?

Someone asked me the other day what the difference was between my work (or someone like me) and a high school student that is dabbling in web design. Questions like this frustrate me at first, but upon further thought I welcome them as an opportunity to educate people about what I do. As I thought about the answer, the first thing I thought of was "the ability to avoid cheesy design". I admit, that sounds trite, but the more I thought about it and the more I thought about good design, I started to realize it may be true, at least in some respects. I think the real answer to my friend's question is: the knowledge of the principles of good design and the ability to execute those principles.

I believe design on the Web is all about communicating a message. Since the Web is (mostly) a text-based medium, the ability to read the message is critical. Therefore, it follows that good design is about readability. Do you agree with that? It does seem a bit simplistic that it could be reduced down to one such component. Perhaps, but when you think about all the different factors that influence readability, you begin to see how it is the common thread woven throughout the tapestry of modern design on the Web.

So what are these factors that influence readability? Well, there's probably quite a few and they can probably be named, organized and described in a hundred different ways. I was able come up with 5 factors that I think greatly influence the readability of online text: Color, Typography, Whitespace, Imagery and Accessibility. I'll briefly describe each one of these and talk about how they contribute to readability and, ultimately, good design.

Color

The color of text and the relationship of text color to the background color greatly effect readability. If the contrast between foreground and background is too low, readability plummets. Too much color can adversely effect readability as well. The human eye is attracted to color, so it must be used judiciously so as not to draw attention away from the intended message.

Typography

Good use of typography is paramount to good design. And achieving a high degree of readability involves much more than selecting a pretty typeface. On the web, your menu of typefaces is somewhat limited to the handful of ubiquitous typefaces available on almost all operating systems - sans-serif selections such as Arial, Helvetica, Lucida, Tahoma, Trebuchet and Verdana and serif options of Georgia and Times New Roman. I tend to believe its not so much the typeface, but you do with it that matters. The number of typefaces and font styles (italic, all-caps, etc.) used in a single design a contribute to readability. As in so many cases, less is more and a simple approach probably works best in most situations.

Line height and line length are an oft-neglected aspects of typography that can make or break a design, regardless of the typeface. Line height is the amount of space between lines of text, while line length is how wide a single line of text stretches across the screen. Richard Rutter has an excellent article on Vertical Rhythm that explains how to achieve optimal readability with line height.

Whitespace

Yes, whitespace - or more accurately, negative space - our long lost friend that keeps a design clean-looking and clutter-free. Too much whitespace can make a page look awkward; not enough of it will make your design look cramped, where all the text on the page is vying for attention and nothing stands out. Finding the right amount of whitespace is not difficult and gives design a polished, professional look, while allowing a user to comfortably read the intended message.

Imagery

Like color, images have an attractive pull on the human eye. Given a page full of text with one image on the page and our eye will immediately be drawn to the image first. A good designer can use that physiological bit of information to his or her advantage by the strategic use of imagery in web design. Subtle imagery is great at providing a framework for holding chunks of text. Imagery used within blocks of text can also help draw the eye to an important piece of information. Discretion using images is laudable, since too much visual stimulation can adversely effect readability.

Accessibility

Understanding accessibility involves a certain knowledge of code and how that code is read by other devices other than a Web browser. A good designer understands this and takes steps to ensure the code is written in such a way as to maintain readability in alternate devices, such as PDAs, mobile phones and screen readers. Limiting your message to only those using a modern Web browsers is short-sighted in this world of fast changing trends and technology. While the first 4 principles were about readability of the words the user sees, accessibility is as much about readability by machines or devices. If code is written according to WCAG guidelines to help devices, like a screen reader or mobile phone, read the code then its pretty likely that a search engine algorithm will be able to accurately read the code, leading to increased "findability" in the search engines.

Putting It All Together

So there you have it, 5 principles of good design guaranteed to enhance the readability of a Web page. Remember, readability is a fundamental aspect of how well users interact with content on a Web page. Providing a situation where reading the content on a Web page is completely natural and comfortable will go a long way toward not making the reader think about what to read and how to read it and whether or not they should read it at all.

Next time you look at a Web site think about how readable the text is and how color, typography, whitespace, imagery and accessibility are all working together to make that happen. That's good design.

Nobody Wants a $500 Website

Working with a customer to estimate a project - from building a house to writing a book - is almost never a Disneyland experience. Estimating a website project usually falls into that category as well. One main reason is the presence of three interdependent factors that influence the outcome of the project: time, quality and cost. Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two, you can never have all three.

In the past couple of weeks I've been fortunate enough to have some promising leads for freelance work. I've also encountered a couple of situations where the above principle has been put to the test.

Some potential clients think their project falls into the "good and fast" category, but when supplied with a corresponding bid, they are silent. Others just think all websites should be cheap. One thing that makes me cringe when I hear it is, "What kind of website would you build for $500?"

My answer: I wouldn't.

I don't say that to be arrogant or "above it all". I just appreciate both the level of experience, talent and effort involved in building a quality website. I also realize the value that a good website adds to an organization's reputation and bottom line. Not only would I not build a website for $500, I wouldn't build a $500 website.

Nobody, if they're honest with themselves, really wants a $500 website. What they're saying is they want a really good website, but they want it cheap. They want to pay very little for a very valuable asset (if it's used properly).

Most would think it ridiculous to call up a life insurance company and ask how much life insurance could they get for $5 a month. Nor would anyone ask an architect to design and build them a house for $5,000. They wouldn't ask because they know that it wouldn't be that simple. They know that there would be many factors involved in determining the cost, quality and timeline.

Building a website is no different. Although troubling, I'm not the first one to witness this first hand, nor will I be the last. As designers and developers of websites, should we complain? Well, we could, but that probably wouldn't help. Instead we should probably use situations like this to educate our [potential] clients. We'll be better off for it and more importantly, so will our clients.

My recent encounters did not lead to actual freelance work, but what I received will be much more valuable in the long term. I had the opportunity to talk to clients about what goes into building a quality website, why web standards are important and why building a $500 website is not a good business decision. Conversations like that are priceless in terms of gaining experience, respect and hopefully, in the end, more projects.

Greetings and Introductions

Welcome to The Acorn, the blog section of Oaktree Creative, the freelance design studio of Chuck Mallott. That's me. Welcome to my new site. You may or may not be familiar with my old site, Teleraña. The old site is now off-line due to a business decision by the hosting company to discontinue free hosted sites. Which is just as well anyway, since the creation and launch of Oaktree Creative has been long in the making. I've had the domain for about 3 years, but this is the first real website that has been served. Now oaktreecreative.com is hosting by the excellent Dream Host and this blog is powered by WordPress.

I've spent the last 2-3 months fine-tuning the visual design of this site and over the past month, I've figured out enough about WordPress to get this blog working with my own theme. There may be a few bugs floating around out there and I'm aware of a couple of them, but for the most part, this is a fully functional blog/website.

The main reason I have this site is to be the face of my freelance business and provide a place to showcase portfolio work. The other reason for this site's existence is the blog, which I'll use to publish articles, observations and opinions, mostly about web design and the internet world.

I'm almost embarrassed to say just how long it has taken me to get the Oaktree Creative brand designed. I have found that designing for yourself is immensely more difficult than designing for someone else. Not sure why that is, but for me, it has been true. I can't even begin to count how many design iterations the Oaktree Creative brand has had, none of them really ever seeing the light of day. I'd spend my free time working on a design, but not have enough time to fully develop it and implement it on a website. Then I wouldn't do anything with it for a couple weeks and then the next time I had some free time, I'd hate what I started working on before and start over again. This went on for a couple of years I think.

So what made it stick this time? Well, a couple of months ago, while I was at SXSW in Austin, I attended a presentation by Jason Santa Maria and Rob Weychert titled, After the Brief: A Field Guide to Design Inspiration. They said that one of the best sources of inspiration were "constraints". I had never thought of this before. Constraints, such as a project deadline, are a normal part of real-world projects that, if embraced by designers, can lead to success.

So basically that's all I did - put constraints around the idea of actually developing and launching this site. I gave myself a deadline and broke the project up into smaller, consumable tasks and tackled it that way, just like a real world project. That's really the only difference and I'm glad I finally have it ready to launch, because other side projects are starting to call my name again.

This wraps up the inaugural entry of The Acorn. Don't forget to bookmark this site, feel free to link me to your site and definitely be sure to check out the RSS feed.