Posts tagged formspring.me
My world is more than web design. This is where I post it.
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Would you rather be a zombie or a mummy?
Hmmm… that is a tricky one. Zombies are way cooler than a mummy but I don’t think I would want to be a zombie. Mummies are traditionally self aware and have all kinds of cool powers. Zombies on the other hand only seem to exist to feed our desire for mindless violence. I think I will have to go with a Mummy.
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How much sleep do you get every night?
About 7 hours. Although I also like to have a short nap in the day.
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You said recently that you couldn’t find a twitter app for mac that suited you. What do you feel is missing from the apps available at the moment? Or is there a specific area that you feel they fail to perform in?
Obviously there is no perfect app. What different people want from the same app varies widely. What I want isn’t going to be the same as what somebody else wants.
That said, at the minute there is no mac twitter app that really excites me. The problem is this; you can either have great design or good functionality but not both.
This is a problem that exists across a lot of apps and I think it comes down to who is driving the apps development. Is it a designer or a developer?
There are mac twitter apps out there which have obviously been design driven. Tweetie is a great example of this. The functionality is fairly basic but it looks beautiful.
Then there are apps developed by techies. These apps generally stuffed with features but lack the gorgeous UX that makes it a pleasurable experience. Tweetdeck is a good example. An incredibly powerful app but looks as ugly as hell.
What I want is something that has the UX of tweetie but includes more functionality like filters and scheduled posts.
Hopefully that answers your question.
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How do you switch off from work outside work? I find this incredibly difficult and am carrying client projects around in the back of my mind - even at parties, walking in the countryside I’m still problem solving. It’s exhausting!
If you have followed my blog for any length of time you will now I’m an enormous fan of getting things done.
One of the principals from that book is the idea of getting stuff out of your head so that you are not constantly worrying about it.
You can’t stop yourself thinking about work in your spare time, however you can prevent yourself from endlessly worrying about it by getting it out of your head and down onto paper so that you can be confident it will not be forgotten.
I do this by using a task manager that contains absolutely every action I might wish to take whether in my personal life or at work. My tool of choice is Omnifocus although I know of a number of other products that are equally good.
Whenever a thought relating to work pops into my head I immediately recording it into Omnifocus using my iPhone, ipad or desktop computer. Once it is written down I can be confident that I don’t need to think about it again until I return to work.
In short, you can’t stop yourself thinking about work but you can prevent yourself worrying about it and wasting more time than necessary dwelling on it.
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What are you looking for in a portfolio that would set one designer apart from another?
Originality. Somebody who is drawing his or inspiration from beyond the web. Too many portfolios look very similar with designs that are seen on hundreds of websites.
I also want to see work done for real projects and for real clients. This shows that the designer can work within a brief and deliver an appropriate solution. The portfolio should tell me something of the back story and approach taken.
I am also looking for somebody who can articulate the approach they have taken towards the work in their portfolio. It’s important to be able to explain why you have done what you have.
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I don’t go to web events because A) I can’t afford them and B) I don’t really like meeting new people and feel awkward. Do you have any advice?
Start with smaller events such as one of the many free meetups that happen all the time. It’s much easier to get talking to people at these.
I would also say that you are not alone in finding social situations like this difficult. I think a lot of web designers do. You are almost certain to meet other likeminded people at these smaller events.
Give it a try. It is worth the effort. You will come away encouraged, motivated and you are guaranteed to learn something new.
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What aspect of webdesign(marketing, social media, design, technology or usability for example) do you think is most important? Do you expect any shifts in the importance of these aspects in the future?
The most important aspect of web design has always been and will always be business objectives. At the end of the day this is all that matters. Sure we want to please users but we only wish to please them in order to fulfil our business objectives.
As for design, development, marketing, search engine optimisation, social media or indeed any other discipline you care to mention, these exist only to facilitate the business goals.
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Previously you wrote “I think it is time for us to learn some humility and stop being so arrogant”. Yet when I’m with other web developers who have heard of you, “arrogant” is frequently used to describe how you come across. How would you respond?
Sounds like I have to talk my own medicine then!
Yes I am aware that sometimes I come across as arrogant. Most of the time that is self deprecating but I understand not everybody gets my rather bizarre sense of humour.
The problem I have is that I find the attention I get quite embarrassing. Also (as I said in my recent talk), like a lot of web designers I am not the most socially comfortable person. The way that I cope is to joke about how great I am. Its a tongue in cheek response.
However, I would say there is a difference between how I behave with the web design community and how I work with my clients.
Finally, I didn’t say I didn’t have things to learn too. I make as many mistakes as anybody else.
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Say your customer is developing a SaaS app, what tools would you recomend for customer feedback, analytics and such? Are you using any tools of that sort you are particulary happy with?
Get Satisfaction offers great customer feedback and is easy to integrate with your site.
As for analytics, I go with Google Analytics for the basic stuff but thing anything more advance has to be bespoke.
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What’s your cheese of choice? You can tell a lot about a man from his cheese.
I am a man of simple tastes. It's mature cheddar for me.
