What is User Experience? Why does it even mater? UX? UXD? IxD?
My parents don't even know what I do or why. Neither does my wife. When I try to explain what I do to someone on the street, they look at me and say "Oh, you're a web designer."... Read More
Goodbye, 2011.
You've been long, grueling, and rewarding. In the past year, I've worked harder and longer than I can imagine, been swamped with projects for 3M, Tooth & Nail, and slews of others, lost a computer, gained a computer, ultimately dodged snow for the later half of the year, sold hundreds of fonts, found myself in USA Today, played with my dog too much, learned all about coffee creamer from my wife, biked too far, put 30,000 miles on my car, stayed up too late, and haven't slept in nearly enough.
My resolution(s): Update this thing more often. Work harder. Stronger. Faster. Longer. Play with Miles longer. Hang out with my wife more than my computer. Travel further - for longer. Be more creative.
Here's to 2012!
Well, it's done. After five years of pushing, countless struggles, and transferring woes, I'm done. As you may know, my senior show at UW-Stout was this past weekend, featuring my Lomography International webstore, as well as a 'how-to' video, and a home made photo booth that printed a holga-esque set of three pictures instantaneously.
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Album art has exploded over the past few years, as musicians are looking for ways to set themselves apart in the mass of record stores and digital collections. It also has quite the impact on the listener experience, with extravagant art truly bleeding into the music, a listener can hooked from the get-go. But how do you engage a listener - a crowd purchasing on an audible market, not exactly a visual one?
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In 1996, some 14 years ago, Macromedia introduced a product that would revolutionize the web and other interactive facets for a short while - Flash. The program boasted animation and interactivity, all while being vector based, and supporting minute scripting to bring a whole new world to the then-born internet. Things looked great for designers, developers, and consumers.
Fast forward to 2010, Flash has been acquired by design-champs Adobe, and has made significant improvements, but all is falling short. This is the year Adobe(Macromedia) Flash died. But who's to blame? Adobe? The developers?
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Imagine a meeting between you and a prospective client. They've contacted you personally for their next big redesign. You do your homework, studying the company inside and out. You make notes of past design work; the good, the bad, and the ugly, and even whip up some preliminary sketches to show that you're not only interested, but enthralled to be working with them. "These are all great strategies for freelance success!" you beckon from your office, waiting to nail the project.
...And then it falls apart. The client isn't impressed or even interested. The awkward silences creep in. The dirty looks start coming out. The tone has changed. You're unprepared for your reaction to an dastardly disaster awaiting you. And then it happens. You bite back. You defend your work to a client, and fight to no end. You get escorted out, and asked never to contact the company again.
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Let's face it : Internet Explorer (read: Microsoft) isn't sitting too "hip" with the tech savvy design crowd these days. Poor User Interface (UI), below-average speed results, and downright abysmal language support. So it is no surprise that web designers loathe designing IE6-compatible webpages, while the rest of the world pushes through and carries on with it. Along the lines of IEDeathMarch.org, here's reasons large corporations need to abandon IE6 and join the modern world.
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SmashingMagazine.com had a very interesting article (view here), causing quite a stir, in the past couple of weeks. Does the future of the internet have room for web designers? Are we all needing to look at getting a career change? Should we console our college instructors and demand an ultimate answer?
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