Posts filed under Process
Not Just a Day Job
It’s amazing to work with people who love what they do enough to do it at home, off the clock.
Brad contributes to the open-source Drupal project. Eric works on various web-based applications (most of them a secret at this point). Ken designs websites.
Speaking of, one of Ken’s personal projects, parkviewbaptist.net, was recently included in a web design inspiration book: The Web Designer’s Idea Book. It’s available, of course, at Amazon.com.
Bloat
We recently launched another Drupal-powered website, and one minor requirement was a custom node-type that included a date field.
We needed to output a simple date... say, something like:
<div class="date">Saturday, August 18, 2007</div>Turns out Drupal likes dates a bit fatter:
<div class="field field-type-datestamp field-field-date"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item"> <span class="date-display-single"> Saturday, August 18, 2007 </span> </div> </div> </div>Which led to yet another conversation between myself and Ken regarding Drupal, some of the disconnects between that CMS and our process, and their solutions.
Needless to say, there remains no one-size-fits-all solution. The features offered by Drupal, its vocal and active community, and its highly modular architecture make it an incredibly effective product for a wide range of implementations. On the other hand there are significant sacrifices -- for one, ridiculous HTML-bloat. Or, when it's worth it, there is the time lost trimming that same bloat.
Working for Non-profits
We love working for non-profits and cultural heritage institutions. Why? Two simple reasons.
1 - They do business like everybody else.
There are many misconceptions about non-profits, the biggest of which classifies non-profits as non-paying (or little-paying) customers. A couple years ago we posted a note about an open position to a well-known design forum, and mentioned that we do a lot of work for non-profit organizations. One of the replies was something to the effect of, "non-profit = no profit."
That just isn't so. We've seen no measurable, categorical difference in the budget assumptions made by non-profit organizations as compared to the assumptions made by their for-profit counterparts.
2 - The reasons they get up and go to work in the morning are, by-and-large, amazing.
Most non-profits are inherently driven by greater purpose, vision, and mission. We've had the opportunity to be involved in some truly amazing efforts, efforts where our work -- connecting clients to their users in meaningful ways -- becomes both incredibly important and rewarding.
Over the years we've been involved with organizations working to:
- Eradicate poverty housing
- End world hunger
- Elevate the standard of living for children globally
- Preserve history and culture for the benefit of present and future generations
- Provide medical care where it would otherwise be unavailable
- Promote global literacy
- Translate the Bible into mother-tongue languages of the world
- Engage children to be advocates against poverty
What an honor.
An Event Apart Boston
An Event Apart Boston came and went a week ago. The conference was amazing. Nine expert speakers presented on a range of topics from the conceptual to the practical. I’ve never been so happy to sit in one place for so long.
Some Highlights
Think Positive Negative
In his presentation Good vs Great Design, Cameron Moll pitched the idea that design should be problem-focussed, not solution-focussed.
Well put. We’ve spent many critique sessions backpedaling when a design isn’t working, retracing our steps invariably to the original goal, or problem. Now we have a mantra for times like these. Focus on the problem. Or, just like they didn’t tell us growing up, think negative.
Project Managers are Superstars
The conference was largely technical, devoting hours and hours to the methods of implementation. In all that, one point still couldn’t be missed: project managers are invaluable. No problem is truly understood, no goal established, and no solution designed without an effective project manager in the middle. And the middle isn’t always comfortable.
For Best Results, Over-think
Details can be tiny little pitfalls, inviting designer and client alike to pass on by. Not a good idea.
Jason Santa Maria summarized the point perfectly: “Sweat the Small Stuff.” That line was great validation for all times we’ve pulled together a meeting to discuss a font size, a color, the name of a class selector, or an approach to marking up a chunk of content.
Our Senior Designer Knows His Stuff
It’s nothing new, but very exciting all the same. The final session was a site-critique. We didn’t submit anything corporately, but our Senior Designer Ken Woodworth did submit a site he designed for a friend: www.parkviewbaptist.net
It's the first site that the panel critiqued. Needless to say, Ken was a little nervous.
Usability expert Steve Krug opened the critique by saying that he wasn’t planning on staying for the session, but that www.parkviewbaptist.net is the reason he did. He praised the site from a usability perspective. Eric Meyer complimented the (X)HTML/CSS implementation. Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria, Dan Cederholm, and Cameron Moll complimented the design.
It’s worth stating that amidst the compliments the panel offered some well-placed suggestions. Within a day Ken had followed up on all of them. You might say, ehem, he sweats the small stuff.