Imagine running a 400 meter dash. If you are in first place for the first 350 meters and then fall down, you will not win the race. Running a race and managing a project are not that different!
I’ve been managing projects for over 10 years at various types of companies and I’ve learned a lot through my experience and missteps. I’d like to share some of the pitfalls I’ve run into and how to avoid them.
What we’re excited about in digital storytelling and engagement, user experience and design, development and open source.
Writing the HTML for emails is error prone, painful and frustrating. Let a static site generator handle the messy parts!
We engage our clients in a very similar, albeit more expansive workshop to immerse ourselves in their brand and project needs at the beginning of an engagement.
I’m tired of non-profits getting burned. At tech conferences, so often the happy hour conversation turns into a tech therapy session. As fun as it is to rant against clunky systems, it frustrates me that the people doing some of the most important work are often the ones most hampered by technology.
Have you ever owned a chainsaw? When I was a teenager, I was helping my dad with something in the garage. I don’t remember what we were working on, but I do remember it was the last thing on Earth I wanted to be doing. Since this was before social media and mobile phones were the distractions they are today, I found myself reading the instruction manual of our chainsaw. While wading through pages of safety disclaimers, I came across one that made me pause.
“Do not attempt to stop chain with hands.”
Code reviews help assure quality. They’re also an invaluable professional development tool. Important as they are, we’ve always struggled implementing a successful code review process at Aten – but that's changing. Over the last few months our front-end team has been doing group code reviews and they've already proven to be useful.
Every place I’ve worked with a successful code review process was an organization where a team of engineers, with overlapping disciplines, worked on the same code base.
To create the best user experience, we recommend conducting iterative user testing early and often. Conduct a test. Analyze your results. Make updates to improve usability. Repeat.
The time of Designers handing off full page comps is long gone. As front-end development shifts to more modular approaches, designers must change their processes to better collaborate in this new ecosystem. How does a designer ensure front-end developers carry through those important details that make a design unique? Being able to define — in concrete terms — the details that make up a design is key to successfully implementing that design.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) supports research into the world’s frozen realms. NSIDC manages and distributes scientific data, creates tools for data access, supports data users, performs scientific research, and educates the public about the cryosphere.
