As a follow up to her post earlier this week, Tiff has a new blog post that details how we estimate potential projects. It also goes hand-in-hand with a pricing guide page that Keith posted today. Visit site »
If this is accurate, I can only say a big congrats to all my awesome friends at Digg. You guys totally deserve it. Woohoo! Visit site »
Tiffani’s short and sweet post about a potential client’s budget (as it relates to early talks with an agency about your project) has kicked off a nice discussion on the matter. Visit site »
Apple has publicly apologized for the disaster that was the MobileMe launch, as well as the misleading use of the word “push,” and given subscribers a free 30-day extension to their service. A nice gesture for what was, indeed, an ugly string of screw-ups. I especially like the letter’s copywriting: no-bullshit, sincere, to the point, and personal. We all know a lot of companies would have taken a “our Terms of Service clearly indicate that we can not guarantee our services,” sort of approach. Well-done, Apple.
Now that things are running smoothly, I’m really liking MobileMe a lot. Not having to put my iPhone in its dock all the damn time to ensure I’ve got my latest contacts and calendar events on all my device is really a sweet thing. There’s no doubt this is a better service than .Mac for iPhone owners. I’m not sure it’s an improvement for those who just want to keep multiple Macs in sync — but, whatever. Visit site »
According to a growing number of people on Twitter, Apple is having problems with its in-store activation process. Couple this with the botched MobileMe rollout, and this launch isn’t looking good for Apple right now. Here’s hoping they get it all resolved in short order.
A nice piece on how to be a good client for a designer. Visit site »
Great video of Malcolm Gladwell talking about the challenge of hiring in the modern world. While some of his sporting examples are a little questionable, I completely agree with the basic premise that the combine, and other similar measures of performance in other industries, are inherently flawed. I would add, too, that I think the way we promote people to management in the United States is idiotic. The idea that someone who performs very well in his/her job makes them a good candidate for a promotion to management is flatly absurd. The skills needed to be a great manager are drastically different — and in some cases, at odds with — the skills needed to be a great worker. Visit site »
Really, really great piece by Andy on what sort of skills one needs to be a good and employable web designer in the industry today. You’ll note that Andy’s list of skills focuses on understanding the foundations of design as a craft (as well as basic communication, interaction, and business skills needed by a professional in nearly any industry), and not on individual design packages such as Photoshop or Dreamweaver. To that point, this quote at the end is particularly interesting:
…you may find that there are plenty of job listings where the job requirements are described as, “must be expert with Photoshop and Illustrator…” or something long those lines. Ignore those job listings; they’re placed by inept and sick companies looking for decorators, not designers. Take a job with a company asking for a Photoshop expert and I promise you’ll never be allowed to engage in design.
Andy might be over-exaggerating a little bit, here — I wouldn’t say every listing that mentions Photoshop and Illustrator is absolutely a bad gig — but his point is very sound. Such a mention is definitely a red flag. If you’re being hired as a designer, your employer ought to be much more interested in your ability to design than your expertise with a particular software package. And if they are more interested in your expertise with a particular software package, it’s probably because they really want you to be a Photoshop jockey, not a designer. Visit site »
Wow. This is absolutely fantastic. I can only hope that one day I’ll be in a position to resign from a company, knowing full well my resignation will be leaked onto the interwebs, and I have enough wits about me to compose a letter even half as amusing as this one. If that day ever comes, I’ll know I’ve made it. Kudos, Stewart Butterfield. Visit site »
In part three of Keith’s ongoing series of post about working with Blue Flavor, he talks in detail about how best to empower our designers and get their best work out of them. I think many potential clients do have a misguided perception of how the relationship between client and designer should work, and Keith aims to quell some of those misunderstandings. Really good stuff. Visit site »
Besides the afore mentioned piece from Ms. Bolton, there’s also a great piece from Mr. Boulton in the latest A List Apart. Mark talks about fostering ideas. He notes that the brilliant moment of creative inspiration is rarely a great idea in and of itself — it needs to be honed and fostered, and he presents some suggest on ways to facilitate that process. Visit site »
Keith wrote a really nice and thorough piece on how to engage Blue Flavor, if you might be interested in talking to us. He talks about how we scope, estimate, and charge for projects, what kind of projects we want (and don’t want), and how both sides can be successful in the early stages — and this is only part one of a series. Visit site »
My buddy Sarah has been ranting about this for a few weeks now, and she’s finally put it on her blog. I totally agree with her: 90% of the time, a text message, e-mail, IM, or voicemail is the right form of communication. It’s not that often that you really need to talk to me on the phone. As such, Sarah wants a data-only plan from her wireless provider. Sarah and I have both been bitten in the ass by massive overage charges on SMS messages — all the while using a miniscule percentage of our voice minutes. Give us an unlimited data-only plan, and we’ll be happy to pay by-the-minute for the few voice calls we do make. Visit site »
Web operations can only thrive when they are staffed by people who get the Web and enjoy using the Web. These are people who categorically prefer the Web over print publications. If this doesn’t describe your journalism organization, then you are doing something wrong.
Word. Visit site »
Southwest Airlines started flying slower about two months ago, and projects it will save $42 million in fuel this year by extending each flight by one to three minutes.
Wow, insane. And awesome. Visit site »
Kohi opines that design doesn’t scale well to larger teams, and suggests that if a design team is larger than “a dozen or two,” things start to get dicey. I’m sure there are exceptions to this, but in general, I think he’s right. Design is best practiced by small teams. Visit site »
Marc Andreessen in plain English on the various possible outcomes of the MS/Yahoo situation. Visit site »
While I’m not sure I agree with David’s assertion that being in the Bay Area can actually hurt your chances at being a successful web startup, I absolutely agree with the idea that there’s no need to be there — you can build a great web app just about anywhere. Visit site »
Intern Rob on getting through college and into a career that truly excites and stimulates you, and avoiding the institutional rat race the system encourages. Really good thoughts for pre-professional designers, developers and the like — but I do wonder if what Rob did would have worked so well to get him great job offers in other industries?
Still, a great read. Visit site »
Bryan’s post on getting bent over and screwed by a client, inspired by some of my tweets from this morning. Good stuff, and a nice discussion follows. Somehow, we need to teach folks how to be better clients. It’s not really their fault, but it’s becoming more and more obvious to me that a lot of people have no idea how to be a good client for a designer (and being a good client is in their best interest — it’s how they get our best work). Visit site »
Seth has an other brilliant piece, this time on the topic of how you market yourself to potential employers. I agree with him completely, and would add this: if you don’t have the three things Seth mentions instead of a resume, then maybe you’re just not ready for that amazing job — the one people kill for. Maybe, just maybe, you’re not quite as ready as you think you are, and you need to suck it up and spend a few years being a cog in the corporate machine. I know I had to do this for many years before I got to the point where I could go resume-less. I’ve noticed a certain sense of entitlement amongst young people in our industry, whereby they think they deserve to be working at (insert name of hipster internet company here) and making six figures straight out of college. Most of us, certainly me included, have to work in a decidedly uncool cubicle at some large organization for a few years before we make it to that point. And you know what? That’s okay. It doesn’t mean you’re not talented enough — it’s just the way the world works. Visit site »
The aways-inspiring Michael Lopp lays down a brilliant description of what is (I think) a very common working style for the current crop of creative professionals — seamless, thoughtful context switches that might appear to be multitasking, but really aren’t. Visit site »
Khoi is a believer in the logic that great design is an important asset to any company, and wonders why Yahoo — a company he feels had a great design sense — ultimately has failed. A great discussion follows as to whether or not Yahoo is actually a great design company.
My take? Yahoo has some real shining examples of great design (see Y! Mail and Flickr for the most obvious examples), but that great design sense never managed to make it’s way to Yahoo’s core product: their homepage and search engine. So, even though Yahoo is capable of great design, it may be that poor design was actually a flaw that ultimately hurt them. Visit site »
Great piece by Brian over at the Blue Flavor blog. As he explains, edge cases aren’t usually presented because someone has a serious concern over the viability of an idea, but are rather a result of ulterior motives — and, they tend to totally deflate inspiration and creativity. Visit site »
I would have included DHH’s “PHP is the devil,” but what do I know? Visit site »
This one’s been percolating for a while, as Mike was talking about it way back at the Blue Flavor holiday party. The basic question is, “if you could have one business idea from the last ten years as your own, which idea could you most assuredly turn into a success?” It’s easy to just spout off and say, “YouTube!” or “Facebook!” But, even if you had the brilliant ideas of a video-sharing site, could you have really capitalized on it? Do you really have all the resources needed to execute on those kinds of ideas? Doubtful. Mike chooses HotOrNot.com, which is a great choice. Those guys are making boatloads of money on a site I could have built all by myself in a weekend. Interesting stuff to talk about, for sure. Visit site »
Tom wrote a great piece at the BF blog on setting expectations — perhaps the most important part of successful project management. Visit site »
More a piece on the dramatic growth of the South Lake Union neighborhood than on Amazon’s intentions to build a new campus there, this NYT article really quickly covers what has happened in SLU over the past few years, as well as what’s to come. The more I think about it, the more I feel like SLU is the neighborhood I’d like to live in. Visit site »