stayux

As an artist I avoid sharing over the internet oil nudes, anatomy sketches or artistic nude photography. I made the last attempt in early 2013 trough Instagram. Quickly realizing the big mistake I deleted my account and never come back. This are the new times. We will adapt as always.

Long time ago (2006) I had a client who wanted their educational web-site (Provider of e-signature) to be created with user centric design first approach.

I had a vast interest in the topic due to my exposure to Nielsen Norman Group teachings and research based UX. In one of the test I introduced a big search field positioned in the top of the screen with clear contrast as a starting UX point.

The test failed miserably. People rejected the notion that they must type, mostly of _fear_ of making a mistake.

As a result all the data suggested that the targeted audience will feel comfortable with "precompiled" list of important topics as a UX starting point. After carefully creating adequate structure I introduced 9 starting points and solved the problem. /Warning: Cyrillic / Retro UI/ (https://web.archive.org/web/20080820012158/http://www.b-trus...)

This was in the time when most of the users associated Internet with the blue "e" icon of Internet Explorer.

I think that this mindset is still present. Users in general are in the same space. Facebook icon replaced the IE icon successfully.

I get the idea. I am not sure about the practical implications outside the individual advancements.

I have somewhat anecdotal evidence that the best production environment is composed of different people, in some part of your production you need "worker bees", and in architectural and research processes you need people with natural curiosity and experimental nature.

Even the author has some doubts of his argument in production.

>Shirking our Normal Work in favor of Extra might be more interesting, but it makes us shitty teammates at best, and unethical at worst.

Sharing my limited experience. In any way or form I don't imply that my point of view is right. Producing software is complex process that requires constant adjustment and change.

I have successfully run my company (middle level web-shop) and delivered results for more than 16 years. In my PM practice I never required my engineers to do "extra". In my view this is not productive approach at all.

Creating the adequate communication channels and production processes with transparency delivers results. Defining clear rules of engagement for the teams in research, prototype and production stages removes the "need" of "extra" work or overtime.

I understand the thesis of the article, but respectfully disagree with the author. Doing extra work for yourself as an investment in being better is definitely a good thing.

But doing this in production will create misalignment and frustration within the team, and the overall net effect will not be higher quality.

Self hosting is logical if you want to have control over your brand. Even if circumstances arise (scalability, bigger audience) you can always design your architecture with focus over maximum control. In this moment in time, with this prices if you are software professional and you are not self hosting your blog (or having maximum control over your intellectual property) you are lazy. :)

Thanks. I am starting self-hosted blog about design fundamentals, best-practices, etc. Using only PDF is not a solution for me. Combining minimalistic web-site design with pdf/e-pub will suit me well. I like your approach as a statement against web "pollution".

In the old times I have used Inkscape from curiosity and to free my self from Adobe. After initial interface hick-ups I found it very useful for shape blocking. Nowadays Affinity Designer is 90 percent of my graphic design and part time UI workflow. The rest is in Figma. I hope new version of Inkscape is more responsive under Mac Os, the quartz version was frustrating to work with.

Choosing clients with potential business growth and delivering "what they need the most" has worked well for me and my company.

Keep two or three of those types of clients with longterm goal in mind.

For short term projects focus on speed of completion and ROI. Time is money.

Last year I closed my Web-dev company after 16 years + of work. My somewhat "subjective" view on your questions:

1.You must own your sells and communication channels. Depending on third party platform is non reliable.

2.Do your business math, there is always a risk factor in hiring/growing your team beforehand.

3.If I am in your place, I will focus on being the best at what you do now and care for expanding the business later.

4.The better strategy is to search for bigger projects that you can showcase in your portfolio.

5.Your team structure will change according to types of projects that you work on.

6.Nice portfolio with clear copy and SEO. Blogging on social media on relevant topics.

More insight that I can give:

Put customer relationships on the first line. Underpromise and overdeliver. Say no to clients without fear. Rase your rates accordingly.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Yet another automation that is not needed by the user. As a designer I get it - it is growth hacking. For some reason I think this will backfire, music is personal experience without clear emotional boundaries. Example: Current emotional state: Happy. Reason: Good memories with my girlfriend. Song: Hurt by NIN. If a song has emotional signature you cannot predict with certainty that it will be in unison with emotional state of the listener.