The other day Hai asked me if I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year.
"Hadn't even thought about it," I responded.
Hai's first response was an emoticon: =O
Then, "Don't you do it every year?" he asked.
"No," I responded. "I think I tried once or twice."
It was twice. The first time, in 2004, I actually did pretty well, writing at least one scene every day for the first third of the month. Then the story sort of fizzled out and died. I couldn't figure out where to go next, so I gave up. The second time was right after the fire in 2005. While the idea I had was actually pretty interesting, and I still think about it now and then, I was too emotionally drained from losing everything and trying to deal with living with the in-laws to write.
I was cavalier about the topic with Hai, partly because I was busy at the time we were talking, but also because it hurts to think about how writing has been gradually disappearing from my life. Ever since I left school, then the AMRN, I've had less and less drive to write creatively. No deadlines, no one to read and review. No expectations. And now even my blog has dried up--Twitter allows me to be lazy and not craft long pieces anymore.
I've talked about giving up writing before, but the truth is I don't really want to. It would be a waste. I don't want to be the personification of lost opportunity. There are so many things I'm good at, but I don't work nearly hard enough to hone any of my skills. It both feeds and is fed by my lack of direction: I can't pick one, so I don't do any of them.
It has to stop. I need a kick in the pants.
Maybe NaNoWriMo would be a good start.
I've been thinking about a story involving my two favorite AMRN characters, Celia Mazarin and Natalie "Byron" Ryan. Originally I'd planned to make it a webcomic, but I've always written in story form. If I could just finish the story, I could always reimagine it as a comic later.
NaNoWriMo begins one week from today.
I think I'll do it.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Tomato-Tuna-Green Bean Salad
Ingredients
1 bag SteamFresh cut green beans
1 can light tuna in water
2 T light mayonnaise
2 tsp mustard
dash onion salt
1 c cherry tomatoes
Instructions
Steam the green beans in the microwave.
Mix tuna, mayo, mustard, and salt in medium bowl. Slice cherry tomatoes in half and fold into tuna mixture.
Rinse green beans in ice water. Drain.
Put half the green beans on one plate and half on another. Top each with half the tuna mixture.
According to Weight Watchers Online, all this food is only 2.5 Points. Enjoy!
Note: This recipe is not for finicky eaters. My husband took one bite and refused to continue. Meanwhile, I found it absolutely delicious. It's all a matter of whether or not you can stand cold green beans.
(Sorry about the picture...the tuna fish is a little flat due to being saran-wrapped in the fridge.)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Measurements update
Today I decided to see how I'm doing on toning up. The results are great news for my chest, waist, hips, and neck. My thighs decreased a little and my calves are the same, while my right arm is actually bigger. I guess I've built some muscle there...
Here's the breakdown:
Here's the breakdown:
| Undated | June 29 | August 20 | October 14 | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| chest | 48.5" | 48.5" | 47.5" | 45.5" | -3" |
| right bicep | 17.5" | 15" | 14" | 15" | -2.5" |
| left bicep | 18" | 16" | 15" | 15" | -3" |
| waist | 48" | 47" | 45.5" | 44.5" | -3.5" |
| hips | 56" | 55.5" | 53.5" | 51" | -5" |
| right thigh | 30" | 29.75" | 28.5" | 28" | -2" |
| left thigh | 30.5" | 30" | 28.5" | 28" | -2.5" |
| right calf | - | 17 7/8" | 17" | 17" | -7/8" |
| left calf | - | 17 7/8" | 17" | 17" | -7/8" |
| neck | - | 16.25" | 15.5" | 15" | -1.25" |
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Aunt Carol update
Mom went to Peoria this past Tuesday to be with Aunt Carol, and she tweeted me this morning to let me know what's going on. She says Carol is doing much better. Thankfully, it wasn't Respiratory Distress Syndrome after all. Carol is off the ventilator and sat up in a chair for two hours this morning!
Thanks to everyone for your well wishes!
(Previous Aunt Carol post is here.)
Thanks to everyone for your well wishes!
(Previous Aunt Carol post is here.)
Update
Lots of stuff has been going on with me lately, and since I never seem to blog properly anymore, here are some links to pictures.
On October 1, we rearranged the living room in order to better accommodate our new TV table. This is the happiest I've been with our living room...well, ever. There's plenty of floor space for Wii Fit and Wii Sports, all seats provide an adequate view of the TV, and Sean has a nice big contained area for his clutter--comfortable for him, livable for me. This living room arrangement is composed entirely of win.
On October 3 and 4, I attended the Webmaster Jam Session in Atlanta. I live-tweeted the whole thing, and also sent a few iPhone photo updates here. The photos I took with my regular camera are here.
It was a great conference. Having never been to a web conference before, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and certain things were different than I'd imagined. But I learned a lot and even met a few new people. Hopefully I'll be able to go again next year.
Once the Webmaster Jam Session was over, I headed over to see Charles and Heidi. Charles and I went to the Buford Highway Farmers Market, which is the greatest grocery store in the history of the universe. The next day, all three of us went to the Atlanta Greek Festival. We also spent some time just relaxing and chatting, which was nice. It was a short but really fun visit. I love seeing Charles and Heidi :)
The Atlanta Greek Festival gets its own gallery because it was so huge. I loved seeing the dancers, listening to the band, eating all the delicious Greek food, and exploring all the shops. I even bought a cookbook! The church where the festival was held was absolutely beautiful, so I took lots of photos. You can see them all here.
Settling back into my normal routine after the whirlwind Atlanta trip was not an easy task. The following Monday I went to Riverwalk during my lunch break. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and there were lots of boaters out on the water. I jogged the walking path once, then sat by the river and took pictures. (I'm fairly pleased with how blue my eyes look in this one.)
I went back to Riverwalk on Thursday, not to jog this time but simply to look around. We'd had a great deal of badly-needed rain Wednesday night, and Riverwalk was transformed. The Savannah was mud-colored and drab and the sky was overcast, but the plants felt vibrant and every surface was beaded with water. The very air felt fresh. It was a different kind of beautiful.
So there you have it. Lots of adventures, with hopefully more to come. :)
On October 1, we rearranged the living room in order to better accommodate our new TV table. This is the happiest I've been with our living room...well, ever. There's plenty of floor space for Wii Fit and Wii Sports, all seats provide an adequate view of the TV, and Sean has a nice big contained area for his clutter--comfortable for him, livable for me. This living room arrangement is composed entirely of win.On October 3 and 4, I attended the Webmaster Jam Session in Atlanta. I live-tweeted the whole thing, and also sent a few iPhone photo updates here. The photos I took with my regular camera are here.It was a great conference. Having never been to a web conference before, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and certain things were different than I'd imagined. But I learned a lot and even met a few new people. Hopefully I'll be able to go again next year.
Once the Webmaster Jam Session was over, I headed over to see Charles and Heidi. Charles and I went to the Buford Highway Farmers Market, which is the greatest grocery store in the history of the universe. The next day, all three of us went to the Atlanta Greek Festival. We also spent some time just relaxing and chatting, which was nice. It was a short but really fun visit. I love seeing Charles and Heidi :)The Atlanta Greek Festival gets its own gallery because it was so huge. I loved seeing the dancers, listening to the band, eating all the delicious Greek food, and exploring all the shops. I even bought a cookbook! The church where the festival was held was absolutely beautiful, so I took lots of photos. You can see them all here.Settling back into my normal routine after the whirlwind Atlanta trip was not an easy task. The following Monday I went to Riverwalk during my lunch break. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and there were lots of boaters out on the water. I jogged the walking path once, then sat by the river and took pictures. (I'm fairly pleased with how blue my eyes look in this one.)I went back to Riverwalk on Thursday, not to jog this time but simply to look around. We'd had a great deal of badly-needed rain Wednesday night, and Riverwalk was transformed. The Savannah was mud-colored and drab and the sky was overcast, but the plants felt vibrant and every surface was beaded with water. The very air felt fresh. It was a different kind of beautiful.So there you have it. Lots of adventures, with hopefully more to come. :)
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Superpowers
Facebook's Likeness application has a Superpowers quiz. It lists the following powers and asks you to rank them in order, from most desired to least desired.
Flying
Mind reading
X-ray vision
Invisibility
Shapeshifting
Invulnerability
Super speed
Telekinesis
Time travel
Super strength
I found this to be pretty intriguing. Here's my list:
Flying
Time travel
Super strength
Super speed
Invulnerability
Telekinesis
X-ray vision
Invisibility
Shapeshifting
Mind reading
I've always wanted to be able to fly. I love being in airplanes. I love the clouds. I love the feeling of wind buffeting all around. But...I hate falling ;)
Time travel would just be cool. But it's dangerous, and being able to do it would be a huge responsibility. So I ranked it #2.
After that, I ended up ranking by things that bothered me the least, because I really don't care to have any of the other powers.
Strength seemed fairly innocuous, so I went with that next, then speed. I don't really want to be invulnerable, because I believe pain is a part of life, but it seemed less terrible than the rest of the list, so it's next.
Telekinesis, the altering of the physical world through thought...the idea sounds cool until you really start to think about it. Can you imagine what you might do without realizing it? Without meaning to?
The last four were hard to rank, because I have issues with all of them. They're all severe invasions of privacy. What other purpose would these powers have besides misrepresenting who you are and discovering things you wouldn't otherwise know?
X-ray vision is probably the least invasive, so I put it first. Invisibility came next because while it does allow you to be a fly on the wall, it doesn't grant you any particular control. You're still physical, still constrained by the things around you. A locked door would still be an obstacle.
Shapeshifting is next. With shapeshifting powers you can pretend to be anyone or anything. You can get through those locked doors by changing into someone who's allowed to open them. You can gain trust by being untrustworthy. You can make every relationship you have a lie.
But the worst super power of all would be mind reading. It's the ultimate invasion. You'll know things you don't want to know, and others will fear and ostracize you. Those are givens. But even worse, it destroys the mystery of life. It requires you to have little imagination. You don't have to deduce anything because everyone's an open book. Can you imagine how boring that would be?
I prefer to watch for signs, add up clues, and lever my experience to determine how I think someone's feeling--or, and I know this is an outlandish idea, simply ask them.
So how would you rank this list of superpowers, and why?
Flying
Mind reading
X-ray vision
Invisibility
Shapeshifting
Invulnerability
Super speed
Telekinesis
Time travel
Super strength
I found this to be pretty intriguing. Here's my list:
Flying
Time travel
Super strength
Super speed
Invulnerability
Telekinesis
X-ray vision
Invisibility
Shapeshifting
Mind reading
I've always wanted to be able to fly. I love being in airplanes. I love the clouds. I love the feeling of wind buffeting all around. But...I hate falling ;)
Time travel would just be cool. But it's dangerous, and being able to do it would be a huge responsibility. So I ranked it #2.
After that, I ended up ranking by things that bothered me the least, because I really don't care to have any of the other powers.
Strength seemed fairly innocuous, so I went with that next, then speed. I don't really want to be invulnerable, because I believe pain is a part of life, but it seemed less terrible than the rest of the list, so it's next.
Telekinesis, the altering of the physical world through thought...the idea sounds cool until you really start to think about it. Can you imagine what you might do without realizing it? Without meaning to?
The last four were hard to rank, because I have issues with all of them. They're all severe invasions of privacy. What other purpose would these powers have besides misrepresenting who you are and discovering things you wouldn't otherwise know?
X-ray vision is probably the least invasive, so I put it first. Invisibility came next because while it does allow you to be a fly on the wall, it doesn't grant you any particular control. You're still physical, still constrained by the things around you. A locked door would still be an obstacle.
Shapeshifting is next. With shapeshifting powers you can pretend to be anyone or anything. You can get through those locked doors by changing into someone who's allowed to open them. You can gain trust by being untrustworthy. You can make every relationship you have a lie.
But the worst super power of all would be mind reading. It's the ultimate invasion. You'll know things you don't want to know, and others will fear and ostracize you. Those are givens. But even worse, it destroys the mystery of life. It requires you to have little imagination. You don't have to deduce anything because everyone's an open book. Can you imagine how boring that would be?
I prefer to watch for signs, add up clues, and lever my experience to determine how I think someone's feeling--or, and I know this is an outlandish idea, simply ask them.
So how would you rank this list of superpowers, and why?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Something's missing
"Hey guys, I think we missed something here. I can't put my finger on it, but something doesn't look right."
Aunt Carol
(Update: Click here)
My aunt Carol, Mom's oldest sister, tripped and fell last Wednesday, hitting her head. She is now in the hospital in a great deal of pain, on a ventilator. At first they thought something was wrong with her bowel, so they did surgery, but found nothing.
She was moved to what Mom says is a better hospital, and now they have found pancreatitis. Unfortunately Aunt Carol has also entered into Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome. They're not sure of the cause.
Originally we were hoping that Aunt Carol could be weaned off the ventilator and sent home in a few days, but now it's uncertain when that might happen. Mom may go to be with her (Mom's in Kentucky and Carol's in Illinois).
This is the same Aunt Carol who had a heart transplant. The Aunt Carol who suffered gangrene and had to have a toe removed. The Aunt Carol who lost her husband to a stroke. The Aunt Carol who lost her only son when he was just a teenager. The Aunt Carol who sacrificed so much to take care of her ailing mother.
My Aunt Carol has always only ever wanted to live quietly, love her family, and do her own thing--write, paint, and enjoy life. But she keeps having obstacles thrown in her way.
She's a fighter. She's gotten through everything up until now. She can get through this too.
But if you could keep her in your thoughts, we would all really appreciate it.
My aunt Carol, Mom's oldest sister, tripped and fell last Wednesday, hitting her head. She is now in the hospital in a great deal of pain, on a ventilator. At first they thought something was wrong with her bowel, so they did surgery, but found nothing.
She was moved to what Mom says is a better hospital, and now they have found pancreatitis. Unfortunately Aunt Carol has also entered into Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome. They're not sure of the cause.
Originally we were hoping that Aunt Carol could be weaned off the ventilator and sent home in a few days, but now it's uncertain when that might happen. Mom may go to be with her (Mom's in Kentucky and Carol's in Illinois).
This is the same Aunt Carol who had a heart transplant. The Aunt Carol who suffered gangrene and had to have a toe removed. The Aunt Carol who lost her husband to a stroke. The Aunt Carol who lost her only son when he was just a teenager. The Aunt Carol who sacrificed so much to take care of her ailing mother.
My Aunt Carol has always only ever wanted to live quietly, love her family, and do her own thing--write, paint, and enjoy life. But she keeps having obstacles thrown in her way.
She's a fighter. She's gotten through everything up until now. She can get through this too.
But if you could keep her in your thoughts, we would all really appreciate it.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Webmaster Jam Session 2008, Day One
It's not quite over--there's still the informal gathering over at the Sheraton--but I wanted to go ahead and post my notes from the first day of the 2008 Webmaster Jam Session.
The following notes are organized by session name. They haven't been edited (much).
can you have a pretty design and still be accessible? try.
What accessibility means
don't create separate sites for each person...make one site that works for everyone
don't coddle, just remove barriers
accessibility is for everyone!
it doesn't mean plain and boring!
it doesn't take too much time.
Designers are afraid of the idea of designing for the blind. But you can use the same back-end code and create infinitely different designs.
The biggest problem with flash accessibility is keyboard controls. Build external controls. (You can use the API to control Flash externally)
Captioning and descriptions get indexed and help people find your video.
the answer is not to sell people on it...it's to just do it.
EXAMPLES:
http://icant.co.uk/easy-youtube/? <--put YouTube link here
http://www.csszengarden.com/
live.yahoo.com
blogdeafread.com/abcohende/2008/02/15/yahoos-live-deaf-chat-room/
Yahoo search - style the label on the radio button
Viddler allowed timed captions; YouTube is starting with annotations
"NUI" = Natural User Interface
Johnny Lee's experiments mentioned.
Haptic devices: feedback based on touch
Quote of the session: "For those I-beams that come flying at you."
Buzzword: metaperception
"I MUST have the secret to WEB 2.0!"
People try blogs without thinking about creating quality content.
Companies don't make viral videos; people do.
Trends don't necessarily translate into value.
People hate advertisers on social networks.
It's not about ADVERTISING. It's about bringing quality content to the user through avenues they alreay use.
Don't just slap social media stickers on old school advertising packages.
Social media is about people connecting.
Diversify. Create different places where ideas are talked about.
Who am I trying to reach? What are their interests? Reverse-engineer based on these questions, rather than general-interest "broadcast" ads.
"Socializing with purpose"
Stand Up to Cancer had lots of traditional promotion, but barely any online word of mouth. Came up with "The Virtual Standup" - getting people to submit videos of themselves saying they stand up. Had top bloggers participate. Twitter was a huge factor in the spread.
Obama's "open campaigning" - apply collaborative, Wikipedia-style approach. Puts message out on various platforms and lets supporters spread it. Video fact-checking. Twitter updates. YouBama - voters say what they want.
Cost effective way to build brands by letting people do the talking.
Find who's influential in the area you want to impact, and see if/how you can work with them.
I. Two parallels
A. CHRONOLOGY
Chess Chronology: Opening, middle game, end game.
Website Chronology: Information architecture, visual design, build.
First you develop a strategy. In chess you study your opponent; in websites you talk to your client about goals.
Then you work on tactics. In chess you decide what moves to make; in websites you decide where you want everything.
Finally you build. Find inspiration in the details. Be precise; you have few options. Cautious and clever people have the strongest endgame.
You don't think about just one phase at a time. You evaluate as you go.
B. OPPONENTS
Relationships you have with your client is similar to relationships with chess opponents. End users are too.
If you're playing chess well, you're controlling all the moves. You're guiding your opponent to their defeat. In design you want to guide users to the information they're looking for. Limit options, create a clear path.
With a chess opponent, it's a matter of creating problems for each other to solve...same thing with clients.
Chess opponents enrich each other, and so do design colleagues.
I. PRINCIPLES
A. CONTENT IS KING
You always have to keep the king/content in mind. You can get too excited about other things (presentations, the queen)
B. KNOW YOUR HISTORY
Studying what was going on in the world when chess games were played can tell you a lot about how people were thinking and why they made the choices they made. Make history relevant to design work, too. Understand how design develops in other times and how it develops now. Understand what time period you're trying to evoke.
Understand technical limitations in former time periods.
C. THINK AHEAD
Think several moves ahead--the decision tree. Possibilities. How would you repond? Future-proofing the site is an example. Think about what people may need down the road.
Jason Santa Maria - thinking ahead about navigation
D. DON'T GET TOO ATTACHED
A lot of chess players get enthralled by the queen...they'll shoot themselves in the foot to protect her, rather than the king. It happens in design too. You're sketching out ideas and you see something you like, so you run with it without continuing to sketch.
"If you see a good move, look for a better one." -Emanuel Lasker
E. WORK WITH A PURPOSE
"One badly-placed piece makes your whole strategy bad."
Notes on how he prepared the slides: Futura Light: geometric font, all line thicknesses the same. Associate multiple lines of text with what they share in common.
Intuition does play a role in design. We can't necessarily understand it. But if you try to examine your choices, it'll help you grow and determine your method/process.
F. OBEY CIRCUMSTANCE
Every move creates a whole new world. You can't decide all your moves at the beginning. You have to respond. It's the same with new clients.
Prefab solutions != design
People who are willing to rely on solutions they created in the past are just ripping themselves off.
G. PRINCIPLES ARE YOUR FRIEND. EXCEPT WHEN THEY'RE NOT.
Chess players seem to follow a similar path. Their ability is discovered and then they're groomed. These players know the rules so well that they know when the rules can be broken.
Web designers backgrounds are all different. No one went to school for this! As a result, approaches and attitudes are all different. It's polarizing. People are either too pedantic, or not pedantic enough.
Traditional graphic designers: "Rules?! You know who I am? I don't need the rules!"
H. THE JOURNEY IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE GOAL
Some chess players focus on one "fatal move". But all moves are related. Likewise, every step of the way in design is important, and they can all teach you something.
"What I do is not play, but struggle."
Process of elimination leads you to your finished product...but you learn from the stuff that doesn't work.
Learned lessons: Get half up front ;)
"Lose as often as you can take it."
III. REFERENCES
How Life Imitates Chess - Garry Kasparov
Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess - Bruce Pandolfini
robweychert.com
onwired.com - mostly good things, just a few nitpicky comments
[smushit.com can remove a bunch of unnecessary nonvisual information from website images]
icu2.com - can't figure out what the site is about; small navigation; text in images can be done with CSS; cute "warning" doesn't match site style.
www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/OHR/coop/ - no www redirect; no 404 page; color contrast issue in top right menu
unisoft.com - move page header, put "in partnership with" over S&T, clean up homepage
Didn't get to have a critique on any site I've done.
dbs.myflorida.com
I didn't have my laptop open and wasn't able to take detailed notes, nor did I send notes to Twitter. Here's the main thing I remember: you can use real-life objects to create patterns and textures. You can age materials with coffee and an oven. Colors set the mood. Contrasting hot and cold has great impact. Gradients are powerful when done well, especially gradients of different tones of the same color. Stay away from default styles. Use drop shadow colors that go with the existing colors, not black. Take photos or scans of real things to create designs.
The following notes are organized by session name. They haven't been edited (much).
Making Accessibility Sexy
can you have a pretty design and still be accessible? try.
What accessibility means
don't create separate sites for each person...make one site that works for everyone
don't coddle, just remove barriers
accessibility is for everyone!
it doesn't mean plain and boring!
it doesn't take too much time.
Designers are afraid of the idea of designing for the blind. But you can use the same back-end code and create infinitely different designs.
The biggest problem with flash accessibility is keyboard controls. Build external controls. (You can use the API to control Flash externally)
Captioning and descriptions get indexed and help people find your video.
the answer is not to sell people on it...it's to just do it.
EXAMPLES:
http://icant.co.uk/easy-youtube/? <--put YouTube link here
http://www.csszengarden.com/
live.yahoo.com
blogdeafread.com/abcohende/2008/02/15/yahoos-live-deaf-chat-room/
Yahoo search - style the label on the radio button
Viddler allowed timed captions; YouTube is starting with annotations
Universal By Design
"NUI" = Natural User Interface
Johnny Lee's experiments mentioned.
Haptic devices: feedback based on touch
Quote of the session: "For those I-beams that come flying at you."
Buzzword: metaperception
Going Social
"I MUST have the secret to WEB 2.0!"
People try blogs without thinking about creating quality content.
Companies don't make viral videos; people do.
Trends don't necessarily translate into value.
People hate advertisers on social networks.
It's not about ADVERTISING. It's about bringing quality content to the user through avenues they alreay use.
Don't just slap social media stickers on old school advertising packages.
Social media is about people connecting.
Diversify. Create different places where ideas are talked about.
Who am I trying to reach? What are their interests? Reverse-engineer based on these questions, rather than general-interest "broadcast" ads.
"Socializing with purpose"
Stand Up to Cancer had lots of traditional promotion, but barely any online word of mouth. Came up with "The Virtual Standup" - getting people to submit videos of themselves saying they stand up. Had top bloggers participate. Twitter was a huge factor in the spread.
Obama's "open campaigning" - apply collaborative, Wikipedia-style approach. Puts message out on various platforms and lets supporters spread it. Video fact-checking. Twitter updates. YouBama - voters say what they want.
Cost effective way to build brands by letting people do the talking.
Find who's influential in the area you want to impact, and see if/how you can work with them.
Design Lessons in Chess
I. Two parallels
A. CHRONOLOGY
Chess Chronology: Opening, middle game, end game.
Website Chronology: Information architecture, visual design, build.
First you develop a strategy. In chess you study your opponent; in websites you talk to your client about goals.
Then you work on tactics. In chess you decide what moves to make; in websites you decide where you want everything.
Finally you build. Find inspiration in the details. Be precise; you have few options. Cautious and clever people have the strongest endgame.
You don't think about just one phase at a time. You evaluate as you go.
B. OPPONENTS
Relationships you have with your client is similar to relationships with chess opponents. End users are too.
If you're playing chess well, you're controlling all the moves. You're guiding your opponent to their defeat. In design you want to guide users to the information they're looking for. Limit options, create a clear path.
With a chess opponent, it's a matter of creating problems for each other to solve...same thing with clients.
Chess opponents enrich each other, and so do design colleagues.
I. PRINCIPLES
A. CONTENT IS KING
You always have to keep the king/content in mind. You can get too excited about other things (presentations, the queen)
B. KNOW YOUR HISTORY
Studying what was going on in the world when chess games were played can tell you a lot about how people were thinking and why they made the choices they made. Make history relevant to design work, too. Understand how design develops in other times and how it develops now. Understand what time period you're trying to evoke.
Understand technical limitations in former time periods.
C. THINK AHEAD
Think several moves ahead--the decision tree. Possibilities. How would you repond? Future-proofing the site is an example. Think about what people may need down the road.
Jason Santa Maria - thinking ahead about navigation
D. DON'T GET TOO ATTACHED
A lot of chess players get enthralled by the queen...they'll shoot themselves in the foot to protect her, rather than the king. It happens in design too. You're sketching out ideas and you see something you like, so you run with it without continuing to sketch.
"If you see a good move, look for a better one." -Emanuel Lasker
E. WORK WITH A PURPOSE
"One badly-placed piece makes your whole strategy bad."
Notes on how he prepared the slides: Futura Light: geometric font, all line thicknesses the same. Associate multiple lines of text with what they share in common.
Intuition does play a role in design. We can't necessarily understand it. But if you try to examine your choices, it'll help you grow and determine your method/process.
F. OBEY CIRCUMSTANCE
Every move creates a whole new world. You can't decide all your moves at the beginning. You have to respond. It's the same with new clients.
Prefab solutions != design
People who are willing to rely on solutions they created in the past are just ripping themselves off.
G. PRINCIPLES ARE YOUR FRIEND. EXCEPT WHEN THEY'RE NOT.
Chess players seem to follow a similar path. Their ability is discovered and then they're groomed. These players know the rules so well that they know when the rules can be broken.
Web designers backgrounds are all different. No one went to school for this! As a result, approaches and attitudes are all different. It's polarizing. People are either too pedantic, or not pedantic enough.
Traditional graphic designers: "Rules?! You know who I am? I don't need the rules!"
H. THE JOURNEY IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE GOAL
Some chess players focus on one "fatal move". But all moves are related. Likewise, every step of the way in design is important, and they can all teach you something.
"What I do is not play, but struggle."
Process of elimination leads you to your finished product...but you learn from the stuff that doesn't work.
Learned lessons: Get half up front ;)
"Lose as often as you can take it."
III. REFERENCES
How Life Imitates Chess - Garry Kasparov
Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess - Bruce Pandolfini
robweychert.com
Website Critique
onwired.com - mostly good things, just a few nitpicky comments
[smushit.com can remove a bunch of unnecessary nonvisual information from website images]
icu2.com - can't figure out what the site is about; small navigation; text in images can be done with CSS; cute "warning" doesn't match site style.
www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/OHR/coop/ - no www redirect; no 404 page; color contrast issue in top right menu
unisoft.com - move page header, put "in partnership with" over S&T, clean up homepage
Didn't get to have a critique on any site I've done.
dbs.myflorida.com
High Style and Low Fidelity
I didn't have my laptop open and wasn't able to take detailed notes, nor did I send notes to Twitter. Here's the main thing I remember: you can use real-life objects to create patterns and textures. You can age materials with coffee and an oven. Colors set the mood. Contrasting hot and cold has great impact. Gradients are powerful when done well, especially gradients of different tones of the same color. Stay away from default styles. Use drop shadow colors that go with the existing colors, not black. Take photos or scans of real things to create designs.
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