Cooking for Nerds – Preliminaries

It's no secret that I happen to have a little bit of ADD when it comes to personal projects. As of this entry, I have 4 projects running: 2 comics, a portfolio redesign, and a cooking site. The comics are interesting challenges – I'm a decent illustrator, but I've never done anything besides one–offs or short series, and never had to maintain a consistent style. Also, I haven't drawn regularly since college. My portfolio redesign is an experiment building a site optimized for iPhone/iPad-style touchscreen browsing using jqTouch and my current site's portfolio assets. The cooking site is a larger endevour into content creation.

Coming Soon (again)

I have to put my plans to restart the Cooking for Nerds section on hold, but for a great reason – my company wants to produce something similar as an iPhone app for a potential client. How great is that?

So what's next, then? I'll continue the poster/book cover design exercises because they're so fun. I'm also going to work on an iPad and iPhone optimized version of my portfolio using jQTouch (a version of JQuery optimized for the iPhone, with additional functionality to mimic a native app). Last, I'm flexing my gritty/noir illustration skills by working on a graphic novel with a friend.

A Canticle For Leibowitz

According to TVTropes.org, sometimes a moral leaves no room for subtlety.

X-Plane Redesign (Redux)

I finally finished my fictional redesign of X-Plane for the iPhone. My first effort wasn't bad, but it was little more than a reskin. As I thought about it further, I thought of changes to both the controls and the organization of the app itself that would dramatically improve it.

As I stated last time - I do not have any connection with any X-Plane project. This is not something you should expect to see coming to the app anytime soon. This is just a design exercise.

Snowed In, and Being Productive

One of the upsides of a foot of snow is that when you're not busy shoveling, you're inside trying to stay warm. What better way is there to stay warm, than sitting in front of a warm computer, updating your portfolio? Many.

But I had six Bank of America projects, one Merrill Lynch project, a Chrysler design study, and one bit of pitch work for Budweiser to add to my site, and now is as good a time as any. Check them out at danielboyle.net.

Dreams of Flight

Dune

Fear is the mind killer.

The Black Company

X-Plane Mobile (redesigned)

>

I love this game on the desktop, and starting up the mobile version and flying a couple approaches in a great timekiller. It feels remarkably similar to the desktop app, widely regarded as one of the most realistic flight simulations available. Unfortunately, it shares some UI design issues with desktop application.

To make things clear - I am not involved with the creation of X-Plane - that is Laminar Research. I'm a fan only. If you want to learn more, go to X-Plane.com.

If you want to learn more about the issues I have with the design of this App, and my solutions (and promise not to get mad/sue me if you're involved with the creation of this App), click the more button below.

The cow game.

This was a great little toy to remind myself how to use PHP, MySQL, and teach myself some more uses for JQuery. The basic rules are fairly simple - if there's a group of cows on your side - add one to your total. If there's a cemetary, your cows die (your total becomes zero. Obviously, it requires honesty - the drive is at a huge disadvantage, and there's a gray area as to what constitutes a cow siting - one cow? A large herd? What if there are multiple groups? Do you only count right along the road, or off into the scenery? A little human intuition is neccesary, but the basic logic is pretty simple.

The great thing about JQuery (and other AJAX scripting libraries) is that it really simplifies building lightweight sites that still have rich interactions. This was doubly important, because I wanted it to work on my iPhone on a drive from New Jersey to North Carolina, then to Tennessee, and back. AT&T's 3G data connection is OK, but there's no need to push your luck if you're stuck on EDGE in the middle of nowhere (I believe that's an actual town you pass on I-81 in Virginia. If it's not, it should be. If saved a ton of time reload the entire page, and instead just making calls to and from a database.

I have one major bug fix - and it's the first user interaction you should check for - "Idiot Clicking." Essentially, you need to know what's going to happen when someone clicks a button 20 times in a row when the site freezes, or your data connection hangs because you went into a dead spot between some mountains. And, of course, this is the first thing my wife discovers. It's not a big deal - I simply need to disable the buttons and show a "working/please wait" message of some sort.

We also got creative with the rules (we were in the car for over 24 hours this weekend). You constantly pass rather large crosses on hills when you get out past the Mason-Dixon line. Should they count as something? Maybe, if you have no cows, you get some back from the dead. It would've helped me - every time I'd get close, I'd hit a graveyard. The closest my wife got was a monument of some sort. Do Chick-Fil-A billboards count? The cows aren't live, but they are pretty funny.

Once I fix it up, and secure it, maybe I'll put it live somewhere.

Are you sure you're not a budget airline?

Ignore the fact that this was taken with my iPhone, on a rainy gray day at O'Hare. Doesn't American Airlines look like a budget carrier?

Budget airlines used to have a bad reputation. Southwest changed that by offering a basic, but friendly and positive experience. It's propelled their airline to the top of annual quality surveys, and consistent profits. JetBlue took this model and exanded on it, offering high quality entertainment options and more comfortable seating. Virgin America is a newcomer, but is following the same model - low prices, basic comforts and new technology.

The old, traditional airlines have lagged behind significantly, while finding ever more creative ways to charge you - such as charging for checked luggage, while still allowing anything short of an overseas steamer as a carry-on.

For the record, I think anything that is a carry-on, ought to be something you actually carry - not a rolling suitcase.

Bare metal has NEVER made anything look new – instead the plane looks like it's lost half of its paint. While I respect any airline that hasn't had the urge to make their planes look like a flying whale or web 2.0 startup, but the artwork on the plane says, "We haven't updated our look since 1975, and we're ok with that. Combined with the fact that AA DOES fly a large amount of older planes (the MD-80 pictured was introduced in 1980, and is basically a modernized DC-9 – which was itself introduced in 1965). It's old, loud, and inefficient. Of course, a plane from 1980 is still perfectly safe, because of frequent high-level maintenance. But the plane can still look old - particularly if you haven't cleaned the interior since you bought it.

Hulu and Online Video

Hulu.com has set the standard for online video. It's actually better than watching live television (mostly). It's also the single best online video site - not just in terms of content, but in actual use and function.

There are a few other video sites I use (or have used) on a regular basis: AdultSwim.com, ABC.com, CBS.com.

Small Gods

New Feature: iPhone-compatible portfolio

I've just added an additional feature to my site - an iPhone-compatible version of my portfolio.

One of the reasons I have used Flash for my main site for the last few revisions was the ease of updating via the XML files. This allowed to to easily and quickly update my portfolio. What used to happen was I'd create my portfolio, and by the time I motivated to update everything, I'd essentially have to rebuild the site from scratch. This version uses PHP to read the same XML file that powers the Flash version, although for the sake of load time and preventing interminable scrolling, I only load projects that have been flagged as new.

Why?

Last week, a Creative Director here at Organic made a comment that while he doesn't always appreciate the aesthetic of single-page portfolios, he loves being able to check out a link on his iPhone and browse it easily. In the age of smartphones, it's a good point.

As far as why PHP, it's simply to move the processing off of the user's browser. JQuery is much easier when it comes to processing HTML, however it relies on the browser's Javascript engine to read the file and create usable HTML. On a mobile device such as the iPhone, that will hurt performance, whereas my server can handle the load without blinking, even with many simultaneous requests. Also, JQuery doesn't create 'actual' HTML, so search engines would not index it properly. I'd imagine that other mobile browsers such as Opera Mini, or browsers on the Blackberry or Windows Mobile platforms (and lower-power processors than the iPhone) Javascript performance is poor.

So, the site is up. It's accessible as a direct link which you can find here, or as a link if the Flash detection fails on the main page.

Also, I used this excellent PHP5 tutorial to help me figure out the backend code (since I'm not a PHP expert by any means).

Idoru

An Invisible Refresh

Why?

It took 8 months of working in fits and starts, but I've finally converted the code behind danielboyle.net to Actionscript 3, from a mix of Actionscript 1 and 2. Why? As of Flash CS3, Actionscript 3 became available. It's essentially a complete rewrite of AS1 and 2 as a strictly object-oriented language. Practically speaking, as newer versions of the Flash player become universal, and Flash itself is upgraded, the older styles of Actionscript will fall away, and if you don't know AS3, you'll be in trouble. This particular project was probably the easiest way to learn. I had no real deadline, my math worked, my assets already existed, the logic was already there, and I had a working target to shoot for. For help, I turned to Google, Kirupa.com, and Actionscript.org. I also used Colin Moock's excellent Essential Actionscipt 3.0.

This is NOT a tutorial. This is a port-mortem of my thought process, lessons learned, and results of the re-engineering of my site.

Danielboyle.net - relaunched.

I've finally published a new version of the portfolio on Danielboyle.net – and you shouldn't be able to notice a difference.

The design is exactly the same as the previous version except for a few animation tweaks. In fact, I was, and continue to be, happy with the existing design, but the inevitable march of progress has kicked me in the ass and forced me to learn AS3.

What is AS3? Actionscript 3.0 (Flash's internal scripting language) received a massive overhaul in version 3 (which was released as part of the Flash CS3 package. Essentially, it's a rewrite from the ground up of Actionscript as an object-oriented language. What does object-oriented mean? What are the differences between AS1/2 and AS3? Is one better than the other? How did I do this, and is there an easier way to do it?

There will be a longer blog post in the next day or two detailing going over these answer, but for now, let's leave it at, it wasn't hard, but some things could have been much, much easier. Also, over the next few days, I'll be taking some time to tweak animations and fix any bugs that have popped up, as well as generally cleaning up and commenting my code.

Aquent: Shooting Themselves in the Foot

Aquent, for those who might be unaware, is a talent staffing company. They're large, multinational, and supposedly reputable. Theoretically, I'm a ‘Registered Talent’ with them, though that's merely a technicality (I have, in 5 years, received 1 job lead and no interviews, nor do I receive any correspondence from them whether I initiate it or not). They also have a partnership of sorts with the AIGA.

Last week, Aquent created a contest on 99Designs (no link, because they don't deserve one) where anyone could submit a design for their website. The winner would receive $500, and their design would be produced.

Curiously, the AIGA has a very strong stance against spec work (working for free in an attempt to win paying work), and design contests.

Essentially, the AIGA says that spec work and design contests cheapen and devalue our profession. It's true. It sets up the designer to essentially have your work stolen, and to have a company get away with work for free or at an extremely steep discount. This is different (though the AIGA does not make the distinction) from a new business pitch for an agency. In the case of contests, it's essentially irredeemable for a large company like Aquent to actually attempt this. Besides seeming cheap (a website the size of Aquent costs more than $500) it devalues Aquent's position of design as a rare skill, to be cultivated and promoted. Instead, Aquent has said, “Any idiot with Photoshop can do this. Why bother paying for our talent?” It hurts both designers and Aquent.

Certainly spec work & design contests have their place. Non-profits who have no money, and rely on donations for their labor can be excused for soliciting designs. Agencies and studios do spec work all the time in the form of business pitches. But the situations where it's appropriate are few and far between, and it's sad to see Aquent devalue themselves so.

This could have been a win for Aquent though. The contest could have been opened to its members (and prospective members) with the winner receiving a consulting-type placement with the shop that's actually building the site. They get experience, exposure and a paycheck. Aquent gets a good reputation by turning to its own members for design. Better yet, Aquent could have truly opened up to its community, and open sourced the design on its website – finding exactly what members think is broken, and how they'd fix it (and allow the community to work with the production team to prioritize and integration changes).

Cryptonomicon

Converting HTML to Flash (and design blogs I like).

Fantasy Interactive is a polarizing company. Initially know for completely overblown design and Flash use that would make even the most ardent defender cringe, they have a history of pushing its limits, particularly in portal/app design. Lately, they've toned down the worst of their stylistic excesses, and done some really nice work (unfortunately, it didn't carry over to their site redesign).

Think Swedish gets a little self-serving at times, but hey - it's their blog. Good for them. I'm not sure why they decided to build the whole damn thing in Flash (given that a blog is one of those things I need my right-click functionality for), but their media players are great.

Labs.bigspaceship.com is another great blog by a great agency. It's pretty much strictly code, but it's always relevent and interesting, even when the code or concept is over my head (fairly simple, since I'm not really a developer).

TheSerif.net is my favorite design blog. It's more focused than most, and has a higher level of quality. I like Design Observer and Subtraction as much as the next guy, but The Serif rocks for 'pretty pictures.'

Attention Graduates:

There's some things you probably haven't been told about working in the design/advertising field, so let me share a little. I apologize for rambling, but it's late and I took some Nyquil not too long ago. (Note: statements marked with an asterisk are not mine, but came from a thread at QBN.com and deserved a response.

Do not get married to your job.

If you decide to, do it while you're young and don't have a family or many committments to sustain. Don't expect to maintain family/social life/good health while working 70 hour weeks and weekends. Separate home and work.

Take your first couple jobs for what you'll learn and who you'll work with.

They'll be a huge influence on you and shape your career between the connections you make and the skills you learn. IF your first job out of college is as a senior designer or the only designer, run!

Speaking of Networking...

Every single job I've gotten has been through a connection. You still need to perform, but having a personal reference will get you in to many openings that otherwise wouldn't be available.

NEVER bite the hand that feeds you*

The design community is fairly small, and likes to talk. Word WILL get around.

Save your money. Save, save, save.

Learn to use your credit cards wisely. Stabilize your money situation. If it takes living at home until you get set up with a good job, that's what it takes.

Famous doesn't always equal good.

Don't take yourself TOO seriously*

We're not curing cancer, folks. This is especially true if you work in advertising.

Watch lower case r's - they're a bitch to kern.

Attention to detail. No, you shouldn't be a neurotic, quivering mess, but you should be on the lookout at all times.

Prepare to meet alot of stupid people.*

It's true. For every genuinely intelligent or creative or hard-working person you meet, you'll meet at least 3 who you will be amazed that they have survived into adulthood. If you haven't noticed this in college, you might not be on the right side of the equation. Don't get cocky - you'll screw up, spectacularly, sooner or later.

Fake it 'til you make it.*

I'm not kidding - no one knows everything. You'll be amazed how much you didn't learn in college. You'll learn fast. Don't lie, but don't underestimate your ability to learn something in a panic.

Stay true to your passions.*

The really cool design jobs generally pay less and are harder to find. That's because everyone wants them. IF you want t one, be prepared for a fight.

Be a professional.

Show up on time. Leave when your work is done. Anything else will reflect poorly on you. In the real world, being the flaky art major will earn you no friends.

Stay humble.*

No one cares that you are a beautiful and unique snowflake. There is always someone better than you... more unique... trendier... whatever. If you're good, your work will speak for itself.

Cannonball had a great list:

1. Take yourself seriously. Even too seriously, if need be. If you don't, no one else will.
2. You get a job to A-get paid and B-do good work. To be a good employee, pursue A at all costs, and to be a good designer, pursue B at all costs. You can be both, but most of the time you have to decide which is more important. Realize that despite what anyone says, pursuing B gets you A, so do so when you are young and can still make sacrifices for your work.
3. Know what you are worth, and value your own opinion about it more than anyone else's. If you don't, you will get taken advantage of. If you are wrong, adjust accordingly.
4. Use your favorite color a lot.
5. Travel.
6. To be a designer, you have to be creative. Not everyone is creative. If designing doesn't work out for you, remember that being creative opens doors to other things you can do.
7. Stay out of advertising whenever possible. Find out why by doing advertising. (Note: I work in advertising. The trick is to find the right place.)
8. Make friends with those you sit near, and they will watch your back. Watch their back too.
9. Now that you are out of school, put down the bottle.

Freelance.

Besides earning some extra money, you'll get to flex your skills and do what YOU want, for a change. Of course, you're the one to blame if it goes wrong. Don't forget to treat this like your day job - they're paying you. Don't forget to check your tax situation or hire an accountant if the work starts to add up.

Get used to paying.

Stock photography costs money. So does software. And fonts. And computers. In case you weren't sure, the world runs on money. Buy software as soon as you can afford it. Look at cheaper alternatives - most people don't need the full Adobe CS suite. If you're making money off of someone else's tools, make sure they get their share.

Information Design

2 links to share while I slowly work towards getting my site moved over (been a bit busy).

Visual Complexity

Aeriform

I didn't forget to write the post about organization and design, but I'm a fundamentally dis-organized person when it comes to everything other than design.

The Sleeping Bag Under the Desk

David Perry is a comedian.

How on earth are you managing to split your time between so many projects?

I work till about one or two every night. I've been 25 years in the business, and that's the hours I put in. I literally couldn't get it all done otherwise.

You see this sentiment quite a bit in the ad/design industry. After all, when you're competing for work and awards against the likes of Big Spaceship, R/GA, or Crispin Porter Bogusky, or any other number of large, famous shops, wouldn't you go all out?

The Last Thing I Did...

...at Magnani Caruso Dutton was design and Flash work for the new DiscoverCard.com - the site is live, the cat is out of the bag, and it's not a secret anymore. I'll post some of the stuff I worked on later.

The next thing I'm working on? A crash course in AS3 - redoing my portfolio in AS3. Should be fairly easy, I think. The design and logic is basically done already - I just need to redo the code.

And yes, I've given up on the book cover thing. There's only so many hours in a day.

When do you leave your user behind?

Every so often, a gamer will say "Hey, my character died. Why should I get a free pass to restart?" In the world of video games, death penalties have lessened as games get longer, more complex, and the systems themselves more capable. Where originally games were simple, could be beaten in one sitting, and the systems couldn't save any data (after all, it worked for arcades), we were then treated to cartridges with battery backups or password-based save systems. These progressed to memory cards you could plug in and swap between systems. Intervals for saving have also grown shorter and shorter – initially, you had to complete a level. Then, it was at 2 or 3 checkpoints in a level. Now, it's whenever you want, plus an autosave system whenever you accomplish something. You don't even NEED lives - you just restart from the last place to run headlong into the alien hordes again.

Then again - a modern game may take a few days of heavy playtime to defeat, or in the case of an MMO like World of Warcraft or Everquest, you NEVER defeat the game, and death always lurks around the corner. Should you looks days, weeks, or YEARS of work because of an unluckly break?

But even for short games, we have our hands held so that we can see everything, do everything, and there's no risk of us not seeing the end, eventually.

FWA: Had me, lost me.

For a while, The FWA was the site for the best web design out there. If you wanted the biggest, the flashiest, the sexiest - you went there. Where did they fall off the bus?

My Next Project.

I'm always looking for something to do outside of work. Haven Skate Park is still going forward, but short-term projects are always fun.

I have an hour commute to work (each way) on the train, so I get alot of reading done... about a book a week (though Cryptonomicon is taking 2 weeks, because it's huge). One week is a pretty good timeline for something small... how about book covers? Ought to be fun.

Apple? Are you there?

I waited a day to type this.

I'm glad to see the iPhone is reasonably priced now... but what about the nano?

The Yankees

Gasp – a design related post on my design blog. Up now: The Yankee's All-Star Game logo.

You can find a quick dissection here (via Daring Fireball)

Yes, it sucks. Yes, it's boring.

No, it's not Trajan's fault. Trajan is innocent here. Comic Sans is a crime against humanity (or at least Typography). Trajan is simply overused. There's nothing wrong with the letters in Trajan, or any quirks that make it impossible to set legibly. Rather, it's just...everywhere. Trajan doesn't need to be taken out to the field and shot, it just needs a nice break in the country and maybe some yoga classes.

The Coolest Freelance Job...

...that I've had in a while. Check out Haven Skate Park. Think of this as the beta site. It's fully functional for what's there, and there's no bugs or anything, but there's alot more coming.

Two tips for websites.

Does a certain behavior annoy you on sites you visit, often causing you to avoid that site? Say... popping an add on a new layer over the content you're trying to read? Yeah, that's annoying, right?

Well, don't do it on your site, then. Annoying your users is NOT a good thing. You can create noticeable ads or notifications without driving people away. A user who misses a minor callout is better than a customer who runs away.

When creating an 'easy' version of a tool, when you spend 6 rounds of IA and 2 rounds of design adding more and more features and data, then wonder why everything is so complicated... start removing things.

There is such a thing as too much information. If you're trying to make something simple and easy to use, less is more. Particularly if it's related to an already complex subject.

But how do you tell a client, "No?" In my fantasy world, it's easy.

Not all rectangles are squares.

There is a saying in math (specifically, geometry) - all square are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. I suppose it's not a math saying, as I've seen it applied to many, many things.

It's applicable to the 2012 London Olympics logo too. Coudal Partners swears it's a good logo. Most of the rest of the design community's reaction can by summed up by John Gruber @ Daring Fireball: 'It's fucking ugly. Not just kind of ugly, but hideously ugly.'

A diversion.

I mentioned back in the DVD rant that I love Handbrake.

I failed to mention that Handbrake's Icon is hideous. I can't understand for the life of me why it's a bad clipart version of a pineapple next to a cocktail. Tom Stoelwinder released a replacement icon a while back, downloadable here - a temporary link is at the bottom of the comments section, as his real site has been down for a while.