Informational Geometry

Happy Christmas - Greater Gifts (& Hot Artochoke Dip)

2011-12-23T15:54:00.000-08:00

I'm not getting any presents this year for Christmas. Well... that's not true, I already got my presents really early. I sit here in the midst of a recession self employed, a new home owner, capable of taking care of myself during a crappy economy. I owe all this to my Greater Gifts. Nothing tangible or valuable in a monetary sense but gifts of friendship, of family. Gifts of using my intelligence and showing leadership and openness. Gifts of being able to relate to other human beings. Being able to smile and talk to strangers, or help those in need. Being able to learn something every day is a Great Gift. Being able to apply all these lessons to my world every day is a wonderful life. I hope other people are realizing that the Greater Gifts matter more than money, or ego, or self.

I make this Hot Artichoke Dip every Christmas Eve... This year I promise I'll add a photo.

Ingredients
- 2 (13 3/4-ounce) cans artichoke hearts (drained & broken into smaller chunks)
- 1 14 ounce can of tomato with jalapenos.
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup packed grated Parmesan Cheese
- 2-3 tablespoons tobasco sauce (more or less to taste. You can try other hot sauces too.)
- 1 large garlic clove, mashed
- A few cranks of fresh black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, stir well. Scrape into an oven proof dish, cover and bake for 40 minutes. Serve this savory dip HOT, with bagel chips, corn chips, crackers, bread... anything! Enjoy!

Steph's Top 10 Internet Marketing Rules FREE

2011-12-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

Many people don't know that I dabble in a little online marketing as well as doing Interface and User Experience Design. This internet marketing helps me observe a much greater view of the people's online landscape. It's making me a better UX designer since I can see all the complex connections that data and people make together. Nowadays many small business people are asking me for help with social networks and social media marketing. They say things like, "I just don't know where to begin," really lost sounding remarks. Groupon scares the crap out of people, it's perceived as a business killer. And Foursquare is confusing, lots of people don't "get it". It seems like regular people are just now getting comfortable with Facebook. Anyway... here are my top 10 web marketing rules designed to help you use social media like a pro.

Marketing Rule #1 - Reciprocate!

The social web is … social. People don’t want to talk, they want to converse, exchange photos, share links, read stories, participate! If a client or vendor keeps liking everything you post in Facebook, reciprocate! It makes a big difference. If a customer is blogging about their awesome service from you, that’s FREE marketing so thank them, give them credit and reuse it on your blog. It’s good to thank people on Facebook, LinkedIn and yelp. It’s good to publicly write thoughtful comments on relevant news articles, go ahead and link to your business in this case. Always be polite, like you would to anybody in the real world. But it’s the reciprocity that really pleases people and an actual connection that feels authentic so try not to hog all of the attention, give back.

Marketing Rule #2 - Be Relevant!

Just sending out email blasts alone is not a great idea anymore because people's inboxes are getting crazier by the minute. The best thing about social media is that it allows almost anybody to reach their “target” audience in a way which is very relevant to consumers. It’s not art, it’s science, easy science! So, pick the websites that will give you the most bang for you buck, and forget those that don’t. Almost everyone has a Facebook account and there are millions more using twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media services like yelp. Plus there are more online social networks which are industry and location specific that could be extra relevant for you and your customers. Add in the magic of highly refined advertising tools which let you target people down to gender, location, education level, and more. Plus internet reporting tools that literally show you exactly how well your marketing efforts are going. If you want to advertise online, do research first to determine whether Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, or a combination of these (or others) are best for you. Are you a craft person? Then Etsy.com is your thing. If your a musician, you have a lot to look at. Skip the research and you’re just gonna waste money which will make you sad. If you hire a pro, listen to them, they do the research so you don't have to.

Marketing Rule #3 - You gotta deliver the goods.

You don’t need a User Experience Designer like me to tell you that you shouldn’t disappoint your visitors by letting them down after building up their expectations. All the online marketing in the world won’t make up for a bad website. Imagine this scenario > Somebody sees your nifty ad and they go and click on it. > They come to your website and find something ugly, or stupid, something wrong, or too provocative. > This is bad design. Ask yourself, “Will anybody Like this on Facebook? Will people feel good about sharing this with their friends?” The web is fickle place, one single disappointment is all it takes for a visitor to go away forever.

Marketing Rule #4 - A picture actually is worth a thousand words.

OK serious moment number 1... I have sat in usability testing labs and I have read many a white paper and report about this... Nothing, I mean nothing sells something like an image. People literally click on photos or images without even thinking about it. If you really want to bump up your business, take lots of photos of your products, of your business, of your team, of your partners, of your clients, and of your events. Hire a professional photographer to follow your business around! Photo - photo - photograph all-of-the-time! And keep all of it in a repository somewhere like Flickr. From there you can blog, post, share, tweet, and email the crud out of it to your fans or target audience anywhere, anytime or share it with your designers, contractors, and vendors. I will be adding images to this post, seriously.

Marketing Rule #5 - Plan ahead!

Serious moment number 2. This is what the pros do and there are numerous benefits to planning ahead. If you want to promote your business for Christmas for example, you should start planning no later than September. You need to start promoting wedding season no later than January. Why? You may need to do research, hire a freelancer, devise an advertising campaign, source or produce photos, or other creative, budget, or simply get your stuff together. You should create a schedule of what you will post in sequence, over time so as to maximize all of your work. All of this takes time so plan for it. If you have to send out anything printed, like postcards or fliers for a trade show, you need time to get this together and coordinate your online marketing with it so make the calendar your friend and get your colleagues addicted to planning.

Marketing Rule #6 - More content = more love.

The more you post to your blog, or Facebook, or twitter - the more content you’re publishing to the world. Period. Content is gold on the Internet. The more conversations you have with customers on Facebook, twitter or in a forum on LinkedIn, the more content you're actually putting online, and more people will connect to your business. This does two things - 1) It engages and entertains people. 2) It pleases the algorithms behind all of these networks. Google promotes fresher websites over stale ones in it’s search results. This is part of the reason blogs make great websites. So please your fans, your clients, and the gods of the internet - at the same time - and post some fresh content appropriately for your business. Listen to your clients to determine which delivery methods work best for them. And remember, sharing too much can be annoying. There is such a thing as twitter and Facebook spam as well as email spam. I try to post no more than once a day on average to Facebook.

Marketing Rule #7 - Assume your customers are really smart!

You know exactly what I mean. You’ve seen those dumb ads on TV that simply insult your intelligence. Perhaps you’ve seen the gross “belly fat” ads online (which by the way has been proven to be a nefarious “phishing” ad). YOUR CUSTOMERS AREN’T THAT DUMB! So be authentic and don’t take a dumb approach with your online marketing.

Marketing Rule #8 - Use the analysis tools.

Serious moment number 3. There are FREE or inexpensive yet powerful analytical tools provided to you by Google, Facebook, and many other websites. USE THEM. The great thing about the web is that you can observe so much of what goes on. Which means, you can see when people visit your website, what people click on, what they like & don't like, how often people visit your blog and for how long. You know how quickly they leave. You can see what tweets, emails, or ad campaigns are sending people to you. You can literally gauge the effectiveness of everything you do. All these analytical tools will help you greatly IF you use them. You don’t need to spend a lot of time just use them.

Marketing Rule #9 - Communicate well.

Basic English and politeness rules apply here. I use these strategies to help me stay organized and on top of online correspondence. Get good at writing concise but thoughtful comments & emails. Always put a subject in email. Always be relevant and avoid any confusing or misleading text in anything you write online. Just because it’s the Internet, and you might be using a smartphone to update your blog does not excuse typos and bad grammar. Make the time to appear professional. Don’t forget how smart your customers are.

Marketing Rule #10 - The web is plastic.

Number 10 is the anti-rule. It’s simply erroneous to assume that you can throw up a website, or a lone Facebook page and be done. Sorry. You should expect to update content on your website, blog and other pages pretty regularly. You could "just set something up" and let your site sit there getting stale, but that’s how your visitors will perceive it, "stale". And they won’t come back, and your search engine rank will suffer. The worst thing I think stale sites suffer from is the perception by visitors that they could be “untrustworthy”. Remember your smart, social followers want to hear from you so plan on making at least quarterly updates to your website. If you use the web to be in contact with your customers, and show some of that “social proof” on your site, you will do very well.

Does this seem like a lot of work?
Feel free to get some help, contact us at: design @ studioroom.com

Being Thankful

2011-11-22T17:03:00.001-08:00

I am very very thankful that I have a very short commute to work.
I am thankful that I'm not paying for some stupid stranger's property investment.
I'm so grateful everyday that the food I make tastes good.
I am thankful for Baltimore, home of real - and real awesome - people.
I am grateful that I work for myself.
I am thankful that people want to work with me, even though the economy is in the tank.
I am thankful that I can connect with, and stay in touch with so may people, all of the time, on the internet.
I am grateful that I know how to communicate like a rational adult. Despite my Bachelors of Fine Art.
I'm thankful for my incredible family - without all of their help in this recession I would be homeless, broke, and likely insane right now.
I am grateful that my big mouth hasn't messed up too many things.

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

FACETS Annual Art & Jewelry Sale - This Weekend in Baltimore

2011-11-18T12:30:00.001-08:00

Please join FACETS for their annual sale

this Saturday and Sunday November 19 and 20 10am - 5pm.

This year in addition to fabulous unique jewelry, there are ceramics, glassware and paintings. Get a gift or shop for yourself. Tell a friend and bring them too!

Location:
The Radisson at Cross Keys
5100 Falls Road
Baltimore, MD
21210

*In the Woodland Room

Why is it OK for Men to be Critical, but not Women?

2011-11-17T10:18:00.001-08:00

Let it be known that this blog here is just a social media sandbox. This blog is NOT to be taken seriously, I am not to be taken that seriously... seriously. Well not until I redesign my whole website and stuff which will happen eventually, hopefully pretty soon.

I just got a call from my brother, the cop. He was complaining about this site saying how I'm too negative and I complain too much. How many times have I told him my blog is just a kind of test? He was saying how they were going to hire some guy and then they looked him up online and he was tweeting all this negative, derogatory stuff and they didn't hire him. Am I derogatory? Probably only to the Republican and Tea "parties", maybe also to technology recruiters who we all know I don't think highly of. I had to remind my brother that I am a User Experience Designer, and a Creative Director, and that it's kinda my job to criticize the world. But why do I need to remind people of this? I mean seriously, I've been doing this, successfully, for 18 years. I mean, does being all sunshine & light and falsely positive actually make me a better designer? Or get me more respect from people? At least keeping a blog is a form of creative therapy for my goth alter-ego. And I am learning a bit about Social Media and online marketing while I'm at it.

I think it's sexism. How come if I criticize something I'm called, "unreasonable" or "way off"? Yet I read other people's blogs all the time and they blow a lot harder than I do, and nobody is telling these people they ought to lighten up? The only thing I notice is that guys complaining is interpreted as a manly debate, but women complaining is interpreted as bitchiness. Guys like, no they expect other guys to be blowhards. They encourage it amongst their ranks. Women, I think value more thoughtful and critical open discussions.

My previous post, about Trying Communications, is a bit of a rant. I think it's funny and so do my girlfriends. I am trying to communicate some of my frustration with technology. A frustration that most other people feel but put up with because they don't really know how to talk about or address it. I guess it's just not funny enough for my brother. But my blog IS interactive and anybody can leave a comment and discuss.

Trying Communications - If You Want to Talk to Me...

2011-10-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

I had an awkward conversation in a bar the other day. My friend showed me the litany of text messages she received over the weekend - a weekend when she was supposed to be "off" relaxing. Since I am Little Miss Know-It-All I proceeded to tell her that she needed to "set boundaries" with people so that her iPhone doesn't become - actual words - "a form of slavery". My friend, having a PHD in something relating to mental health started evaluating my statement and probing me with questions after I announced that I needed to publish a set of rules for people to use to contact me. "Well, don't you like to talk to your friends on the phone?" Me, "No. Well, sometimes. Well I prefer Skype because my cell signal isn't that good half the time". Friend, "But don't you think it's important to have a real conversation with people?" Me, "Of course, but calls come at weird times, most of my friends are in California, and besides I like to have good voice quality and Skype works better for that. And I like text messages because It's just easier." Friend, "I have both a mobile phone and a land line." By the way, my bar friend is 70.

For two weeks I've been trying to have a meeting with a friend / client who lives in San Francisco. She caveat-ed the meeting by stating in an email "I'm a technophobe and I hate my iPhone". Ah the old compensating for being disorganized with technology excuse. My friend, used to work in tech.

Another friend of mine who actually worked for Bill Gates and Mark Andreason, as a PR expert, also gets tried by communications. She shut down her Facebook account because she was phished more than once. She had to drop her Yahoo mail for the same reason. Trying phish.

But back to the bar and my set of rules...

If you want to reach me, please do the following:

The best time to reach me by phone, Skype, and email is during regular weekday business hours.
I am on the East Coast.
Text messages are my preferred form of communication. I almost always notice these in "real time".
Emails are my next preferred communication method. Please allow at least 1 business day before expecting a reply from me.
Sometimes I won't reply to emails for several days. If I'm in "design mode" working on a deadline I won't talk on the phone or even glance at my email. Deadlines take priority, and I can't design and communicate at the same time.
I do not check email in the evenings or weekends.
It's quite possible I won't check emails or the phone after 2pm during weekdays (especially if I'm slow, as I can be running errands or gardening or cooking, or if it's Friday).
Ideally, people will schedule a time to talk, via email or text message, if they want to chat on the phone or on Skype. This is because I work from home and my schedule can vary a lot.
Truthfully, I only expect emergency phone calls in the evenings or weekends so if it's not an emergency please text me first before I start to have a panic attack.
Never ever call me after 9pm unless you want to tell me about A) an awesome party I need to go to that evening. or B) You're pregnant or engaged or suicidal and you need to talk.
Recruiters who don't respect boundaries, and call me at 5pm to talk about their client, get black listed.
Clients who email too much, or who don't actually read my emails, or who send horrible, or disorganized email, I have to let go.

Ridiculous, huh? Balanced? I'm getting there.

A Big Late Summer Birthday Bitch to Tech Recruiters

2011-08-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

Every year in August my Gmail starts lighting up with inquiries from recruiters, and hiring managers for contract work, or full time jobs. Although it's awesome to get pinged by Apple, and Netflix (seriously) I am always left scratching my head at this bad timing because EVERYBODY is on vacation in late August. Every year, I do this diplomatic dance for the prospect of work, I feel like I'll get black listed if I don't. And every year I am incredibly frustrated, because as I try to be ever so awesomely accommodating for these positions... I know, just like they know, that EVERYBODY goes on vacation in late August. In fact, everybody knows that half the entire San Francisco Bay Area (including all those recruiters) are off to Burning Man at the end of August.

We ALL KNOW, so why does this silliness continue?

Well let me tell you recruiters something. My birthday is coming up in 2 weeks and it's a big one. The last thing I want to do is check my email let alone get my portfolio ready for somebody's whim. But really, what I want for my big birthday is for ALL recruiters to actually try to accommodate the talent they reach out to. Not just me but for all the engineers, designers, and marketing people too. Please stop asking us to drop everything for the carrot on the end of your stick. Please try to be open and honest. All you have to do is simply communicate better. Other people have lives too, please start acknowledging that when working through your recruitment process.

Added later cause it's relevant:
I thought I'd post this screen grab I took of a tech recruiter I've had the misfortune to cross paths with. About a year after a bungled interview process, for some reason I was still following her on twitter. I was following her, until I read these ignorant tweets. Read the 3rd tweet down. So lame in so many ways.

NECO Alliance Rebates - Maytag, Samsung Appliance Rebates are Complete Bullshit

2011-06-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

I just got tricked out of $300 I was told I was going to rebates from the purchase of my brand new $1500 Samsung refrigerator & Maytag dishwasher. Now, I can't recommend buying anything Samsung, Maytag, OR from Cummins Appliance after this customer experience.

Here's ONE of the incredibly lame emails I just received from NECO Alliance

Thank you for participating in the SAMSUNG APPLIANCES MARCH NECO ALLIANCE VISA REWARD CARD promotion. (March promotion? Never knew that...)

Your request for a rebate has been received and is being processed.

Unfortunately your rebate was rejected due to the following reason(s):
-RECEIVED PAST POSTMARK (Gee, there was no deadline on my form!)

*** DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS ***
This email has been generated by an automated service machine.
Emails sent to this address WILL NOT be responded to.
(You SUCK!)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I guess I sent the rebate in late. Gee, the appliance took a month to receive in the first place! Then, in the midst of a remodel project, trying to work full time, it's not so easy to meet a deadline for a piece of mail. Was this intentional? Probably. I question the whole point of rebates altogether.

It's difficult enough shopping for a purchase like this. I thought I was doing a good deed by buying my appliance from a small, local vendor (Cummins Appliance) but here's the thing. Sears, Lowes, and Home Depot each sent me 10% coupons for being a new home owner. Which is pretty standard. I could have saved that money I didn't get rebated by shopping at one of those stores for my appliances. Great. Way to shop local.

I don't love my refrigerator anymore :(

Living Out Loud Online

2011-06-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

This week I finally took the plunge into the deep end of Social Media. I'm designing an iPhone App for a client and up until last weekend I had been an avowed hater of Foursquare, and a bit of a Facebook cynic. What is the point of Foursquare to an independent person like me? Up until last week all of these social applications loomed in my mind as "un-billable work", just more ceaseless internet research, both are pretty much the same. But it all came to a head last week since, obviously, I can't design a social app unless I know all about how user's interact with them. So my client got me a beautiful new white iPhone (Thanks!) and assigned me a lot of homework. (note: this is how to treat a designer!) 5 days into this social media thing, I am proud to announce my mayorship of Studioroom, and I'm really enjoying Jamie Oliver's photos via Instagram. Foodspotting is alluding me (I'm just not in the right city to take good food photos). GetGlue - I don't think I "get" why this is fun.

So has my world changed now that I'm living my life online? Do I feel special? Empowered? Enlightened? Um, no. I'll get back to you at the end of the summer with an update on how all this is going, hopefully this will open up something for me. In the mean time I'm just glad to promote myself as an App designer.

US Government, BUY LOCAL DESIGN! - Stop the US Department of Interior from Crowdsourcing a Logo

2011-06-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

I personally live in the DC area and have friends and family who work for the Federal Government. And I design logos, make fabulous websites, and create great interfaces. It breaks my heart that I can't get more work locally from the biggest employer in the area, the Fed. And I am a minority small business person. So I must protest this the abuse of crowd sourcing as much as possible.

Crowd sourced design is evil so please sign this petition to Stop the US Department of Interior from Crowdsourcing a Logo.

Why is crowd sourced design evil? It undermines design professionals by enabling non-professionals, untrained ameratuers, and foreigners overseas to TAKE WORK FROM Professional Designers. Of course a designer overseas will be less expensive than a designer anywhere in the US. Overseas designers do not pay taxes here in the US. Normally it's illegal to employ foreign workers without the right documentation from the government, but because this work is conducted on the internet it's OK?! How is this different than sending manufacturing jobs overseas? Crowd sourcing undermines design education, if all design work is expected to be done cheaply and conveniently then it is illogical for individuals to invest in design education if they are competing with groups of people who can skip education, who don't pay for it.

Finally, the people who pay the real price for organizations who short-cut on design, are the END USERS of that organization. In this instance, the people who suffer from bad design are the US Taxpayers. The federal government, of all the organizations here in the US, should employ American Designers.

Announcing KeepRecipes.com

2011-04-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

Doesn't everybody like to eat? Aren't we already talking about the meals we make and enjoy? And who doesn't like food porn? I am very pleased to announce the launch KeepRecipes.com - a new social website where people can save any recipe to a magic recipe box in the cloud.

You know you would rather browse this site
than stare at your email!

I have never in my life worked on a web project which has been this much fun, or came together this easily. I'd like to take credit for the ease at which this product was designed, but the vision belongs to my client Phil Michaelson. Phil put a lot of research, time and testing into his first web business KartMe.com, and had struck upon a genius plan for keeprecipes.com. Finally a way for millions of people to share what they are already doing every day, their dinner...or lunch... or desert!

KeepRecipes is launching with a charity event - KeepRecipes for Recovery - Get a special Japanese inspired digital cookbook with a just a $10 donation to support recovery efforts in Japan. Not only did I get to design an awesome website, I get to be a part of this unique charity effort and a first-of-it's-kind launch! I'm even more excited that some real star power contributed to this charity launch, names like; Masaharu Morimoto, Mark Bittman, Mayumi Nishimura, Anita Lo,
Marc Spitzer, Kenji Lopez-Alt! (my friend and client) Eric Gower, and Amanda Hesser & Merrill Stubbs! The only thing I'm wondering about is will I need to rename my blog, Food Overload?

Throwing Studioroom.com Under The Bus!

2011-03-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

Everything here in studio land is delayed. I had to switch hosting for myself and three other clients this week and, since I have a breakaway deadline - I made my own web hosting last priority! Studioroom is going to be down (temporarily) because I waited too long to switch... oh well. My studioroom.com emails especially won't work. But everybody knows about my gmail and Google (kinda) never fails.

AND our move has been delayed another week due to all the mayhem. So next week, I really mean it this time, we are CLOSED. We will re-open for business Monday March, 28.

Still Moving (closed through March 21)

2011-03-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to say our moving process has been delayed by 2 weeks. We are still tied up with too many loose ends to deal with. Sorry for the inconvenience.

We'll be back in the new studio Monday March 21st.

Big News - We're Moving! (closed Feb. 14 - 28)

2011-02-09T06:03:00.000-08:00

Big News - We're Moving!

Finally happy 2011, happy new decade... We have some big announcements for things which have been in the works for over a year... we are moving!

First of all, thank you to our clients from 2010, Barber Lounge, Xobni, SF School of Massage, Alaska Urological, and Aquent for helping make 2010 a great year. You guys rock.

2011 has already gotten off to a huge start and momentum is building for us to do more great interactive work this year. I already completed a design for a really cool new start-up which I hope to be announcing soon. But I have an ugly secret which nobody really knows about and now I'm gonna come clean. For over a year I have been living and working out of my sister's crowded home in Baltimore and unfortunately dealing with way too much personal drama. A sick and now passed away beloved dog, and a nightmarish house shopping experience (which is a whole other blog post). We FINALLY closed on a new house on New Years Eve (our offer was accepted August 11th). Most of last year was a bullshit filled mess.

Our good news, soon we will be moving into our new home and office. Studioroom will finally have a dedicated um... studio room. After the move we expect to be at least 3 times more productive than we were last year.

So on that note, Studioroom will be closed for business from February 14 - 28 to move. We will re-open March 1st, but (since we know we'll have an email backlog) we will need a week to catch up on administrative work and communication. Please be patient with us over this transition to our new office.

We are looking forward to innovating with you in March.

Internet Privacy vs. Openess and A Congresswoman's Attempted Murder

2011-01-09T12:28:00.000-08:00

I didn't think the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford had anything to do with internet security until I saw an image from her twitter profile in this Washington Post article today:

The image I saw was in the print edition of the Washington Post, so I took a screen shot of the congresswoman's twitter page and posted it here.

Her last tweet "My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now. Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later." announced to the world where she was going to be, conveniently around just down the road from the shooter.

I am not saying that Twitter spawned this attack on Congresswoman Gifford. I am just pointing out that is is a likely "point of weakness" in ones security. I also want to point out something about the internet industry's role here...

The problem I see is an industry that is pushing people to be more open when it's not really appropriate. The internet industry gives this impression that consumers & businesses alike should be "always on, always accessible, and loving it - all the time". That people are missing out, and their lives are really limited somehow without more technology in it. Are we really ready for this? I have boundaries, I control all my tech stuff... but I am sick of this coercive attitude that tells me there is something wrong with me - for having boundaries. Isn't it a form of abuse to insist that everybody be always on? If I read another tech community blog saying how great everything will be if we all just open up, I reserve the right to tell that blogger why they're wrong.

It's A Wonderful Work Life

2010-12-18T09:04:00.000-08:00

I'm struggling to write my holiday greetings this year. As I write I was hoping to announce a change of address and some good news that I've bought a house, but alas I am not immune to the insanity that has gripped the rest of the country. I am still functionally homeless as I wait to close on a foreclosure, hoping it happens before Christmas.

Despite domestic inconvenience, 2010 has been a wonderful year. Business has been growing steadily throughout the year as Gavin and I reinvent the very definition of the word "work" by incorporating it with things like "play" and "life". It just seems like we are always doing a lot of all of those three things at once, and it somehow works.

We are looking forward to settling into a new home/office in 2011, finally setting up the kind of creative environment I've been dreaming of having since college. I'll just be happy to be able to start making all the food and art I can stand, but the main benefit of my new home is everything should become 10 time easier once we are settled and I can't wait.

The big challenge I'm assigning myself for 2011 is to learn how to develop for the iPad! I guess I need to do this since I won't have a house hunt to occupy my time anymore. I will also be beefing up my social media skills, learning how to utilize Facebook & other social media for the benefit of clients and projects. I am seriously considering attending a few developer conferences (Google, Apple, and Facebook) so we will continue to spend time on the West coast for business and pleasure.

I hope to see everyone in 2011! Gavin & I wish everybody a very happy holidays, and a wonderful New Year.

A Good Internet Contest Really Worth Entering! - Food Blog to Asia

2010-11-29T08:04:00.000-08:00

I do some internet marketing, I see a lot more poor internet marketing. Here's a contest which I actually like! Blog to Asia with Pei Wei Asian Diner.

Why is this a well designed internet contest? It's collaborative and social and it all takes place online. Even after the contest is over it carries on via the ongoing blog. Picking blogging as the challenge is accessible for people and fun... who doesn't love to write about food? Because blogging is social media, each person who enters the contest is probably already sharing their blog with their personal network of friends - creating a viral marketing effect.

Clearly Pei-Wei has really thought this out. This IS the type of effort which utilizes thoughtful marketing teams with a plan that will carry forward well into 2012 - generating buzz and enthusiasm for their brand. This is NOT one of these sloppy internet marketing contests that puts American's out of work.

There are so many food bloggers out there right now. This prize is so compelling. I would actually be entering this contest myself - except I already have a conflict. Work. Oh well, maybe next year.

Turkey Confidential - I am Homeless but Thankful

2010-11-22T09:54:00.000-08:00

Full mea culpa - I am homeless. That's right, I am a homeless graphic and interface designer. I bet millions of other Americans are thinking, "How did this happen to me?" but I don't feel too bad about it because I have a lot to be grateful for. Like my four personal computers. I may be homeless but I have plenty of work! No time to be sad, got some feeds to read and emails to check! At least I have a lot of friends online...

I am listening to NPR. They are talking about car accidents, death and paralysis. I feel good! But kind of afraid to walk across the street. I sit in front of one of my computers - listening to other people sharing sadness. After a few minutes of sadness I need a break. I log into facebook seeking happiness... Nicole says she's in her Studio. Karmina is going on a holiday. Helen is posting more baby photos. I wish I had a studio, or could go on a holiday... I am glad I'm not posting baby photos though because where would my baby sleep? I change my status to something funny like "Where did the year go?!" It worked, I didn't notice the last 10 minutes of death talk on NPR.

There is another email from another recruiter sitting in my inbox. It's for a job which I already had in the past. This job is paying $30,000.00 LESS than what they paid me four years ago. I am grateful I don't work at AOL. I am thankful I work for myself now. I am thankful I don't have a long commute. I am grateful for all my amazing clients who let me run free, the awesome incredible people who don't mind that I am homeless or even that they can't look over my shoulder every moment of the day (that's YOU Josh, Eric and Gary!). I continue to stare at my computer looking for answers to life.

NPR says Ireland is broke and needs to be bailed out. Where are your leprechauns now?! I have my own bail-outs too, which I am grateful for. Turkey prices are up this year and my dad (the ultimate hero) is buying the bird, doing all the work. My sister Fran will be there too, she's my bail-out, we live at her house. I would be a crack whore right now if it wasn't for Fran.

After a round of Turkey promos on NPR - the Mid Day show starts, the topics are Cancer and Nuclear Proliferation. How messed up is the medical system? Legal, ethical issues. Too many tests. Infective treatments. I am grateful I don't have cancer. I am thankful my dad doesn't have cancer too. I am grateful for things like flax seed, and nutrition.

The news. Armageddon is eminent. North Korea is expanding it's nuclear arsenal. I am finding myself grateful for all the things I DON'T have... I am homeless, I can not be forclosed on. I am not sick. I am not sad. I can't complain about work because I work for myself. It's all kinda working in a strange way.

But I am ... TIRED... because I need control over how I sleep. I'm grateful for my friends putting up with my tired ass. PEOPLE, the most important thing that anybody could have. If I didn't have you people in my life, I would have nothing. Work would be utterly boring and devoid of meaning. No home or castle would be worth a life without friends. So, it is because of you my friends that I have a castle on a cloud and I am very, very thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving

Robots in the Grocery Store, Marketers in Your Food

2010-11-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

My local Giant Foods has been bugging me. It seems like the experience of shopping there keeps getting more ghetto (and it's not even in Baltimore). I go out of my way to shop at other stores because frankly I'm annoyed by all the new technology in my neighborhood Giant. Technology that seems to be designed to police shoppers rather than to help them accomplish their actual mission of buying food.

7 Reasons Why Robots And Groceries Don't Work
Unemployment is at its highest in decades so why the heck are supermarkets replacing jobs with robots? By robots I mean, robo-cashiers. At the Giant Foods by my house when you walk in you can pick up this hand-held scanner. As you move around the super market you essentially ring yourself up while you shop. All this technology sounds handy, and this may be a boon to the anti-social or impatient, but there are fundamental problems with this;

#1 It's obviously very expensive to develop and deploy this type of technology. Couldn't the store simply have hired real human beings? In this economy I would rather somebody had a job.

#2 It has no affect on the quality of the products that the grocery store is selling. None of this technology actually makes Giant/Safeway a better store, it just makes it so they get their money from you quicker.

#3 YOU are doing THEIR JOB for them, and you're not getting paid for it. It's called "externalizing" and Giant/Safeway is externalizing their expense to their customers.

#4 It's not designed well. IF this type of service were designed well, then you would have a smart shopping cart and you literally wouldn't have to think about scanning anything, it would just be automatic.

#5 Does it make sense for businesses to develop services specifically for the "impatient" and "anti-social" people of society?

#6 It undermines customer service. If the customer interface is a machine, then who listens to peoples questions or suggestions?

#7 Are people actually getting through the robo-cashiers quicker than they would if a good human cashier were helping them?

Are Grocery Store "Club Cards" Legal?
Aside from conveniences like being able to ring yourself up and bag your own groceries, it seems like supermarkets are OBSESSED with club cards. At my local Giant/Safeway store you'll recognize the Club Card. If you "opt in" to their rewards program, you get this card entitling you to discounts and rewards when you shop at that store. As you shop around one of these stores you notice items on sale ONLY for club members. Now, these stores are not members only stores like Costco. Anybody is free to walk in off the street and buy groceries. But what if somebody does not want to participate in the rewards program? What if somebody for whatever personal reason can not participate even if they want to? - Is it FAIR for people who cannot or do not want to participate in these schemes to pay more for FOOD than other people? Is that legal?

But more to the point, what does Giant/Safeway gain by tracking all of their customers purchases? What do they think they know about me? . . .

Stuck With A Database Dictating What I Eat
When I shop at Whole Foods or the farmer's market, junk food temptations simply do not enter my mind the same way that they do at the Giant/Safeway. There is not an entire 400 square foot aisle dedicated to Coke at Whole Foods. So I wonder, What data is Giant collecting from it's customers that makes it so they keep selling enormous quantities of crap to the neighborhood? - Obviously they are selling lots of junk food because they keep stocking it. Somebody's buying it. Now this Giant is not in the city of Baltimore, it's not really in a Ghetto. This store is surrounded by plenty of affluent Towson residents, hardly the kind of people who load up on junk food week after week. So here's what's really odd about the marketing tactics at Giant - the products they sell the most of - the least healthy things - are always on sale to "members". This means that a lot of cheap people who want all the discounts they can get, are determining what the grocery store sells. The reason why Coke is always on sale is because people keep coming back to the Giant to buy it on sale. So this means there will always be lots of high fructose corn syrup on sale. The flip side is the grocery store has no incentive to try new perhaps healthier products, or reach out to new customers, because they've fixed themselves in a profitable cycle. Worst of all, all the questionable data they collect will continue this cycle.
- - - - - - - - - -

To me, a grocery store's job is to sell food. Period. Don't tell me what I should be eating, please do not coerce me into "bargains", just sell me food. That's all. What I've noticed between the robo-cashiers and the club card discounts is a whole lot of 'savings' on poor food and a whole bunch of employees just trying to maintain sanity. I think the business practices of a lot of big grocery stores undermine communities, reduce the number of jobs and demean their own employees and customers. It would be great if I could walk into a Giant store and have a grown up conversation with an employee about food. A conversation where we both feel valued as a customer and a worker.

Conservatives Know That Most Liberals Don't Vote

2010-10-22T13:16:00.000-07:00

Although I'm fiscally conservative I am socially liberal. One thing I have observed with all my liberal friends, especially my friends in the Bay Area is that they tend to be totally apathetic to politics. I guess that's fair, it's so much better to just live your life and not worry about conservative agendas. And if you are a liberal that's kindof the whole point isn't it? Liberals, by their very definition, just don't spend their time thinking about ways to dominate and control other people. We're too busy just living our own lives, thanks!

I found this video which I think sums up the upcoming elsection for the liberals.... In the immortal words of South Park, "Vote or Die..." this means you my liberal comrades - yes YOU.

Breakaway Logo

2010-08-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited about this new brand I'm working on. Breakaway. There will be more breakaway branding delight rolling out over the next 2 months. Here's a preview for now.

Want to update your brand? contact me, Stephanie and I'll hook you up.

Waxing Unvarished.com

2010-08-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

I have been invited to try a new professional networking site called unvarnished.com. This site, in private beta let's people "review" each other, usually people already in your facebook network, anonymously. I thought this site could be really cool, now I can "review" that client or manager who really needs some critical feedback.

But as awesome as that may seem, I've struggled to enjoy the site because of the litany of bugs that I've experienced from the moment I first logged on. First of all, the onboarding process was complicated and strange. I have to disambiguate myself from a list of about a thousand other Stephanies - a list including a number of Silicon Valley Executives and their email addresses! How unvarnished can conceive of operating with this total privacy violation boggles my mind. I saved the source of this page and now I have an instant list of some good contacts which I'm tempted to SELL to some marketers (but I won't, I just need to prove a point). Second of all, I have been unable to actually write my reviews. I managed to write 3 simple glowing reviews of some colleagues, but for some reason I just cant get my fourth review for Charlie to save... Every time I thought I was publishing my review, the site only published the 1st sentence, but not the whole review. On the 3rd attempt I gave up, and I mean I really just gave up. I have zero interest in checking out the site again which is sad because I know the developers behind unvarnished and I like them all.

I do not have time to - nor do I have the desire to WASTE time - on a website that just doesn't work. So without sounding too bitchy, I guess my point is this. All you web/software people, please try to be aware of the impact that your product is making on people's time. I know you want to grow, but better to pull back and release a more polished thoughtful product later, than to annoy potential users in order to rush to market.

Send Jonathan to NY Fashion Week Party! Saturday August 14th

2010-08-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

If I were in San Francisco this weekend I would be going to the "The Fashion Aid" party at the Barber Lounge. Jonathan Baker, already a rockstar stylist at the Barber Lounge is also San Francisco's up and coming fashion hero - AND WE NEED YOUR HELP TO SEND HIM TO NEW YORK FASHION WEEK IN SEPTEMBER!!! The Barber Lounge will be hosting a party that evening highlighting several San Francisco designers and a special music performance by Rachel Silva.

Come for the fashions and help Jonathan get to NYC

Finally a Home

2010-08-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

We finally got our offer accepted on Friday for the forcosure we've been trying to buy. It's a bit of a fixer-upper but in Baltimore this can be pretty affordable. Total cost after remodeling should be under $180,000.

We start the really fun process of inspections and crap this week. So we'll see if there's a hole to Hell in the basement that might kill this whole deal. If not we have to build a huge list of all the stuff we need to do and find contractors ... basically a huge project is starting. We'll be able to move in around Thanksgiving. THANKS!

I guess I'm happy. I keep muttering the word "finally" over and over in my mind. Now I can FINALLY unpack from my move over two years ago! Now I can finally have the space to work on Art. Now I can finally start my culinary experiments (starting with beer making and then onto the wood burning outdoor oven). Now I can finally have my own yard to garden in - city farm coming soon! Now I can finally collect things, anything I want, and have somewhere to put it. I can finally have lots of guests. Finally I'll be able to practice yoga or practice anything away from prying eyes. I will finally get to see my entire wardrobe at a glance for the first time in memory. I will finally get a good nights sleep.

The Bait and Switch Job (Why I Quit A.O.L.)

2010-07-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

Back in 2006 I worked for AOL in Mountain View, CA. In one sense I felt like I was at the top of my game professionally, but the experience of working there made me feel like I had hit bottom. The work I was doing was good, I got to redesign a mission critical product, mail.aol.com. But all the external factors to work were horrible. Quite simply, I landed a bait & switch job. First I was hired to work on one project, a music player, that project got killed. I was also told I got to work from home twice a week (my commute was horrible), this "deal" also got thrown out with no explanation. OK so perhaps these are petty reasons to quit a company. Both my managers were experts at taking free vacation time as much as they could. It was really hard to get the product team at AOL to weigh-in on my design work, they wanted my boss' input on my work... but Mike & Bill were always MIA. I have never seen so much cronyism as I have at AOL. It was a very strange place to work as a female too. The favoritism, friends of the boss getting whatever they wanted, a true legal liability. The BEST part of this set-up was that it was a set-up... My boss Mike was setting me up to look bad, I guess because it probably made him feel better about himself. I actually considered a lawsuit. But I'm not a lawsuit person so I quit instead.

Today I very happily work for myself.

Where Do I Get my News?

2010-07-25T09:09:00.001-07:00

Where do I get my news from? When I'm not too busy I'll scan the Washington Post (first, since it's the best US paper) and then I'll scan NYT. We are always scanning the BBC radio, or the BBC website. I have BBC, NPR, and Huffington Post apps on my iPad and I was scanning all the news from the apps during my commute. I am now totally convinced that smart phones and mobile devices like the iPad are MADE for commuters. For laughs I'll go to SFgate.com or Latimes.com. Just to see how Californians are screwing themselves.

I am not into TV news but I'll occasionally tune into Mad Money, BBC, or Fox news (because CNN sucks right now). I'll watch 60 minutes if they have an interesting story (I do love Andy Rooney). Thinking more, I read magazines but not that much since I'm too cheap to actually buy magazines nowadays. I'd rather buy a latte than Time. I will start getting more magazines on my iPad though.

As far as I'm concerned the BBC is the best English language news source, period.
BBC is the no bullshit, no nonsense source for unbiased news.

I've overheard a lawyer/fancier from First Round Capital remark that the Wall Street Journal is the "only news worth reading". This is part of the reason I think law & finance people are so out of touch... The WSJ is extremely conservative and elitist. It's also expensive, kinda like a Rolex of newspapers. Nice to have but the cost doesn't justify it's existence, and it's designed to makes their subscribers feel better about themselves.

Of course there are the blogs... I read some awesome finance blogs. When I need to remind myself that the real estate market is loaded with bullshit I'll read John Burns Real estate consulting, which tells some truth. When I need to remind myself how abusive most of our culture is I enjoy this alternative culture blog. When I'm not too busy I'll read my friend's excellent blog or facebook posts. Some of my friends like Suja R. are always sharing something very interesting. Mark Hurst's Good Experience blog is a fabulous source of UX design insight. Overall I am very open to everything so I like to try out new blogs & news sources all the time. When I spot BS, is when I tune out.

Who Knew Baltimore is a Farm City?

2010-06-14T13:16:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday I made my first Veggie Trade of the year. I had sprouted too many tomato plants and since I had no space in my garden for all of them I posted a listing on Veggie Trader, offering them up to anybody who wanted them. Within a couple of days of I had some responses, and on Wednesday Beth (the first responder) came to my home to swap. We had emailed already, Beth was picking up her CSA box and asked if I wanted to share some greens in exchange for my tomato plants. YES! I said, and Wednesday 6pm the tomato plants found a new home and I got dinner delivered to my door.

As soon as the trade was made I took off to the Baltimore City Public Library to see Author Novella Carpenter present her book "Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer". I haven't read the book yet but had caught Novella speaking on NPR earlier in the day and was intrigued. I'm not really a farmer but a girl can dream, right? Novella Carpenter gave a wonderful presentation on her urban farming exploits to a packed house in the main library auditorium. Her book is about her tiny farm on a vacant lot in a bad part of Oakland, a rough town not unlike this one. During the question/answer session Novella reveals that her farm has been bought! "Fortunately the new owner is letting the farm stay…" she explains, "but I'm going to need to move eventually…" to this I call out, "Move to Baltimore!" and Novella sort of pauses and jokes "Maybe I will?" - and the audience breaks out into cheer and applause! Who knew that Baltimore, an old rust belt city with blight and abandonment is a hotbed for urban farming?

Later I came home and made a salad from my trade. I enjoyed the salad with some local cheese and bread from our local baker which we had on hand. Beth graciously included a pint of the most delicious local strawberries which I had for desert and I realized that I managed to do something very rare that day. Last Wednesday I did not spend one penny whatsoever. It was a $0 day, and I felt very content.

Do Not Buy the Gulf Oil Spill

2010-06-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

Hi my name is Stephanie, and I'm a designer. I don't know anything about oil, or oil wells, and I don't know anything about politics really... but I do know how to solve problems.

This Gulf Oil Leak - the Great Leak - is depressing me. I keep saying to myself, "This should never have happened in the first place." In my world, the design world, you simply don't create anything that does not work. In my world, everything gets tested, and vetted, and discussed until everybody is sick of talking about it but they know for certain that it works. In my world, if some business type comes up with a scheme to get rich, but it's a bad or ill-conceived idea then then we (ethical) designers shut them down. Somehow when our love affair with oil started back in the 50s nobody really thought this through. Nobody said, "How is this total commitment to oil going to play out 50 years from now?" Well, I'm certain there were business people thinking it through but was there anybody who was thinking this through for us? For the millions of real people who have to deal with the consequences of these decisions? Nobody asked me if I wanted to grow up in a world encased in asphalt. Nobody consulted me to ask if I'd wanted traffic, commuting, noise pollution, air pollution, and congestion. Nearly all of my food comes from the west coast, which takes gallons of gas to get here, and I literally have zero choice over this. Thanks world!

There are things I'm doing to combat my sadness over the Great Leak. It can be summarized as my own personal oil boycott. I'm not driving at all, I'm walking or biking. All travel is cut. I'm gardening more. I'm buying local as much as possible but better yet I'm trying not to buy anything at all. Most important I'm TALKING about how I'm not spending money or wasting time with oil. The more I go down this road, the green, thrifty, do-it-yourself road, the better I feel.

Form Follows Function - iPad Edition

2010-05-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

I got an iPad. So far I love it. I feel like the chains have been broken and I no longer have to log incredible hours in front of my office & desktop setup. Even as I write this post I'm sitting in a bar, enjoying a glass of Cabernet and chit chatting with people, other iPad owners who also love the pad. It's way more social, more touchy-shareable than the iPhone and iPod touch.

Before the pad was released I was working with chef author Eric Gower and I predicted that this device could empower kitchen cooks and be oh so more effective for reading recipes than the iPhone could ever be. Check out this post about a kitchen cabinet outfitted with an ipad cubby... Something I literally spoke of, just ask Eric!

Menus on My Mind
I have more ideas, and Nelson, the owner of Grand Cru, the bar I'm writing this from agrees. This thing is going to revolutionize all menus forever. Yes menus. Why kill trees when you can just update some website? Like that Sangiovese? Read all the background info about it, find out about the producer, order some more.

Form - omatic
In addition to menus in restaurants and bars and hair salons there is also Doctors office potential. I hope never to see a poorly formatted paper form ever again. I hope no more health care administration will have to waste time inputting somebody's info. Any place where a customer needs to fill out a form, this process can now be improved... Human resources forms, heck forms at the DMV, all info should be captured electronically.

Survey Says?
What about surveys or user testing? I've already invented the killer user testing app in my mind. Just don't think Apple would let me sell it. But market research, surveys, and observational opportunities will be transformed by the iPad.

Point of Sale
If you go to the Apple store you'll notice the employees have these tricked out iPhones with a credit card readers attached and they can sell you anything at any spot in the store. Soon, maybe not in an Apple store, but in some other fancy retail setting your salesperson WILL be the iPad. Or more likely you'll experience "iPad enhanced shopping". Imagine navigating a Walmart, finding items quickly thanks to the pad. Don't worry if Home Depot doesn't have that new BBQ you want. You can order it on the fly and have it delivered from a different location. Actually, they could bring you three, let you decide which you like best, and you can pay for it at home.

So What about Email?
Ah email... The Bain of my existence. Let me just say, I couldn't check email on this thing for the first two weeks I had it because I did not want to spoil the nice happy feeling I have about this device, but then I finally relented. I do not use Mac/me mail which is the only mail app you can get on the iPad. I do use Gmail however and it works great on the iPad through Safari. Not quite as good as the full desktop version but good and oh so convenient. So convenient in fact, I composed this entire blog piece in Gmail.

Logo & Web Solutions For The Low Tech World of Massage

2010-05-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Studioroom is pleased to announce the launch of an all new website, with all new branding for The San Francisco School of Massage. At first this project was daunting, trying to create a new logo for a venerated massage school. The world of massage makes me think of crystals, lavender and "new age" music. Most of what we see that is massage related are spa brochures and websites showing some woman relaxing in a peaceful setting. None of these things honestly depict a massage school.

The task: Create a logo for a massage school that alludes to human anatomy without being too literal.

Logo design is an iterative process. So I started out with an exhaustive typeface search, then explored ideas for artwork.

Through the process, clients and designer alike explore many logo variations and can determine what design works for the client's business...

...Winding up with a final logo design, and then translating that design into a website - it's one of Studioroom's specialties!

Now for some shameless self promotion. Unlike a typical branding agency or graphic design service, we emphasize website best practices as much as possible. We never propose ideas that won't work well online. We never recommend tricks which might look flashy, just to impress a client. All of our sites are always search engine optimized and viewable on most platforms including old browsers and mobile devices. The true test of how well a brand works is directly related to the media supporting the brand.

How Your Facebook Gets Phished and Your Twitter Gets Taken

2010-04-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

Last summer I felt like a rockstar on twitter. I had finally got into the groove, comfortable with "tweeting" and I was gaining followers like never before. Over ten a day follower emails were coming into my inbox, announcements like "Benjamin White is now following you on twitter" ... I was getting pretty good at this social media thing! By the end of one week, when I should have had a few hundred followers, I still only had 70. Something wasn't adding up but I was too busy to figure out why, so I assumed people were just rapidly following, then un-following me as some kind of retarded marketing tactic. Then it started getting out of control... 30, 40, 50 new followers a day. It was becoming a nuisance, cluttering up my Gmail, so I logged into twitter to turn off those annoying email alerts. When the alerts kept coming, that's when I knew. Nobody was following me. Twitter wasn't sending me those emails. It was phishing.

Phishing is simple. You get a phony email that's designed to look like it's from a legitimate website. People click on those emails, thinking they need to accept a new friend, or respond to something, and the hook is set. Once they "log in" to that faux website, it's over, they are caught. Phishing goes on not just for twitter or facebook, but for eBay, Yahoo! and You Tube. It's all over the net. It's especially bad for those people who have the same login and password to more than one online account. Criminals know everybody keeps this simple, once they have your login to facebook it's highly likely they can get into your webmail and then into other accounts.

I never clicked on the announcement emails directly, I learned years ago working (at eBay actually) that this is a no-no. Instead I'd went directly to twitter.com to see who my so called new followers were. Even then it took a couple of weeks for me to figure out that I was being bombarded by phishing emails and I knew better. Still, I have different logins for everything, and gmail is excellent at figuring out what is spam and what is real.

There are other ways you can get phished, for example right within Facebook. Phishing does not have to come through your email. Any website where you can chat, or receive messages from other people you can get phished. The only rule anybody should try to remember is, don't click on links from a message that takes you to an outside site where you have to go log in. Just go to the outside site, type in that address yourself if you want to see that video, friend request, or special prize. Also, encourage your friends not to send you information that's not relevant to you.

A Day In The Life Conference - Next Weekend! April 24th, 2010

2010-04-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

Hey Designers - Have you ever thought to yourself, if only I knew the right people then I could do "x"? Or if only I could find the right research about this problem I'm trying to solve? Or maybe you realize you need a fresh perspective on life in order to come up with some really creative solutions? Well, if you're in the DC/Baltimore area then here's your chance to get all that and more!

Check out A Day In The Life Conference

Some great speakers will be presenting some interesting sessions:

The Business of Design
140 Characters or Less
Branding You
The Designer & The Community
The Green Movement & The Creative Industry
Making the Transition from Print to Web
Networking 101: Make It Work For You
The Client Is Always Right
Typography: More Than Words
Will It Print?
And more!

Studioroom will be there, I hope to make some new friends and get lots of inspiration with you.

Friends Don't Let Friends Get Screwed by the Real Estate Market

2010-04-10T12:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

I'm trying to buy a house here in the Baltimore City. I've been shopping here for over a year and since I'm new to Baltimore, and new to the house buying process, I'm really confused... I need advice and it occurs to me that many of my facebook friends have some good advice for me about Baltimore real estate, Maryland real estate, and home buying in general.

Most of what I'm looking at are small, older houses (or row houses). All of them need a bit of work, nothing is great. All homes I'm looking at are at least 60 years old. My budget is about $200k (would prefer to pay less) and so many places need so much work that when I tour a house I see tens of thousands of dollars, if not a hundred or more, in remodeling & repair work needed. It's a bit insane.

The only homes that have been selling over the past year have been either "very nice" homes or "bargain priced" fixer-upper homes. But 98% of the homes listed are neither that nice, or that much of a bargain.

What's Confusing?
From all the research I've done about the Baltimore market, I think prices here are still too high. I think that house prices should be at or below 2004 levels. (note: I don't think this is necessarily true for other markets). But *everything* I'm seeing is not priced below 2004 levels... Unless you're some kind of insider... I keep hearing about "private transactions" which are about 25% less than comparable listed houses. And then there are the auction houses which are selling for %40-%60 below current comparables.

Furthermore, Baltimore City has a tremendous OVERSUPPLY of houses. There are potentially over a thousand homes I could be considering. So why do they seem so expensive? Additionally, the city will announce plans to deal with the 30,000 (yes thirty thousand) abandoned homes homes here.

Questions...
- Is the Baltimore market at it's bottom? Can it even go any lower?
- Maybe I should rule out Baltimore City altogether? Maybe Baltimore will slip backwards?
- Do any of my Baltimore friends have any advice on neighborhoods I should consider? Which ones I should be avoiding?
- Why can't I just make a lowball offer on something? (see below)
(My agent is not giving me clear advice on any of the above questions, especially the lowball question. She always says, "it depends on each seller's situation" when what I really want to hear is "I think you can get away with THIS offer for this particular house". And she keeps mentioning how she is "really busy", I think she's sick of me.)

I just want a decent, affordable home with a manageable mortgage, where I can be happy. I can not afford to overpay or fix problems. I need your advice.

Thanks,
Steph

Struever Bros. - Belvadere Square Does Not Need a Subway Sandwiches

2010-04-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

I just learned that a Subway Sandwiches franchise will be the newest tenant at the Belvadere Square marketplace... a marketplace in my community filled with local gourmet food vendors. How a national fast food chain fits in to a unique and upscale place like the Belvadere Square is mystifying.

Hey Struever Bros., We all know commercial leases are down, but it's not fair to existing tenants or patrons to dump a Subway on us just because you want to get more rent. The Dunkin Donuts kinda sucks too.

The landlord is Struever Bros. Eccles and Rouse. As a real estate developer who has been "creating communities in Baltimore for 30 years" - you would think they understand a thing or two about... um... creating communities. This is not fair to the neighboring residents, the patrons of Belvadere, who have been trying to improve the community. We are the ones who ultimately pay for the marketplace. Nobody is happy about this. There are other Subways close by, up York Road in much more appropriate locations, and Subway is in direct competition with the other vendors.

Hey ZipRealty.com - Please Fix Your User Experience

2010-04-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

So I'm looking to buy a house finally. It's tricky. There are A LOT of places for sale but most of them are pretty dumpy. Now I understand why new construction is so appealing despite its boring style. Anyway, I'm using ZipRealty.com to help me find a home to buy because it's like the ebay of realestate websites. Sorting through hundreds of potential homes (yes hundreds) is really difficult. We all know that sellers like to exaggerate the appeal of their houses as much as possible. We all know that the whole house buying process seems rigged in favor of sellers and agents. The marketplace of real estate is really vague and I feel like this is intentional. I wish ziprealty.com was more like Google Finance - but it's not and I'm stuck with it for now.

So... there are a few things Zip should be doing from a User Experience perspective which would help me, and every other buyer, but they are not....

HEY ZIPREALTY, PLEASE FIX THESE THINGS ASAP!!!

#1 What is the deal with Review This Home? It just doesn't work. This could be the most useful feature on the whole site, it could help SO many users filter through the crap. It could save people so much time and effort and it just does not work. Anybody, neighbors, not necessarily home buyers ought to be able to leave a comment about a home listed on zip. I can comment on almost anything on the internet except for the most important purchase of my life. WTF!!!? Hello! Product manager at Zip Realty - go talk to the folks at Disqus.

#2 I should be able to converse with agents, all agents, without leaving the site. Or without leaving the house detail page. It seems stupid to go back and forth over email so excessively. Why can't Zip BE a turbo charged email client for the purpose of selling homes?

#3 Filtering and organizing needs a lot of interaction design improvement. So many small interactions should automatically save. For example, if I'm trying to rank my interest level on a house this UI should automatically save my rank without me having to hit the little "save" button every single time I adjust this menu. You just don't need all those save buttons. It's called AJAX and here Zip needs to take some cues from Google.

#4 The sidebar is useless. No I do not need to see the photo, name and phone number of my agent on every sidebar in every single page view - I ALREADY HAVE THAT INFORMATION thanks. Instead I'd like to see ACTIONABLE interfaces, useful features, meaningful context, bubbled up above the fold of the page. Users should be able to customize the sidebar on a home detail view. All social and communication tools are buried down on the page and it's too difficult to share a listing with my friends & family. Right now If I want to post a home to facebook, or email a listing to my dad, I have to scratch my head for 2 minutes figure out how to do that - every time. It's not easy to find.

Overall Zip is pretty good, I consider it to be better than no real estate website. But the site could be greatly improved by a thorough user centered REDESIGN. My biggest complaint is that they haven't done this already, it's long overdue.

A Four Generation Diabetes Story

2010-02-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

I was going to write a diabetes valentines post for my other blog, veggie trader. I was going to write something pithy about love equaling food, and try to relate that somehow to overloading yourself with love and getting diabetic. I was going to write this in the context of the Let's Move campaign started last week by first Lady Michelle Obama. And then I was going to tie all this together on a blog which is really about gardening... but this is too difficult. I'm not doing that, I'm writing about my dad instead.

First let me say that the Let's Move website could be A LOT better, the design needs to be more engaging, useful with actionable information. Oh how I wish I could have been consulted to work on that site! A full review of some of these "government sponsored help campaigns" will be coming soon.

Last Saturday I was hanging out with my dad and we started talking about his diabetes. He developed type 2 about 15 years ago around age 60. My dad's mother was diabetic as well as her father. That makes three generations of type two diabetics. (oops! I'm never going to get health coverage now!)

Looking back at my childhood and remembering how he acted about food I asked my dad, "How did you become diabetic?"

My dad had a clear answer, "I think it was a combination of factors. Denial on my part, and deceptive food labeling and marketing. I ate too much, and I ate too much sugar and too many highly refined foods which act like sugar in your body when you eat them." He went on to add, "I just wasn't really aware of what I was eating. There simply wasn't any diet or nutritional information available to anyone in the past. I had no way of knowing that some of the stuff I was eating (like white bread) was hurting me." The past meaning, before 2000. I remember my dad eating normally. He enjoyed sodas and wine and cheese and stuff, but I don't recall anything excessive. He definitely enjoys food though...

Then I asked, "When do you think you started to become diabetic?" and my dad's answer surprised me. "I think it all really started in my twenties." Really? So my next question, "Do you ever think back to your younger self and wish you could eat differently?" "YES! All the time. If I could go back I wouldn't have eaten so much ice cream. Or gone for that 3rd or 4th helping of cake or pie." Ah portion control.

"Also there were the issues with my mother," he added. Now this is the strange part - the mother connection which Michal Pollan alludes to in his book, In Defense of Food. Let's just say my grandmother was also a food lover and I think she passed some of her attitudes and eating issues on to my dad. My dad was what you'd call an 'emotional eater'. He doesn't do this any more but he used to eat to cheer himself up when he was down. This I think it's the root of his diabetes, more than genetics and portion control. We both think the emotional eating habit came from his mom.

The really interesting thing about my dad and his diabetes story is that he grew up on a homestead, a completely self sufficient household that produced it's own food. When he was a kid they had a cow for milk, chickens, gardens, and fruit trees. His grandmother would bake bread fresh almost every day in a wood oven! It's not as if my dad (or my diabetic for bearers) didn't know where good food comes from. Dad'll use his homestead childhood to justify eating well, citing the home-made butter on a fresh slice of warm bread from the wood oven.

So I'm the 4th generation in this story and I certainly don't want to wake up in the future to daily insulin injections. I'm the one who grew up with Saturday morning cartoons bombarding me with sugary cereals which thankfully my mother wouldn't allow in the house. I also helped my parents in the kitchen - a place where I feel very comfortable today. We always prepared real meals from real foods - a lost art in these times! I'm convinced that kids today need the same hands on learning about food that I had. You can only truly understand what you're eating when you plan, shop for, and prepare your own meals on a regular basis. Now with a bit of awareness and a lot of practice (in & out of the kitchen) hopefully this diabetes story wont continue past the 3rd generation.

Keep it Fresh - Search Engine Optimization

2010-02-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

I am not a good writer. I know some amazing writers and I am not one of them. I'm a designer, a visual person, I'm all 'show' and not so great at telling. This is a problem on the web because it doesn't matter how beautiful my designs are or how amazing a photo might be, search engines are blind to images.

Lori Culwell's recent article in the Huffington Post reminded me of my SEO rule number 1 - a rule which for some reason I have a very difficult time getting people to comprehend - which is simplistically "SEO is all about content". I guess that is very simplistic because here is Lori's take;

"There is not a week that goes by in my capacity as a Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Professional (a field I've been working in since the dotcom boom in San Francisco) where someone doesn't email me to say some combination of the words "Can you fix my metatags? My site has a really high bounce rate."

So, my answer this question is: yes, I can fix your metatags. There is a slight (a very slight) possibility that you've put something really awesome up on your website, and that because the site is wrapped in Flash, or your web guy didn't know anything about keyword analysis or where to put the tags, Google is not finding it, and that's why no one is coming. But, can I just be honest here? The high bounce rate is the giveaway. The fact that once people get to your website they leave, because YOU'RE NOT TELLING THEM ANYTHING NEW, is what lets me know that all the SEO in the world is not going to help you. ..."

So yeah. Translation, get a copy of Dreamweaver or Contribute or start blogging or do something to change up the content on your website more than once a year. For a website to get a decent SEO ranking you have to keep your content, I mean your TEXTUAL content fresh every week or so. There is no amount of photoshop magic that can possibly be done to make Google rank one page over another.

Design and visual elements absolutely do affect a site's bounce rate (how long a visitor stays on the site once they find it) but these have no affect on SEO. My recommendation is always have a beautiful website and always keep the content fresh.

Get more SEO advice in Lori's book:

She Has A Blog?! - How I Began Blogging

2010-01-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

I finally saw Julie & Julia last night. Loved it! The movie is a true story about a 'lowly cubicle worker' (Julie Powell) who decides to transform her reality by becoming a food blogger. Julie assigns herself a monumental project, a theme for her debut blog, cooking Julia Childs' Mastering The Art of French Cooking.

There were some funny parallels for me in this story. Like Julie, I love cooking. Like Julie, I was struggling with some career angst when I turned to blogging as affordable mental health therapy. But unlike Julie I was in Silicon Valley and my perspective on blogging was quite different. My workplace (AOL) encouraged blogging, and I remember my coworker Holly getting all the love in the office just for going to geeky after hours meet-ups (like Mobile Mondays) and writing about it. At the same time one of my friends was rocketing to the all-time blogging hall of fame, winning webby awards year after year, just for sourcing and posting the cutest photos of baby animals.

I guess I was a little jealous of Meg, but not so much of Holly. Neither of these two ladies got me to start blogging, I'm not competitive that way. When you work for any company everything you create, all that you write or draw, BELONGS to that company. The company, not you, owns your work. On top of that I had a retarded manager at AOL who was constantly 'cherry picking' other peoples ideas among other things (like playing favorites with only male coworkers!!!). Like Julie my thought process to begin blogging went like this; I could while away my days for an egomaniac who obviously doesn't respect me - OR - I can be the master of my own time with all these great web 2.0 tools at my disposal? So I quit and I started working as an independent consultant.

Blogging for me has been a revolution. I started mostly to learn about how it works, so I could design and develop blogs for clients. I wanted to understand how a blog works with search engines, how it affects a business, and all the different ways one could use a blog as a software tool. I found myself in the middle of a communication revolution. This blog, Info Geo, is more than my journal, it's an ongoing experiment in internet communication... it's a laboratory for ideas.

So THAT is how I began blogging & I haven't looked back. Now, you will notice that I have no advertising here (that's only because Adsense won't work well enough here). I hardly write every day (I'm just too busy right now). But believe me - there will be a lot more to come.

I Wish Google Still Suppoted Notebook

2010-01-25T09:10:00.000-08:00

I think Google Notebook was the best all around research bookmarking tool-thing on the web, but Google recently stopped supporting it. I'm not sure why they did this but I think they want me to install the google toolbar instead. I tried that out and it just taxes my whole setup here too much, I don't like it. Notebook was better.

What was especially awesome about Notebook was the way that I could gather and organize images and photos... conveniently remembering the URLs for me. Letting me share that visual info with other people on the same project collaboratively. It was a great tool for visual professionals... sigh.

Putting My Foot Down on New Years Commitments

2010-01-12T18:27:00.000-08:00

Resolutions are sooooo zero. You're not gonna resolve to do anything! How about a commitment? Now that's change I can believe in...

From now forward I am commiting to:

#1 Be positive in action, thought, and words ALL OF THE TIME
This means I wont watch murder shows on TV, nor will I entertain fighting, war, or horror movies. As far as I'm concerned the only violence I ever care to learn about is something affecting a direct relative.

#2 Eat to live a long healthy life
As much as I can control, I will only eat sustainably grown foods by local producers. Mostly fresh vegetables. Everything I consume must be labeled organic & local & fair trade or else I simply don't want it.

#3 Zero waste
I'm tired of leftovers and having too much leftover stuff lying around useless. This is an end to overbuying for the sake of making myself look like a hero to my family... The real heroism is CONSERVATION.

Goodbye Zeros

2009-12-31T12:04:00.000-08:00

Good bye Zeros. As a decade you sucked. You started off with a great personal loss for me, and turned into a big financial zero really quickly. Seemed like most of the decade was hijacked by backward, political & ideological systems that drove this country to the brink of collapse. Only good thing about you was the lessons you dealt forcing me to rely on myself more. I'm ready to forget about you now.

* mom died of cancer, lost all my savings in the tech bubble, 9/11, hurricanes and tsunamis, and a painful realization of how corrupt all the "systems" are that I'm supposed to depend on to live.

Nothing Says Merry Christmas Like HOT Artichoke Dip

2009-12-24T10:19:00.000-08:00

I make this Hot Artichoke Dip every Christmas Eve... This year I'm trying it with an added teaspoon of habanero paste for extra hotness. I'll add a photo here very soon!

Ingredients
- 2 (13 3/4-ounce) cans artichoke hearts (drained & broken into smaller chunks)
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup packed freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
- 2-3 tablespoons habanero pepper paste (more or less to taste)
- 1 large garlic clove, mashed
- A few dashes of tobasco sauce
- A few cranks of fresh black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, stir well. Scrape into an oven proof dish, cover and bake for 40 minutes. Serve this savory dip HOT, with bagel chips, corn chips, crackers, bread... anything! Enjoy!

Stop and Think Before Crowdsourcing Your Design Work

2009-12-11T07:18:00.000-08:00

Crowdsourcing is this new way to get really cheap design work done. By using the internet to 'source' a large group of people to check out your project, you can get designers to propose ideas to you in a 'contest' like system. Effectively, crowdsourcing creates a 'marketplace' for design work, but since one designer 'wins' a job, many more designers loose...

Here's a Wired magazine post explaining crowdsourcing and some issue facing designers (note, the comments are great):
Is Crowdsourcing Evil? The Design Community Weighs In

I DO think these sites are disruptively evil, and it's not because I don't think other organizations deserve affordable design. Crowdsourcing encourages cheapness and impatience from potential clients. These websites imply to clients that they'll get Saks like quality design work at Walmart prices, all at internet speed... but the design process doesn't actually work that way. Worse than marginalizing the design process, there are some huge intellectual property issues with these sites. If somebody were to create some artwork, and this artwork ended up being extremely profitable a few years later, what's to stop that artist from suiing that client to recoup the IP gains from his work? I can see intellectual property lawyers just waiting, like vultures, to dive into this in the near future.

The main reason that crowdsourcing is evil is the same reason that it's successful, Ideas. As all these ideas are propagated around these sites, it's just a matter of time before the designers (who aren't making enough $) get their own entrepreneurial ideas ... It's not difficult to launch your own online store (especially if you already have the software). It's not hard to set up your own blog (especially if you're creative). It certainly is not hard to set up any web business of your own, especially if you're half way there already, and all you need is an idea to base it on.

Crowdsourcing is bad for me because it undermines my investments in my own career, investments of time, money, and relationships. It's harder to promote my unique style & process when people's expectations have been set by a crowdsourcing websites. I've seen rates for design work drop, while at the same time the costs of maintaining a professional practice (expenses like education, rent, software, hardware, hosting, and broadband) don't go down at all. Why bother working with clients who assume your business is less valuable than their business?

I personally think anybody using a crowd sourcing site is going to get poor results, and no good designer participates on these sites anyway. The work we do at Studioroom includes planning, project management, writing, and development - ALL of our work is design-to-build, with SEO and usability baked right in. We want relationships with people, not popularity contests.

Dear Spam

2009-12-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

We've known each other for a while, even though you haven't seen me in years. I've been getting thousands of emails from you since 1999, please don't be angry with me that I haven't replied. I simply don't need my penis to be any bigger, nor do I need any pharmaceutical help in the bedroom, or bathroom, or anywhere. I'm not going bald, there's nothing in my life which needs fixing.

I've been ignoring your treaties of "help" so much now you are trying to find new ways to get at me. Through facebook, and twitter, and now my blog... The thing is, I have a spam proof wall around me, it's called Google. More precisely, it's called 'cloud computing'. You simply cannot reach me. You're just wasting your time. Give up.

Trying To Save All The Thanksgiving's To Come

2009-11-26T08:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please help Food Democracy Now fight Islam Siddiqui’s confirmation to the USDA. His Senate confirmation hearing is set for next week.

About Islam Siddiqui...
During his career, Siddiqui spent over 3 years as a pesticide lobbyist, an Undersecretary at the USDA and a VP at CropLife. In defending Siddiqui, the White House has stated that he played a key role in helping establish the country’s first organic standards.6 What they neglect to mention, though, is that those original organic standards would have allowed irradiation, sewage sludge and GMOs to undermine organic integrity! The standards were so watered down that 230,000 people signed a petition for them to be changed, which they eventually were.7

Fortunately, the organic community stopped Siddiqui and his cronies then, and we need your help now to do it again. If Siddiqui’s nomination is allowed to go through, then agribusiness will continue to control the seeds, the science, and the distribution of global food and agriculture.

Please join Food Democracy Now! and a broad coalition of other groups, in calling on President Obama to keep his campaign promise of closing the revolving door between agribusiness and his administration.

Why is this bad? Here is why:

If you go to You Tube and search for "Monsanto" you'll find a lot more information.

An Online Thanksgiving Recipe Round-Up

2009-11-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

I'm one of those people who thinks, "if Thanksgiving dinner isn't amazing, then there's just no point!". So over the years I've roasted a few birds and made enough stuffings & sauces to be able to know a good recipe when I see it. Here I've compiled a list of my favorite recipes & sites for your Thanksgiving enjoyment.

1. Here is the recipe from Fine Cooking I've been making for the past 8 years (It's excellent):
A Thanksgiving Feast for Twelve By Michael Brisson
There are a lot of other great recipes on Fine Cooking.com.

2. We all love Jamie Oliver, and these holiday recipes are already making my mouth water:

3. Other good recipe sites are:
Saveur Magazine promises the "Ultimate Thanksgiving" - lots of options
Gourmet magazine's recipe site (Gourmet is closing, sigh)
Food TV has a stable of celebrity chefs - I love Emeril & Bobby Flay
La Cucina Italiana Magazine - I cannot understate how excellent this cooking magazine is
Martha Stewart.com - The best all around hostessing resource

4. Why not breakaway this Thanksgiving?
My friend Eric Gower did... He made a breakway turkey last year (you can have the butcher "butterfly" the bird for you & do this on the BBQ!).

Here is Eric's "Breakaway Thanksgiving" from his Yahoo! Food blog (which he does not contribute to anymore).

Also, I've pick a few thanksgiving ingredient oriented recipes out of his fantastic blog:
Ginger Sweet potatoes
A cranberry chutney
Star anise Turkey soup
An insanely delicious Pumpkin curry

Font Freedom - Typekit A Simple Type Solution for Websites

2009-11-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

At first, when I heard about Typekit I was skeptical. I've practically made a career around being able to "optimize" text for the web. Now I can unlearn all of the technical, CSS rules I've been compelled to follow for over a decade! Now I have more freedom to focus on design! Typekit.com is one of these web based tools which is very simple and very useful for every designer. I just signed up for an account, and got a snippet of code which I can add to my web pages (I added the code to my blogger template).

Typekit works with your HTML & CSS. The service simplifies a coding technique which has already been around for years but probably isn't really accessible to graphic designers (because let's face it, what programmer is ever going to think about more than 4 fonts?). Best of all, it's reasonably priced starting at $25/year for 10GB of bandwidth (which should be plenty). In contrast, Adobe sells an enterprise level solution which is completely too expensive for small design studios.

I'm still trying this out & I'll post examples when I have them. My biggest criticism with typekit so far is that it's easier to try out fonts in CODE than in the design process - which is kind of a time suck if you prefer to vet out a design in Photoshop.

Get Out of Jury Duty - More Info

2009-11-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

Following up on my most popular post, here's how you can prevent yourself from even being called for jury duty in the 1st place. Over a year ago I moved from California to the east coast. But my CA driver's license doesn't expire until 2012, and I don't need to renew it. Since I'm planning on moving again I simply don't want to go through the hassle of going to the DMV. I did, however register to vote in my new state so I could vote for Obama. I thought registering to vote would trigger jury duty harassment, but so far I haven't heard from my local court, and I think I'm in the clear.

If you're like me, an independent contractor who never really gets paid for jury time, then you might want to make sure you never get called. So here's the scoop, but you may need to coordinate this with a move. (I'm not sure if you have to move out of state or just to a different locality, probably depends on how modern your state & localities are).

1. A month or more leading up to a move, go renew your driver's license. You'll probably get a new license good for at least several years. You need to do this ahead of your move since the DMV has to mail your new license to your "home" address.

2. Move & change your address with the post office, your bank & credit cards, etc.

After this your credit profiles will state your new address, and most bureaucracies use your credit report to establish your home address. But your new, local court system does not look through credit data to mine for jury victims.

OPINION: I personally think it's wrong that the court system cannot compensate jurors for their time. This set-up predisposes juries to be made up of mostly affluent people (retirees & housewives) who can afford to serve, and does not make available a true "jury of ones peers". Ironically, it will probably take several major class action lawsuits in different states just to reform this system.

What I Really Want to Tell United in Their Online Survey

2009-11-10T06:44:00.001-08:00

Online surveys a good, but they are over-used as a cheap way to get user feedback. These surveys cannot be accurate simply by the "one size fit's all" type of design they utilize. There's never an opportunity in these multiple choice surveys for users to give details about their unique experience with a business. Why not actually talk to your customers?

What I really want to tell United in this survey which I found in my inbox this morning is... DON'T spam all your customers with a survey disguised as a contest. I would much rather have a guaranteed, small, mileage grant for completing a survey, than have the carrot of 100,000 frequent flier miles dangled in my face. The way I look at this, is there is no actual reason for me to complete this survey for United because there's no guarantee that I'll get anything for my time & thoughts. Not to mention the fact that every other airline conducts their surveys with similar contests. And on top of all of this, "contest websites" are starting to proliferate on the web, it's getting to be contest overload for consumers.

So what about my flight? Well, it was really weird that the "economy plus" section on my flight was nearly empty while plain ole economy was packed. It was also kinda weird that United had to announce to customers not to spread into Economy Plus without first paying for it. Nobody wanted to cough up the extra $50 for 5 more inches. I remember the good old days when if a flight wasn't full, folks were welcome to make themselves more comfortable without being taxed.

My only other criticism about my recent travel is about the check-in kiosk at the airport. It's difficult to use and puts way too much emphasis on 'up-selling' instead of expedient check-in. United, please contact me for some usability help with your software!

Very Easy Content Management with Cushy CMS

2009-11-03T07:23:00.000-08:00

I think I just found what could be the most ridiculously easy tool for web designers or anybody looking for a simple CMS solution to add to their site, Cushy CMS.

All you need to do is watch the short video of how it works on their home page which is very strait forward. I've already tested it out and I can't wait to share this with some clients.

Now if those geniuses at Cushy could make some easy RSS hooks into their Cushy CMS they can have a perfect product for web publishers.

Cheap Customer Feedback (Gavin Newsom)

2009-10-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

There's a researcher's goldmine in the comments of news articles. Here's a screen grab of the top comments in the Gavin Newsom story on SFgate.com. It's better than reading the article.

How Do You Answer The Passion Question?

2009-10-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

Help me get the word Passion out of the office and back into the bedroom where it belongs!

Have you ever been in a job interview, which you thought was going great, only to get sidelined with the question, "What are you really passionate about?!" Perhaps it's because I'm a designer (I can't imagine an Doctor ever being asked this question) and people expect my brain to be overflowing with creativity. Or perhaps because I'm a designer people expect me to communicate in little sketches, who knows. One really stressful interview at a silicon valley giant, I was sidelined with the Passion Question right in the middle of talking about software design. I think I let it slip that I wasn't really that passionate about an email application I had worked on. (Please, nobody, nobody is ever passionate about email software design, let alone email, or especially software). I almost blurted out "money" in response to that question - I mean hello! interview!?! But instead of yelling out "money" (to a small group stock option lottery winners) I froze up.

I think the passion question is stupid because it's usually totally inappropriate. Does it make sense to ask a civil engineer if he's passionate about fixing sewers? Remember our friend the doctor? Nobody would ask her what she's passionate about because... a doctor is obviously all about curing the sick... so it goes without saying that I am passionate about design.

So let me ask the Blogger Community - How have you dealt with the Passion Question in your interviews? Do you think asking people this question is a good idea?

How Are You Doing? Looking at Your Data

2009-10-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

I can tell how your website is doing. I can tell if this past year has been good for your site, or bad. Don't be offended, this info is freely available online. I'm talking about Alexa. With a little bit of analysis, I could make recommendations for fixing your site, or improving your web products, so that your business connects with more people and does better.

Massify.com vs. Cute Overload.com
Compare the past month of Alexa data for the blog Cute Overload with the professional networking site Massify.com*. What's interesting is Cute Overload is managed primarily by a single individual (a Designer) with a separate full time job. Massify is a small company and run by a team of professionals. Cute Overload had very little start-up costs and has very little overhead. Massify had a lot more start-up costs, and maintains much more overhead, more than a blog like Cute Overload. Still, Cute Overload is growing, and Massify is not.

Cute Overload.com

Massify.com

So what's going on here? Could it be that a simple blog is the way to go with a web business, something which can easily be maintained by an army of one? There could be a lot of explanations for the lower performing site... They could be suffering from; A fundamentally poor idea, over-complication, poor planning & implementation, poor customer support, or perhaps no clear design strategy. The good news is there is HOPE. Change is good and websites are good at reinventing themselves.

A GOOD Online Survey from Best Western

2009-09-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I got the email from Adobe asking me to participate in their survey, I also got an email survey from Best Western.

Not only did the survey from Best Western actually work, but the manager from the hotel I recently stayed at emailed me directly to follow-up. This is how an online survey should work! The hotel manager thanked me for submitting the survey and she reassured me that they read and appreciate my comments.

I wish Adobe would get a clue that the internet is best for two or three-way CONVERSATIONS, and not one-way talk which creates the illusion of caring but doesn't actually do anything.

Bad Experience With Adobe Products

2009-09-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

If anybody reading this wants to recommend an alternative to Photoshop & Dreamweaver, I'm listening....

I don't know how else to try to communicate to Adobe that their products are messed up and I'm starting to think about dropping Creative Suite. Their customer support is nonexistent and frankly it's impossible to log bugs through their site because they make you do so much work to log those bugs. I have about two dozen different bugs and complaints about various Adobe Creative suite applications, it would take me all day to break out each individual complaint into the neat little categories for the Adobe site. And I have to agree to terms and conditions to log a bug about their products? Its retarded. I normally get PAID to report bugs with software so this is just insulting to me.

Today I go another email from Adobe asking me to participate in another survey (the 3rd since I bought CS4 last year). The survey is BROKEN.

All I want is for Adobe to stop wasting my time. If they are going to take my money, they mine as well deliver software that works. Hanging and crashing should not be a normal operating mode.

I shouldn't have to tell people at Adobe how to design & create software, they ought to know how to do that. Asking their customers to complete web surveys (several of them) just shows that they are unclear. We all know web surveys are nothing more than expensive executive appeasement. It's frustrating to depend on a software company who doesn't even know the best way to support their products.

Finally, here it is, 10 months after my purchase & I still have not received my 2 free copies of Layers magazine as promised. I am annoyed.

I can not afford to wait

2009-09-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

I don't get it. How could you look any of these people in the eye and say that they should wait for health care. Wait for what? I simply don't understand why our health system is the way it is. It's stupid.

A New Updated Studioroom.com

2009-09-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, how difficult is it to update one's own portfolio? That only took about um... a year! Well I launched something, and it's not even done!

At least some of my more interesting and newest projects are now represented in my portfolio. Projects like Veggie Trader, Path 101, & Alaska Urological. Samples for older work, like Massify and Bounty Jobs are still available for anybody wanting to see more IA and interaction design, but you have to ask to see this work.

In the next couple of weeks I'll be fleshing out Studioroom and adding more details to the portfolio and to my process. Since Studioroom does different types of design work there's more than one process. Right now we're emphasizing the User Experience Design process which is for software products more than for simple websites. If you or your organization is trying to design a web application and are strugging with the User Experience Design, please contact me.

My UX process is illustrated below, and outlined in more detail on my site.

Call me an elitist snob but I just don't want to hear your whining about food in 20 years

2009-09-01T07:41:00.001-07:00

I had more than a good laugh at this insightful LA Times editorial Keep your self-righteous fingers off my processed food -- latimes.com. I guess I am an elitist food snob.

Charlotte Allen does have a very good point about artisinal products being too expensive. I definitely do not want people's food to become more expensive. I simply want the federal government to stop subsidizing the same crops that are contributing to the obesity epidemic (among other things) in this country.

Here are my thoughts as a product designer...
It's great that we have a lot of affordable products to choose from. The problem with too many cheap goods is that there are just too many of them and it's spreading this culture of cheapness. Living life cheaply, especially if you don't have a choice about it, is sad and demeaning and worst of all, it's infectious. You would never want to be hired by somebody just because your cheap? So why is it OK for China to exploit their population for cheap labor? I HATE that armies of overseas workers are wasting their lives toiling in factories to make loads of cheap crap for me. I wish they had more fulfilling work to do!

As a manager...
looking at the landscape of America right now, there is absolutely no reason why more states can't have more thriving, sustainable agriculture. This argument that people like Alice Waters are elitist is silly. One shouldn't need to live in Berkley, CA to enjoy perfect produce. It just takes planning. There is no reason that New jersey cannot truly be the Garden State. The real problem, I think, is that most people don't care about their food. If they stopped fixating on being cheap then then we can start talking about real sustainability for their health and the environment. I think Michael Pollan & Alice Waters are visionary.

Personally...
Asking me to accept without criticism the bounty of cheap food in the US right now is like asking a lung cancer patient to breathe second hand smoke simply because he is the minority. Not to mention it would be ignorant of any educated person to ignore the environmental impact of our agricultural system right now. I don't want to eat cheap food. Especially because I know better but mostly because I like feeling good thanks. I've never been on a diet in my life and I still get carded because I look about 18 years younger than I am. Cooking for me *is* entertainment, I do it better than most professional cooks, and I don't need some cheap-ass company cutting costs on my meals! My burgers & fries are hands down better than any restaurant burger, anywhere, and made from scratch are almost as inexpensive as Mac Donalds.

Call me an elitist snob but I don't want to hear your whining about food in 20 years when it's no longer feasible to export dinner from thousands of miles away. At the very least people like Charlotte Allen won't get invited to my fabulous dinner parties any time soon.

Mini Site Review - WhiteHouse.gov Reality Check

2009-08-11T07:49:00.000-07:00

I am completely impressed by the Obama White House's approach to communications. Not only is the White House website beautiful, it's also very useful and informative. Whitehouse.gov is a case study for how businesses and agencies should use the web to connect with their audience.

The key is to:
1. Communicate clearly
Notice you don't see vague or ambiguous links that are designed to entice clicks - just strait forward, easy to read content.

2. Create relevancy by focusing on your content
The interface is elegant, it does not get in the way of the important messages and it's easy to find the information that is most important to you.

3. Make it a three way conversation
It's so easy these days to communicate with everyone. Sites that employ conversational methods engage people and create a positive experience. Using channels like email, facebook and twitter grow the conversation to a larger audience.

Here's my mini review...
(click to see my larger comments)

I Wish There Was Better, More Sustainably Raised Food Here...

2009-08-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

Oh wait, there IS!

One of the painful things about moving from San Francisco to Baltimore is the lack of good food sources here in Baltimore. Healthy local foods of all kind flood San Francisco and the result is a food paradise for everybody. Shoppers have hundreds of choices, from great small stores, abundantly rich farmer's markets, and of course all those epic restaurants. SF has SO MUCH local bounty, you take it for granted. Here in Baltimore I'm actually shocked and appalled by the lack of good produce and variety.

The thing that frustrates me about the food situation here in the Mid Atlantic is that it simply does not have to be this way. Plants grow well here, there's plenty of sun and rain. Spring, summer & fall are all good growing climates here. There's NO EXCUSE for bad food and certainly for lack of choice!

Why can't the Mid Atlantic experience an Alice Waters/Michael Pollan inspired food renaissance? Aren't we decades overdue?

He-cession?

2009-07-21T06:14:00.000-07:00

What is the deal?

MEN WORRY THEY'RE FALLING BEHIND IN A 'HE-CESSION' - THEY'RE RIGHT
By MAUREEN CALLAHAN Posted: 4:52 pm - July 18, 2009

Coping with the 'he-cession' Economy has more men looking at traditionally female jobs
Jay Hancock - July 17, 2009

The Great ‘He-cession’
June 29, 2009, 6:11 am

Hey Web Developers! Do You Think About Online Safety In Your Work?

2009-07-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

Are you in the business of developing websites? Do you think about online safety when developing your site? You should. If you don't care about the safety and happiness of your entire audience then law or government might step in... If I was a web entrepreneur, a developer, or any type of investor with a stake in any web business, then online safety (a great user experience) would be my #1 priority.

What do I mean about online safety? Its more than identity theft, phishing, or cyber bullying. I'm talking about the entire world of the internet and all of your particpation in that world, and how this affects everybody else. Online safety includes things like; ease of use, clear simple communication, effective customer support, and avoiding over commercialization. (If Jonathan Adelstein is complainging about "relentless and excessive commercialization" on the web then you know it's already a problem which is getting addressed)

This past month I had the privilege to design an online report for the NCTA. There is a good amount of free user research to be found here in the PointSmart.ClickSafe. Task Force Recommendations for best practices for child online safety. Both in these 2008 task force summit videos, and in the Best Practice Reccomendations report itself.

Here's what it's about:
Google, Verizon, Others in New Child Safety Push
By Kenneth Corbin - Internetnews.com

WASHINGTON -- A far-ranging coalition of IT and telecom firms, advocacy organizations and other stakeholders this morning unveiled a broad set of recommendations for how to protect children online. The new report from the Point Safe, Click Smart task force calls for a lax regulatory approach, emphasizing the importance of educating children and their parents about online safety. The task force, which was spearheaded by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), drew on a diverse group of participants, including Yahoo, Symantec and the National Parent Teacher Association.
- - -

My complaint about the internet industry - Too many times I've worked in too many offices which were more like a frat house than an office. In these web workplaces, I've sat around idly while managers & clients alike have made assumptions about their audiences, assumptions that all their users are most likely a bunch of guys like themselves. I have seen some hilariously wrong thinking get pushed into mainstream websites all erroneously in the name of "more pageviews". Worst of all, a lot of web developers harbor a lazy attitude that creating products that work for everyone is just not a priority. Please, guys, no more lazy, narrow assumptions.

The Smartphone Trend is Dumb

2009-06-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

Do you have an iPhone yet? According to this New York Times article there has been a lot of growth in the smartphone market as job seekers try to look competitive to potential employers. This seems like backwards logic to me, just having a smartphone does not deem you a good job candidate. This article I feel is such a misrepresentation of the smartphone experience that I feel I need to blog about it. I also deeply question the New York time's bias here since they are clearly advertising lots of smartphones in their paper. Is this news? Or is this a big ole ad?

If somebody genuinely wants a Blackberry, Palm, or iPhone then of course they should have one, but they are all quite expensive and each of them require a $30 monthly commitment just for the data plan alone. That's $360 a year in addition to the expense of the phone, and on top of your regular monthly calling plan. Who remembers the good old days when the phone was cheap? This looks like a "bubble" to me, if I were a business analyst I would watch out.

Of course the iPhone is fun to use, but being able to send and receive emails at any time, is not so fun. Are we going to wake up in a few years to a world where everybody expects you to reply to them RIGHT AWAY!? If you're job hunting this might make a good first impression, but then you get known as the person who's really good at replying to messages quickly, you're passively committing to being on call all of the time. This doesn't prove anything about your ability to problem solve or make decisions.

I would never hire somebody simply because they have a smartphone. I view these devices to be an encroachment into the workplace and I can picture a coworkers texting their friends, or posting remarks online, activities that have nothing to do with work. Cognitive research has taught me that one little "alert" message, a 1 second distraction of your attention, can cause a fifteen minute loss of productive workflow. I am careful as an interaction designer not to allow such distractions to creep in to my designs.

Finally, there's the show-off factor. Yes the iPhone is sexy (I do own an ipod touch). Yes Apple knows how to design products. But I would judge a colleague on the body of their work as opposed to the possessions they own. I hope the world doesn't judge me because of what I do, or do not own.

Working on Vacation (and it's alright)

2009-06-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a week long trip to Asheville and the Great Smokey Mountains. It was fantastic. North Carolina has it all; beauty, culture, and natural wonder. I drove from Washington DC, my goal simply to explore and relax over a long Memorial weekend. On the drive I heard a few radio shows talking about the work vacation. Because of the economy, it sounds like people are afraid to step away from the office for fear that it will make them look bad, and then (maybe) they'll be targeted for layoffs. Some folks must be really stressed out about their jobs! So the work around, of course, is more technology and connectivity. The radio shows spoke to all the usual stuff like checking email all the time from your mobile phone.

I'm pleased to report that MY personal experience with the work vacation was good! I brought my laptop which was already set-up with the files I needed. I made sure that I got as much work done as I could before I left. I communicated to everyone that I was going away, and how I could be contacted... there's plenty of connectivity in North Carolina. During my trip, I needed about six hours to make sure that my client was happy. Some design details on the project got refined and I was able to spend most of my trip relaxing without a single worry.

Now that I've got my vacation workflow in place I'm ready for summer. I can't wait to check out the beaches later this summer. Now, I'm contemplating sending my resume to Carolina companies. Let's see what happens.

Great Online Video Research on Obesity

2009-05-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

The internet and video go really well together. The internet and research goes really well together. Put it all together and you get... an easy way to distribute great content to a broad audience.

Here IDEO has shared their research video about Obesity. It does a very good job at illustrating the complexities of making healthy food choices. Helping people make well informed choices is a design problem.

A Lens on Obesity, a Short Documentary from IDEO on Vimeo.

Margaret Wertheim's Crazy Sexy Geometry

2009-04-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

This TED presentation reveals some ideas about design patterns that I always knew, but aren't taken seriously by "academia" (or other, similar establishments). Note to UI designers, forget 2D, imagine the internet as spherical space!

Margaret Wertheim: The beautiful math that links coral, crochet and hyperbolic geometry

Why Drupal and Toolkits Like Drupal Suck

2009-04-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

This software time-sucubus needs to STOP. I had a Drupal project last summer and it was a complete, miserable failure in so many retarded ways. The client was convinced that all I need to do was customize this already available code. They felt like the work was pretty simple (and hence cheap). There are glaring, obvious limitations to many of the pre-packaged UI elements, the "modules" in Drupal. You can't just customize the look of some module, if the UI is inappropriate, and it's not usable for your website. What's the point of changing the type and other visual styles in a template if people look at it but don't find it usable?

The worst thing about Drupal is that if gives non tech people this attitude that it's OK to cut corners and not think about User Experience or any of the practical realities of developing and managing a website. It lets people think that they can have some workable website in a day. At best you end up with a prototype of what you want, just a half rate design that doesn't connect with people. At worst, you can go down some tedious road of endless, costly iterations, just trying to make the software fit your need.

The other thing I hate about Drupal (and all freeware in general) is the fact that it undermines the entire design profession. Design IS A PROCESS. It's about thinking through your idea really thoroughly, testing assumptions, making sure something really works for the end user. I don't think that any product developer, or any entrepreneur for that matter, should inflict the world with their invention until they've really thought it out first. Drupal really just confuses and limits a lot of people who are new to the web. It enables tightwadishness. It allows people to think they can get away with being lazy. In reality all software, every single website, needs a fairly high degree of planning, budgeting, & ongoing maintenance. Always.

Strictly as a user, a consumer of websites and media, I freaking hate visiting a Drupal site. They are sooooo ghetto. They look bad. They read bad. They are usually not interesting. The cheap Drupal approach to web development just screams AMERATEUR! It's very insulting to ask the world to use half baked software products. I don't WANT to try out the next cool website. I have better things to do with my time.

I don't mean to sound bitchy, I can code very well. But I am a much better designer than a coder. Seriously, it would be better if folks just design something, and then go on rent-a-coder and get somebody overseas to implement a finished spec.

The Green Dilema / The Omnivore's Dilema (A Book Review)

2009-04-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Earth Day! I have been trying to wrap my brain around the Green trend for the past few years. I care very much about lasting sustainability. Indeed my entire career as a UX designer is all about trying to make the interfaces of software work well, for people, over a long period of time. When I look at the world around me I see a lot of UNsustainable systems which shout to me how obviously unusable they are, and suddenly I feel an urge to log a bug somewhere to get it fixed... before the software crashes... but there's no good place to log those bugs...

The truth about being green is that it's not very easy being green. Trying to be green is like trying to use Microsoft Word to edit a photograph. The world around me is just not set up to let me be green. Think about it, how many excuses can you come up with to NOT be green? Do you Recycle? Drive less? Compost? Use compact fluorescent light bulbs? Buy local? Fertilize your lawn organically? Save water? Purchase electricity from 'renewable' sources? Remodel with green building materials? Blah blah blah...

It took me, a foodie, a long time to figure out that being green starts with what you eat. The book, The Omnivore's Dilemma has brought to light for me the complete picture of how food is interconnected with the American environment. In the book Michael Pollan explores one simple question, "What should we have for dinner?", really extensively. I had no idea that the former Soviet Union had an underground black market for home grown produce, because their "highly efficient" industrial agricultural system just did not work. I never knew that spring mix salad was so resource expensive. I did not know that mushrooms live underground for decades. Nor did I know that pasture (grass) raised beef (and milk) literally has more nutrients in it than industrialized corn fed cattle. I feel like I've woken up after eating the fruit from the tree of knowlege!

The Omnivore's Dilemma is a fun, interesting read, but it does have some scary moments. The entire first section alone, the part about industrialized agriculture, is enlightening in a depressing kind of way. You are corn. Later in the book, Pollan describes a 100% sustainable, highly productive farm, Polyface Farms, in Virginia. I don't know why ALL American farms aren't like Polyface? Well, yes I do, Wall Street can't profit from farms like this.

Being green is way more than just what you eat, of course. It's really about economics and how one chooses to spend their money. The next time you hand over your money for something, you might consider where your food comes from, who gets your food dollars (Monsanto executives?), how food is produced, how far it travels, how it's stored, plus how and why it's marketed to the many. Everybody, the entire Earth, has to eat every single day. An entire economy built around ignorance of food is... unsustainable.

I am Dreaming of a Real Kitchen - A Pure Kitchen

2009-03-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

The worst thing about being a renter locked out of the housing market in San Francisco was that I had no control over my own "home". I couldn't garden, I couldn't have pets, and I certainly couldn't remodel a kitchen. Now, I'm able to have all of this in BaltiMORE.

Studioroom just launched a new version of Pure Kitchen.com. It's like porn for people like me.

Brooklyn, NY based Pure Kitchen specializes in modern, eco friendly kitchens. Unlike traditional construction, Pure Kitchen products use NO formaldehyde or other harmful agents. Did you know that you can get cabinet panels made entirely out of wheat? They utilize local fabricators, so if your in the North East that means your helping the local economy simply by remodeling your home.

When I finally buy my place, and am able to create the kitchen I've always been dreaming of, it will be a Pure Kitchen.

The Salad Lover's Dilema (1 calorie = 57 petro-calories)

2009-03-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

What's not to love about a good, fresh salad? I love eating my veggies in all forms, but there's nothing like a crunchy, tangy, sweetly dressed salad - which must occupy my lunch and dinner table on a regular basis. Until last week, I used to love the spring mix salad so conveniently available at every super market, until I read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. I was amazed to learn that for every one calorie in spring mix lettuce, it takes fifty seven calories worth of "energy" to get it to my plate. That's right, for every ONE calorie of lettuce you eat, it took FIFTY SEVEN petro-calories just to get it in your front door. A typical spring mix salad serving has about 250 calories, but costs a whopping 14,250 calories of fuel (in gas, transportation, refrigeration, and automation).

This is exactly the problem that Veggie Trader (my newest site) is trying to address, sustainability.

It seems like a no-brainer to me, a foodie. Lettuce is lettuce and all I need to do is source some local leaf. Or, better yet, all I need to do is grow my own salads (and while I'm at it, I might as well grow a lot and trade with my neighbors who are growing tomatoes, flowers, & other stuff).

But I am a gardening virgin. I'm an eater, not a grower. So I've taken my first tentative steps into the mystical world of gardening the easiest way I know how - by following a recipe. I trotted into my local garden center, Valley View Farms, in Hunt Valley, MD. I simply purchased a Jiffy Greenhouse and some lettuce seeds. The Jiffy Greenhouse is a little kit for germinating seeds in convenient little peat pellets. It comes with instructions and a special tray. So far, so good, I've got some happy sprouts eager for more sun, soon to be replanted!

Check out my photo album, The Salad Chronicles, which I'll be adding photos to over the coming weeks. (it will automagically update here in this blog). Please, if you live in the Mid-Atlantic region and want to share your lettuce growing experiences, feel free to leave a comment below. Also, let's make the Veggie Trader blog a resource for foodies and gardeners alike.

Dear Sellers - A House is a HOME (Not just an investment)

2009-03-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

I am the elusive first time home buyer. I have perfect credit and a cash downpayment, and I am NOT buying...

There are a lot of lovely properties offered for sale all over Baltimore. Yesterday I went to a couple open houses in north Baltimore's Lake Walker neighborhood. I wish I could buy one right now, but they are all too expensive. The agent I spoke to at one house on Highwood street spoke about the new 1st time home buyer tax credit, $8,000.00. It would seem that sellers all of a sudden think their house went UP in value by $8k!!!

The problem with all real estate is that people are expecting a lot of something for nothing, just like the stock market. Too many people are treating homes as if they are equities, something which is just going to be traded around, profiting mainly on the transaction.

As far as I can tell, about %98 of the homes you go and look at need at least, AT LEAST, $20,000 worth of maintenance and repair work. I've also seen properties that need over $200,000 or maintenence and upgrades. It looks like none of this obvious disrepair is factored into the prices of these homes. Why?

FYI people! A house is a home! and I'm not spending money to go live in slum-like building. I don't care if you bought your money trap back in 2007. Why should us first time buyers have to pay for your bad timing?

I want to LIVE in a house, it's NOT just an investment for me. Open your eyes, look at your property before you list it. If if needs work, new systems, new roof, new windows, then acknowlege these facts in your price.

Usability - Do You Believe in the Users?

2009-03-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

Human beings are at the very core of User Experience Design. In my line of work (designing websites and software) there is an almost constant conflict between engineers & designers. The tech industry is constantly trying to streamline the way it operates, trading programming efficiency directly for User Experience.

I think everybody in tech is already aware of this imbalance and I was amused to see Google offering some user centered design lectures at their upcoming developer's conference. Here's a funny description of one session;

Do You Believe in the Users?
Too many programmers have forgotten about the lost art of customer service. All software has users, though most developers have forgotten how to respect them, trust them, or “sell” their software to them in an exciting (but honest!) manner. This talk will focus on anecdotes and strategies for keeping software design uncomplicated, making software fast, and putting usability above programming convenience. We’ll also focus on the importance of keeping a healthy illusion of simplicity, while allowing abstractions to deliberately leak for power-users.

Wow. Things must be really bad if Google has to start lecturing a bunch of programmers about usability. I'm almost tempted to attend the conference just so I can see how many people show up for these sessions!

I'm not sure that targeting developers is the most effective way to send this message. The tech industry doesn't need Google to remind them of the obvious. Business leaders in tech simply need to be strategic and invest in design. HIRE A DESIGNER. Work with them. Foster some collaboration. I'm calling for a culture shift in how software is made. Let's end the unhappy marriage of programing and design.

Looking for a Career Path?

2009-02-02T19:07:00.000-08:00

Check out Path 101 & their blog. There's some of my latest work and some valuable info here for job seekers too!

Obama Visiting Baltimore on His Whistlestop Tour

2009-01-19T14:45:00.000-08:00

We all braved 15 degree temps to see and hear Obama in Baltimore. Onward to History on Tuesday!

From Obama in Baltimore

Really, it's all about the people...

From Obama in Baltimore

Blog in 2009 - 5 Motivating Tips

2009-01-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

So you started blogging, or you want to start, but you need motivation. After plugging away at this blog for the past 2 years here are my motivating tips.

1. Find a Muse and just write a lot
Do you have a business? Do you have a lot of clients and contacts? Do you have an interesting hobby or project? A baby? Do you travel a lot? Are you into the news or politics? Do you shop a lot? Pick a topic and don't be shy. The more you post, the more you'll think about blogging, and the more you'll get into the flow.

2. See who reads your blog, add Google Analytics
It's really easy, you cut and paste a small snippet of code from Analytics into your blog template and voila! See who visits your blog, where they are from, and which posts are their favorites. See how search engines connect you to your readers. Get Analytics here.

3. Talk about your blog, old school style promotion
I've found that I can use my blog as a conversation topic at parties, with friends, at work etc. Now instead of talking about a TV show over the water cooler I'm sharing blogs of interest, and my own blog with people. Believe me, you'll post more often when you know you've told all your friends about your blog.

4. Keep the conversation going, comment and link to other people and websites
Don't be a selfish blogger, give a little quid pro quo. Read other peoples blogs and comment as well as you can (don't just drop comments so you can get links back to you). Keep relevant conversations going and make friends you've never met. Link to your blog in Facebook or LinkedIn. Register you blog on Outside.in so your neighbors can find you. More = more online. Have you seen my friend's blog The Breakaway Cook?

5. Turn your snapshots into blog posts
Do you like to take a lot of photos? Are you constantly scouring the web for interesting pictures? You actually don't need so write anything. There are a lot of very successful blogs which are more photos than words. Cute Overload is an awesome example of this.

Now, any questions?

New Years Resolutions for Growth

2009-01-01T08:59:00.000-08:00

I don't need to loose weight or quit smoking. I don't need to get a job. I don't need a man. I don't really Neeeeed anything! But I want the following in 2009

Learn to play music and DJ

Grow my own veggies and then cook them or can them. Even make booze outta them.

Grow Studioroom

Draw and paint a lot and get that work out there

Travel more, perhaps drive to Talkeetna in May :)

HAPPY 2009!

Feeling Grateful For The Holidays

2008-12-29T17:00:00.001-08:00

From Denali Excursion

I have a secret which I'm not proud of... I have been spending the past couple of weeks booking hours, working. Even on Christmas Eve. It's not by choice! If it were up to me I'd be hanging out on a cheap beach somewhere in Mexico. Anyway, I can't complain especially when I read/listen to the news. Just feeling grateful during the holidays.

The Google Christmas Illustration is Sexist

2008-12-23T08:10:00.001-08:00

Way to go Marissa Mayer. Way to perpetuate stereotypes. Thanks.

Plaxo is Broken - Don't Use It - Use Gmail

2008-12-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Friend,

I'm sorry. Plaxo is broken for me. Several years ago, when I worked at AOL they "automatically" created a Plaxo account for me and associated it to my work email, an AOL account. When I left AOL I found it was difficult to change my information, I just could not log into Plaxo any more because my cancelled AOL email address was still valid in their database. So deep was this magical connection to my old work email, that my identidy was essentially hijacked by Plaxo itself. I would try to fix this now but:

1. I seriously don't want to "figure it out".
(it's software for crist's sake, it should be figuring ME out)

2. I don't really care enough to waste even a few minutes of my time.
(all my free time is already sucked up by other websites)

3. I don't ever want to give my credit card number out to half baked web service for seemingly nothing.

Im sorry to have to sound so negative but there are FREE solutions for the purpose of organizing all your contacts. Anybody can always find me by simply Googling my name or by connecting with me on LinkedIn.com. Personally, I use Gmail to organize all my contacts.

Sincerely,
Steph

Studioroom.com Domain for Sale?

2008-12-10T18:13:00.000-08:00

I couple of weeks ago I was talking to an Angel investor, a VC guy, about stuff. He said Studioroom is a great name, valuable because "you just can't get simple, clear, memorable domains like these easily". Who knew that "Studioroom" has some value?! Cool!

Who would want Studioroom? Artists, musicians, actors, DJs, designers, videographers etc. A whole network? A social network? A news site focusing on art?

So... yes, I will sell Studioroom.com for the right price. Please contact design(at)studioroom.com with reasonable offers.

Shopping for A Husband? Talkeetna Bachelor Auction

2008-12-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

I wish I could buy men like I buy shoes. Grab a cute pair, wear 'em out, and throw 'em away! . . . Oh wait, I can!

Before it's too late grab your tickets to Alaska RIGHT NOW and head to the frontier where REAL MEN still exist. This weekend is the 28th annual Talkeetna Bachelor Auction and Ball. This promises to be the most fun anywhere. And it's way more than just some lousy excuse to get drunk and flirt with guys, it's practically a music festival. You heard me, the best live music in the west, all packed into one weekend, in a really cool place called Talkeetna.

With a weekend loaded with music, fun, and men for sale, do you really want to hang out at the mall? Check it out:

More info: www.bachelorsoftalkeetna.org

Yes You Can Make Money Making Art

2008-11-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a great article in the NYTimes this weekend. I wish somebody handed me this article when I was 20.

Transforming Art Into a More Lucrative Career Choice
By MARCI ALBOHER

Here's an excerpt:
Mr. Niles and Ms. Hellmuth have learned on their own what Elliot McGucken teaches in his course, Artist Entrepreneurs, which he developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a grant from the Kauffman Foundation. Mr. McGucken’s course, now taught at Pepperdine University, rests on the principle that those who create art should have the skills to own it, profit from it and protect it.

(I wish I got royalties for all the interfaces I designed... I'd be retired right now)

Now, to hell with the intellectual property slavery of your day job! Ignore your parents, quit, grab your pencils, and blaze your own career.

Touring Baltimore Rehab Houses - Photos

2008-11-28T15:06:00.000-08:00

I've been dreaming about houses. It's a mystery how many beautiful old victorians stand vacant in Baltimore when it lies just an hour up the road from Washington DC. Sure this is an old rust belt city but it's not like Detroit, it's close to Philadelphia and New York, there's a lot going on. We have Michael Phelps and Ace of Cakes, a symphony, opera, and one of the biggest ports in the USA. So how come there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of vacant houses in Baltimore?

I explored a few rehabs last weekend in an attempt to learn if they are worth it, I'm sharing some thoughts and photos here with you. I looked at 10 different houses from a 7 bedroom mansion-townhouse in Reservoir Hill (for $200k) to a small but charming house actually in a good neighborhood, Mount Vernon (also for 200k). These homes however are in fairly bad neighborhoods and are as cheap as it gets.

North Avenue Nomansland for $60k

From Baltimore Rehabs Pt.1

For seemingly nothing, $60,000, you can be the proud owner of a four bedroom row house right across the street from Greenmount cemetary. Actually, we saw two townhouses, right next door to each other, and they are not as terrible as you might think, but after you sunk another $200,000 in rehabing this place, you would be lucky to sell it for a loss. I LOVE the 3 story townhouse, but I love having neighbors even more. This is one of the worst neighborhoods in Baltimore, it's a shame, there are so many potentially great houses. There's so much potential.

Another Neighborhood with Few Neighbors for $90k

From Baltimore Rehabs Pt.1

This 4 bedroom townhouse (the red one in the first photo) is in pretty good shape! It is very similar to the North Ave. houses, but better. Still it needs at least $100k in work including a new kitchen, 2+ new bathrooms, roof, windows, and who knows what else. But for $90k it's a big, beautiful house the likes of which never gets built any more. One major problem (see last pic) most of the neighbors are vacant buildings and shells.

Bolton Hill Beauty Past Her Prime for $160k

From Baltimore Rehabs Pt.1

Even bigger and more fabulous than any other townhouses we saw that day, this house is seriously worth buying, if you can afford it. This is the worst house in the "best" neighborhood we saw, Bolton Hill. However it will take at least $150k just to fix the damage of time and water. Similar to the other townhouses pictured but even bigger, this place had been subdivided into apartments in the past.

Competing Against Time & Newer Homes in the Suburbs with Parking
I concluded at the end of my tour-de-rehab that the problem with Baltimore is the suburbs. Why would anybody abandon such nice architecture? Because they want to eat fast food all the time and shop at chains? No, because people are lazy and houses need money & maintenance all the time. All the places we saw lacked modern features, they all had oil heat (or nothing , horrible), and they lacked garages. They were all an efficiency nightmare. But all this stuff can be corrected. Another huge problem is the neighborhoods. To make buying a Baltimore rehab worth it, there needs to be a LOT of people interested in living in those neighborhoods. Nobody wants to go to sleep every night on a block of abandoned homes. Even still, it's not too late for a lot of really interesting people to take control of their city lives. Buy a rediculously affordable house, spread out and make a dream a reality.

Anybodying Getting Federal Handouts Should Be Drug Tested, Including Bailed-Out Wall Street

2008-11-21T10:30:00.000-08:00

I got this funny message over email and it made me think... Since the fed has dumped so many billion$ into the banks, why not drug test all those Wall Street guys?! Somehow I have a sneaking suspicion that there would be a lot of positives among the fattest cats in finance. Might explain how the banks messed up so much over the past few years.

Thanks Jen for forwarding this.

THE JOB - URINE TEST
(Whoever wrote this one deserves a HUGE pat on the back!) Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test with which I have no problem. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test.

Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them? Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their ass doing drugs, while I work. . . . Can you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check? Pass this along if you agree or simply delete if you don't. Hope you all will pass it along, though. . Some thing has to change in this country -- and
soon!!!!!!!

Does Technology Weaken Everyday Real Life Experience?

2008-11-18T13:18:00.000-08:00

Example no. 1 - The Grocery Store
The Giant grocery store near my house has a bunch of those automatic checkouts where you scan, and ring up all your own purchases and even bag your own stuff too. While Giant might be saving some money from these machines replacing people, I wonder why this is good? It's certainly not an improved experience for me as a shopper. Compare this with Eddie's around the corner where they unload your basket for you, ring you up with a smile, and will carry your bags out to your car. Hands down Eddie's wins more of my dollars just for better customer experience.

Here's the article inspiring this blog post:
Stores Count Seconds to Trim Labor Costs
I can't think of worse customer experience than this. Food is supposed to be a happy social experience. Why would any retailer actively destroy the fun already in shopping?

Example no. 2 - A Walk in the Park
Simple things have become overly complicated thanks to another kind of technology. The automobile has literally changed the landscape everywhere, in so many complicated ways, it has had a compounding negative effect on everybody's quality of life, and the environment. Just trying to get some exercise I need a car. Just trying to get some exercise I have to dodge some cars. Just trying to earn some money, I have to first spend a LOT of money to maintain that piece of technology that has been like cancer to the Earth. That landscape I mentioned used to be green and full of life, now it's coated with asphalt and concrete. Once roads are built they become a permanent part of the environment. People then accept more of it, even though we would all prefer to be living in a green park. I don't understand why cars and their detritus (roads) can't be thoughtfully planned AROUND human life instead of treading upon, and destroying it?

The Compounding Effect of Bad Experiences Means Life Sucks More for Everyone!
These are just a couple of examples of very common experiences that need a lot of improvement. Any piece of architecture, infrastructure, any consumer product or software ALWAYS needs to be carefully planned. What I think is shocking is how many people think these negative destructive systems are OK. Why is it OK to commute for two hours a day? Why is it OK to be robbed of sleep simply by using your cellphone too much? Why is it OK to rush little old ladies through grocery store lines? I for one simply refuse to accept these intrusions on quality of life as OK.

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Not in New York

2008-11-13T07:37:00.000-08:00

I recently finished a successful business trip to San Francisco and I want to remind everyone that, while I don't live in New York, I can and do travel to New York, and places further away, ALL THE TIME. So yeah, I don't live in New York. I had every intention of settling into New York city when I moved back east this spring, but it didn't happen. Since I never ever want to rent again, I'm not really worried about it. I am in Baltimore, also known as "the Washington DC Area"... Also known as the only metropolitan area in the country who's economy never gets that bad because of the big employer here who never goes out of business.

I feel like an idiot for having to write this but enough already with DC and Baltimore bashing! Stop being a location hater! I hate it that LinkedIn and other job websites filter me out of talent seaches just because of where I live. It shouldn't matter, I work on the internet and I should live wherever I choose!

Since I've been here, some folks have been very supportive. These people know how to work with remote consultants. Thanks Fabio, Andrea, Greg, Megan, Anu! For everybody else please bear in mind that I can be very easy to work with, and offer way more compettitive rates than a New York or San Francisco based designer. If you need a website, a usability audit of an existing website, IA information architecture, web product design, or just graphic design, I'm your gal. Just contact me at design (at) studioroom.com.

P.S. I just set up a brand new desktop system installed with a rockin' new Adobe Creative Suite 4. I'm so ready to solve your design problem it's ridiculous.

Trying to Buy A New Apple LED Cinema Display With Porn

2008-11-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to become annoyed with Apple as all my shopping experiences with them are tainted by simplistic marketing that never really helps to inform. Last weekend I visited the Apple store in San Francisco for the specific purpose of looking at the new LED cinema display I'm thinking about buying. This is obviously one of those things that I actually need to VIEW WORKING in REAL LIFE.

Here's my experience at the Apple store. First they only had one of the new LED displays out. I had to get an employee to point me to it out of the hundred or so old displays they had out, because it was hard to find in a crowded store (with a band playing) and a couple hundred people surfing the net like a bunch of students. Gee, I guess the LED display must not be that special. The nice salesperson led me to the display tucked away in a corner of the store already in use, by some guy actively engaged in about a dozen porn chats. Here it is, said the sales person, and quickly left me with the pervert, who didn't look up from his chats. I just stood there and watched this guys's screen trying to accomplish my task of evaluating the display. I caught phrases like, "Anal slut" and "hardcore this" and a lot of other things which I really cannot repeat in my blog. It was ridiculous. The guy at the computer there looked like a scum bag and he should have been escorted out by security, but no, nobody did anything. For christ sake, this was on the ONLY LED DISPLAY IN THE PLACE.

Honestly, I don't really care if people look at porn or what, but it is soooo not appropriate in the Apple store. If I wanted to see that shit I'd go seek it out in private. I cannot think of a better way for Apples competition to tarnish their brand than by sending malicious agents into Apple stores and take advantage of their liberal operations by bringing up porn.

Yes I was a little offended. Not by the porn itself but by how appathetic I felt the Apple store was to me as a legitimate customer. Now instead of a new Apple laptop/display combo I'm considering a HP Touchsmart instead.

Please Read: An Email From Alaska About The Presidential Elections

2008-10-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

Never in my lifetime has the presidential election been so exciting and never has the internet played such a huge role in disseminating information. From posts on Facebook, websites to rally around, and good old email, everything you need and want to know about is online.

How many emails have you received from friends and coworkers sharing their thoughts about this election? I've got quite a few!

Here I'm posting an email from an Alaskan named Elwood. Because of Palin I'm particularly interested in hearing the Alaskan opinions. I really liked what he wrote and want to share his email on my blog.

- - -

I know it is virtually impossible to change ones political attachments, but for those who have not made up their minds on the coming presidential election, I submit the following. I decided to write my feelings and concerns rather than forwarding the work of others.

Sincerely, Elwood

The 2008 Election - Personal Reflections

I have never been that interested in politics and classify myself as a political independent. I am a physicist by education and find that political issues have many shades of gray that one cannot easily make good decisions. There are always pros and cons that make it difficult to decide what is right. Physics is different as there is usually only one answer, found by several approaches, and you can check to see if you are correct.

The invasion of Iraq, the first time we as a nation made a major first-strike attack, took me out of my political apathy and nudged me to communicate and express my view that the Iraq war is and was a mistake of huge proportions – both politically and financially. As we prepare to elect a new president, I increasingly feel obligated to express my views. There are characteristics of the present election that have made my decision, and I want to share my personal reasons for the choice.

The Obama-Biden ticket is the clear winner for me. As a concerned citizen it offers the best chance of regaining our national pride, sense of security, global consciousness, and financial well-being. Even though I personally believe that Congress should be making a larger impact on our nation, I realize that the executive branch of the government holds the reins and has great influence. We need a president and vice-president that will lead congress along a saner, safer and more worldlier path. My thoughts are as follows:

National Pride/McCain’s Platform: I have always admired John McCain. He is a great American and suffered on my behalf as a warrior and as a prisoner of war. I cannot thank him enough for that. However, John McCain is a military man, with a military bent. He is hot-tempered and not used to calm reflection and compromise. That is not what we need leading our country. We cannot be the world’s savior and protector. We have to choose our battles more carefully, less arrogantly, and with diplomacy. In this global world, we must work with other nations.

McCain is pro-life, and I am pro-life, all life. Since we cannot have everything we want we must choose the best compromise. No one likes abortion, and giving women the right to choose what they do with a difficult decision may result in unborn life being lost. But, sending our young men and women off to war has and will result in the loss of precious lives as well. I choose an administration that would look at the larger picture and minimize the loss of life as a totality.

Sense of Security/McCain’s Age: I am two years younger than John McCain, and still make part of my living as a glacier pilot in Alaska. I fly airplanes with old-style instruments, like McCain had in his aircraft. I find it difficult to learn and use the modern glass-panel cockpits that are now a normal part of aviation. John McCain would have the same problems learning these computer oriented systems. His brain, and mine, cannot grasp and use new concepts like younger brains. We grasp and work with what we knew best years ago. We must not accept that in any future president. The president must be capable of learning and intelligently using vast amounts of new material in a short time. McCain cannot do that and that is a huge negative. Age does make a difference.

Global Consciousness/Sarah Palin: As an Alaskan I have admired and respected what Sarah has done as Governor. My family and I met her at the Alaska State Fair last summer and she was lovely, gracious and wonderful. I was so pleased. Mostly I respect the fact that she removed herself from the republican in-crowd that was so closely allied with the oil companies. She recognized the graft and corruption immediately and detached herself. It is not her, however, that is responsible for the major fight to end corruption in her republican colleagues. The FBI has been here for years looking into the interaction between oil companies and legislators. The indictments that have occurred are due to their efforts, not Palin’s. Likewise, Palin did not reduce income taxes in Alaska. There are none to reduce.

Palin’s religious beliefs are of major concern to me. Palmer Baptist minister, Howard Bess, an old friend, says “She’s Jerry Falwell with a pretty face. The key to understanding Sarah Palin is to understand her radical theology.” Sarah’s religious and personal views are just now coming to light. Friends from Wasilla and Palmer, who have worked with her, are now telling of their experiences, and it is not exemplary. She has been videoed-taped saying that we are in Iraq due to God’s will. Even if you lump all Christian-based religions together, that leaves 70% of the world’s population, who worship differently, saying, “To what God is she referring?” She has tried to remove books from local libraries that she found against her beliefs. She has tried to have churches exempt from local building fees because they were of faith-based and she has tried to have building permit fees reduced for members of her church. Unlike her message that she is for the people, she supports her friends and attacks those who disagree with her like many other politicians. She has tried to solve her personal family problems by using government employees. This is small town politics and has no place in a national government.

Palin has a BA in journalism – no honors, no scholarships and five different colleges. In high school she excelled in sports. She does not have the higher education that would prepare her to understand world situations with learned perspective. Her faith in God is what she relies on, and that is not sufficient at the national level. We are a nation whose constitution does not even mention God. The framers drafted a constitution which is secular, and I believe for a good reason.

Taxes and financial well being: My conservative friends all fear that Obama will raise taxes on the wealthy. My liberal friends wonder who will pay for the Iraqi war. We are almost three trillion dollars in war debt, and it continues to rise. Our national budget has a five hundred billion dollar deficit. Taxes must be raised, regardless of who wins the election. The question is who best can afford the burden? None of us wants the problem, and it is not fair to pass it on to our children. I would choose to offer relief to the middle class. America is uniquely strong, in the world, because of a strong middle class. I personally have lost a large percentage of my retirement as a result of lowered interest rates enacted to bail out large financial institutions. I was fiscally conservative in my spending and saving, and now I have to pay for the wealthy corporations to be bailed out. I find that unfair. The greater portion of the burden must be paid by the wealthy, if for no other reason than they can. I see no virtue in people acquiring more money just for the sake of having it in the bank, or living in a mansion beyond their needs. Those that already have more than they can use in a lifetime should take on the greatest taxation. This position may be unpopular but I see no alternative. It is the best compromise. Those who made the most during the past eight years should be willing to get us out of what the last eight years has led to.

I encourage you to make Obama and Biden your choice for President and Vice President as well.
- - -

Thank you Elwood for writing these thoughtful words. - Stephanie

I Left My Heart in San Francisco - Strait People for Equality - No on 8

2008-10-24T07:08:00.000-07:00

The last time I checked, the world needs more love, not more hate. I cannot think of anything more hateful than pointing a finger in a group of human being's faces and telling them that they are evil.

I find this christian hate video to be completely laughable. Don't you people have better things to do with your time? Can't you go help some homeless people or drug addicts? Or do you just like to feel righteous and spread hate?

I myself am a married strait woman. I see the real legal inequality for same sex couples every year when I do my taxes. A marriage immigration visa allows my British husband to actually be here with me, and would never be granted to same sex couples. In my mind, this unfairness in our laws actually diminishes my marriage. I don't feel special, or sacred just because I'm strait. I just feel hurt for my friends in San Francisco.

Baltimore Open Studios 2008

2008-10-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

I was really inspired with last weekend's Baltimore open studios. It's great to be in a city where I can meet such interesting, warm, and talented individuals. It was also interesting to compare San Francisco open studios to Baltimore's. Overall there were a lot less artists participating, but the caliber of the work in Baltimore is impressive. Artists here seem a bit more comfortable being themselves, which comes through when you speak to them. Everybody was really friendly and very open.

This is my favorite piece,

Imaginary Security by Dave Foust

Just A Rant About A Sequoia Falling

2008-10-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

Are web companies reacting stupidly to the credit crunch? Already I've been hearing rumors from my internet friends about how start-ups are reacting to VC tightening.

Venture capital slashed $476 million in quarter
Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer

People are saying, time to cut the designers. Why? Why cut the people who can help you plan? Help you strategize? Who help you measure and gauge the success of your website? Why cut the people who are the most obvious and direct connection to your customers?

Let me just say to every User Experience professional... this is BS, and you should not believe it.

If any business is going to succeed then they will do so by practicing good experience. They will succeed with thoughtful planning and strategy. By giving users carefully designed products that they really want.

If anything this economic downturn will be a great time for innovation. It might empower more designers to rise up and do more meaningful work.

Times are Bad but Times are Good!

2008-10-07T10:18:00.001-07:00

I don't really know what's going on with this economic meltdown but just posting to say that times are good! I've been busy and have set up my freelance work so that I'm pretty unaffected by the market and all this economical BS. I do think things will be rocky for web designers over the next 6 months. I'm really glad I slashed my overhead. If things slow down for me I will finally have some time to redesign my website, learn some new skills, and ask everybody I know to read Deep Economy. Hopefully I'll be able to afford Creative Suite 4.

Anyway, I can't really post anything to my blog right now for several reasons. Most of my life is under NDA, and the only interesting thing I have to rant about are the elections. Since I have clients in Alaska I have to be a blog diplomat so I'll keep my political & philisophical rants to FB.

If you're a web designer post a comment about your approach to this downturn!

When to Block and When to Friend People in Facebook

2008-09-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Some people don't deserve your online friendship. You know who I'm talking about, the ones who take and take but never give.

Here are 10 reasons to unfriend people in facebook:

1. Never add a person who you can't trust.

2. That housemate you had in college who stiffed you on the security deposit. BLOCK!!!

3. Facebook is for friends. If you're not sure about a new friend (because you haven't seen this person for 15 years) then give them the benefit of the doubt. If they start getting annoying then don't hesitate to BLOCK! them later on.

4. The Mayor of your city. It's like spam overload, make it stop.

5. Size doesn't matter. The number of friends you have is not what matters. KEEP the nice re-acquaintances from College and High School. DELETE the perverts and stalkers.

6. Don't use facebook to be annoying just by advertising to everybody all the time. BLOCK the heavy self marketers who suck your time.

7. The tech/internet people who are just testing out the facebook UI. Or if you used to work with folks, who weren't nice, here's where you draw the line. Your email address was imported along with 400 other people in their contacts anyway.

8. DELETE the wanna be rock stars (unless they are actually your friends). Myspace.com is the social network for music.

9. The former manager who drove you to quit. I don't care how many people they know, that's all they have going for them! Never ever reward jerky managers with your friendship after the fact. Otherwise that's like rewarding banks for making bad loans!

10. People who aren't real people. OK now I know some of these "avatars" can be amusing to some people some of the time. But they get in the way of the "social utility" of Facbook. Block them!

BBC Radio 1 Website Has Great FREE Music and No Advertising

2008-09-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

Since we are all looking for free entertainment this weekend I thought I'd share this, I am sooo loving the BBC Radio 1 online. All this great content for FREE. Is there anything comparable to the BBC in the United States? Check it out, all this free internet radio, from rocking beats to experimental rhymes. As somebody who's designed a few music pages in my day I'm surprised by the lack of advertising on their website. How can they do that? Isn't that like, forbidden or something? Just goes to show that the editors across the pond want to promote the best music.

I Can See The Future and it is a DEEP Economy

2008-09-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

Every member of congress should read Deep Economy right NOW before voting on this bailout.

As I sit here and watch Bernake grovel before Congress, and the President speak about the banking crisis I'm really not that worried... I just finished the book Deep Economy The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben. Deep Economy is a fantastic and crazy-relavent book for our current ecconomical events.

McKibben's book is informative and just really helpful. He gives examples citing small ideal communities and illustrates how people in them are happy, and prosperous, and acting like a community should act. Why isn't "happiness" measured by the federal government? Why are tomatoes from Chile? We must be buying our food with jobs because why else would our food come from overseas. Deep Economy is mainly about sustainability. How less is more. McKibben offers real solutions to real social happiness. If you wanted to start a green project, or if you wanted to just learn about sustainability and permaculture this is a great book. If you're worried about the future health of the economy, in the long term, you should read this book.

I'm not worried for another reason, things are great in beuatiful Baltimore. I'm picking free food out of the garden, blogging, getting lots of sleep. I hope the fed sees some of this nice weather here in the area and realizes. Life is good, life is free! It's supposed to be free. For EVERYONE.

Two Coasts Three Perspectives on the Mortgage Meltdown

2008-09-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

About five years ago my friend Steve and I were talking about the real estate market (in San Francisco). He remarked how absurd it is that home values can go up 20% or more year over year while actual salaries were not going up much at all. Somebody was obviously making money in real estate boom, but it was (and still is) impossible to find the actual value of the homes we were looking at.

Here are THREE articles today from the New York Times and LA Times. One about Banks and another about the people on the receiving end of our unsustainable housing market. And one about the European perspective on our financial meltdown.

The People:
The golden years have lost their glow
With home values down, costs up and their 401(k)s declining, some seniors have had to rethink retirement.

The Banks:
A $700 Billion Rescue Plan for Wall St., but Will It Work?
... The financial crisis gripping the United States is the direct outgrowth of the speculative orgy in real estate that began early this decade. Once home values began falling two years ago, the financial institutions that had poured capital into real estate confronted a very big problem.

Those pesky Europeans:
Europeans on left and right ridicule U.S. money meltdown
"Greenspan was considered a master," Tremonti declared. "Now we must ask ourselves whether he is not, after [Osama] bin Laden, the man who hurt America the most. . . . It is clear that what is happening is a disease. It is not the failure of a bank, but the failure of a system. Until a few days ago, very few were willing to realize the intensity and the dramatic nature of the crisis." - Italy's finance minister Giulio Tremonti

I kind of agree with the Euros on this one.

If I were in SF tonight I would be going to see Irvine Welsh

2008-09-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday, September 20, 9:00 PM
Edinburgh Castle Pub
950 Geary St, San Francisco, CA

Sunday, September 21, 3:00 PM
Diesel Bookstore
5433 College Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94618

Monday, September 22, 7:30 PM
Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
2720 NW 29th Ave, Portland, OR 97210

Wednesday, September 24, 7:00 PM
Elliott Bay Book Company
101 S Main St., Seattle, WA, 98104

Complaining is Fun! About-Face.org

2008-09-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

I'm a designer who is constantly seeing things that don't work right, so naturally I love to complain. I'm also a woman and let me tall ya, there are a lot of things to complain about if you're female. So today I was amused to find About-Face.org, an organization which is fighting the harmful stereotypes of women that the media disseminates. This is a good one to add to your RSS reader ladies! I think every woman will find something interesting in About-Face.org.

Check out the gallery of offenders, it's wonderful. Vodka ads, BOOO!

I would also like to point out this recent Washington Post article;
Despite Strides, Women Still Tripped Up by Confidence Gap
By Michelle Singletary

Now all of this makes me wonder, what if there was a daily, national newspaper dedicated to women?

Not Quite Loving Google's Gadgets

2008-08-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

Last week I added to this blog a couple new Google Gadgets. There they are >> in the sidebar, they help me show more dynamic info and news on this blog, and I don't need to know any HTML coding whatsoever. I thought I'd be clever and try to use the magic of the internet to make it look as if I'm updating my blog, when I'm not. But as you can see the gadgets look like crap. Since I'm a designer I'm all about looking good, so this is really annoying me.

After I installed the Gadgets my first thought was, "holy crap, I think I need to start using WordPress now". That's how bad they look. But soon I realized that I should be able to customize these gadgets all on my very own. After all, I am a designer, and what's the point of knowing HTML and CSS?

If successful (hopefully this won't just be a load of non-billable work) Informational Geometry will be VERY Informational and will actually look nice and tight. And then, I can write a whole blog post on how to engineer a website (which could potentially earn money) without having to engineer anything at all.

The Wisdom of Experience

2008-08-15T10:52:00.000-07:00

I wish everybody involved in building websites, everyone, to take a look at this presentation from Agile 2008. This presentation basically explains how the whole process should work, and why. It's too revealing to summarize, you just just have to check it out.

The Wisdom of Experience
by Alan Cooper

http://www.cooper.com/journal/agile2008/

OK fine here's a quote,
"No competent business person would choose speed over correctness if they had confidence in the outcome. "

Thanks.