Informational Geometry

A very funny thing happened to me yesterday. A recruiter called me about a position he had, and it is literally my old job at AOL, The position is for mail.aol.com. Of course the recruiter asked if I could refer a friend to him. (And why would I want to give a free referral bonus to him when I personally know the hiring manager?) So if anybody reading this post desires to work on an email app then please leave your email address right here in a comment! But this begs the question(s), am I the only interaction designer who feels less than inspired by the thought of maintaining a UI for email? Is this type of work really appropriate for a senior designer ? Did I get the feeling in my Google interviews that they were eager to fob off the mail-designer role too? I wonder if this is the same at Yahoo?

I started a new job. I am very very pleased to be contracting at an exciting 'web 2.0' company. It's unlike any other place I've worked for. Their color palate consists of only 4 colors. Can you guess who it is? (no it's not google) It's very interesting to be back at a start up. First impressions? I am the only designer out of over 50 employees 90% of my coworkers are guys No phone? no problem The kitchen smells funny Everybody can see/hear/smell everything I do You can find me on the Yahoo! messenger whilst at this job.

I thought it would be interesting to see how cities on Craigslist compare to each other when looking for jobs in the web design/information design category. Here's a side by side image made from last weeks Craigslist postings April 2nd-6th showing; San Francisco Bay Area, Washington DC Area, Seattle, Portland, New York City, & Los Angeles. New York City has the most jobs... but who actually wants to live in a 400 square foot studio apartment or pay $4000/month in rent? Not me. SF Bay Area is has the most per person There's just more work here per capita. But who actually wants to live in a 800 square foot apartment that costs $2000 to rent? Sux. Los Angeles competes LA really competes in 3rd place here, but you gotta love your car. Washington DC What is UP with Washington? Hello! ever heard of Information Design? It's like, informational dark ages back there in our nations capital. Seattle, Portland Something seems strangely light here. Why aren't there more w...