Stand Tall, Boys

Matt and I were leaving the Triad Center today after the conclusion of a meeting. He was kind enough to offer me a ride over the the COB to my next appointment for which I was already late. We headed down the elevator to the parking garage, and upon disembarking, found a group of people standing around in the basement. One suited man turned to us and said quietly, “Stand tall, boys.” I was not sure what he was talking about, and was very curious as we turned the corner. There, standing in the midst of a group of people and telling a story of how someone had earned the name of “Bucket” was our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson.

Wow.

I stopped in my tracks and gasped, “Oh my!” We stood there for a minute as he finished his story and after doing so he was whisked away by his security guards. I have pondered that chance meeting for the remainder of the day today, wondering what would have happened had I decided to walk to the COB. I probably never would have known he was even there. Even though I didn’t get to shake his hand or say anything to him, I felt his spirit the moment I turned the corner. I knew I was in the midst of the Prophet of God. I am really grateful to be working for the Church and downtown near all these great men. Are we sure we want to move our department to Riverton?

posted by rick on Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

How To Be Creative

Mac Magleby recently retired from his post as Professor of Illustration at the U of U. Upon being asked in an interview with Susen Sawatzki of AdNews whether he’d done a “last lecture”, he presented some pages he had been handing out to his graduating classes since 1987.

The first, titled, “Creativity-How to be Creative” goes as follows:

Creativity is the act of bringing into existence that which is unknown, uncommon, or unexpected. Being creative is risky; however, where the risks are great, the rewards are greater! To be creative, you need to be comfortable feeling lost and in deep trouble. You need to enjoy absurd, contradictory, outrageous possibilities. You need to be a lover of exploring uncharted territory, and, most of all, you need enough self-confidence to fail.

Another sheet makes a comparison.

How To Be Creative:

Do preliminary research into the problem. Get a thorough background, understand the nature of the problem. Work in a restful environment. Know you can do it. Have faith the idea will come. Minimize interruptions. Relax, let ideas start to flow. Walk around. Wash your hands in warm water. Go with the flow. Add some stimulus, look at inspirational sources—books, photos, nature, etc. Join ideas together. Ask, “What if…?” Use free association. Let creativity take from naturally. Start with simple, build to complex. Don’t force it. Get away. Relax. Take another direction. Change surroundings. Add new stimulation. Use other sources as a springboard. Let the idea expand and improve. Build on that idea. Refine the idea, test it, and if it works, go with it. If it doesn’t work, reject it and repeat the process. Work hard. Don’t give up!

How Not to Be Creative:

Work in a hectic environment. Start working right away. Be negative. Tell yourself that it can’t be done. Stare at a blank sheet of paper. Get all uptight. Worry about job security. Sit in one place. Dress in a suit and tie. Sit up straight an be rigid. Keep those muscles tight. Work in a vacuum. Use no outside resources. Sit in one place. Force the idea to come. Make the problem complex. Reject ideas. Fear new, unproven ideas. Don’t take risks. Throw up your hands. Quit.

posted by rick on Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008

Reshaping Beijing – the Egg, the Boxer and the Dragon

Since we are all reading a book written by an architect, maybe it is a good idea to supply some real life examples—architectural monuments in Beijing.

Magnificent or magnificently ugly? It is your call. FYI, the locals gave them those nickname above.

posted by tim on Saturday, Jul 12, 2008

Book Review: How Designer’s Think: The Design Process Demystified by Brian Lawson (4th Edition).

A month ago, in preparation for an in-house design workshop, we handed out 30 copies of Brian Lawson’s Book “How Designers Think:The Design Process Demystified” to our designers. I first came across the first edition of this book nearly 10 years ago when I started a job at a small design firm in Salt Lake City. I had just moved from a large fairly structured company into a small, very organic company with very little structure at all. I found a first edition book on the company bookshelf and started reading.

I’ll have to admit that the first read was very difficult. The book is quite academic – the author approaches the subject from the perspective an architect who also happens to have doctorate in psychology. Most of the examples in the book discuss architecture and it can take some extra mental work to draw parallels to the profession of graphic and interaction design. In many ways, I found Lawson’s book to be very refreshing.

Lawson’s unique background allow him to approach design from a unique “scientific” perspective, while his design background from architecture, a design discipline provides a balanced perspective. It doesn’t go to far into esoteric design theory that is often discussed by practicing designers, and it doesn’t try to be to prescriptive, a fault which often appears when scientists and engineers write about design. He is able to talk in the language of design, where other authors like Don Norman and Jacob Nielson seem to speak about design in the language of science. There’s actually a great chapter in the book where Lawson illustrates the difference between the scientific approach, and the “designerly” approach. It’s especially comforting to hear it from someone who has practiced both disciplines.

I think that this unique perspective makes the book especially interesting and useful to any practicing designer. Lawson covers the essence of design, the definition of problems, and artfully describes different approaches to the design process. His model of the design process is the best I’ve ever found (chapter 3). He describes design as a “negotiation between problem and solution through the activities of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.” Other essentials deal with strategies for measuring the success and value of design (Chapter 5), and chapter 7 provides an excellent overview of the nature of design solutions, problems, and processes (chapter 7).

My favorite chapter, and the one that has influenced my work perhaps the most, is chapter 13: Design Traps. Lawson outlines several common traps that designers find themselves in. You can’t read this chapter and not have an “aha” moment, or cringe at the things which might be affecting your design right now.

I consider this book a “must read” and believe that it is one of the best books on the subject. The viewpoint is unique, and it provides beneficial knowledge that will help you in all aspects of the design profession.

We’re looking forward to the discussion next Friday.

posted by john on Thursday, Jul 10, 2008

Webslug: Helping measure the worldwide wait… sorta

Webslug claims it can “help you measure the worldwide wait.” Cool tagline, but I’m skeptical.

The time I got back on one site was infinitesimally small (less than a twentieth of a second) when personal experience shows it takes around 10 seconds. Another site showed over 40 seconds when my experience has been around 20 seconds. And finally the site doesn’t answer the question, “How fast is it at a given connection speed?” It just gives seconds to load without the context of a data rate. (The Firefox Throttle Add-On does this nicely, but only on the Windows version.)

On the upside, it does let you compare two sites to each other and collects measurements of all the sites that get tested for public review. I like these ideas, but Webslug will have to fix those deficiencies before I come back often.

One final wishlist item, the value of which was demonstrated in a presentation by Aaron Barker recently, is being able to see the difference between “page appears” (something happens to show the user that the site is loading), “page is partially functional”, and “page is fully functional” (100% loaded). If a page takes too long to appear initially, the user may get impatient and hit Refresh—which will actually delay them further by restarting the whole process. So even if it’s not fully functional there is value to getting something up there quick, even if it’s not the full meal deal. But I’m not sure an automated tool could really do that… Someone prove me wrong please!

See Webslug for yourself.

Also check Yahoo’s best practices for increasing performance on the front end. (Thanks for all your recent help on this stuff Aaron!)

posted by ted on Thursday, Jul 10, 2008