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It Must Be Better

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I read this article today and with one answer particularly, I was overwhelmed with agreement:

Why is the competition seemingly unable to keep pace with Apple?:

A:Most of our competitors are interested in doing something different, or want to appear new — I think those are completely the wrong goals. A product has to be genuinely better. This requires real discipline, and that’s what drives us — a sincere, genuine appetite to do something that is better.

These are wise words. If you want to make something truly good, you must make it truly better. It must be better.

I remember vividly when I was in school studying design, there seemed to be such an overwhelmingly strong drive to differentiate oneself—everyone felt it. The result was that people just were trying to do thing as differently as possible. The result was a lot of weird, (and dare I say...) stupid work being done. I hated it and it is why I withdrew from the program (in my level of involvement, not formally).

The reality is this: change for change's sake is not progress. Change for the better is. Innovation does not equal change. Innovation equal improvement.

From a business standpoint, change for change's sake is not profitable. Change for the better is. Innovation does not mean you make more money, necessarily, unless you are making meaningful innovations. Yes gimmicky changes may work for a short time, but not in long-term, substantial ways.

As designers interested in quality work and innovation, this means when we challenge conventions we must always be striving to improve upon them, not merely challenge them. It means when we do something differently, it must be better.

My Personal Rules for Web Design

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A couple weeks back I spent a little time reviewing the past 4 years of my work as a web designer. In thinking about the things I've learned and the practices I've developed, I jotted down these 7 rules for building web interfaces. These aren't rules I've followed as I've gone along, but rather restrospectively the things I believe are important.

1.) Clearly define visual space.

Hierarchy is very important. The user should never have to question what heading heads which block of content; which content a tab changes; or what button submits which form.

2.) Clearly define functional space.

Overlap in functionality from various points in an interface, while appearing to add convenience, actually tends to blur the lines between different functions and processes. If everything is highlighted, nothing is effectively highlighted.

3.) Conventions are friends; don't cross them.

It is true that there are various times at which the convention ought to be challenged. Namely, if a convention was developed at a time when technology was less capable or if there are obvious and/or frustrating problems with a convention, then yes, of course, challenge that convention. If there are not problems with it, though, don't mess with it. Seriously, don't mess with it. It only frustrates your users and makes you look out-of-touch.

4.) Layouts should always follow natural reading and viewing patterns.

This is just common sense. Put stuff where users will look for it: Don't put form submit buttons above the form. Don't put action confirmation buttons before content that needs to be reviewed. Keep important, related information in close proximity.

5.) If there is a simple solution to a problem and a complex solution to a problem; always go with the simple.

Simple is better for your users. By the way, it will probably be harder for you.

6.) No artist sits down and paints perfectly a picture from their imagination. You, Mr. Designer, are no different.

Sketch things out, make mockups, test them, update them, and repeat as many times as necessary. If you are afraid to re-work your interfaces—if you're afraid to scrap them and start over—then don't expect to ever make anything excellent.

A little aside: many famous paintings have multiple layers of false-starts and reworkings that the artist deemed necessary after seeing the original image they created. It's just part of the process.

7.) Use your own app; change what annoys you.

This is also just common sense and it will also help you learn your own weak spots and improve as a designer.

As I have done this, I have learned that I have a tendency to make hit areas too small. Almost all of the apps I have built in the past couple years, I've gone back and increased the size of buttons, pagination links, and even site-wide text size. You just got to do it.

That's all. Anyone have anything to add for the good of the cause? Speak up.

Thoughts from Steve Jobs

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As everyone now knows, on October 5th, at age 56 Steven P. Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple Computer passed away. For someone as influencial and prominent as Steve Jobs, there have been many articles, slideshows, and tributes in his honor and memory.

I have a few thoughts of my own I would like to share.

The Personal Computer

When I was 5 years old (1989), my family bought a Macintosh SE/30. My father showed us children how to use it in various ways. We had a program called HyperCard that we could use to create "Stacks" with pages and images in them. We also were able to create little buttons that would do stuff when you clicked them. I remember as a young child, figuring out how to make the buttons would play music, move little icons around the screen, and pop up little prompts. What started then as childhood fun kept developing over the years.

When I was 12, my family (with a PowerPC at this point) got the Internet and I took the simple skills I developed in HyperCard on the SE/30 and used them to start building little websites. I kept doing this for fun through high school.

In college, I studied Graphic Design. I didn't plan on doing web design for my job, but with the skills I had developed it eventually made the most sense. Today, I work in the web design industry, enjoy my work, and still love the learning and discover process that started when I was 5. This was only possible because of the Mac I used as a child.

It seems a little silly for me to get choked up over the death of a man I never knew, but the reality is that I did know very well the work of this man. My life has been profoundly shaped by of the work of Steve Jobs. I am very grateful to him for the work he did.

I, in a small way, want to give tribute to a man who shaped my mind, my experience, my career path, and my life all in a very meaningful way. So, here's to you, Mr. Steve Jobs—thank you.

Laser Focus

The other thing about Steve Jobs that I've been coming to understand more fully in the wake of his death, is the laser focus he lived with. Many others have already written more eloquently than I ever could, so I won't say much here. I just want to share a quote from his 2005 Standford University commencement speech:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs clearly understood the most important reality that all of us must face—death. It doesn't matter how rich you are, how successful you are, how famous you are, how many followers you have on twitter or friends on facebook: everyone dies. Death is the great equalizer of humankind.

Steve Jobs understood this and lived in this life to make the most of it. This surely is good wisdom. We must all, like he did, ask ourselves daily if we're living in a way that we'll be pleased when we die.

What Steve Jobs maybe didn't do, however, is even more important. That is to live now to be ready for the next life. We all absolutely must face eternity. There's no sidestepping it and our belief in it or lack of belief in it doesn't actually affect the reality of it at all. It's external to us and we have no choice of whether or not we face it.

What I want to do to end this is to, in honor of a great man, but also in respect for yourself, encourage you to take a minute to think about your own life. How are you doing? Are you making the most of each day as if it were the last? Are you ready for eternity?

I am asking myself the same questions. I want to make the most of what I've been given.

-Andrew

If you want some more reading and food for thought, check out a little site I made about eternity: The Vital Question

Symphony CMS in the Podcast-o-sphere!

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As you know, in this most recent re-design of my site I transfered it over to Symphony CMS. I really like it and am excited about getting to use it in a real site.

Today on twitter I saw that ExplicitWeb podcast did an episode about it. If you're curious about Symphony, take a listen: ExplicitWeb.

Way to go Symphony!

Site Update

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In the past year I have been becoming increasingly embarassed by the state of my website. While I often have ideas I think would be great to write about, in the past years I've only actually written a couple times. Furthermore, the things I actually do what to showcase—my projects, experiments, etc—I don't really have a good place to share.

About 4 months ago, I decided it was time to make a change. Here's the info on what I did:

Information Structure

From an information standpoint, the main thing that has changed is that in this version of the site is there are now two primary content categories: projects and diary. The projects section is where I will share the projects I am working on—jQuery plugins, websites, experiments, etc. My diary is the new name for my blog. Why have I chosen the word "Diary"? It makes me chuckle, that's why.

This structure fits much better with the type of content I would like to share. You'll notice, too, on the front page the projects are higher on the page and therefore have a higher visibility. The projects, from my perspective, are more important and should be presented more prominently.

Under the Hood

The system I am using for this version is different than my previous site. I was using WordPress. I love WordPress a lot, but I was ready to switch things up. For this version, I'm using Symphony CMS. Symphony CMS is an XSLT-based system. It's wildly flexible and very configurable for specific content needs. It took me a while to get acclamated to it (my first forray into XSLT), but I have really come to love it and am delighted to get to use it for my personal site now.

I'd love to share more about why I am using it if you are interested, so tweet me or leave a comment and I'll give you details if you are interested.

Visually

What I find visually compelling changes almost daily. So, designing for myself is a significant challenge. My goals with the current design were to make something simple and something that can continue to evolve as I feel like changing it. I hope I've succeeded. I'll decide in a few months.

In the mean time, peace out.

P.S. Let me know what you think.

Throwback: Aging, The Future, and Hope

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I’m 24 and I’ll be 25 within the year. I’m young but I am beginning to sense the effects of aging. “College kids” are beginning to seem young to me; high schoolers seem foreign; my body is softer than I remember; my muscles weaker. Not really a big deal, but it’s forcing me to come to terms with how I will respond to the reality that my life is passing.

As long as I can remember I have believed that a person is only as old as they think. My grandfather was an awesome example of this: He worked hard, traveled, learned, discovered, and lived life to the fullest far after he retired from his career and well into his 80′s. He always said he wanted to die in his bootstraps and he did. I really want follow his example. As long as God gives me life, I want to truly live.

Thus, as I am beginning to hear the jokes about how my last birthday that is worth looking forward to is approaching, I want to stop and deliberately protest. My life will not end at 25–nor at 30, 40, or 50! No, every year I will work hard to ensure that it is better than the last. I will not settle for drifting into monotony; I will live an adventure passionately seeking for the things that are better, more good, more right, and more true. I will seek to become more true to whom I was made to be and I will strive not to waste a moment in lament over times goneby.

But why this hope? Is it merited?

Before I say why I think hope is significantly merited, it is important to stop for a second and note a few things about the nature of hope itself.

Hope is, in essence, saying I believe there is a reason to suspect that good is on it’s way. The catch here, though, is that there has to be a reason to hope. Hope is inspired, fundamentally, out of reason. If hope exists where there is no reason to hope, it’s called ignorance. Hope simply for hope’s sake is foolishness.

Therefore, hope can only truly exist if there is a reason to suspect that good is to come.

So, what is my reason to expect good in the future?

It’s not in myself. While I have done okay so far, hoping in my own abilities to find a great life falls short for me. Why? For every time I have succeeded, I’ve failed twice. For every time I’ve tried something new, I’ve sat back afraid to try at least five times. For every time I’ve had a good idea, I’ve had at least twenty bad ideas. I’m a person of average intellect, average skill, average looks, average family, etc. I’m not extraordinary. While I could focus on my successes and conjure up hope for some grand future, I can’t do that with intellectual integrity because it ventures out into the realm of ignorance–there is not significant reason to expect anything great. If my hope is based only on what I know of myself so far, then I can hope to live an average, mundane life. I don’t want that, though, and therefore I don’t and won’t find my hope in myself.

It’s not in my family or friends. I think I probably have the best family there is and, likely, the best friends there are, too. I love them deeply. Even still, the people who are closest to me let me down the most. I don’t hold it against them, they’re human. But neither am I willing to build my hope of my life on the relationships I have with them. Doing so sets me up to have everything crash down when they’re not around (for whatever reason). This is maybe sad to recognize, but I must be honest with myself here.

It’s not in my career. I don’t think I need to say much about this. The past six months have amply shown that even the best jobs can be lost, the biggest companies can fail, and even good, hard-working, intelligent people can find themselves without jobs and with seemingly nowhere to turn.

It’s not in my government. Many people are tempted to look to the government for hope. I think this is a very sad mistake. While the government is good–it protects us, it provides us certain services that enhance our lives greatly–it’s role is to provide an safe environment for us to live our lives. Not somehow to give us lives to live–that’s not freedom and that surely isn’t hope. Furthermore, look at any government agency: you’ll find beauracracy, inefficiency, corruption (not always, but more often than not), and a fair level of incompetency. Now, I’m not ranting on government, but I’m trying to be honest. If that is what I’ve always seen, where is the reason to think it will be any different? Even a very charismatic politician cannot change a system that’s so much more established even than he.

So why do I hope? How can I?

My hope is in Jesus Christ. What’s my reason?

In John 10:10, Jesus told us that he came to give us life. He did this by dying to pay the penalty that all of our own shortcomings demand. We’ve been brainwashed to think that we’re all basically good, but we’re not and we know we’re not. At the core of us, there is evil–we hate, we’re self-seeking, and worst of all we reject the God who made us and loves us.

This evil of ours presented a dilemma for a God who loves us, but is also just. He must love but he also must maintain justice. Therefore, he can’t let evil go unpunished. To remedy this, he sent his perfect Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to live and to show us his love is by dying the criminal’s death we deserve so that we, in turn, wouldn’t have to die if we would turn to Him and ask forgiveness.

No one in history changed the course of humankind more than Jesus Christ. But this being true, Jesus promised us this in John 14:12-14: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” [emphasis mine]

The truth is that as I (or any of us) believe in Jesus and commit to living lives like he lived–not according to some religion, but according to his example–we will be able to change the world and make it truly better. THIS IS HOPE! It’s not because any of us are so great, but because Jesus himself will be with God working on our behalf, supporting us in our efforts.

Throwback: Design Links

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I posted this a year or more ago. Some of these articles and ideas still inform my thought. Take a peek:

Over the past week or two, I have been ferociously busy. For some reason, in the midst the madness, I’ve found a variety of articles that are significantly inspiring me and causing me to grow in my thinking towards and about design. I would like to share them with you. Please read this, but do so in a state of mind where you can focus. That might be in madness or in stillness. Either way, they deserve your attention.

» For anyone involved in creative problem solving, this is an absolute must-read. I can’t stress the importance of what he says in this article enough. It’s been so very profound for me.
Complex Order, Simple Chaos

» About a year or so ago I stumbled upon the blog of a small design firm in Ireland called Contrast. Over the past year they have posted some really awesome stuff on their blog. There are two articles that have been really helpful for me to read in the past couple days.

First, an article about the learning potential in failures and the value of simply creating.
Fail Early, Fail Often, and Learn

Second, and this is so important in this day and age, an article that talks about distractions, avoiding them, and how to help yourself be productive.
Killing Distractions

The last three I have not read in great detail, but from skimming them they look good. I post them partially to share and partially for posterity–so I can come back and read them as I have time. I won’t give intro for them.

Intro to design patterns from 37 Signals

About the redesign of ABC News.

UX Mag writes about the style layer

Thanks, peace.