My Name is Jay

What does the iPad mean for Web Design?

JayS — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:15:35 +0000

Hey, guess what? I’m still alive! Yeah I know my last blog post has been over EIGHT MONTHS ago, but I’m still alive and kicking. On the bright side, since then, I landed a job at iRacing.com, and redesigned/coded their website and built a second site, inRacingNews.com which is starting to gain popularity. On top of that I am working with my first client again, building a brand new site for a new program. Since December, I’ve been blogging almost every day under my WoW character at LegendofPiket.com. Yep my World of Warcraft Gnome Warrior is more interesting than I am.

So anyways, I have been reading all the rumors and watching the concepts about the Apple Tablet. How it is going to revitalize the dying print industry, and at least judging from the countless rumors I definitely agree, that it is something that will surely bring life back into this facet of information, killing less trees in the process. But what does this mean for Web Design? Consider this digital Sports Illustrated preview.

It maintains the look and feel of reading a magazine while adding a lot of really exciting features. The stories and articles are laid out exactly the same way as the traditional magazine, yet the user can flip between pages, watch videos, and even share stories using a bunch of different social apps. Suddenly the “magazine” which has been around for well over 300 years has become a whole lot more dynamic. It’s like a website, only a hell of a lot nicer.

Let’s assume that this mythical Tablet is real, is announced on Wednesday and gets released. Let’s also assume it becomes as popular as the iPhone, transforming the way people get and consume information. Suddenly 30% of the people viewing websites are on these Tablet devices. Without a doubt, people are going to expect the same level of quality from our websites, that they are receiving from these e-magazines.

I believe this will spark a dramatic change in the way we go about creating websites, and we need to take a long look at those old magazines to see how. Magazines present information differently than websites. Instead of pure information spread across a number of identical pages, magazines take a more modular approach, giving each idea or article it’s own unique look and feel. This creates a more holistic feeling from the users perspective, where there is a discrete beginning and end to the information you are consuming, as opposed to the endless stream of information we get with the internet today.

Without a doubt, people are going to expect the same level of quality from our websites, that they are receiving from these e-magazines.

Several designers have begun to take on this challenge already. The trend, known as “blogazines” is starting to catch on. As the name indicates, “blogazines” combine the look and feel of magazines with the dynamic nature of typical blog websites. Smashing magazine published a great article exploring this trend.

Personally, I don’t think that websites are ever going to become indistinguishable from e-magazines, but we as web designers need to take a serious look at what works and what doesn’t work with this new form of media. We can then explore the ways it can help further enrich the sites we design and build.

Does Anyone Really Blog Any More?

JayS — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:14:32 +0000

I started this blog with really high hopes of writing at least one entry a week, building up a community, and creating a personal online identity. I think that’s what all bloggers want in the beginning. You set up a site, start typing, then get recognized, then make money. Unfortunately I along with many other people don’t really keep up on this whole “blogging” thing. Why should we write drawn out blog articles when we can just tweet in 160 characters or less?

Honestly, nowadays I rarely see a “blog” that is kept up to date. Most people including myself don’t do anything significant enough to write about on a weekly or even monthly basis. I wake up, go to work, stare at a monitor all day, then go home and stare at a monitor all night. Don’t get me wrong. I’m perfectly happy doing this. I just don’t think people particularly care to read about it.

I wake up, go to work, stare at a monitor all day, then go home and stare at a monitor all night. Don’t get me wrong. I’m perfectly happy doing this. I just don’t think people particularly care to read about it.

Blogs today are not really blogs at all. For anyone who didn’t know, “blog” stands for “biographical log”. Go to so called blogs such as gizmodo, autoblog, or firstshowing and you don’t get one person’s personal biography. What you’re really reading are online newspapers put together by a number of different freelance writers, editors and journalists.

The line separating blogs from newspaper sites such as nytimes or msnbc is becoming somewhat thin, but I never think they’ll become a single entity. The main thing that separates the two is the nature of the content. Blog articles come out quicker, and typically are more laid back and encourage an open dialogue. I seriously doubt you’ll ever see an article from msnbc.com that has words crudely written over the images.

With the tremendous popularity of services such as Twitter and Facebook, we can connect with people just like we do in person; speaking briefly and instantly. Traditional blogging seems to simply have been a precursor to that.

On that note, you can follow me on twitter here

IndiePixels is in the Oven

JayS — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:12:49 +0000

Well the inevitable finally happened. I was working in a nice contract gig until last week. Business started to slow down and of course being the only contractor there, I was the first to unceremoniously get the axe. I figured it would happen sooner or later for reasons I will not discuss. I even took on a second job briefly to prepare for it but unfortunately that didn’t quite work out either. So here I am, waiting on my last paycheck and wondering what to do now.

Of course right away, I applied to numerous other positions of which I am waiting to hear from. (If you are reading this, curious potential employer I salute you with a hearty hello! I’m really nice and have cool glasses, please hire me!). In the meantime as a backup plan I decided to revive my dream of creating my own company where I can grab my own clients, work my own hours and be my own boss. Through the years I’ve had plenty of experience working with companies and seeing what works, what doesn’t, and what can be improved. With all this under my belt, plus a much broader portfolio I think I’m ready to face the masses. I’m not sure where it’s going to go, but that’s the fun of it.

In the meantime as a backup plan I decided to revive my dream of creating my own company where I can grab my own clients, work my own hours and be my own boss.

So, these past few days I have been building numerous mocks, logos, and wireframes for very own design business I call Indie Pixels. I think the name is a good representation of me and the way I like to do business. I’ve always had an independent way of thinking and doing things, and I like the overall vibe that the name suggests. I want people to feel the same way about my company as they do when they work with me. There is nothing corporate about me, yet people still are confident that I know exactly what I am doing and can take care of any given task. Same goes for my business.

If all goes well, I am still going to keep MyNameIsJay as my personal blog. Eventually I’d like to freshen up the design a bit. The main difference is that I will no longer be generating business through it. It will be much less focused, and much more laid back. Maybe then I’ll be inclined to write more articles

Meanwhile Indie-Pixels.com will be my main portal for generating business. I will have a blog and twitter account integrated with it, and the blog content will focus the content primarily on the small design business realm as well as web trends.

Here’s a tiny preview:

Remember Web 2.0?

JayS — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:12:16 +0000

A short while ago nobody really knew what it mean’t to be “Web 2.0”. It started with a very broad definition. To put it into really basic terms, compared to the traditional web, or I guess “Web 1.0”, Web 2.0 utilized collaborative possibilities, easy information sharing, and more unified standards. I’ve noticed that within the past year or so however, one of the elements of Web 2.0 has sprung a life of its own. The principles of Web 2.0 have taken a back seat, unleashing something totally different.

If you think of “Web 2.0” you are more than likely to think about certain websites like Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, or Wikipedia. These, however might not have been exactly what the forefathers had in mind. I find that these sites primarily capitalize on one concept. That concept is to let the user create literally all of the content.

In recent months, this idea of user-driven content has surged beyond the internet into other areas of popular culture. Now there are television shows where the audience chooses the the characters to appear in the next season. There are games such as Spore or LittleBigPlanet in which the players are responsible for making most of the game content. There are even soft drinks which let people create the next flavor. Welcome to the “Viral Age”.

If you think of “Web 2.0” you are more than likely to think about certain websites like Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, or Wikipedia. These, however might not have been exactly what the forefathers had in mind.

If you look at this movement from a business perspective, things are radically different. Now instead of creating a whole infastructure of data and media from the ground up, all you have to do is create a good platform, present this platform to the public, and if they like it, just sit back and wait. Within an incredibly short time your platform will be populated with rich, free content. It is now plausible for a single person to create an entire social database practically overnight.

I believe this is why we are seeing it in so many areas beyond the internet. Why hire people to create the next flavor of Mountain Dew when we can have our customers do it? Why design tshirts or virtual goods if the community is more than happy to create them for free?

As a design and gadget geek I am exposed to this all the time, and for the time being I, like most everyone else I kind of enjoy it. I wouldn’t mind spending a few hours designing a cool level for LittleBigPlanet, or submitting information to Wikipedia. It’s all good now, but I can’t help but think about where it’s going.

I think at the current rate, this may just get a little too convenient for companies. It’s not hard imagine a user-driven car company for example if companies could build an easy enough platform. Or how about a user-created television network? All they’d have to do is cut a deal with YouTube or Vimeo. The possibilities are endless, and I think we’re just getting started.

Is this necessarily a good thing? Personally, I think it will be up to the viral community to decide. Once we realize that we just wrote an encyclopedia, created a virtual marketplace, or designed an entire game expansion for free, we may just start demanding a bit of reciprocation.

Where are my Headphones?!

JayS — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:50:41 +0000

Once again I have been neglecting my blog… It’s not that I haven’t had anything interesting to talk about (though many people may not agree with what I find interesting) I just can’t stand to look at code after I’ve coded all day. I managed to snag a job a few months ago at a web design/seo analytics place outside Boston. It’s pretty great. They give me clients, I design and code websites. It feels just like freelancing, minus the client search. The people I work with are very laid back too, which is a very nice change from retail. Good luck with Black Friday, Burlington Mac Specialists haha!

Anyways, moving on. Back in September when Apple had their “Let’s Rock” conference, they of course announced those revamped iPods. People seem to forget, though that they also announced new headphones: One pair which is exactly the same as the iPhone headphones, but added volume control, and one pair which totally revamps their crappy old in-the-ear headphones with nice, high-end features for half the price of nearly all similar options I’ve seen.

They say in the keynote that they are supposed to ship these in the begining of October, but now we’re well into November and they are still listed as “Coming Soon”. Pretty lame.

When they were announced the number one question amongst the internets was “can I use them with the iPhone?”. If you look at the product description you get your answer. It’s listed as only compatible with the new iPods. This is kind of weird, though because like the iPhone headphones they have a microphone, clicker, etc, so it would make sense that you could use them.

…like the iPhone headphones they have a microphone, clicker, etc, so it would make sense that you could use them.

So, here’s what I think/hope. This delay is because they are expanding compatibility to include iPhones among other products like the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. I really hope so. There aren’t too many good options out there for that pricepoint and none have volume control or the sleekness of these headphones. C’mon Apple!

I Hate Web Squatters!

JayS — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:27:49 +0000

As usual I have lots of big plans. One of them as I mentioned before is to revamp my site. One thing I dislike about my site now is how long the url is. At eleven characters, in my opinon its pretty bloated and unreadable, especially when you want to send me an email. So, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with something that personifies myself without being too literal.

Web designers and non designers alike can relate to this. I came up with a name I really liked, went to register it, and it was taken. Tried another one, taken. Another, taken, and so on. It’s gotten to the point where instead of playing World of Warcraft, (I know. I’m a nerd.) I’d sit here for hours trying to register a good name. I don’t mind if the domain is taken by a legitimate company, but when it’s taken by a “web squatter” it’s a whole different story.

A web squatter is someone who just buys up any domain they can possibly think of. Some even have programs which list out every single, say three letter word. They then either put it on one of those stock photography-strewn god-awful sites, such as this one. I guess they think you won’t notice your typo just landed you in a pit of web scum. Even worse, others simply mark the price up 3000% and resell it to make a profit.

I guess they think you won’t notice your typo just landed you in a pit of web scum.

At any rate, I finally found a domain name that was not taken, and actually fits me quite nicely, and is only seven characters. So, I finally got a domain name, now, on to kuler for color scheme goodness!

This is Getting Old

JayS — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:07:48 +0000

Wow, has it really been almost a month since I’ve posted on my blog? I knew it had been a while, but I had no idea it’s been this long! Things have been so crazy lately that I just haven’t had the free time to add much content. Not much has changed since June. I’m still going on lots of job interviews, still buying things I probably shouldn’t be buying, and I still have a ton of side projects going on at once. Oh yeah, I’m still an Apple Developer.

Now that I have a bunch of interviews under my belt I’ve noticed something interesting. There seems to be a spectrum when it comes to design places. At the begining of this spectrum is the start up company. The people here are usually pretty close knit, and make a point to be edgy and “real”. They always have all these crazy ideas about where technology is going, and are determined to ride that new wave, whatever that may be. One downside to these places is the fact that because they’re so small, there’s really no telling how long they will last before either dying or getting swallowed by a bigger company. It’s also often hard to see just where this company is going in this experimental phase.

The people here are usually pretty close knit, and make a point to be edgy and “real”. They always have all these crazy ideas about where technology is going, and are determined to ride that new wave, whatever that may be.

Then there’s the established “software” company. This company is way over that optimistic, energetic phase and has settled with a few tried and true methods that seem to work. They use that methodology to get bigger and bigger. By the end of its lifespan, this company has eaten up countless smaller ones around the globe, slapped its logo on them then outsourced as much as possible to India. While this sort of company might have began years ago as a start up, now its sights have moved from forward thinking design to suits, business models, and cubicles.

If I had to place myself, idealy I guess I fit somewhere between the two ends. I don’t mind cubicles, but I never want to have to wear khakis and a polo shirt to work, let alone a suit. I like having a creative freedom when it comes to design, but not so much that I don’t know what to do with myself. To be honest, though I’d be quite satisfied either way because I really want a job. I’d love to wake up in the morning knowing that I am officially a “Web Designer”. Not a freelancer, contracter, or part time artist, but a forty-hour-per-week designer with his own desk, insurance, and company business card. This job search is getting very old.

I’d love to wake up in the morning knowing that I am officially a “Web Designer”. Not a freelancer, contracter, or part time artist, but a forty-hour-per-week designer with his own desk, insurance, and company business card. This job search is getting very old.

Speaking of things getting old, I was up almost all night thinking about this site. I am very happy with my site as it is, but I have never been the type to leave things alone. In my mind I stripped down my site to the bare bones, and thought about what was working, what wasn’t working, then put it back together again. By the end, the fundamentals will remain the same (a digital version of myself), but the look and feel will become drastically different and much improved.

Matte is the New Shine

JayS — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:34:48 +0000

I’m always keeping an eye out for trends especially when it comes to web design. Lately I’ve been noticing something very interesting. There is something that almost all of the really “new age” sites have in common nowadays stylistically. Go to sites like Flickr, Twitter, Digg, Vimeo, or Facebook and and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Evidently web designers are starting to move on past their love affair with shadows and gradients.

I noticed this way back when Digg redesigned their site. The site that took great part in that “Web 2.0” look with it’s shiny buttons, soft gradiants and shadowy badges was now stripped of all that stuff, replaced now with something that I thought at the time to look sort of retro. Now that I see it everywhere, it’s starting to grow on me.

I can totally understand why this is happening. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the fact it’s “in” right now, but that’s not all. One of the main aspects of web design has always been optimising how quickly your page loads. The simpler your graphics are, the quicker they’ll load. It is kind of ironic, though because while this is happening, bandwidths are increasing to the point where we can watch streaming hi definition movies without any hiccups or loss in quality.

Evidently web designers are starting to move on past their love affair with shadows and gradients.

What’s the point then? Well it seems while on the surface, websites don’t look all that different than the way they looked back in the day, you have to remember that there is much more going on under the hood. Along with very large, complex databases and other systems such as scriptaculous or sproutcore, there are many more people surfing the net which means much more demand on your server.

Really, we’re in the same boat we were in back in the late 90’s, just on a much larger scale. As a web designer the challenge will always be to create a site that is light on size, but rich on style. I don’t see this trend going away any time soon. Have you seen the new Facebook? Their website was lightweight to begin with. Now it’s just anorexic.

If you want a design job, you may want to read this

JayS — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:03:19 +0000

Back in the day I used to think about what interviewing and working for a design job would be like. I would always picture a real laid back agency with bean bag chairs (I don’t know why I always pictured bean bag chairs…), a wide open studio with lots of Macs and expensive equipment. As I found out though, this is definitely not the case. Yes, there are jeans and expensive things, but there are also four-hour interviews and tests you have to complete before even being considered.

I would always picture a laid back agency with bean bag chairs, a wide open studio with Macs and expensive equipment. get to meet with some of the top agencies around the area.

I started my job search with this lovely image still in mind, thinking that all I needed was a good portfolio and a resume and all would be well. I put my site out there, applied to a lot of different places, and sure enough landed a few interviews.

My first interview was about a half hour, then to my surprise had an interview with a second person right afterwards. By the end of the day I had long chats with about seven employees total. I was there for nearly four hours before all was said and done. The last person I spoke with gave me what she called a “design test”. I was given the task to create several online advertising campaigns and one online survey.

After submitting my work, it was critiqued in a conference call. After that, I had another day of interviews with the company owners. As it turned out, after all that I did not get a job offer. This didn’t really get me down though. It was only the first place I applied to.

My most recent interview was even more intense than that first place. Like last time, I had a long interview with many different people. At the end I was given a test again, but here it was a bit different.

The company is planning on designing applications for the iPhone (awesome!), so they were looking for someone who could work in 3d or 2d. I have experience with both and I am learning to develop for the iPhone, so I offered to work on both tests. I spent about thirty or so hours on them total.

Things went extremely well when I presented my work and had it critiqued. I got along very well with these guys. It was like I was made for this place. They liked my 2d design so much they said they wanted to use it for the final product. My recruiter told me the job was “in the bag” on the phone as I was leaving. I was psyched.

Things went extremely well when I presented my work and had it critiqued. I got along very well with these guys. It was like I was made for this place.

A week went by and my recruiter reluctantly told me I was not offered this position. Apparently this was because they thought it would take too long to get me up to speed with what they were doing. I’m still not sure what that meant

At any rate, I’m a pretty optimistic guy. I don’t look at this as anything to dwell on. The more you work for something, the more you’ll appreciate it when you get it.

My advice to anyone going through this, or who will be going through this is simple. First of all I am not exaggerating at all. If you want to work as a designer chances are you will have to do everything I talked about here if not more. I find that the best way to go about doing it is to look at these “tests” as a way to polish up your portfolio and improve your interviewing skills because chances are you will go through dozens of these things before you actually land that job.

I’m Officially an Apple Developer

JayS — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:56:57 +0000

Wow, I’ve really neglected my shiny new blog. Well, I guess it’s not so new any more, but it sure is shiny. It’s just been a crazy couple of weeks. I graduated from the University of Massachusetts Lowell on May 31st. To commemorate, I bought myself a huge LCD television that gave me days of fun but expensive tinkering. I also snagged a few more freelance gigs.

All the while I’ve been continuing my contract at Bridgeline Software while going to lots of interviews at a variety of different places around my area. They’re all pretty cool. I’m looking forward to my latest interview at viximo because they mentioned getting into iPhone application development which coincidentally is something I’ve been wanting to get into.

I’m not sure if I’m doing this because I’m still on an Apple-fanboy-high from watching the WWDC Keynote and iPhone 3G announcement, but that night I decided to register as an Apple Developer for the iPhone. When I went to their Apple Developer Connection site, I was expecting the documentation to be some 100+ PDF giving overly-technical instructions on how to program for the iPhone, but in the usual Apple fashion, in addition to neatly organized technical documents, there are a series of videos which show you step by step how to develop on the iPhone.

I’m not sure if I’m doing this because I’m still on an Apple-fanboy-high from watching the WWDC Keynote and iPhone 3G announcement, but that night I decided to register as an Apple Developer for the iPhone.

The tools and applications are very cool as well. Aside from the usual suspects (Xcode, etc), there are some iPhone specific applications. The UI designer is so obvious to use, I really wish I played with it sooner. There is also an app which simulates the iPhone UI and allows you to work on the iPhone almost in real time. Did I mention all of this is free?

Never before has coding on a platform been this intuitive and, dare I say fun. Really, my only issue is the fact that I don’t have the slightest clue what I want to make. I definitely want to create a game of some sort, but I don’t know what kind at all. I guess I will start getting ideas once I get my feet wet.