Shutting This Down
After the big Wordpress hijacking of ‘09, I have thought a lot about what I want out of this domain and what I’m hoping to achieve with this blog. The world has changed since I started blogging. I think people get good insight to me on both personal and professional levels by following me on Twitter or Tumblr or viewing my resume and portfolio on Krop. This blog, in its entirety, will be relocated to a subfolder on my domain and no new content will appear on this Wordpress site. I’ll keep my old content around for a while because, amazingly, it’s still getting searched and read. But moving forward I am going to point my domains creativefriday.com and chrisfreitag.com to my Tumblr blog. It’s easier to blog there, I don’t have to worry about upgrading any software, and I can share so much to it so quickly that it just makes more sense for me.
I will be moving this Wordpress site and pointing to my Tumblr site over the weekend. If you happen to be one of the few people who subscribe to my RSS feed, that may be affected by this move. See you on the other side.
Knowing Your Place
The big news from the blogosphere this week was that the leaked Powerpoint presentation showing store concepts for Microsoft were legitimate. Looking through the presentation, I get a very strong sense that Microsoft is trying to foster a similar experience as Apple has in their own stores. Then stories started breaking that Microsoft had hired Ex-Apple real estate guru George Blankenship who is known for finding ideal locations for retail. And today we find out where Microsoft is opening their first stores which are reportedly in “hot markets.” After reading these stories and looking at everything else Microsoft is trying to achieve, I’m more than a little perplexed by these actions.
Apple has had tremendous success with its stores and with their recent products. But the success came after they had focused on creating a premium brand. Apple is supposed to be in the most upscale retail locations because their brand is on par with other high-end, premium brands. Their stores would have failed in the local Home Depot shopping center. The Mac, iPhone, and iPod are all devices that carry the premium brand and are sold for a premium. The company continues to grow their revenue and report positive earning statements quarter after quarter. Even in this recessed economy Apple managed to post another record-earnings quarter for Q3.
Microsoft, on the other hand, posted their first loss in revenue in 23 years. It would seem that the executives in Redmond have become infatuated with what Apple has done and have decided to beat Apple at their own game. But why? By Microsoft’s own admission in a series of “Laptop Hunter” ads, they are the more affordable platform. Not to say “cheap” necessarily but they are certainly driving home the point that if customers choose to stay with Microsoft, they won’t pay as much. So why would Microsoft be positioning their upcoming stores in premium retail locations? This would be analogous of Lee Jeans opening a store in the swanky SoHo district in New York City. People accustomed to premium brands would find that brand laughable and walk on by. It would seem that a better strategy would be to open approachable stores in malls and shopping centers that cater to people looking for the most bang for their buck. The crowd they are already going after in their advertising.
And why are they getting so bent out of shape over consumer spending anyway? Microsoft’s bread and butter is their enterprise customers. And, apparently, enterprise is just fine with sticking with Windows XP. It’s not just Vista that businesses are shunning, it’s even the well-reviewed Windows 7 that businesses are deciding to pass on. Something I find interesting with both Vista and Windows 7 is that they seem to be trying to achieve a slick, consumer-focused operating system similar to Mac OS X. To me that seems very strange since their enterprise customers aren’t looking for slick, they’re looking for efficient and reliable. Microsoft needs to focus their attention back to the market that helped them create their empire. Microsoft should be focusing on very real competition from Google.
But they aren’t. Instead they seem to be focused on trying to out-Apple Apple even if it means reporting loss after loss. If Microsoft needs to learn one lesson from Apple, it’s that you need to stay true to your company and your brand. Apple got away from being Apple in the 1990s and it nearly cost them everything. Apple almost fell into oblivion until Jobs returned and helped them refocus. Microsoft can stop this skid if they get back to basics and focus on where they belong.
This Ride Has Come to an End
I am employed. It’s been over 7 months since I was laid off and I’ve learned a lot in that time. I’m very fortunate that I was given a severance worth 6 months of my salary. Without that, this time would have been much more difficult and I would surely have lost a lot. I consider myself lucky that I never had to collect unemployment or miss any payments or sacrifice much at all.
Declaration of Independence
For the past 12 years, what I’ve wanted to do more than anything was work independently. The only thing that kept me from doing before was time and money. Now I had plenty of both. And I thought I had an ace up my sleeve with the economy in shambles. I could market myself as a hired gun and a company could bring me in on a per-project basis without the hassle of paying for my benefits or matching my 401(k). It seemed like a win-win in a shaky economy. However, getting your name into the world and getting people to recognize you as a resource takes time. Time takes money. And as I watched my severance money dwindle I would have moments of extreme fear.
Doing What Works
I read an article on Zen Habits about the number one dream killer: Doing What Works. This is so true it hurts. In February I had turned down a job offer at a company where I knew I’d be miserable. I also hadn’t had any freelance work since mid-January. As time passed I started to freak out and I went with what works. I started really looking for full time work in March.
An exciting opportunity came knocking when Amazon flew me out to Seattle to interview me for a Senior User Experience Designer position. I convinced myself that this was a prestigious position and that I would be crazy not to take it if they offered it to me. Freelancing would have to wait. But what happened is that I kind of sunk myself in the interview. I don’t believe I did it intentionally but somewhere I wanted freelancing to work and I wanted to give it a real chance. So during my grueling 6-hour interview I subtly, but surely, sabotaged myself.
A series of interviews with other companies followed. My resume was strong and garnered a lot of interest. But interview after interview failed. I was growing frustrated that I couldn’t seal the deal. The interviewers could see what I was unable to at the time; I did not want to work for anyone.
Let the Freelancing Begin
In mid-April, some freelance work began to trickle in. And then, in the early part of May, the flood gates opened and I had more work than I could handle. I’m not really sure how it happened and I don’t know if I could ever replicate it but I was getting work on a regular basis. I could barely keep up. My dream was finally coming true, and I hated it.
I didn’t like working nights and through the weekends. In the corporate world I would do that occasionally but it was usually rewarded with a little time off or, at the very least, a pat on the back. I felt like freelancing was consuming me and giving me no time to enjoy my life. I had built up freelancing in my mind as a way to take control of life and enjoy things more. But the truth was that I was consumed by my business and I had to constantly worry about what I was working on and where I’d get the next bit of work.
The other problem was that my career wasn’t advancing the way I’d hoped it would. I love graphic design and I think building sites in CSS is fun but I want to move forward and concentrate more on solving usability issues. It’s moving away from the nuts and bolts and more into theory and analysis. But as a freelancer, I was not catching any interest in these skills. I was being hired for my graphic design and coding experience. It was kind of like taking a step backwards.
Chris All Together
Now that I had my priorities sorted I was ready to find the right opportunity. And as luck would have it, there were 2 such opportunities right here in Denver. Both companies needed someone to come in and address usability concerns with systems they design. This was the kind of work I’ve wanted to do. Fortunately for me, both companies liked my resume and both companies wanted a phone interview. Then they both wanted an in-person interview. And now I have 2 offers.
It was never a matter of whether or not I had the right skills. It was about what I wanted and how I presented myself. Until I gave freelancing a real chance I was never going to be happy working at a company again. In my mind, I had to know that I tried and it wasn’t for me.
I hope that my quality of life is going to be better thanks to this whole experience. I know what I want now. I want to solve usability challenges. I want to leave work at work and spend quality time with my family and friends. I want to have happy-hour beers with my co-workers. I guess I’m more of a corporate drone than I thought I was.
A Twitter Thanks
By far, the most useful networking tool I had during my lay off was Twitter and I’d like to give a Twitter shout-out to @corygrunk, @pdpilot, @ElPocho, @jluciano, @bryanzug, @TheBigKlosowski, @pchuck, @dhinman, @heavywinter, @dradclif, @lednine, @ryanisinallofus, @joshclauss, @tugglmatt, @iVolunteer, and @senator_larson.
Thank you for the advice, referrals, and work. You’re all awesome in my book.
Fixing the iPhone Radio-Switch Problem
One of the things that has bothered me about the iPhone 3G is that the 3G reception at my house cannibalizes the telephone signal. A call works when I first connect but shortly cuts out with a “Call Failed” error on the screen. For whatever reason, this only happens in a few spots around town and my house happens to be one of them. Because of this I find myself switching the 3G radio on and off a lot. I also switch the WiFi on and off while I’m around town because WiFi is constantly searching for a signal which is a battery drain. If I know I’m not going to need it then I switch it off to help me conserve a little battery life and to avoid the WiFi-connect “nag” screen when I’m trying to read a document.
It turns out this is simply a pain. None of the switches for the radios are in the same place, hierarchically speaking. The Airplane Mode is a switch that turns off all radios and is located in the first level of the Settings application. The WiFi switch is located on the 2nd-level under the Wi-Fi menu. And the 3G radio is located on the 3rd level under the General > Network menus. The only one that is really easy to get to is the one I use the least which is Airplane Mode.
I believe there is a rather elegant solution already in use on the iPhone that could be applied to help ease this pain.
When you’re typing in an email address or URL on the iPhone and it properly detects the field, the keyboard switches to help make typing that format easier. At the bottom of the virtual keypad is a dot (.) key to help expedite typing the dot in .com or other domain extension. But if you tap that key and hold for a second, a sub menu pops up with some of the more popular domain extensions such as .com, .net and .org.
People either know about this or they don’t. If they don’t know, there’s nothing about it to get in their way. They go about their business. But if they do know about it then it helps save a little time finishing email addresses and URLs. This same user interface could be applied to the top bar of the iPhone screen with the same kind of results. If you know about it then it’s useful but if you don’t it doesn’t get in your way. The only thing the top bar is currently used for is clicking to bring you back to the top of any page whether it’s a web page or an email message. But the only clickable area is the area between the radio-signal label and the system icons and time. By making the radio signal button a clickable area the iPhone UI designers could add a sub menu with the different kinds of radio options and allow you to make a quick choice.
The one issue with doing it this way is with the nature of how the iPhone works. Apple clearly wanted to make this as user-friendly as possible so they created a way to have the iPhone automatically detect, and switch to, the appropriate network radio. This worked well when it was just Edge and WiFi but when 3G was introduced this became more of a hassle than it was worth. The problem is that 3G has to shut down and the phone has to find the Edge signal in order to make the switch. So when I’m on a call at my house and I forget to turn off the 3G radio, the phone ultimately drops the call because it can’t switch from 3G to Edge midstream. In order to use the system I’m proposing there would have to be a new preference menu under the Settings application that would allow you to toggle whether or not you wanted the iPhone to automatically detect the appropriate radio or if you would like to do it manually. If you choose the manual option then the iPhone no longer attempts to connect to any network unless you specifically ask it to. The default state of the iPhone in manual mode would be Edge. And you would have to use the sub menu navigation to switch to 3G, WiFi, or Airplane Mode. If you want to turn those off you simply choose the E for Edge and all other options are disabled. This would help with making the quick switch from radio to radio and also help conserve battery life since the other radios are being turned off.
I believe in making a user interface that is easy for the most basic user. But you should also enable ways to allow more advanced users to customize the experience to their liking. It’s a delicate balance but can certainly be achieved.
The Thoughts Behind the Decisions
Welcome to the new creativefriday.com. This site was a challenge for me because it was so personal. They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression and that’s as true as anything I’ve ever heard. I knew that I had to make a statement. But I lost my focus and I was abandoning my own method for creating meaningful user experiences. My goals fluctuated and my designs ranged from energetic to intricate to simple. I wasn’t starting from the very beginning and that lead to failure after failure. During this time I was working for clients and choosing to be very methodical for them. Why I wasn’t doing this for myself is a mystery to me. Thankfully something snapped and I realized that I needed to treat my site as I would any client’s. I needed to identify my audience and understand my requirements. This site design and layout were carefully thought out to provide the simplest user experience possible.
The Requirements
The most important requirement for me was getting my portfolio online. Many of the clients I’ve done work for the past few months have been through word of mouth. That’s probably the best way to get a client because you’re already starting out with a recommendation by the person who told the client about you in the first place. But for all of those freelance and consulting positions I was seeing online I knew I had to have a professional looking site and portfolio before they would even consider talking to me.
I wanted a site that was more dynamic than the sites I’ve had in the past. Not just a blog but other information streaming in as well. I wanted to try and show the whole picture of who I am. If a person reads my blog, sees the kinds of articles I’m reading, and follows me on social sites then they are going to get a much better understanding about the kind of person I am and what really drives me in web design. This overall picture was important to me.
And on the list of “wants” was to use some javascript to give the site some interactive appeal. I’m not trying to make my site “sticky” or anything like that. I just wanted to be able to provide an interesting way to view my information without forcing the user to click through a complex navigation scheme. Javascript would allow me to provide a much more simple user interface.
My Audience
According to Google Analytics, I don’t have an audience. I suppose that’s to be expected when my focus hasn’t been very clear. So I had to put some thought into this. I couldn’t try and create a site for the audience I wanted to have but for the audience I was probably going to have. When I looked at my site from a visitor’s perspective I could see only one of two reasons a person would visit creativefriday.com; 1) they were here to read an article I wrote or 2) they were a potential client here to review my portfolio. Everything else would have to be secondary.
The Complex Simple Solution
I read such a great article by John Gruber titled Ronco Spray-On Usability a few months ago. If you haven’t read it I would highly recommend it, especially if you find it difficult to understand why the world needs usability experts. But the gist of it, the essence of the article, is that simple is difficult to achieve. When you nail simple and you got it right, most people don’t even notice because it’s simple and easy to use and gets out of their way. It’s kind of a thankless task. Get it wrong and people hate you, get it right and no one notices.
When I first started thinking about my requirements and my audience I had come up with a fairly simple navigation scheme; Home, Blog, Portfolio, Social, and About Me. When I looked at that solution it seemed like it would probably work. Especially since that’s a common theme throughout the web. But as I was creating my site map and then the wireframe I started to see that there was a problem. There were just too many clicks for a person that was here to either read a blog post or view my portfolio. Those other tabs would likely fall into the ether never to be heard from again. The answer had to be simpler. But when I set up the very simple navigation Blog and Portfolio, I thought that some of my requirements were going to get lost. And then I looked at jQuery for a client project and while working on their site realized that this could be the answer for my site. Once I got the expandable footer element working with jQuery I knew I had solved the problem.
An Agile Approach, A Work in Progress
This site is meeting all of my needs right now, as it is. But I do have additional elements I would like to add. Without the need to make any changes to the main navigation I am going to add a “Hire Me” page with my schedule and a form. I would also like to create a breadcrumb at the top of each page. Search isn’t here now because there’s barely any content to search for but I would like to add search and a search results page. These things can all be built later using the Agile Software Development approach. The site was structured in a way that would allow me to add the necessary pieces later without altering the look and feel of what you see today.
All in all, I’m very happy with the end result. At least for now anyway.