Archive for the ‘news’ Category
Permission for a holiday away from your goals
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
I’ve done a lot in the past year, career wise… No one could possibly accuse me of slacking.
I went through weeks at a time when I worked from the time I got home until the time I went to bed. Dinner was chosen for its quickness of preparation and subsequent quick cleanup; minutes could not be wasted.
It was worth it though: I have never grown so much skill and amassed such a collection of projects that I’m pretty proud of, as I have in the past year. This constant “home work” has been great for my career too: bview is now a site I’m proud to say I’ve worked on (even though it’s not perfect and still needs work… it’s a big site, after all!), and I can easily wack out new designs and code them up quickly. A year ago, I was okay. With all this extra side projects, I’m pretty good now.
But I’m tired of working every evening.
I know I should be working on graffed and theboxcat and finishing my redesign of safetygoat, making a new mould of safetygoat, and getting started on the multitudes of other projects I keep thinking about.
But, I finally admitted to myself that I need a break. I want my evenings back.
I want to read my Terry Pratchett books over and over. I want to watch countless episodes of CSI and My Name is Earl. I don’t want to spend time writing code, designing websites, networking, drawing, doing ANYTHING productive or work on ANYTHING that will make me better.
I feel guilty feeling this way.
But you know what, just like a holiday away from your job, I think it’s important to step away from your passions and the things you really enjoy, so that you can come back to them fresh. That way, you don’t come to resent your projects, and you do them properly.
Until next week, safetygoat’ll be off after-work holidays and back at it. See you then!
safetygoat is on holidays!
Graffed: a tool for tracking body measurements
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
The best apps, I think, are built by the people that really want to use it.
I always thought that the scales weren’t the best way to record losing weight and gaining muscle. I wanted to lose weight in my stomach, but I wanted to gain muscle too. I’m not really overweight, just the wrong shape.
A few sites would let you record measurements, but I wanted to see the measurements on an actual body as well.
So, with the help and expertise of Dan Wichett as developer, we created graffed!
What is it?
It’s basically a simple tool to track body measurements over time. You can compare any date to your goal body shape.
Why?
Honestly, I’ve loved recording my body measurements since I was about 16 or so. I haven’t got any eating disorders or anything, I just liked having a record of how my body changed as I did more exercise (and unfortunately, how cruel these past 10 years of beer and laziness has done to me!). It was fun making the charts, but there was something sloppy about doing it by hand. After all, I’m a web designer– surely I could come up with a better way to do this!
The process
I went through many many iterations of the design and the functionality, and then just hacked it all back so that the app only did the one thing: record body measurements. I also spent a few weeks working on the branding. I’ll probably go through a bit more on those processes later. Coming up with a good name, and making it memorable were very important to me!
The biggest job was to get the bodies working smoothly, and this was done in flex, and done manually. Occasionally I thought my head would explode from the math. This process is far from done, but in “Getting Real” style, it was time to get people starting using the app, so that I can get the usability absolutely perfect. Maybe we’ll even discover a better way to do it!
Let me know what you think!
We’re still putting the finishing polish on things (I hate the concept of beta, especially when companies stay in it for YEARS, but we really are in beta here)– some things still aren’t working as smoothly as I’d like, but it’s time for you to tell me how you’re using it, and what you like and mostly what doesn’t quite work how you’d expect!
For the next few weeks, we’re letting people upgrade for free, so I’d be especially keen to hear how you think all that is working. Thanks in advance for your feedback! Go to graffed!
Safetygoat’s 2009 hopes and dreams
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Everyone is writing new year’s resolutions, making predictions, and looking back, and at first I wasn’t going to join in the party, because most of these dreams fade come February 1st. But let’s face it– I’m an annoyingly cheerful individual and I can’t help but be excited about 2009. So, in no particular order, here’s my 2009 resolutions.
1. Rework, rework, rework safetygoat
This is actually a cheating one– I’ve been working on this for the past few months (speeding it up in the past few weeks), and my grasp of wordpress is slightly above dunce level now. Sure, putting a plug-in (that’s not a widget) seems to take me 3 hours to configure, something that would take someone even remotely proficient a few minutes, but I’ve depended on other people too much to get this site up, so now it’s time for me to do it myself, with all the optimistic bells and whistles.
2. Launch apps I’ve been working on for ages
Let’s face it. It’s sad having to go edit your portfolio page to change the launch date, which you set to November, thinking you were leaving lots of room for contingencies, way back until march. BUT I WILL ACTUALLY FINISH THEM! (I hope, soon).
3. Get a vinyl toy designed and made
I’ve made my own plastic safetygoats this past year (if you want one, email me and I might just send you one) and it’s been fun hand painting them and giving them out to people, but I think it’s time to do this properly. This means a) doing the sketch/3-d model b) finding someone who will do a short run. No problem!
4. Make more custom things
I’ve made some dresses, but they haven’t been perfect. BUT I got a dressmaking mannequin for Christmas from olliekav, and have already made my first dress, which I wore to new years. 2009 should see more dresses, but I also want to make some custom shoes, maybe some bags… you know, stuff with drawing on them!
5. Learn learn learn
I’m amazed how far I’ve come in the past 2 years. I mean, I made my first real website with css then (I don’t think html tables in high school really count, do they?). I’m thinking I’m very good at css now, and have gotten great working in the java environment, but I would like to master styling in ruby and flex as well as getting the hang of some of the more advanced jquery stuff. As I get better, I will be able to try out more experimentative webdesign, and use a lot of the css3 selectors well and properly.
6. Write more
I used to keep a diary in high school and uni and used to write in it every night. Of course, it was just hormonal teenage rage, but it’s so interesting to reflect on things and then have a paper trail to actually see where and, more importantly, who you’ve been. So, writing, yes, but maybe writing more blog posts too. I’ve learned a lot while redoing safetygoat this past while, so I will definitely be sharing some of the stuff I’ve learned.
7. Talk to my best friends more
I live in the UK. My best friends are in Canada. We will always love each other, but I’m rubbish at keeping in touch. This is unacceptable!
8. Get into shape
I know, I know, this is everyone’s resolution, but lord I’ve packed it on over the holidays. It would be nice to at least get back to where I started.
9. Spraypaint
I did a bit of work practicing this past year, but I’m frankly rubbish. It’s fun, so I will be doing more. This is definitely not a chore!
10. Have an adventure
Pretty sure I know what this will be, but I’m going to keep it on the down-low for now. Stay tuned for my crazy times!
Bare with the teething pains
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
This is my first wordpress site, my first time using a database and basically anything dynamic, so my site is all over the shop right now. Please–this is not how it will look very soon, I promise!
Side note: if you’re thinking of using Fasthosts.co.uk, think again. I am not an angry person by nature, but their service has been TERRIBLE and they refuse to allow me to have a flickr stream into here. RUBBISH!!!
