In the past on this blog I’ve had sections for inspiration both web designs and colour and also run 2 flickr groups dedicated to web and colour inspiration. I’ve had a slight change now and with the enjoyment and ease of use I’ve got through having a tumblr blog for Espresso I’ve set up 2 more tumblr blogs dedicated to inspiration.

Webspiration

Webspiration is going to be a mixture of showcase sites to go to, screenshots (also on my flickr group webspiration which you can contribute to) all in the lovely form of a tumblr blog. I’m probably going to add a dash of code snippets and techniques in there as links from del.icio.us which I use for all my bookmarking.

Colourspiration

Colourspiration is the colour equal to webspiration. Again, this will have palettes, colour related imagery, techniques even articles and posts from my colourspiration flickr group.

With these 2 news sites also comes a change of colour scheme on this blog. Pink for October is over for another year and I’ve gone to the original colours designed for this blog. As you will see it’s a very similar branding now to Logical Binary (my company) which was the desired effect as this becomes more and more linked to Logical Binary rather than a separate entity.

I’d like to invite you if you’ve not done before to sign up on flickr for webspiration and colourspiration. I plan to be featuring user uploads on the new tumblr blogs along with new content you won’t see in the flickr group. You can subscribe via RSS to both tumblr blogs with these links: colourspiration rss webspiration rss. I’ve got some ideas of how I want to build on both webspiration and colourspiration over the next coming months so expect to see a fair amount of activity going on. I’m also going to be doing weekly or maybe monthly (not decided yet) updates on this blog from both these tunblrs.

Over the years work becomes a larger beast and your personal project time can easily go down the back of the sofa. I have found myself recently putting off too many personal projects, this was something I knew had to change if I was going to avoid the mental stagnation I felt creeping in.

Ground zero your blog

If as a designer or developer you aren’t maintaining some form of blog I to be frank would be puzzled. Not only is it a great publicity tool but it’s also your own playground. At the start this blog ran on my own cms and later blogging system once this whole blogging thing had a name. This was how I learned to write a cms and blogging engine. I moved onto word press after a while for many reasons, but the point though is through this blog I learnt how to code some significant things I’ve used over and over again in client work. Design limits are also raised in your own space so it’s essential to allow you the freedom to explore and play. I see your blog as ground zero or the first thing you should do as a personal project. This is your space online where you can have the freedom you often don’t have in client work or even on your portfolio website.

Would I miss 4 hours a week?

As part of my drive to get back into personal projects I’ve decided to put back 1/2 a day a week where I work on personal projects. I’ve been doing this for about a month now and turns out I didn’t miss that time at all. I’ve read a lot about ‘4 day weeks’ and although I think being able to do that is quite a long way off (try a different universe), I found I could manage to grasp back 4 hours a week without sending my work schedule off. The problem I’ve been faced with whilst starting this has been ‘when’. I’ve become more and more aware that this time needs just like client work to be at a fixed point and you can’t just put it down for ‘when free’ - you do that you will never do it as it’s easy to never be free.

From small seeds grow large things but you’ve got to plant seeds

In this times where all you hear about is the ‘credit crunch’ and voices of financial doom, it’s nice to look at alternative revenues and just ‘do’. You never know from those personal projects could grow something. I don’t think though this should ever be the core motivation from personal work. The ‘gains’ you can get aren’t in personal work all about financial ones. Maybe you learn a new technique, maybe you do build a fun application.. whatever it is this should be done as exploration and with the emphasis on enjoyment rather than cold hard cash results.

I think the hardest thing is the ‘doing’ of personal work. It’s all too easy to see the hours and what client work you can cram into this. It’s harder to take some time and see no direct ‘money in the bank’ from it. Over the years as a freelancer you focus on project after project and it becomes very much the same story over and over again. After going back to personal projects I’m finding myself rejuvenated for want of a better word about the web. It’s all too easy to get into a rut designing or developing. By not limiting yourself you can explore and grow. I’ve always said the day I stop growing is the day I should be giving up and for a while I’d forgotten that.

Design by committee?

Design by committee is where you have more than the usual single client, it usually refers to numerous people having input over the design process and dealing with those varying and multiple opinions on what the design should be. Design by committee can all too often become a ‘too many cooks’ situation where spoons are a rare commodity. Loosely applied most projects probably are to an extent design by committee as often a client will show it to other people or it’s a company where you may have a single point of contact but numerous departments and people will input into a situation. What I’m referring to are situations where there is no clear single point of contact and you’re dealing with numerous voices whilst trying to come up with a comprehensive design.

Lay strong foundations

Before you even start to design there are a number of things you can do to ensure that all voices are heard from the start and they are not all shouting at once. These methods are all designed to narrow the field and create a focus from the start for the project.

• Have a design question form: I use Wufoo with a set series of questions that I always hand out to all clients. Some example questions I include are what colours they would like and what styles they like. I make sure to have ‘like’ and ‘don’t like’ for every question asked - often the don’t like are more telling than the like responses.
• Offer examples: Along with the form I make sure that I also include some examples of websites or whatever design work I am doing. This allows a starting point for what the clients like or don’t like and I have a space on the wufoo form for responses to this.
• Factor time in for revisions: Make sure you lay down from the start how many revisions are included in the price and stick to it. If you are going to give endless revisions you will end up with an endless headache. It’s often a good idea to state an hourly or additional cost for revisions over the set figure just incase.
• Get design sign offs: One of the most important things is to get the design signed off to avoid changes during the development of the work. Sign offs should be as final as you can make them. Don’t be afraid to charge for changes after a sign off.
• Try and create a point of contact: If possible try and find a point of contact amongst the voices. This isn’t always possible, but usually one chief ‘cook’ stands out who can be your point of contact.

Flexibility doesn’t mean being taken advantage of

Whilst as a designer you have to be flexible in your client responses you have to juggle this with endless revisions and projects spiralling out of control beyond the original design concept. Try not to loose sight of the fact that you are the designer and you are meant to filter and apply the client needs not respond to every request. I don’t say this in a ‘designers know best’ mind set, I say this in the sense you are being hired as a designer and based on your experience you should advise and guide the project. Trust your instincts and experience, if something is not going to work don’t be afraid to say this.

Become a filter: Listen but don’t act to everything

One of the key points to managing with design by committee is by being a filter to requests. You will probably have a list longer than a family weekly shopping list of things that people want, like and don’t like during the process. It may sound harsh but in situations where it you are faced with design by committee you will simply be unable to act to everything they are asking for. I’ve said it before but you are being hired as the designer so you should use your experience to interpret and filter requests. Consider each one individually and use your skills to decide whether they should be implemented.

Take time and don’t get swamped

Above all design by committee should be met with a calm frame of mind and patience. It’s a hard process and in an ideal world you would not be experiencing it, things aren’t always ideal though. By laying down a few ground rules and processes though you can sort the noise out and focus the project from the start to get a better end result.

Turn yourself pink

I always enjoy seeing the different variations on ‘pink’ that people turn their sites and I’d love to hear in the comments if any of you are going pink this year. It’s a great cause that needs to have more focus and it’s a great way of not only refreshing your blog design but showing support. Even if you don’t turn your site pink there are a range of other ways on the Pink for October site you can join in by donating, adding a button to your site or even contributing an article.

Pink marks a change in branding

I’m still working out a few kinks around here but have the first stage up of my complete re-branding of both this blog and also Logical Binary (only one page currently more coming over the next week). I’m going to write a post once the dust and prodding has settled on both sites about why I’ve chosen this direction and the process I went through. The main catalyst though was to get a consistent branding across both this blog and my company site and bring the blog into a more active element of Logical Binary rather than having them as separate entities. I hope you like the new direction. Espresso the Diary of a website tumblr blog has also had a redesign and is still a good place to get a usually daily shot of posting.

Farewell woofbarkwag

As part of all these changes I’m also stopping posting on Woofbarkwag. Whilst it’s been great running that blog for a few years now the time has come to focus what oddly little time I seem to have lately onto this blog and some other new things and I’m afraid that means Woofbarkwag is a bit of a casualty of that in being closed down. I’m going to leave it up and do a closing down post soon but it’s already left 9rules and apart from my last post there won’t see anymore updates. Whilst shutting down a site is not always a good thing this time I think it is as I simply wasn’t doing it justice and it was distracting from updating other sites. I’m really happy about the choice I’ve made and look to the future with this blog.

Coming soon to a web near you

As part of my ‘coming back’ I’ve got a completely new branding for both my company website and this blog. I’ve decided that for too long they’ve stood apart from each other and with the redesign I’m going to be merging the branding and making this blog more of a part of my company rather than a separate entity. The urls and so on won’t change it’s more a branding and design merging. I’ve run a company blog of sorts for a while but it just makes no sense any more for them to remain fragmented.

October also sees the return of Pink for October and yes this blog will be going pink again. I’ve been over the moon that despite my lack of summer presence online Mathew Oliphant has asked me again to be the designer for Pink for October and the new design for this is something I think people will find a little bit different from me with some of my usual design styles chucked in.

Coming back with force?

One of the effects of taking a break is I had to ‘turn off’ to a certain extent my brain from new ideas and designs. I was still doing client work which kept that ticking over to a certain extent but I’ve got several plans brewing that I hope will see fruition over the next coming months. I’m not making any promises beyond a redesign of Logical Binary and this blog but the others will see light of day relatively soon. I also find myself with a lot of things to say after being silent for so long online. I’ve got a lot of partial and fully written posts I’m going to start writing up and posting over the next few weeks that I even resisted posting at one point as just wanted to keep my offline status going while things were sorted.

• Fadtastic’s Andrew Faulkner has a great post on how to ‘Get out of a creative Slump’. We all have slumps and there’s some solid advice here.
• With lots of how to articles online it’s interesting to see this Freelance Switch post on How NOT to Get Freelance Work
• A List Apart has a good post on Walking the Line When You Work from Home
• The past few weeks escaping anything about the iPhone is a hard task indeed. I will write this week about my thoughts on it but for now over at 43 Folders there is a post about iPhone Apps I’d Totally Buy
• Dr Horrible: I’ve been a long time watcher of most things Joss Whedon does and this 3 part web only series didn’t fail my anticipation of goodness. Be warned you’ll probably end up humming the cheesy goodness that are the songs for a while after watching.

My first words were ‘wow’. Ok, it may be an indication of how mundane my week was at that point that such a thing did make me go wow. All joking aside, to see a service actually taking the time to send a thank you card with nothing more than a nice message from ‘Tim the developer’ saying thanks for using their service; well it’s a rare thing indeed.

Going beyond expectations

My usual expectation of a service is that it works, plain and simply anything above that I usually don’t bother to wish would happen as often it’s just not worth it. We’d all like to feel we’re a valued customer but in this faceless day and age that doesn’t happen very much. Just like everyone else I usually settle for the service billing me correctly and not breaking down. It’s like we’ve all become desensitised to bad customer service. Even when things do break the margin we ‘grin and bear’ things about is just plain huge. The glee that I felt from this card from wufoo really only goes to show that in business if you do bother to go the extra mile you stand out a mile.

Cynical head on but not winning

I can hear a few cynical voices and one of them is in my head at this point about how this is a clever marketing ploy. You know what, I don’t really care if it is. The warm fuzzy little feeling I got from this hand made rhino sticker card is a rare thing in this world. If their service was bad then maybe yes I would have more of a hmmm marketing alarm going off. Wufoo though has always been a great service for me and this kind of personal touch tops off a great experience with them. It’s all too common to get treated like a number and not being treated that way really brightened me up. Wufoo’s approach should be taken by far more services. It is just nice to feel wanted by a service for once.

Final word to wufoo

I’d like to thank Tim and the team at wufoo for the card and undeniably flawless service they have given me over while now I’ve used them. In the note it said:

Users like you helps us achieve our dreams and we won’t ever forget that.

Well, wufoo I won’t ever forget the fact that you sent me the card and actually bothered compared to the numerous services I use that quite frankly couldn’t give a fluff if I used them or not. Yay to wufoo.

Potters know what clay is.

It is an obvious frustration that some people (thankfully this does seem to be on the decrease) who ‘design for web’ have no understanding of what that means. One area sadly is those print designers who end up doing a bit of web design ‘on the side’ which quickly becomes more than the side. As I have sat in both the developer and designer camp I know only too well the frustration of having to make up a design created by someone who is not aware of the medium they are designing for. One of the major areas often designers who do not know the web as a medium or code XHTML / CSS fall down on is realising the web is not print. In a website there are conventions you can work in and use to bolster your design. Link styles, navigation, the fluidity of the web as a medium - these all play a part and if you don’t understand them you can’t use them as tools to create your design.

What type of site you are designing also should be understood. Can you honestly think that a designer could create a good blog design without understanding what WordPress (or the blogging platform they are designing for) can or can’t do? Would they be able to know all the tools available to them and use them to their optimum? If a designer doesn’t even know what a CMS is or what commerce systems are how can they design a site that works for it. Of course, I’m not saying they have to be able to code these systems from scratch, but knowing what they do or don’t do and what functions they can use in their design, surely that is essential? I simply think it’s either a very very rare person or impossible for a designer to be able to only ever work in Photoshop and not even know how to code XHTML / CSS or what the mediums they are designing for can do.

Changes in response to coding.

If you are the designer of the code and making up the HTML / CSS you have the ability to interpret and develop your design in this phase. I never see a design fully complete until the HTML / CSS has been done as more often than not by going through the coding process it evolves. I feel designs mature through this process and for me to not have this part of the process in the majority of my work would be a shame. On those projects where I’ve not been able to do this I at least because I understand the medium can work with the developer and get solutions. My designs at the start are made with the understanding I have of the medium from being able to code myself.

Harsh but true.

I’m probably just like the 37 signals article not making friends in this post, but you know what I’ve sort of gone beyond caring on that one. For far too long the web has been seen as an easy design option that you do not need to know the relevant skills to design for. If we are ever as web designers to take it to the level of a full profession where skilled workers are recognised we have to take a stance. The web, HTML and CSS are not closed books and it does not take long to grasp a rudimentary ability in them - there can be no real excuse for a ‘web designer’ to not be able to do their own code.

I fully understand that sometimes the working process does not allow the designer to be able to produce the code - I guess my point really is ‘can they’ - if not they shouldn’t be designing for the web. It’s not that you do produce every line as this is a luxury I often have but some don’t, however if you can’t what on earth are you doing designing for the web? Print designers have to understand printing processes and what needs to be done to get something looking right in print. So why shouldn’t web designers also have to know XHTML / CSS and understand what a website is. When I design as someone that can code in XHTML / CSS I understand what I am designing for. To me that is a strong point and often the difference between a design working or not.

The Phone

I’ve had a few ‘odd’ bugs with the iPhone ranging from locking up when deleting emails through to about twice it not seeing iTunes, however nothing really major has gone wrong and that has been great. One thing I simply don’t get why isn’t there is the age old chestnut of copy and paste (I’m including in the phone here as to me it’s such a basic function I don’t get why not there). It frustrates me and is something I really wish they sort out sooner rather than later. Literally every patch now I’ve been hoping then let down by the lack of it’s inclusion.

Next up is the camera which I’d like to see improved a bit. To me, the iPhone should be an all in one mobile device. I want to not have to take the laptop, not take the camera and not take my phone - it’s so close to being that for me that with a simple upgrade to the camera quality and maybe the ability for flash and video then it would be pretty damn perfect hardware wise. I would love the edition of video capture, I’m not looking for taking a long film here, just a simple snapshot would do.

Perhaps one of the biggest issues I have found is if you indeed do ‘use’ the iPhone to any extent then the battery is quite poor with regards to lasting times. I understand there is a lot going on and have done the brightness reduction on screen to try and gain more battery life, but it seems unreliable on exactly how much it does and more than once has just died on me from seemingly a full battery to nothing in a very short time. One last thing in relation to the phone is to be able to have sound profiles. Now, I maybe missing some point here but I came from Blackberry land and not being able to assign sound profiles that I can customise myself just seems wrong. Ideally I would like it to go a stage further and be able to assign profiles based on time of the day - but just being able to have sound profiles would do. I do dream of being able to say from x to y hours don’t sound mail or phone and from x to y do.

Software

I have a few things I really would like to see done by Apple of a third party.

• To do lists off-line: Whilst the ideal for me would be syncing with Things, I understand this may not happen but any application that can get off-line syncing work outside of iCal would get my vote - even if they added priorities to iCal it would be a start rather than lumping them all and seeing to dos as calendar items.
• Notes categories: I love the notes function but it really needs some refining with a basic category ability maybe. I also long to be able to sync these notes or at least get them onto my mac without emailing them.
• PDF reader: This is almost the ‘killer’ app for me. Being able to read PDF’s and Ebooks on my iPhone really would transform how I do things. Enabling me to swipe highlight text and note it would also be great when reading PDF’s but I feel that may be a bit of a dream.
• Off-line gmail reader: I yearn for the ability to read my RSS off-line and sync just like I can on my macbook pro.
• Mail mark all as read / delete: This is a simple feature that Apple Mail has and I think the iPhone really needs. I have accounts that are not IMAP and having this would make my life a lot easier.

So how has the iPhone been for me?

My iPhone really has become the thing I carry all the time. I love it quite simply and give or take a few things that I really think would be good for it to have, the experience has been a really good one so far. It has made me realise in-fact I do not want pointless ring tones or the ability to play space invaders on my phone - I actually want a more functional device that fits to what I want to do. Whilst the things I’ve seen with people hacking there iPhone have given a moment of ooo to me, I really can’t see why I should need to do this. I will note that with the slowness of the SDK it’s been getting more and more tempting. I intend though on getting the next iPhone if not as soon as out fairly shortly after. My husband at the same time got a Nokia phone which he’s had nothing but problems with and he’s going to be the recipient of my current iPhone when I upgrade as he is fed up of the problems syncing phones on macs and has seen the ease of use the iPhone has given me. All in all I’m very glad I moved from Blackberry over to the iPhone.

Carrot on stick

One way I’ve found to get myself in a more active not reactive approach is to take the reward or ‘carrot on a stick approach’. For me, if there is something to be gained or I can see that gain then I’m more likely to do. The more unclear the gain the less likely it gets done. I’ve found that by assigning gains or at least cementing what the gain is to something (big or small, abstract or real) then I get this done.

More acting less reacting

One goal I’ve been working towards is where things are seen more before they come up and it becomes a more active process than a whacking each thing as it drops in my lap. I’ve got a combination of ways such as to do lists and for larger things breaking them down into chunks that I can see small gains as I go. I find having a generalised vague goal just doesn’t work for me - it has to be x gets y or it ends up with ‘x what x now? really? nah ooo shiny thing’.

Business as personal

For me, having a personal and business approach that varies just doesn’t work. I am lucky enough working for myself to dictate how I run my business to a certain extent and it has to be the same on both counts for me. I’m one of those people that blurs the lines between business and personal probably sometimes to my cost in hours and what I put into my work; that aside I treat both aspects of my life the same in terms of motivation. Perhaps this is because I am lucky enough to work in an industry that I would choose to for pleasure also to a certain respect. I apply the same set of goals and methods to my business as I do to my own life and really I think if you have any variation be it morals or how you ‘get things done’ then maybe one aspect of your life is being over looked. I just don’t get the concept of being organised in one and unorganised in another - before long the lacking one overlaps and takes over even the best laid plans.

Being your own motivation

Motivation comes in many forms. Nothing like a deadline or payment to get most people motivated, but is this really the only methods that work? I’ve found even small things like making a promised to myself of a Frappucino if I get a page of code done works for me. Daily I set rewards for myself like this which spur me on. I’m just like anyone if I don’t see anything in it for me what is the point? Of course rewards are not just material or drinkable. I often find say the reward of seeing a clear to do list really fulfills my need role of a ‘carrot’.

Which method works for you?

Ultimately it’s about finding a method that works for you. We may all work around the basic principles of carrots and sticks, but what sticks and what carrots we use are as varied as we are. My method I’ve worked on for a while and see being refined as I go along. I’ve probably used almost every to do list / project management package now there exists or near to it, before settling on the current solution which has worked for many months now. As I’ve said before your own motivation method and in-fact anything you do should not be set in stone it should be fluid enough to develop as you do. After all just like you hope to be around for a while you should hope your business does or your job. I honestly believe you will end up not getting anywhere fast if you just react as things come. You need to be acting upon plans and laying foundations of organisation not just fighting fires to get any real place in life and work. Days need structure, weeks needs structure and lives need structure. By having a structure you can react effectively if you have to as things of course inevitably ‘crop up’ but if you do not have this action of acting in place you’re just chasing your tail and never getting to a carrot - that just sounds depressing if you ask me.