by Matt | Apr 3, 2009 | Games, Work
So. We’ve made it to April. Spring is turning into summer and we haven’t seen a decent game release since Christmas. Now it’s conference and trade show season and all the big boys are announcing their game releases for the rest of the year. GDC has already happened and has already begun the year long tease that is the video game industry. E3 is up next and it’s supposed to be a big deal this year, back from the grave yard of canceled conferences. I know it’s early to be talking about the rest of the year, but I couldn’t wait. Allegedly we’ll get much firmer release dates, a lot more media and even a few new announcement by the time we get to E3, but here’s what I’ve got on my radar so far.
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by Matt | Feb 11, 2009 | Aggravation, Personal, Tech, Web, Work
I know a few of you are more than familiar with the concept, but it’s aggravation is all the more real when it’s happening to you. I’m working, right this moment, on what I would consider to be my 16th design for a website. Version #1 was nearly perfect. It had all the right elements, elegant use of white space and a nice user interface. Version #2 included a few minor changes from co-workers in my department, all with quality input. By version #5, we were “showing” the design to groups outside the department. That was 4 months ago. Since then, every week, we have a “tag-up” meeting between 2 directors of different departments, the designers (me and my people), the IT guys, the programmers and backend developers and a VP.
So far we’ve been able to establish that we: like buttons, would like the afore mentioned buttons to do things, and that the logo needs to be bigger. Beyond that, all concepts of good design have left the conversation. We actually had a meeting a little while back about what the search function should LOOK like when it displays results. A full blown, hour and a half long meeting, only to establish that, yes, we should have results in some sort of list.
I know many of you sympathize with me, and reading the article on Smashing Magazine today, I know I’m not alone.
What I can say though, is that this project is facing at least 8 of the 10 “harsh truths” of corporate web design. Especially #’s 4 and 6. Holy shit are we knee-deep in 4 and 6.
“The harsh truth is that if you build a website for everyone, it will appeal to no one.”
“Where some website managers want their website to appeal to everybody, others want it to appeal to themselves and their colleagues…. Too many designs are rejected because the boss doesn’t like green.”
by Matt | Dec 31, 2008 | Work
Apparently, while I’m off this week on vacation, the rest of my office has become either super motivated or insane. I’m going to put my money on insane. We had discussed last week our “goals” for 2009, and since our company is also big on continuing education and learning new skills, we also talked about things we might like to learn or get training on in 2009. I had mentioned my desire to learn more advanced CSS and PHP as well as a little more javascript and things of that nature. Apparently, I don’t get to choose, which to me defeats the purpose, because I just got an email from a co-worker, who’s acting like they’re in charge of our learning, declaring that we’ll all be learning Flash in January and he even gave out our first ASSIGNMENT.
I’m trying to work out a way of talking to him about it without sounding like an asshole, but I really have zero desire to learn Flash. It’s a non-standard, plugin requiring nuisance that, in my opinion, is actually fading away and won’t be very useful down the line. I would much much rather learn some heavy CSS, or something that’s a web standard than something that, in my previous experience, is always a pain in the ass.
It’s not that I can wrap my head around it. I’ve actually used Flash before. I’m familiar with the concepts, the timeline, all that good stuff. It’s just that I don’t WANT to learn it. I’ve got projects galore next year, all of them on the web and not a single one of them can or will support Flash. It’s simply not something I design for, develop, enjoy, use or would recommend using. I think it’s nearly a dead technology. The Flash bubble burst a long time ago and now the only people that use it, use it for things like navigation, or things that could be easily accomplished with more compatible technologies like Scriptaculous.
I’ll buck up and pretend to learn a little, but really, it kind of rubs me the wrong way that it’s A) been decided for me what we’re going to learn and B) it’s something so not worth my time that I’m hardly motivated to do it at all. But, I guess that’s what being “part of a team” is all about. Now all those Office jokes make sense.
by Matt | Dec 5, 2008 | Personal, Work
Every once in a while, someone will say something or do something that, while slightly ambiguous, let’s you know that you’re doing a good job at work or that they appreciate your effort. This also extends, due to our times, into realms of “job security”. A kind of “I guess they like me” sort of feeling. These are all good signs and provide brief moments of satisfaction and happiness. Your boss taking you out to lunch for example. That’s a good sign. The office refrigerator being stocked with primarily your favorite kind of beverage, also a good sign.
In my case, it was a purchase order that was placed on my desk. A fairly scary looking document with lots of PR numbers, inventory numbers, serial numbers, etc. On the surface, it looked like more work. However, once I realized what it was a purchase order for, there was no elevator that could move fast enough to get me downstairs to turn in said paper work. What my boss had left on my desk was a purchase order for this, with my name on it for the “receiving person”. I guess it’s a good sign. They apparently like me.
My first thought was utter surprise, “Holy crap, I’m getting a laptop.” Which was quickly followed by “Oh no, now I’ll be one of those people.” Which eventually turned back into “wait a minute, I don’t care, cause holy crap, I’m getting a laptop!” Then it was relief when I realized the rest of you yahoos have Mac laptops and you’re completely normal…
*pause*
…ok, well, at least you DO have Mac laptops.
*pause*
…I’ll take pictures when it gets here. I’m going to name her Audrey.
lol.
by Matt | Aug 7, 2008 | Web, Work
Over the past few days I’ve installed and tested numerous CMS systems for a potential project down the road at work. Drupal, Geeklog, Joomla, Mambo, SiteFrame, Typo3 and Xoops. They all fall pathetically short of WordPress. It’s not a very complicated project. A simple site that I need to make weekly updates to. Probably about 10 static pages total. There’s also the potential of a second, far more in-depth and advanced site later on. That’s why I was searching for a CMS system. It’s really pathetic that WordPress is so great in the areas of content managment, theme creation and ease of use that I’m willing to mess with more advanced plugins for that system rather than try to use one of the other systems that are designed for more “enterprise” type sites.
My problem of course is convincing hardened developers that WordPress is a viable CMS and not just a “little blog toy” as one of them tried to point out. It’ll all come back to what the client actually needs in a website in the end, but I’d much rather push for a free WordPress install with some heavy-duty plugins than a $20,000 piece of enterprise grade CMS software that no one can work with. I don’t have a staff of 100 web guys to work on something like that. I need to be able to develope a site, roll it out and make updates to it without pounding my head against a wall every time I try and publish a page.
What I really need to do is find BIG sites that run just fine off of WordPress. Something really complicated, with interactive stuff, shopping carts, photo galleries, all that stuff. If I can find a couple examples like that, then maybe I can push for WordPress when the time comes.
I should probably dig deeper into creating a theme as well, but that’s a whole other ball of wax.
by Matt | Jul 31, 2008 | Personal, Tech, Work
It’s the middle of the summer and somehow in my tiny little air conditioned office, it’s friggin Christmas! I just got my order of photo equipment from B&H that I added into my departments budget on my arival. Two new lenses, the extender/battery grip for the camera, a portable flash unti, a bunch of smaller things like cables and batteries and adapters. I’m excited! And this is just the first batch. The rest, including an entire studio setup (lights, stands, etc) will be here in about a week. Huzah!
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