Yearly Archives: 2009

Organizing Your Job Search

If you’re being smart about your job search, you’re tailoring your resume and cover letter for each company you are applying at. If you’re really smart, you’re not making that obvious to the person receiving the resume and cover letter. This is a simple matter of how your organize your files on your computer.

Bad:

  • /jobsearch/cover_letter.pdf
  • /jobsearch/resume.pdf

One resume. One cover letter. If you’re only applying for one job, having one resume isn’t too bad, especially if it is a well designed resume. But your cover letter should be tailored to each company you are applying at and you should have an archived version of each as well.

The other big mistake here is that the person’s name isn’t included in the filename for either document, which gives it a very good chance of getting lost in the shuffle. Especially if the reviewer organizes things electronically.

Okay:

  • /jobsearch/john_doe_cover_letter_design.pdf
  • /jobsearch/john_doe_cover_letter_webdesign.pdf
  • /jobsearch/john_doe_cover_letter_marketing.pdf
  • /jobsearch/john_doe_resume_design.pdf
  • /jobsearch/john_doe_resume_webdesign.pdf
  • /jobsearch/john_doe_resume_marketing.pdf

This is actually much better. John’s full name is included in the filename for both resume and cover letter and he is creating multiple versions of each file based on the different jobs he is applying for.

Better:

  • /jobsearch/design/john_doe_resume.pdf
  • /jobsearch/design/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf
  • /jobsearch/marketing/john_doe_resume.pdf
  • /jobsearch/marketing/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf
  • /jobsearch/webdesign/john_doe_resume.pdf
  • /jobsearch/webdesign/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf

Here is where a simple change in the way John organizes his files can start to payoff. It’s the same set of files as in the last list but its no longer obvious to the person receiving the files that he is applying for different positions. Why does that matter? It’s the difference between hiring someone who does something well and is passionate about it versus hiring someone who does lots of different things and, well, they really need the job.

Best:

  • /jobsearch/company-a/john_doe_resume.pdf
  • /jobsearch/company-a/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf
  • /jobsearch/company-b/john_doe_resume.pdf
  • /jobsearch/company-b/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf
  • /jobsearch/company-c/john_doe_resume.pdf
  • /jobsearch/company-c/john_doe_cover_letter.pdf

This is the cream of the crop because it works whether he wants to specialize in something as specific as Interface Design or he is just looking for something creative. It also reflects the high level of detail he is putting into his job search. Because he should be paying a high level of detail. He should be researching each company he applies at so that he can tailor his resume and cover letter to them. He should be dropping one or two relevant facts about each company in their respective cover letters to demonstrate that knowledge.

Heartache and an Egg Sandwich

On the weekend I take one morning, usually Saturday, to go and work on my personal stuff at my second office (Barnes & Noble). This morning Ashton grabbed my arm and started crying ‘No daddy. Don’t go. Stay.’

He wouldn’t let go of my arm and he seemed to be in a near panic that I would leave him. It was heartbreaking.

Then Karina sat an egg sandwich in front of him and suddenly I didn’t even exist. I sat there for a minute waiting for him to set down his sandwich and latch on to me again but I got nothing. I tentatively said goodbye to him and, without looking up from his sandwich, got a dismissive wave in return.

Apple Preview PDF Bug

For a long time I had an ongoing problem optimizing PDFs in CS3 (I believe the problem occurs with CS2 and possibly other versions too). After a file had been optimized it wouldn’t display or print properly from Apple Preview. Elements of the PDF would either be missing or only partially displayed. I found documentation of the bug online but in each case the person said there was no known workaround.

In my case it was happening with sales documents. They had to be optimized because they had to be small enough to send via email or for people to download from our website, so “no known workaround” just wasn’t acceptable.

I spent a few hours playing around with different optimization settings, different ways of saving the files, basically anything I could think of that might possibly have an effect and by not doing a few things, I hit upon a fix:

  • Don’t optimize transparency
  • Don’t discard unused objects
  • Don’t perform a “clean up” on the document

You can still optimize the PDF and reduce the file down to 20-40% of the original size without performing those actions. You’ll retain print quality and the PDF will view and print correctly from Apple Preview.

Playground

Playing around with some grid stuff today. The old theme was suck. Created a base framework based on the 960 grid system for the moment. I don’t like the margins. 20 pixels is too damn small. I’m thinking 12 columns with 30 pixel margins is much better. It hits the 1080px width that Cameron Moll was talking about and is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15 — which is pretty damn flexible.

I think a jello layout that maxed out at 1080 would strike the right balance of flexibility and maintaining decent line lengths. But for the moment the 960 grid will at least replace the eye sore that was here.

Asking the Right Questions

A lot of people think designers just make things pretty. We don’t. First and foremost we solve problems. Problems that usually start with a question and, sometimes, we need to ask ourselves if we’re asking the right question.

I just wasted a lot of time answering the wrong question.

Almost a month ago the CEO of my company, Scott Abel sent me an embeddable video of an interview he had given. He wanted the interview to appear on our website but he wanted to know if we could do so without using the interviewer’s Flash player.

Well, a quick investigation found the interview posted to iTunes in MP3 format. Problem solved, right? Well, no. Next we had to secure permission to post the audio. This took a week and a couple of emails. Then we had to decide where we wanted to post it. News section? Our blog? Somewhere in our community? The item fell off the radar for another week.

Last Friday it came back on the radar. The decision was to post it to the news section. I checked with our server admin to see if we needed to post it to Fileburst or if we could just host it ourselves. I wanted to wing it because I didn’t think there was much chance of it getting a lot of traffic. He was the (correct) voice of reason: multimedia files go on Fileburst.

Next discussion: headers. Did we want it to play immediately, force a download or leave it up to the user. We didn’t want too many concurrent connections to bog down our Fileburst server if the file saw a sudden burst of popularity, so force the download.

While he was uploading the file I went back to the iTunes podcast to see if I could avoid the whole hosting/serving issue altogether. I had an ITPC link to the podcast’s RSS feed but that forces people to use iTunes. Replacing the ITPC protocol with HTTP pulled up the standard RSS screen. Using that requires people to be familiar with RSS and RSS feed readers.

In the description of the feed was a direct link to the MP3 file. But the MP3 autoplays in the browser with no context and no obvious way to download and save it. And you can’t download it until it finishes loading anyway, adding yet another layer of confusion. Not the best user experience. And, what happens if the owner decides to move where the MP3 file is hosted?

So now I can serve up the ITPC link, the HTTP link or a raw link to the MP3 but each solution has drawbacks and none of them provide a particularly compelling user experience.

It was while mulling those options that I experienced a particularly lucid moment.

I went to the website of the company that did the interview and found where they posted it on their site. It has a descriptive title, some lead copy, a picture of our CEO, and links to play it in the browser, download it, subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe to the iTunes podcast.

The worst part is that we always link to the source webpage.

This was a very simple issue that was turned into complex one because I never stopped to ask if I was asked the right question. I just tried to answer it.

4th of July

We had a lot of fun. Went to a friends house so the kids could drive their little cars around and play in the kiddie pool while we drank and relaxed. Then we drove over to Fort Hood so Ash could play in the helicopters and tanks in the 110 degree heat. Not long for those temperatures, we hiked back to the bus to get back to the car to drive back to Pflugerville to relax and watch the fireworks from our house.

Ash had a blast trying to make the tanks do something when we were at the base. He flipped every switch, pulled every knob, pushed every button. I hope they check those things thoroughly before doing anything with them.

We took pictures »

Fireworks were from the house behind ours. We’re outside of city limits and every street in our neighborhood competes for the biggest display. Going outside on New Years Eve or the 4th of July is like walking into the middle of a giant, hour-long explosion.

Karina took some shots that look like stylized palm trees which I think are cool.

Hope everybody had a great 4th!

I love Round Rock Nissan

I really like my 2007 Nissan Sentra. It runs well and it’s got good tech: keyless doors, keyless ignition, hands-free bluetooth integration, stereo controls on steering column, mp3 and 6-disc CD changer, etc. The kind of things you usually don’t get in a car at that price point unless it’s unbearably ugly and marketed to teenagers. The dealership has always treated us well and given us great service. You just have to know going in that the service department is going to try to screw you. They don’t try hard. In fact, I’d have to say that they try to screw me very gently.

I’m taking my car in tomorrow for its 45,000 mile service. Nissan has three different levels of service that I’ll call “you’re a cheap bastard who doesn’t care about his car”, “you’re a reasonable guy”, and “nice rack, would you mind bending over for me?” I’m not a cheap bastard so I didn’t price that one. Reasonable was $195 and the rack was $295. “But wait,” I said. “The rack doesn’t do a whole lot more than reasonable does.”

“Oh, you’re right. I gave you the wrong price for that. It’s actually $253.”

“Really?” I said. For just x and y? “Well,” he said, “your maintenance guide from 2007 is a little different from what we have in our systems now. If I price out what’s listed in your guide the price’ll be $213.”

Great. I’ll take it! We’re essentially paying the reasonable price. I’m not being facetious when I say I love them. Anytime I have to deal with anybody regarding a vehicle, my default assumption is that I’m getting screwed. To not only know exactly where I stand but to be able to correct matters so easily is a great thing. And I’m really happy with the situation.

Viva la Round Rock Nissan!

Found: Chocolate Lab

Monday I came home to find a chocolate lab wandering the street with no tags. He was a friendly guy. Followed me to my house and, when I opened the door, walked right in and made himself at home. Barked all night long.

Found: Chocolate Lab

I snapped a few pics of him to put up a few “found” flyers around the neighborhood. My wife laughed at me for my flyer (see pic). Couldn’t help myself and it only took 10 minutes. When I went to put the flyers up after work today we found a missing flyer for the dog. Turned out to belong to neighbors down the street that we’ve met a few times (they’re daughter is crazy about Ashton). Happy ending.

P.S. I’m loving Alexandra Black. It’s like a chunky Garamond. /fontnerd

Designers: Design Your Resumes!

I’m reading through resumes and cover letters, looking for freelancers to add to our pool of talent at Spiceworks. And most of the resumes suck. They are horribly designed. (Two pages in all caps, seriously? And you call yourself a designer?) As a whole they have terrible leading, headers, use of white space, suffer from poor font choices, and are riddled with typos, misspellings, grammatical errors, missing punctuation, inconsistent punctuation on lists, and on and on.

With any given design in your portfolio you can at least fob off poorly designed elements on the client/boss/committee. But you can’t do that with your resume. That’s all on you. At the absolute minimum it should be free of errors and use a good font. That’s not setting the bar very high.

Bonus tip: if the only thing you have listed under accolades is that time you participated in a civil war reenactment eight years ago, considering leaving that section off of the resume altogether. I’m just sayin’.

UX Team of One Panel (Unedited Notes from Presentation)

These are the unedited notes I took during the SXSW panel. Sub-lists aren’t indented so I’ll need to come back and format later. No guarantee I’ll actually do that so hopefully she’ll publish her presentation.

  • Put away the computer
  • Start with a six-up template:
    • A piece of paper with six thumbnail boxes
    • Designers tend to come up with only 1 or 2 ideas at first
      Usually influenced by tools and recent designs
    • Six-up template forces you past that wall
    • Don’t limit yourself to six
  • Conceptual frameworks:
    • Spectrums: explore 1-dimension of project
      Ex: Experience Level: Beginner to Expert

      • First timer: how-to guide
      • Intermediate: Choose template, step-by-step process
      • Expert: DB stuff with past evites, invitees, etc. (control panel)
  • 2×2: spectrum on top of a spectrum
    • First-Timer/Expert plotted against Manual/Automatic
      • Quadrant A: First-Timer/Automatic
      • Quadrant B: First-Timer/Manual
      • Quadrant C: Expert/Automatic
      • Quadrant D: Expert/Manual
  • Grids: plotting all the spectrums across x/y axis
  • Word Association:
    • accordian, auto-complete, bookshelf, breadcrumbs, carousel, cart, collapsible, comments, comparison, configurator, …, icons, …, modules, …
  • Inspiration Library:
    • Use screengrab tool for Firefox to grab screenshots of things that are interesting.
    • Use iPhoto to catalog them
  • Assemble an ad-hoc team:
    • Make sketchboards
      • Post sketches by group to a large board (like a mood board!)
        • Ex: requirements, home page, create invitiation, re-visit invitation
    • Run template-based workshops
      • Design the box: front, back
      • Concept Sheet: title, draw a picture, …
      • Design the experience: title, …

Decorate your space with your project sketches and materials while you are working on it (not after). Invite people into the process.

When someone starts describing something to you, give them a pen. Ask them to draw it out.

  • Have a black-hat sessions:
    • Get everybody together for a fixed period of time and play a game where everybody has to take a turn being a villian and they have to go through and point out every possible objection they could possibly have. Gets people who won’t shut up about their concerns and let them feel heard. Takes people who were too afraid to give you their criticisms and gets them to open up and voice their concerns.

Get rid of the idea of a genius designer (d’oh!)

  • Use design principles (5-7 pithy statements about the essence of the experience):
    • Tivo Ex:
      • It’s entertainment stupid.
      • It’s TV, stupid.
      • It’s video, damnit.
      • Everything is smooth and gentle.
      • No modality at deep heirarchy.
      • Respect the viewers privacy.
      • It’s a robust appliance, like a TV.
    • Google Calendar Ex:
      • Fast, visually appealing, and joyous to use.
      • Drop dead simple to get information

Quiddity (great Scrabble word): a statement of what you want the essence of the experience to be. You will not create a great experience unless you define what the quiddity is.

  • Evite was the case study used for the session:
    • Three step process:
      • Choose design from the design gallery
      • Add recipients
      • Send evite
    • How would you improve this process?

Twas Time

March 16, 2007, Karina and I welcomed our baby boy into the world.

January 1, 2008, I took a job with a startup company, Spiceworks.

You’ll have to excuse me if I not only didn’t post here in the intervening two years, but if I let the site fall into disrepair. But I just had a productive weekend. I finished moving all of the sites I maintain — about half a dozen — to a new host. Where shareware was in use, like on this site (WordPress), I upgraded everything. I switched to new plugins for Flickr and Delicious (see sidebar). I’ve gone back to the default theme with the hopes that I’ll have more weekends like this one and that I’ll take those opportunities to design something new. Something not corporate. We’ll see how that goes.

At this point I just want a place that I can post family photos too, share design links, tweets (note to self: add a Twitter feed), and maybe even an occasional blog post when Ashton does something funny or when I’m working on something interesting.

PS I’m “clussman” on Twitter.