I joined a gym, and for a while I went there. I worked out at their facilities and found them clean, and brimming with machines and weights in which to sculpt my body. I used their exceptionally clean and well kept bathrooms and facilities. The staff was always courteous, the lighting great, the music well selected, and the food offered was healthy and scrumptious. They even had a clothing store where one could buy stuff 30% with the membership card, and a day car for those who dragged their children around.
All in all, a fantastic experience from a customer point of view. Everything scored 7/10 or higher (more often higher). So why am I angry with this chain? They dropped the ball in a key area: my leaving.
That’s right, I’m school-bound once again. Two more years of weird sleep schedules, assignments, cliques, teachers, and too many people walking around in pajama-bottoms.
Joking aside, I’ve decided to go back to school for Graphic Design. Over the past two plus years, I’ve felt that though I’m reasonably good at programming, it’s not really what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve had a good run at my current place of employment, but I feel that it’s just not the direction I want to go in the long-run. You see, as I worked along side everyone I constantly felt myself obsessing over certain points; namely UI design, usability, and common sense in design.
Finally got the new design up, though I will admit that there are still some tweeks that I’ve got to address. I’ve got the design stable enough that I’m comfortable releasing it now. I’ve lost enough sleep on this damned thing already, so some small things I’m not overly worried about
This design has been in the works for at least a month now, though probably longer. I made sure I didn’t rush into the markup, and so there was a lot of time spent in Fireworks tweaking things. Once I was finally happy with the design - which took a while - I finally moved everything into HTML which was …fun.
This is the seventh and final part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.
Though this is the last article of this particular series, trust me when I say there will still be many more.
So I’m making this post while blatantly aware that some of my readers will probably have no Idea what I’m talking about. If you’re one of those people, just nod your head and pretend to listen.
A while back I came across a little website called 9rules. As it turned out 9rules was very much similar to Digg.com, Design Float, Mixx, and so on. It was a social hub where ideas were exchanged, participation was rewarded, and all was well. Somewhat of an opportunist, I took advantage of 9rules and their content submission to help my site gain some popularity (I’m sure I gained nothing from it) by submitting my design-related posts to their ever-flowing river of content.
I admit that this is a bit dubious in nature, but it is a white hat way to get your name out there, and that’s something I’m still working on doing. Hate me if you want, but that’s what I used it for. I regret that a little in retrospect, because they had a good community, and I chose to throw my stories into the pile instead of participating and making it better.
The lamenting has a point, so stick with me.
So I’m nearing the end of my first major project. Well alright I’ve had many projects in my life, but this was my first professional project. I was … many things in my project: Lead Developer, Lead Architect, Psudo-Business Analyst, Negotiator, Trainer, Mediator, Whip-cracker. The list goes on.
As the project is finally winding down, I feel it prudent that I write down some of the nuggets of information that I have gleaned from the experience.
Follow along and learn with me as I half-rant life tips.
I despise scope creep with every part of my being. To me, scope creep is comparable to nails on a chalk board, or having my hand slammed in a door again and again and again. It is the ruiner of projects, products, and I’m sure I could find some way to tie it into how Rock and/or Roll music is obviously ruining society. It takes what would in most cases be a solid project, a solid time line, and solid analysis, and tosses them all to the winds.
A quick, simple, and generalized definition: Scope Creep is when someone (yourself or otherwise) adds new functionality, features, or other additions while still expecting your project/product/whatever to still be due by the same time.