unsystematic

A brand new pad

It’s been 4 months since I moved to Athens and 4 months since I decided to get rid of all my old hand-me-down furniture and start defining my own tastes and style. With a new job came new pay and an upgrade to my lifestyle and also some great new friends, one in particular.

My friend Melissa has the same style and tastes as myself and so I was extremely happy to see her excitement to help me furnish my new apartment. And so 4 months and about $2100 later we’re nearly there.

Since she did an amazing job of capturing the makeover, I’ll refer you to her blog for more details. A few things I will say though, being the designer that I am, I notice the little things she did such as disburse little bits of orange throughout the bookshelf – things I wouldn’t have even thought of. For those that don’t know we picked a color palatte based on my shower curtain, which is a mix of rust/orange and green, and we chose darker furniture so the color would pop.

I am extremely grateful to have a woman’s touch to my home, and for her enthusiasm with everything. I am really happy with how it’s turning out and it wouldn’t be possible without her. My place would probably still look like a dorm room …

And her skillset also reaches beyond home and interior decorating; she is also a pretty talented graphic designer as well.

Then and now

My friend Melissa recently wrote a post talking about her life ten years ago compared to where she’s at now. I have decided to do the same, if not for the blog then for myself.

Ten years ago I was 15 (geez, really?!) and I was living in Sanford, NC. I was in middle school with aspirations to be a computer systems analyst. I was into hacking (or was it?), gaming, and hockey. I had a few really great friends, a great family, a job and a girlfriend. I had JNCOs, long hair, and black fingernails; Metallica patches on my backpack and KoRn posters on my walls. I had a 1986 Honda CRX Si that was constantly in repair. I had phone curfews.

Now I’m 25 and I live in Athens, GA having just moved from Rock Hill, SC then Columbia, SC. I graduated with a Visual Communications Design degree with a concentration in Graphic Design, but I work for the web. I don’t hack anymore but I do “collect music and other things”. I don’t really game anymore, though sometimes tempted and I don’t play hockey, but I’m considering getting back into it. I’ve still got the same great friends, plus a few more. My family is still awesome and they live in Hawaii. One brother is there too and plays every sport that he can and is a ladies man (taking after his older brother) in the 8th grade. My other brother is married but in Iraq. He’ll be back in March. Dad goes for a year this November – his fourth tour. I no longer wear JNCOs; I’ve evolved to Express. I prefer my hair short and my nails without color (sounds weird). I have a 2003 Honda Civic EX – black of course. I don’t have a girlfriend and I haven’t for several years. I think most importantly though, I’m doing what I want to be doing – what I feel I’m supposed to be doing – and it feels good. Right now feels good.

6am

I wake up before the gods,
before animals and before the trees,
and before the air mingles with things.
My breath is steady and slow,
and the only movements are the jets of steam
exiting through my eager lungs.
Such beauty, such peace when all the world is asleep.
And so I run.
And so we run.
Thoughts of her encourage my pace,
steady feet, steady mind,
and somehow a shaky heart finds the will to beat.
And I think.
And she thinks.
And I think again, of how funny it is to be so strong,
yet she makes me so weak.

© 2008 Chris Rodriguez

Into the mind of a UX designer

When it comes to design there are several branches all pertaining to different mediums and psyches. Even though they all stem from the same basic principles all design is not the same.

Let’s start with print design, for example. My knowledge of print design is only limited to my four college years. My major was Visual Communication Design with an emphasis on Graphic Design. Sure I did some pretty sweet layouts and yeah I got good grades, but my focus was not, and is not print. I think what turned me off of print, aside from the lack of good ol’ dirty code, was the whole printing aspect. I don’t mind designing for print, but ask me to actually get the thing printed and the deal’s off. I hate it. Two jobs in one if you ask me and the second one being the headache.

Now, design for the web – ah, that’s my niche – is something in and of itself. People use the web differently than they use a printed piece. Not to mention web designers don’t really have the freedom or flexibility to “step outside the box” like print designers do. We have to follow trends and make designs that are comfortable and familiar lest we (or our clients) lose the users’ interest.

Every designer has his or her own tastes and approach, but I’ve worked with some print designers who have tried web design only to rack my head trying to find some tangible way to make the design work for the web. Not that the design was bad – it just wasn’t “configured” properly for the web without a considerable amount of tweaking.

I tend to take the more common sense approach. I like to make things as easy to use as possible; as usable as possible. I believe people who use the web use it to find information and so I think the web should be a tool that presents that information as easily and as understandably as it possibly can. Therefore I take a highly utilitarian approach to the web. I don’t normally do lavish, decorated, ornate, or otherwise superfluous designs, rather I create beautifully simple web designs that don’t leave the user lost in cyberspace.

Print pieces can be informative too, but imagine using a dictionary or encyclopedia covered in all sorts of ornate decorations (that’s what they are – decorations) that do more distracting than assisting. The web is informative, but it is mostly a tool and therefore it should be usable.

I’ve worked with some people who have directed me to “give that title a bit more space around; let it breathe” only to entirely disregard common layout and proportion elements of design. Because making a usable web isn’t only about the consciousness, it’s also about the subconsciousness and what “feels” comfortable. That’s why we have things such as the “rule of thirds” and other similar layout “rules”… because they somehow feel more comfy and things which aren’t comfy aren’t used.

Part of my job as a web designer is the user experience (UX for short). Not only am I tasked with creating a web site that works and gives the user the information he or she is looking for in a timely matter, but I am also tasked with making the web site memorable. Some people believe memorability is done by visuals, I believe it’s done by usability. But it’s completely personal, really.

Take Wikipedia for example. Not a whole lot of visuals there, but each of us, for some reason or another, use it to look up information. Why? What about Google? The search engine is extremely stripped of superfluous design elements, yet we remember to use it every time we search. Why, if not because they are usable.

My web sites look good, but they work better. I back them with my name and my credibility is on the line after all. If you’re looking for frills and all sorts of distracting designs then I’m not your vendor. However if you want a web site that is clean, simple and highly usable… I’m an email away.

:)

How do you dream?

After my last post I began thinking about my dreams. I don’t often remember them, but when I do I rarely forget them. But I’ve never thought about how I view my dreams. And after talking with a friend about our dreams, or how we view them, I was somewhat surprised to see differences. Now I’m curious as to what those differences mean.

She said that she views her dreams first-person; through her own eyes, actually experiencing things. Whereas in mind, I never see my face and the “camera” is always behind me at a 3/4 view facing the back of my head. I still experiencing things, and “feel” things the same, like my mind and body are connected yet separate at the same time. Very weird.

I found this after a quick search:

Your viewpoint or perspective in a dream can be insightful. First person, where you play ‘yourself’, shows that you have a fixed identity or character. This is particularly common in nightmares and anxiety dreams where you are quite caught up in your role as dream actor. The other most common perspective is third person where you witness the dream from an audience viewpoint as a disembodied watcher or point of awareness. Sometimes, though not always, this can point to feelings or situations which are not being felt or experienced (i.e. ‘you’ are ‘removed’ from the scene). A balanced blend of these two perspectives is a good step toward lucid dreaming. http://www.dreams.ca/interpretation.htm

So apparently these two types of dreams are the most common… I wonder what other kinds of perspectives are out there and if I can experience them “consciously” or at will. Maybe if I think about a certain perspective before I go to sleep I can somehow trigger it?

Lucid dreaming. I’ve always wanted to experience this and I think I can come close, but it usually happens on it’s own, which is hardly “lucid” at all. I’m still working on this one though and one day I’ll be able to harness the subconscious while still fully conscious and see what interesting things happens. I’ll be sure to write about it as I’m sure it’ll be quite an experience.

I think the most interesting thing about dreaming is that it happens when you least expect it. You can’t plan it and you can hardly control it, and that the truths that are expressed, whether we choose to see them or not, can tell a great deal about us.