What design will be intuitive for the user?
Skill | Rating | Meaning | Example |
---|---|---|---|
Languages | |||
jQuery | I create from scratch | ||
JavaScript (native) | I know the basics | Custom typewriter (via Codepen) | |
CSS3 & earlier | I could teach it | Red Cup Cafe 2017 | |
SASS/SCSS | I understand most of it | This portfolio website (via Github) | |
HTML5 & earlier | I could teach it | This portfolio website (via Github) | |
Pug/Jade | I understand most of it | This portfolio website (via Github) | |
React | I'm learning it | via Wes Bos | |
Design | |||
Adobe Photoshop | I've used it for zonks | Red Cup Cafe 2008 (via Behance) | |
Adobe Illustrator | I've used it for zonks | Infographic on Conflict Resolution (via Behance) | |
Adobe InDesign | I know most of it | ||
Web Interfaces | I could teach it | ||
Marketing campaigns | I thoroughly understand it | ||
I thoroughly understand it | Graphic Design portfolio (via Behance) | ||
Frameworks | |||
Bootstrap | I create from scratch | This portfolio website (via Github) | |
Joomla | I could teach it | Red Cup Cafe 2017 | |
WordPress | I understand most of it |
What works for the user to make their experience the best?
Skill | Rating | Meaning | Example |
---|---|---|---|
Initiation | |||
Business Goals | I confidently extract goals | Red Cup Cafe 2017 | |
Competitor Analysis | I chart/graph in my sleep | ||
Planning | |||
User Personas/Profiling | I understand most of it | Red Cup Cafe 2017 | |
User Story Mapping | I understand most of it | Book review (Jeff Patton) | |
User Journeys | I understand most of it | Red Cup Cafe 2017 | |
Accessibility & WCAG | I understand some of it | ||
Specifications | I know pros & cons of many ways | ||
Prototyping | |||
Information Architecture | I see dead patterns (6th sense) | Why I say I have a 6th sense in IA | |
Prototyping, lo-fi | I confidently create | ||
Prototyping, hi-fi (interactive) | I confidently create | Red Cup Cafe 2017 | |
Qualitative Research | I understand most of it | Red Cup Cafe 2017 | |
Quantitative Research | I confidently create + analyse | ||
Quality Controls | |||
Standards/Guidelines | I confidently create them | ||
Software | |||
Adobe XD | I confidently use it | ||
Axure | I confidently use it | ||
Sketch + Invision | I understand the basics | ||
Balsamiq | I understand the basics | ||
Proto.io | I confidently use it |
How can we manage timeframes?
Tim Brown, CEO of one of the greatest design companies in the world, IDEO, hires people who are T-shaped.
I-shaped people are traditional experts, specialist in one field.
T-shaped people are the best creatives, able to empathise with a wide field and apply their mastery to new fields.
I've combined UX, the Thomas-Kilmann Assertiveness vs Cooperativeness tool, and other Conflict Resolution principles to pioneer "Peaceful UX" (see articles on medium)
From hiring Filipinos, I've learned common personality indicators like Myers-Briggs & DISC personality profiles, and tools to measure IQ and EQ.
I'm 50-50 left and right brain—part big picture and part detailed.
Who cares?
Well, when a fault in a legacy website was going to cost $10-20,000 to fix, and everyone was fixated on the detail, I thought outside the box and found we could bypass that website for that part, using our other website. Inelegant, but free.
When a client asks 'I want a website with these functions' (detail thinking), I draw out the big picture goals and suggest a better solution.
I've learned how to outsource well so that a 50 hour isometric design can be done almost perfectly in South America (parallel to my work) for a tenth of the cost (see Red Cup Cafe)
I have complete freedom in how I set my business up, so I know hundreds of apps & processes that can easily collectively save a business 10-20+% productivity.
There's the tech support: "Have you tried turning it off and on again".
Then there's the web guru: "Let me Google that for you".
And the self-employed are practical and just have to make something work.
Combined, I'm the guy who says "There's an app for that", because it's not about perpetual inefficient fixing (IT), or just knowing how to pretend you know stuff (via Google), but it's honed, intimate knowledge of the problem, together with hundreds of possible solutions, and the creativity to pull that together to make it work, quickly.