Asides

Vogue’s Interview with Jony Ive

“And here’s the next irony that defines Ive’s career: In the clutter of contemporary culture, where hits and likes threaten to overtake content in value, the purity of an idea takes on increasing currency. “I think now more than ever it’s important to be clear, to be singular,” he says, “and to have a perspective, one you didn’t generate as the result of doing a lot of focus groups.””

Jony Ive is well-known in design and technology communities. I hope that articles like this one will bring more awareness to his influence on the devices we use – and wear.

 

Pendleton Ward on Leaving the Helm of Adventure Time

“He says this not with sadness or frustration, but with relief. “For me, having quality of life outweighed the need to control this project and make it great all the time.” So he stepped down from running Adventure Time to become simply one of the show’s writers and storyboard artists.”

Every time I hear about someone I admire, or unanimously successful, getting burn out and recognizing the importance of a work/life balance I feel both sad and happy. Sad that it takes them as long as it does to come to this conclusion. Happy that they have, and can now (hopefully) continue making cool things – without the cost of diminishing the other parts of their life.

The best advice I ever received about the time I graduated college was this – don’t work over 40, no one will thank you for putting in a steady 60, no one will promote you for it, and you’ll regret all the things you miss out on outside of work. Don’t do it.

Khoi Vinh Interviews Mike Monteiro

“At the risk of gross generalization, I think designers typically spend the first ten years of their career hoping nobody finds out they’re an impostor, the next ten years thinking they’re hot shit, and the decade after developing empathy for the people they work for.”

I didn’t even finish this interview before sharing it here. I really enjoyed Mike’s first book and I’m looking forward to picking up a second. The word is that it’s another fitted to excite desire.

Education and Support are Golden

“In this case, our approach worked, and the client’s cumbersome media management time was significantly reduced. The difference between the outcome of the two projects was simply education and support.

…

We should be teaching our clients to use their website, app, content management system, or social media correctly and wisely. The more adept they are at putting our products to use, the better our products perform.”

90% of my day job is education and support. 100% of any glimmer of success I’ve ever had is in properly aligning capabilities in what is being developed and expectations on how that will be used. Things are often built with all sorts of bells-and-whistles – that never get used. Why? Because no one took the time to set expectations, educate, and support the customer. Drew Thomas knows what he’s talking about here folks.

 

 

Clients are not Your Friend and That’s OK

“The first time I presented design to a client I absolutely choked. I put the work in front of them and stood there like an idiot. It was humiliating. The next time was a little easier. And the time after that, well, you get the idea. I have done every one of the things on this list. I’m sharing them with you in the hopes that they’ll spare you a humiliating experience or two. It’ll take time.”

Mike Monterio (again) shares some practical wisdom for anyone who works with clients. You can design the most amazing thing, but if you can’t present it’s no good. I cringed reading this, knowing I too have made some of these mistakes.