I believe one of the hardest issues as a “designer” is proving that what you do has tangible value to a business. That the time and extra expense of designing a product or user-experience returns financially. Smart companies & consumers recognize this. Simple quality over cost result: as a business you want long-term results, as […]
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This isn’t the first time I’ve thought a lot about what an Agile Design process looks like. We practice it every day at SPARC without any formal definition. As our design team has grown in the past 3 years, we’ve let go of some traditional design practices in favor of ones that more closely match […]
Read moreUsing keynote as an organizer for your thoughts during the design process: Create an outline or screen inventory towards the story I’d like to tell. As I’m working through the wireframes, I’ll record my thoughts as bullets into the keynote Formatting your thoughts – keep it simple, go high level then break out specific UI […]
Read moreSitting in a kick-off meeting, little tedious, sometimes steals your energy. Simultaneously reading email, IMing, listening to the client, giving feedback. Occasionally thinking how lucky I am to be in this room, in this conversation, & what/who we’re designing the software we’re creating. Don Draper now builds software for a living. Clicking through the email […]
Read moreThis past Thursday I was fortunate to hear Bill Taylor of Fast Company speak at the Charleston Chamber of Commerce annual event. There were a lot of components to his talk that sounded like the culture we’ve created Sparc. The phrase that caught my attention was the “Architecture of Participation“. There have been many times […]
Read moreOne recurring theme as I watch the way our team works: the fine balance of design philosophy (why) vs. Get-Shit-Done attitude (how): Are we just copying what we see? As designers, are we more often emulating what we see around us rather than “designing” or creating something new. Is it the job of the Artist to […]
Read moreHow do you create “successful” software ? The first ingredient is having a vision. Something you’re passionate about. And how that vision is vetted, digested and eventually executed on. Digesting that idea into its essence and creating a minimum-viable-project plan that can be developed. The second ingredient having the right team: a great client, project management […]
Read moreI think part of being a good designer is to constantly look back and analyze your habits: where or from whom they came from. Think back to the art director who taught me to do one more iteration. Or when I learned to create one more design that makes you uncomfortable. Most often I trace […]
Read moreQuick thought that should be incorporated into a bigger post someday. I came to “design” through an education in Architecture. Little unconventional, but there were several messages that were imprinted early on, and I still come back today. 3 rules for solving problems. Something that stuck in my mind like glue from my first year […]
Read moreThis last year at SPARC has been a pretty trans-formative experience for me. As someone who is use to designing everything, to a role now where I lead others and offer guidance towards how the design should work. It hasn’t been an easy transition – learning to delegate and learning how to improve communication to […]
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