Aaron White

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Sat, 12 May 2012 10:40:43 -0400

Early Stage Styling Done Just Right

Thu, 03 May 2012 21:01:28 -0400

Many times stakeholders or clients are more concerned with logos, colors and fonts. When the main focus of the design process should be on workflows, content and wireframes they are more concerned with the look and feel.

Most often you’ll go ahead and open photoshop and style the crap out of your wireframes. This is fine, because sometimes you don’t have any other options, but most likely this will slow down your wire framing. When wire framing all focus should be put on layout, content, workflows and UX. If you’re in photoshop worrying about what color that button should be or how much shadow to put on that container the thought being put into workflows, content and UX will most definitely suffer.

Although I wasn’t able to go to ConvergeSE this year, I did keep a close eye on my Twitter stream during the conference. There were several gems that came through the stream and one of those was Style Tiles. Style Tiles allows you to present interface choices without making the investment in multiple photoshop mockups.

As the put in on their site. “Style tiles are for when a moodboard is too vague and a comp is too literal.” To me, this is the best of both worlds. Appropriate focus can be put on layout, content, workflows and UX when working on the wireframes because you can put all visual elements in the Style Tile.

What could be included in a style tile?

Logo
Colors
Image treatment
Fonts
Textures
Buttons
Links
Containers

Clients and stakeholders will always be excited about the visual style of the site you’ll be building for them. They should be. That’s why they are having you design their product, because your a kick ass designer. So make sure neither deliverable is neglected. Give them a well thought out wireframes and the beautiful style tiles.

WorkFu + Find work opportunities, discover talent: When I get a cold sales e-mail from a random service, I'm like

Tue, 01 May 2012 08:58:12 -0400

WorkFu + Find work opportunities, discover talent: When I get a cold sales e-mail from a random service, I'm like:

Sales emails suck. There’s always a catch, we’re always suspicious, we’re always out in the desert shaking our heads and throwing out death stares.

But look at that shaking cowboy head and imagine it’s you looking at the amount of time and money your company spends on hiring.

Then check…

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Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:14:47 -0400

ryanleecarson: A lot of folks had more questions about our...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:11:08 -0400

ryanleecarson:

A lot of folks had more questions about our 4-day week at Treehouse so I recorded this 11 minute video to delve into more detail.

I wanted to start a business with my step brothers who are RC...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:29:40 -0400

I wanted to start a business with my step brothers who are RC dudes to shoot golf courses and so on a few years ago. Wish we would have. Either way these guys are awesome!

The Naive Optimist: We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:11:46 -0400

The Naive Optimist: We work a 4-day week and just raised $4.75m:

ryanleecarson:

I think there’s something messed up about the startup culture in the USA. The belief is that you have to work 6-7 days a week and spend all your mental cycles on your company. Nothing but pledging your soul to your startup yields success, right?

Not in my experience.

We work a 4-day week at …

The Naive Optimist: I don't have nice stuff anymore

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:07:34 -0400

The Naive Optimist: I don't have nice stuff anymore :

ryanleecarson:

I’ve bought some pretty nice cars over the years including a brand new Audi A6 and a Range Rover Vogue. I also purchased a Breitling Navitimer Montbrillant Datora, which is an expensive (and heavy!) watch.

I now ride a bike and wear a Casio watch.

What changed?

Thankfully my pay has gone up a…

Adobe Unveils CS6 Headache Pricing

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:37:33 -0400

Adobe Unveils CS6 Headache Pricing:

luclatulippe:

parislemon:

These charts, and really this entire idea, confuses me.

Just sell Photoshop through the Mac App Store at a reasonable price — read: a one-time price, not some made-up subscription fee for nothing — and I’ll buy it.

Sincerely,

The Consumer

Ditto this.

Awesome camera build with a truck that takes amazing large...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:08:45 -0400

Awesome camera build with a truck that takes amazing large photos.

aparticularpath:

This. Is. Amazing.

Why We Need Storytellers at the Heart of Product Development

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:58:47 -0400

Why We Need Storytellers at the Heart of Product Development:

colemanm:

A great article from UXMAG making the case for “product storytellers” on product teams, instead of more marketing or product management. A must-read for creators trying to bring products to market. This statement gets to the heart of the problem with struggling products — the what and how of the product get put above the why:

The root cause of these symptoms is the fact that execution focuses on the how and what of a product. But in a world where consumers are inundated with choices, products that want to be noticed and adopted must be rooted in the why.

A product is more than an idea, it’s more than a website, and it’s more than a transaction or list of functionalities. A product should provide an experience or service that adds value to someone’s life through fulfilling a need or satisfying a desire. The ultimate question then becomes: who identifies that value? After the executive or stakeholder identifies the initial idea, who in the organization ensures that the product and experience deliver value to the user? Maybe it isn’t the product manager, marketer, technologist, or designer; perhaps what we need is a new role: the product storyteller.

Into The Forrst: Big news: Forrst has been acquired by COLOURlovers

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:17:56 -0400

Into The Forrst: Big news: Forrst has been acquired by COLOURlovers:

forrst:

I’m thrilled to announce that Forrst has been acquired by the folks behind COLOURlovers and Creative Market, and that Keith, Mike, and I will be joining their team.

It’s crazy to think that Forrst started two years ago as nothing more than a side project used by just a handful of…

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Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:38:02 -0500

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Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:35:03 -0500

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Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:52:05 -0500

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Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:41:32 -0500

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Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:02:42 -0500