I will be running a workshop on design for startups, organized by the fine folks from SeeICT. We will talk about the importance of interface design for young companies, we’ll cover the basics of interface design (targeted at someone who is not a designer), and discuss the designer–developer relationships and communication.

Feel free to apply for attendance (due to the nature of the workshop it will be pretty limited), but I bet it will be really interesting if you have a startup of your own, or if you’re just thinking of starting working on a product or a service of your own. Details below.

Date: Saturday, January 28 2012

Place: KC Grad

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Topics: Basics of interface design, importance of design for startups, working with designers, practical exercise.

More information (in serbian).

Recently we got an email from a student looking for some insight into the design industry, as she’s fresh out of college:

Hi guys,

I have to say that I am very impressed with your work and I admire it. I am in my last semester of college as a web design major and I was wondering if you guys have any advice or insight on the web design business.

If you guys don’t reply, I totally understand.

Have a great day!

Sincerely, Basia

I thought it would be useful to others, so I’m posting the answer here as well.

Hi Basia, and thanks for the kind words.

My main advice to you would be:

• if you are planning to freelance: keep in mind that the minor portion of your work will be the actual designing, start learning about business and how to advertise your services,
• if you are planning to get hired: choose a productive, busy environment that will make you deliver under pressure,
• never miss a deadline.

All the best,

Cheers.

To everyone out there just starting out: it’s a tough game, but it’s not coal mining. Grow up, take responsibility, and work hard.

I haven’t been a member of a social network other than Twitter for two years now I think. I left Facebook in 2009, and since then I’ve tried a couple of others; I know I have accounts all over the place, but I am using them only for checking things out and staying current with the trends in regards to user experience design, and such things.

Than came Path, and roughly at the same time I got a new iPhone (I messed up my old, beat up 3G by jailbraking it), and I was tempted to try it out. Also everyone was buzzing about the—now famous—circular menu, which I am not all that excited about to tell you the truth. The beauty of Path lies much deeper inside it within the little details, although the menu was an excellent marketing move to get the early adopter nerds raving about it. Genius.

The Timeline

The main reason I wanted to try out Path (at the time thinking I will just be testing it) was it’s timeline. I was interested in checking it out because we are experimenting with a new Web application in–house that is based on a timeline (but has an entirely different purpose). Seeing Facebook implement their timeline profiles—and now Path—seemed like a good validation of a rather unusual approach. Unconventional to say the least. We’re still in development but really close to be able to test it and see how it will perform.

My Social Circle Is Mine

One other reason I was drawn to Path was that I knew I could control my social circle. This is very important to me, and the main reason I left Facebook. Accepting friendship requests out of courtesy—which is a norm on Facebook—is something I despise, yet a norm over there. Twitter is also heading this path lately; meaning that some people start following someone, and if they don’t follow back, they get unfollowed immediately. That’s ridiculously vain behavior.

The Interface And The User Experience

Another thing about Path—it’s so fucking well designed. The timer that appears alongside the scrollbar is my favorite feature, one of those when you say “I wish I had thought of that.” The entire app has that “it just works” feeling that makes it a joy to use.

What Path Is For Me, And What It Isn’t

I can see myself using Path alongside Twitter, but I don’t see it replacing it any time soon. Path is for close friends, Twitter is for the public. I feel confident posting private stuff on Path, and being more open about personal things because I know who’s on the other side. Not so much on Twitter.

I love the fact that I can choose what I want to make public through Twitter, though. That’s a cool thing for me as I am primarily using Path now for photos. The 4S has a fine camera, I’ll tell you that, and Path’s filters are cool.

One thing I don’t really like about Path are the public pages, they just feel overdesigned. It’s a personal opinion, and a matter of taste, but that’s really the only thing I can hold against it at the moment.

More often than we would like, we get inquiries from clients—as do other companies and freelancers I might presume—to take on “small” projects which are due “yesterday”. We understand that there are things that actually need to be done urgently, things such as surgery, or putting out a fire. However, we are neither surgeons, nor firemen; we’re Web designers.

The thing is, when someone is making a request that requires urgency on vendor’s behalf, it’s usually to cover up someone else’s screw–up. Someone didn’t do their job well enough (for whatever reason, this could be completely legitimate by the way), so you are being brought in to make up for the lost time.

Now, this is a very tricky situation to be in, from the way I see it, there are a couple of acceptable ways to handle these requests:

• charge a premium rate for the job because you are performing a premium service (getting them out of a jam), or
• do not accept this kind of work because you have wore your nerves thin over the years, and you’ve experienced how these projects usually go.

On one hand, there’s a voice inside your head telling you that this will be a quickie; you and the team will roll up the sleeves and get some of that easy money. On the other, you know that things are never black and white, and that the all too familiar scenario might repeat: the deadline suddenly isn’t all that urgent anymore leaving you with a project that will linger on forever, there is “just one more little thing”, the client doesn’t have the content ready yet expects you to do your job, the list goes on… However, if you protect yourself well—polar bear style—through a good contract covering these situations, you may avoid most of the damage, but you will still be stuck with that foul taste in your mouth.

On the other hand, sometimes these projects really do breeze through before you can even realize that you’ve started them, but that’s rarely the case. Odds are that things will get messy.

The point is, if you decide to take on a job like this make sure that:

• the client is really important to you,
• that you are covering all your bases by charging a premium rate,
• that your back is covered by a good contract addressing all the what if’s,
• you are ready to deal with the fact that the project might change it’s course drastically.

Or just decide to, you know, pass.