ConvergeRVA Notes October 31, 2014 Designers Can Open Source
Garth Braithwaite, @GarthDB
Open Source software, how it affects design
As designers, we’re trying to solve problems, like developers
Adopt practices of open source development, we can adapt faster
Better collusions of ideas
“Designers are the most overworked group of people I know of in this industry.”
So, how?
Open source software for everybody! Er, maybe not
Actually blog about your process
Share your source files
Use code as a design tool
“Designers are often guilted to learn to code.”
Not trying to do that
"Don’t be the designer that codes, be the designer with the bigger tool box.”
It’s easier to collaborate with code than design.
Collaborate! Find a designer you’d like to work with.
Don’t break each other down, but talk through problems.
Donate! If you have useful things, friggin’ open-source it. If the client didn’t like it, give it away.
Contribute. Even if you can’t use git, developers will work with you.
To work collaboratively with designers, you need to work with other designers.
HOLY SHIT I WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO BROWSERIFY OR SOMETHING ELSE. IT WILL BE FUN.
Don’t let pride, fear of committee, tooling, file formats, lack of desire, or unreasonable greed get in the way of being happy and sharing.
A Humble Manifesto:
designopen.org, @designopen
You should contribute!!
Designers can open source, and we should.
Everyone needs to make money, so worry about that before coding :)
Single page applications. A general overview.
Tiffany France, @tiffanylou
?? She works at C1? I should talk to her/>???
Angular, KnockoutJS
a web application, single web page, desktop app-like experience
I SHOULD TALK TO HER ABOUT MICHAEL WARREN AND GIVING THE INTERNAL TALK ON THIS
Latency: how long does it take to load? How long does it take the user to accomplish what they want to do?
half a second caused a 20% drop in traffic at Google loading 30 results instead of 10
Amazon, Shopzilla: all did speed tests
It was a direct correlation to revenue in most causes. Users respond to speed
So, SPAs + Latency?
offset server work to client
selectively load page fragments
arguably, it helps if you never leave your presentation, or that transition is really smooth
predict users' next actions
use localStorage to remember users' actions
reduce load time with templates
AJAX for tasks, like signing up for emails
localStorage: preload data for faster experience
Quick Mobile Apps: offline apps
lack of page refreshes and dump it into PhoneGap. Tutorial
Nick Wilson, @@TheHalfandHalf
Analog Research Lab
Make posters, books, stickers, etc. for internal stuff
Make beautiful fucking shit
The 10 Commandments of Transit, Transit Commandments
The Power of Side Projects
Matt Keas, @matthiasak
Leverage them to make your day job better.
No boss. You can choose your own challenges
Build the skills you need
"Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own."
Progression of Mastery: learning something very deeply. Specialization.
Keys to Survival: respect your own damn time.
Turn on do-not-disturb.
Documents things. When things work, he documents them. When they don't, he documents them.
I like the idea of reading everything, and publishing notes on them
Publishing your thoughts on articles
Publishing your attempts to solve problems even if you don't understand why they worked or didn't
Next idea: talking about designing something that's super, super ugly
Saying no to design work, which feels weird
Making Musical Instruments & Music also My Successful Kickstarter (+ a live performance)
Moldover, @moldover
He's singing
You can use software to make music
this was bizarre and very cool
Design Rebel
Noah Scalin, @NoahScalin
Ethics into action for design
You won't make a lot of money or even a living in the beginning, but you shouldn't have to choose between your ethics and your work
On your deathbed, will you be happy you sold crap to people?
Are you the gun (killing) or the megaphone (getting ethics across)?
Make a commitment to yourself to do an action
Resources
Working with your hands is important. You shouldn't start on the computer.
We talked about this all the time in school, but most designers don't do this
Nick saying in SF that they were having this problem: all the designers wanted to start high fidelity
It takes a long time to have a good idea, and you have to shift through a lot of shitty ones because you even have that first grain of a good idea. Might as well do all that shit on paper.
It's bizarre to be that creative but to be scared of paper
The Wordless News Creation Process
Maria Fabrizio, @StudioRia
Another sketch-a-day project
Illustrations for news stories every day
Sometimes there's nothing good, or... nothing, or only negative
She wakes up mad early
Is waking up this early the secret to success or something?
Grrr
The Journey Not The Destination
James White, @signalnoise
Showed all of his old, old drawings. It's pretty awesome to see this stuff.
Like me with Pokémon
Photoshop + Illustrator, same tools
Like everyone else, does cool stuff, gave us his life story, made us laugh, but I haven't really learned anything
Don't lose sight of the things you wanted to do as a kid that were ridiculous