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Elsewhere
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Misc.
Is there a web/interactive equivalent to AIGA?
Last night, the career services guy at my school spoke to me before class and was encouraging me to join AIGA because he meets with a lot of employers that will take potential hires more seriously if they are members. Since AIGA is “the oldest and largest membership association for professionals engaged in the discipline, practice and culture of designing,” it’s one of the most recognized professional organizations in the field of design. However, their inclusion of web and interactive design resources is less than stellar, in my opinion. I really get the sense that they are more committed to print design.
Tools, tools, so many tools!
Lately I’ve been drinking the Productivity Kool-Aid, and have been trying to better manage my workflow using a combination of online and desktop tools. Here are some of the main tools that help me get through my day.
Netvibes - This has replaced Google Reader as my RSS feed reader for the many, many blogs I read. I like the tabbed interface and the ability to quickly add new feeds or widgets to any tab using the button at the top of the screen. I’ve also added a Gmail alert, calendar, and Twitter app to my Netvibes homepage.
Netvibes
Why the Design Community is Awesome
I’ve been trying to draft blog posts for several days now, and it has been quite a struggle with so many distractions. The good thing is, some of those distractions are wonderful blog posts by other authors.
Liam McKay of Function has blogged a guest post on myInkBlog called "Why I Love the Design Community & Industry."
He asked users on Twitter to contribute their reasons for loving the design community, and I was so excited to respond. I’ve learned so much from other designers online and from the books I’ve read. In some industries, the "famous" people are untouchable and impossible to contact. Not so with design. Many designers have blogs and interact with people via other social media, and I’ve found that almost everyone is willing to share ideas. They follow you on Twitter, they respond to comments on blogs, and contribute to community sites.
I still find myself reluctant to add my voice to the chorus sometimes, but I’m still happy to consider myself a part of a diverse, active, and welcoming community. Designers are kick-ass.
So go read the post. And if you’re so inclined, you can also follow Liam on Twitter.
:: via myInkBlog ::
Making Your Browser a Sexy Beast
I spend a lot of time on the Internet. My job involves creating/viewing/testing web pages. I also read most of my news online, use Gmail for my primary email account, participate in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and keep up with just shy of a hundred blogs via an online feed reader (every time I try to “trim the fat,” I discover another awesome new blog).
Recently, I’ve admitted to myself that I probably also waste a lot of my online time performing silly tasks: copying and pasting interesting links into draft emails, trying to sift through my massive list of bookmarks, taking screenshots and uploading them into Photoshop only to sample that one awesome color in the header.
I started dedicating some time to customize my online experience, reading productivity articles and looking up extensions for my browser. Right now I’m using Firefox 3.0 (I only fire up Internet Explorer for testing websites…otherwise, it is dead to me!) and luckily, Firefox has a ton of add-ons that are designed to increase efficiency and convenience.
Still here!
Oh, WOW…I did not realize how long it has been since I last blogged. A combination of inspiration drain and a mountain of other priorities to focus on kept me away from my blog, and now it looks like it needs some dusting off.
Finally, finally I can put the busy month of August behind me and start concentrating on fun stuff again! This month, I’ve been busy becoming addicted to Twitter, attending events with Refresh DC, seeing my college roommate and one of my best friends ever get married, participating in a DivaFit class (hey, it was for the bachelorette party and I totally didn’t come up with the idea), and watching the oh-so-inspiring speeches at the Democratic National Convention.
I’ve also read some books, including Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design, by Andy Clarke, and Bulletproof Web Design, by Dan Cederholm. All part of my efforts to build a vast and glorious web design empire of my very own. (Insert maniacal cackle here.)
Thanks for being patient (and thank you, spam bots, for giving me an abundance of comments to moderate this morning). I do have some blog post ideas cooking in my head at the moment, so stay tuned!