19 Oct 2011 | Posted in Masters
One of the principle ideas behind 37 Signals’ book ‘Getting Real‘, is the production of real software in favour of excessive planning, wireframes and Photoshop mockups which are arguably a waste of time.
I’m currently employing this idea in an application I’m developing with David Turner and Chris Murphy. For this we have adopted an agile development approach, employing a number of key ideas learned from the 37 Signals book.
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18 Oct 2011 | Posted in Masters
“Using a Apple Mac will make you a better designer” – this was a common joke I used to hear in the studio where I once worked. At the time I didn’t think much of this other than it being a humorous remark, although after reading Don Norman’s book “Emotional Design” I started to uncover some truth in the comment.
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15 Oct 2011 | Posted in Masters
As part of my research into emotional design, I wish to illustrate an example of exceptional customer service and investigate the key principles involved in creating a service that can spark such strong loyality and emotion in customers.
The article focuses on local hosting company, Big Wet Fish, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland – which has been operating since 2002.
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10 Oct 2011 | Posted in Masters
I’ve just finished reading the excellent ‘Rework’ by 37 Signals; a book aimed at challenging the traditional working process of many companies in favour of creating a more productive, creative and efficient way of working.
While I found myself nodding along in agreement to many of the points raised in the book, there was one section that I found difficult to accept as being good advice. This was the topic of ‘picking a fight with a competitor’.
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5 Oct 2011 | Posted in Design
As every new redesign or design update deserves it’s own post – this one aims to mark the start of a series of incremental site updates which will eventually form a full redesign of both my portfolio site and blog.
Rather than launching a full redesign at once, I wanted to apply a refresh to the blog initially in preparation for a series of articles and thoughts relating to the Masters course I am currently undertaking.
At the moment, the blog entails merely cosmetic changes, although I am in the process of refining the layout and implementing a fully responsive design. However, building this around the existing archive of articles – ensuring they fit in with the new layout is proving to be quite a hefty task.
Redefining The Journal’s Purpose
The content here over the last few years has primarily been about documenting my process through undergraduate education, and while a lot of the content will still be education related, I want this journal to become a platform for me to practice my professional writing, as well as a place for me to share my daily thoughts, ideas and work.
12 Feb 2011 | Posted in DES512
For the last few weeks, I’ve been quietly working away at branding Vizuali and getting the initial stages of development under wrap. I now have a simple prototype to share with you and hopefully gain some feedback on usability and any issues encountered.
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11 Jan 2011 | Posted in DES551
Just a short post this time, showing the final design of the Grow website I have been working on over the past few weeks.
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| Posted in DES551
One of the features of Grow Community Gardens website is a small, custom widget in the footer that displays today’s forecast for each garden (Helen’s Bay and Belfast). This article talks through the process of creating the widget by customising an external RSS feed.
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7 Jan 2011 | Posted in DES551
With the concept and wireframe design for the Grow website finalised, I set about creating the illustration for the site. The purpose of this is to depict a detailed landscape, capturing the gardening and community elements of the project.
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| Posted in DES551
Following on from my previous article on concepts for Grow, this article shows the process of transferring these concepts into a final logo design.
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