Jeff Schinella

My Work Efficiency

Jeff — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:46:33 +0000

Like a lot of people, I do my freelance work in the evenings and weekends outside of the normal work hours of my day job. In doing so, I’ve recently come to a conclusion in my moonlighting work habits. There were days I could go until 4am easy and wake up at 6am to start again. No longer. A combination of kids, older age and lack of a 2.5 hour commute to nap on have forced me to make this decision: I will no longer work past 12am. If I do, I have found certain things happen that are obvious reasons why I shouldn’t. Here they are:

Productivity slides down. For example, what normally took 5 minutes to do, will now take 7 minutes. This time deficit increases as 1am approaches, and by 2am I’d say I am operating at half speed compared to when I am fully alert. Troubleshooting CSS in IE6 is hard enough in the afternoon, and near impossible at 2am.
Morning hangover headache with a side of crankiness. This was a bearable consequence in college, but in college I only had myself and my headache to worry about. I actually have to focus on caring for other little humans at 6:30 every morning, while Playhouse Disney blasts through the house, and screams of tormented siblings fade in and out of the pounding fog in my brain. Coffee helps…but not that much :-) This also isn’t fair to my wife, who although extremely supportive, finds the accompanying crankiness she gets from me for the entire next day mostly unbearable.
3rd Day recovery time. I can usually force myself to run 2 full days in a row working late, but on the 3rd day…well, I can’t make it much past 8:30 before I just want to lay in my bed and pass out. So I basically sacrifice the 4 hours operating at 100% efficiency on that 3rd day, in order to have worked the extra 4 hours the previous 2 days at a much lower efficiency scale. Math dictates my decision to work later than 12am is a stupid one.

I made this decision a week or so ago, and have since pushed it to 12:30 a couple times just to finish a particular task. But so far, I am not regretting my new rule.

Color Palette From Your Photos

Jeff — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:10:37 +0000

Need some color inspiration? Found this neat little generator for color palettes based on photos you can upload, Pictaculous. Worked pretty well with the couple of images I had on my desktop.

Click Away

Jeff — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:25:34 +0000

Here’s one to tuck away with the “click here” principle. Stop Counting Clicks is an interesting article the interface myth of click counting. (E.g. 3 clicks or more to get where you need to go is perceived as a bad thing) You hear this every once in a while, but there are some things you should consider before falling in line with this way of thinking. In particular was a good cycling analogy, here’s an excerpt…

I’m a keen cyclist and there are quite a few hills near where I live. On a gradual hill, I shift into a fairly easy gear that still allows me to maintain a bit of speed. In order to get up the hill I might turn my pedals 300 times. Each pedal turn takes a bit of effort, but the hill isn’t very steep so I have no real problems getting up it.

The next hill I come to might be a lot steeper. In order to get up it I’m going to need to shift into my easiest gear. Each pedal turn is very easy, but I need to turn the pedals a lot more often in order to get up the hill. The steep hill is a more difficult task than the gradual one. By breaking the task up into lots of easy pedal turns I can still get to the top without problem.

So what has any of that got to do with websites? Well, in order to keep some tasks simple for your users, they may have to click more often. In the same way that a cyclist needs to perform more pedal strokes when climbing a steep hill.

Just as the cyclist is not counting her pedal strokes, your user is not counting his clicks. They both just want to get to where they’re going.

jQuery Lite

Jeff — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:32:16 +0000

jQuery TOOLS appears to be a great solution for those who want just the UI candy of jQuery without anything else. Seems perfect for small-medium sized sites, and weighs in at only 5.8kb!

GOOD Information Graphics

Jeff — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:59:36 +0000

If you’re looking for some inspiration on information graphics, check out the flickr collection from GOOD. While Tufte wouldn’t agree with all of their design choices, I have to say the graphic elements they include support remembering the point of the data. It really shows how a few little design elements (The straws in this case) can add emotion to the information graphic, helping it become memorable…which is something I tend to overlook when presenting data. Lots of other examples of this there too, be sure to check them out.

The Future Of Your Audience

Jeff — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:54:55 +0000

There is an interesting read titled “Where is Everyone?” from Baekdal. It covers a brief history of how people got information in the past, and provides some projections on the future. Includes some nice information graphics. What’s surprising to me is the amount of weight they give social networks from now moving forward…it will surpass web sites (if it hasn’t already) and eventually be replaced by what is referred to as “Social News”. Here is an excerpt:

In the next 5-10 years, the world of information will change quite a bit. All the traditional forms of information are essentially dead. The traditional printed newspapers no longer exists, television in the form of preset channels is replaced by single shows that you can watch whenever you like. Radio shows is replaced podcasts and vodcasts.

I don’t know that I agree with every projection in the article, (TV gone by 2020, the networks won’t have it) but what I do agree with is the fact that the way people will get their information is going to change. Some of the statistics from the CCV web site have recently agreed with this post. Facebook has been the top external referrer for over 2 months now in overall site traffic.

CCV has been trying to connect with our audience on the recent surge of Social Networks, next move…why not let them connect with us. Give them the ability to report back, real-time on events, services & random thoughts about their church. (Oh, guess what, they already have it!) I can hear the whispers now…“what’s that you say? Give our members the ability to post pictures & video on our site/page?….but, but, what if they post something they shouldn’t! What if they are wearing a t-shirt with Darwin’s head on their chest? What if they post a picture and description of their favorite drink? What if they talk bad about us?”

Well…what if? I think we need to start being comfortable with the uncomfortable. If there are people affiliated with, fans of or members of your organization, and you don’t like their stance on something, then address it. Using a church example, if one of your members posts something inappropriate on the church Facebook page, use it as a teaching device in service. Make it a point to respond to the crowd where the crowd is. Stop trying to protect your image, and start defining it.

Found: Four Free Future Favorite Fonts

Jeff — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:06:20 +0000

There’s been a few links passed my way recently of some free font sites/families. I thought I’d share a few of my fav’s.

Monika
Always looking for a good cursive font, and found one thanks to Jon.

Advent
No, not because I was raised an Adventist, it’s just slick.

Whiteboard Modern
My whiteboard handwriting is chicken scratch, now I can live vicariously through this font.

Aller Sans (Skrift?)
I can’t tell which name to call it, but it is basically Din for the rest of us :-)

007 373 5963

Jeff — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:20:36 +0000

Yes, that is the code to Tyson, and I do have it burned into my memory. It’s making a come back.

Augmented Reality With Flash

Jeff — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:38:49 +0000

A really interesting concept has hit the Flash scene, and Lee Brimelow gives a really simple & concise overview of how to implement the basics. I’m not sure of any really good application yet, but I am sure there is a project out there just waiting for this type of thing.

My Dentist Took Advantage Of Me

Jeff — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:00:05 +0000

Being forced to recline in a chair for an hour and 10 minutes is bad enough, and my dentist is smart enough to capitalize on the situation. Key placement on the ceiling of a poster for Crest was in my field of vision the whole time. It felt a little bit like brain washing, a la Clockwork Orange, but it must not have been too effective since I can’t even remember if it was for toothpaste or whitening strips.