Periodicdesign

I’ve been heavily evaluating my career as of late and wonder where I would be without all the knowledge I’ve soaked up over the past two or more years. Well, I don’t think I’d be where I am or enjoying my career as much as I am now. To all of those who have influenced me; Thank You!

Roll call please (in no particular order):

• Thomas Vander Wal
• Bob Hayes
• Cameron Moll
• Doug Bowman
• Jeffrey Zeldman
• WebDesign-L
• CSS Zen Garden
• Dave Shea
• Dunstan Orchard
• Jeff Veen
• Jesse James Garrett
• Adaptive Path
• Andy Budd
• Jon Hicks
• Dave Waltermire
• Eric Meyer
• Molly Holzschlag
• Tantek
• Ryan Sims
• Daniel Burka
• Porter Glendenning

Now, if I forgot any names, I apologize, but I’ll update this list as I gather more names in my head.

I’m posting this letting everyone know that I will be leaving for two weeks and you might notice some quiet around here. Of course, the quiet part isn’t really news. I will be traveling to Sydney and Melbourne in Australia for a total of 12 days. I’ll bring back plenty of pictures and video for all to see. If I can either borrow my friends PowerBook again or actually throw enough money together from clients and purchase my Power Mac, I’ll toss together a little iMovie action and have a DVD that can be viewed instead of posting a slew of pictures.

See you all in two weeks!

I just received an email this morning for a highly anticipated site, well, at least I think it was highly anticipated. Interaction-Design.org just launched today. How funny that it goes live on the day that I leave for Australia. I say this because I wanted to check it out before I left the country for two weeks. Please take some time to visit the site and maybe contribute some knowledge.

I can’t believe I’m posting this, but I need a new job. I like the people I work with, but the process in order to get the job done is one large circle. Of course, when I say circle, I mean a huge circle.

First we develop, then the client wants something different, then we develop again and then the client wants something different. Round and round we go, where it stops, nobody knows. For some reason, I cannot impress my views where I work to stop this endless cycle. Now granted, I’m not saying I’m some Jeff Veen / Thomas Vander Wal / Jesse James Garrett / Doug Bowman / Dr. Jakob Nielsen / Information Architect / Information Designer / Interaction Designer / Usability Analyst / Accessibility Analyst / Section 508 Guru, but I do believe in process and a way to do things right.

I believe in one small phrase; “Keep content separate from structure and structure separate from presentation.” Mixing these together ends in disaster, as I‚Äôve seen time and time again. It makes my job near impossible to complete in a timely fashion, and when a redesign of a redesign falls apart, they ask why. Of course, do you point your finger back to your superiors and the client? Ethically the answer is NO! In order to keep your sanity, the answer should be YES!

To end this somewhat unorganized post, if anyone knows of a place that wants “out-of-the-box thinkers” and someone who wants to learn, please drop me an email or leave a comment. I‚Äôm not picky about pay or relocation; I just want a decent and fun working and learning environment.