12 Jun 2010 1 Comment
Ajax and Design
CS5 好像蠻不錯的﹐Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver 改良了不少﹐load得亦比CS4快。
過去的日子都在努力學習著Ajax, 她太powerful了﹐沒有CSS和她﹐想在web design上一直糊口下去﹐我想比較困難了。只要砌layout就能活口的一定不是我﹐但我會是平均值最好的那一群。
預計過多半個月﹐我就要想辦法把自己推回Design那一邊。那裡有機會就往那裡走。
互聯網的世界真的無窮無盡﹐資訊萬千﹐創意無限﹐iPhone､ iPad､ facebook､ 微博､ photography､ web design, youtube…吸引得讓人睡覺的時候都差不多沒了。
要更好地把握時間﹐運用時間和捉著機會。
21 May 2010 No Comments
衝了一輪﹐今天放假可以休息一下。
要把自己tune翻去design mode先得!
呢排一直在衝﹐工作工作﹐都在想著要把那麻煩的工作快D做完﹐怕其他同事短時間內接不上手又沒時間幫手﹐所以想盡量一個人扛下來。大家都說得對﹐有時一個人是哽唔晒咁多野﹐就算幾擔心﹐始㚵都要學下放手。我都係學新野,OT,學新野,OT……呢個係每個都會必經的階段﹐要懂得體諒其他人﹐但亦不能放任他們﹐因為﹐這是我們的工作﹐我們的專業。接到上手的工作﹐我們係應該盡量盡善盡美完成（當然有些不值得的﹐hea下就算啦。)
感覺自己轉緊牛角尖﹐要慢慢走翻出嚟先得。
疲勞地坐著想著的時候﹐好像覺悟了一下東西。
亦開始去想了一下﹐其實一間要走在前邊的設計公司﹐應該要有D咩條件先得呢？
要提供設計､新資訊書籍﹐要懂得利用員工最強的才能﹐讓他們有發揮的機會﹐能讓他們有時間去發展一些好東西。
不能一味被客人拖著鼻子走﹐不能給員工們太多不可能完成的任務。
定期開一個討論會﹐聽一聽意見﹐看看有沒有新東西可以用。
要令員工可以心甘命抵賣命。
要鞏固自己實力､放大自己O既 potential。
……
22 Apr 2010 No Comments
A lot of people considering freelancing think it will be easier than their current corporate job. After all, they’ll only have to take on projects they want to take on, they won’t have a boss or coworkers to deal with, and they’ll be able to set their own hours.
But most freelancers, when the first start out at least, aren’t able to be too picky about the work they take on. And while they don’t have coworkers or a boss to deal with, that means they also don’t have anyone to turn to if they get stuck on a project.
There are still clients to deal with, too. And the whole thing about setting your own hours pretty much just means you can choose which sixteen hours in the day you want to work when you’re getting started.
If you’re just getting out of school, you may not have much experience to draw on. And there are a couple of reasons why experience is more important when you’re a freelancer.
First of all, you’ll need a portfolio to show prospective clients if you want them to hire you. While you can always use personal projects, it’s also good if you have at least a few sites in your portfolio that you completed for other people (bonus points if they’re not friends or family). This shows a prospective client that you’re legitimate, and that you’ve had happy clients in the past.
The other reason is that experience proves to both you and the client that you’re capable of finishing projects. If you’ve never done anything but personal projects, there’s no indication that you’ll be able to finish a project.
Freelance designers need to be able to handle client requests and revisions, as there will almost always be things your client wants to change, no matter how great your initial design is. And until you’ve finished a client project, you don’t even have any proof that you have what it takes to work with clients.
When you’re freelancing, you generally don’t have anyone around to handle invoicing, collections, marketing, PR, and the myriad other tasks that corporate design firms handle for you. These are all things you’ll need to deal with yourself when you start freelancing.
Of course, you can always outsource some or all of these functions, but you may find it prohibitively expensive when you’re starting out. It’s better if you know how to do all of them yourself.
Keeping your own books is especially important, as it gives you a clear picture of how much money you have coming and how much is going out (and where it’s going). That’s important if you want to stay in business.
Some people can’t get by without benefits. If you have existing health problems, you’ll almost certainly need health insurance. And even if you’re healthy, that’s no guarantee you will be in the future. Plus, if you have kids, you’ll likely want health insurance for them, too.
This is one of those issues that’s not going to matter in countries with universal health coverage, but even in those countries there are other benefits you may not want to lose.
If you’re self-employed, you’ll no longer have employer contributions to your retirement plans. You won’t get paid sick days or personal days anymore. All of these things will need to be built into your budget or schedule.
Many considering switching to freelancing think the pay will be better. After all, they’ll get to keep all the money they’ve billed out, without sharing any of it with an employer. And that’s true. But you’ll also be responsible for paying all of your own taxes (in the U.S., at least, that amounts to an extra 7.5% in payroll taxes that you have to pay that would otherwise be paid by an employer).
You also have all sorts of other business-related expenses you’ll need to pay. Things like office supplies, new equipment, software, and all those other expenses that go along with running a business will all have to be paid by you.
There’s also the difference between hours worked versus billable hours to contend with. Not everything you do will be billable work. Time you spend on administrative tasks aren’t billable.
If you screw up on a project and have to take time to fix it, that’s usually not billable either (at least not ethically). At a corporate job, you generally get paid either for the hours you actually work or on a salaried rate, regardless of how much the client is billed.
If you can’t discipline yourself to actually work, then you’re not going to make it as a freelancer. If you find you’re spending hours playing video games or on Facebook instead of working, you’re going to have a very hard time finding enough billable hours to pay your own bills.
When you work in a corporate environment, there’s always the threat of being let go if you goof off too much. When you work from home, you don’t have that same threat lingering. But if you don’t get client work done on time, you’ll have unhappy clients and, eventually, no clients.
If you can’t discipline yourself to work when you need to, you’ll be better off sticking with a corporate gig.
So many people who work the usual 9-to-5 don’t really love their jobs. They don’t wake up in the morning looking forward to going to work. But they do it in order to earn a paycheck and put food on the table. Sometimes this is because of the work environment itself, but others times it’s because they don’t really enjoy the work they’re doing.
If you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re probably not going to love it any more once you’re freelancing. Freelancing is hard work, and if you’re already struggling to find the motivation to get your job done, you’ll probably struggle even harder once there’s no boss there to motivate you.
When you own your own business, you’ll likely end up working twelve- to sixteen-hour days five to seven days a week, at least for the first few years.
Freelancing is like any other business. Sure, once you’re established, you’ll likely be able to reduce your hours and only take on higher-paying projects. But in the interim, you’ll probably have to take on any work you can get to build up your reputation and a stable of regular clients.
It’s also likely that your workflow won’t be as efficient as it could be for your first few months, or even years, in business. You’ll spend time on unnecessary activities. You’ll end up repeating things because you don’t have good methods for keeping track of everything.
And because of this, you’ll spend more time than is necessary on a lot of things. Time and effort will eventually fix these issues, but they’ll still have to be dealt with for a little while.
You’ll need a dedicated space for working. This doesn’t have to be an entire office, but you should at least have a desk that’s only used for your work. The idea that you can do everything from your kitchen table is likely just going to cause you headaches. As will the idea that you can do all your work from the local coffee shop.
The good news is that most people can find a quiet corner in their house, apartment, or bedroom where they can set up a permanent workspace. If it’s in a room shared with other activities, an armoire-style workstation is often preferable, so you can “close up” for the day and not have to stare at your unfinished work.
You’ll likely need to seek out some clients when you first get started. If you have no idea where to look or how to contact potential clients, you’ll probably have a hard time finding work.
Come up with a plan before you start making the transition to freelancing. Tip: Stealing clients from your previous employer is not the best way to find clients.
Freelancers need to be able to manage a project from start to finish.
When working in a corporate environment, you may have only had to deal with certain aspects of a design project. But if you’re freelancing, you’ll need to be able to manage every aspect of the design and development process. This includes outsourcing specific portions of design or development, finding out what the client needs and wants, working within the client’s budget and timeframe, and managing problems that will inevitably crop up.
If you’ve never managed a design project from start to finish, you’ll likely have plenty of missteps on your first few projects. Either get some experience with project management, or read a lot of books, blogs, and anything else you can get your hands on to learn the ins and outs.
When you freelance, you’re going to have to deal with clients. And while you often have more control over how those interactions go, you’ll still have plenty of face-time with other people. Don’t freelance in order to escape dealing with people.
You’ll almost certainly end up with difficult clients at some point in your freelancing career.
If you can’t be assertive and stand up for yourself, you’ll end up getting walked all over. You need to have the confidence to stand up to a client who tries to get you to work for free, or who tries to bully you into reducing your price once the work is complete.
You also need to be able to handle clients who don’t pay their bills or make unreasonable demands.
Time management can be one of the most challenging aspects of freelancing. It’s also one of the most important. But most designers find it easy to spend too much time on a certain project or aspect of their business (or personal life) to the detriment of other parts of their business or life.
Time management for freelancers consists of two important things: time you spend on your work versus time you spend on your personal life, and time you spend on one project versus another project. Setting regular working hours helps with the first one, even if all those regular hours consist of is only working until 4pm (and getting up earlier to allow yourself more working hours) or only working 8 hours a day (regardless of which 8 hours).
The second one is a bit trickier. Track how much time you’re spending on each project and be aware of what you quoted to the client. Try to estimate how much time each part of the project will take, and then try to stick to that estimate.
This one is closely related to self-discipline, but takes it a step forward. Discipline is all about doing the things you have to do. Motivation is finding the wherewithall to do things you want to do.
There should be things related to your freelance business that you don’t have to do, but want to do or will make your business stronger or more enjoyable.
If you only ever do the bare minimum, you’re kind of missing the point of freelancing and being your own boss. Self-motivation means you can do things above and beyond what’s required to improve your freelancing business.
When you work for a corporate design firm, you may never have to deal with clients directly. Clients might not even really know who you are. And that’s okay, because usually they’re more interested in the company than the individual designer.
When you’re freelancing, though, it’s your name that gets tied to your work. That means you need to keep a professional image for the best business results.
If a client Googles your name and all they find are drunken photos of you from spring break, it’s going to damage your reputation. You need to be willing to keep your private life private, and to act professionally in public. Hint: use the security settings on social networking sites to limit who sees what.
As a freelancer, you don’t get paid vacations. You’ll need to either budget accordingly throughout the year to cover your vacation expenses, or make a big push right before a vacation to get everything done. Of course, the longer your vacation, the more advanced planning you’ll need. And in many cases, you might still have to deal with client emergencies while you’re away.
If you’ve become very accustomed to having four weeks of paid vacation each year, that can be a big adjustment to make. The main thing you’ll need to do is to notify your clients well in advance that you’ll be taking a vacation if you’re going to be gone for more than a couple days.
When there’s no one telling you to stop working at the end of the day, it’s easy for some people to just keep working. This can be just as detrimental to many as not working enough, though, as it can quickly lead to burnout.
If you’re not able to limit the hours you work, you’re probably going to have a short-lived freelancing career. Your work will suffer if you’re overworking, as will your family and personal life. It’s important to set limits to the number of hours you work, and to only take on projects that fit within those time constraints.
One possible solution is to let yourself be a workaholic for three or four days a week, but then not working at all on those other days. This can help to satisfy those workaholic tendencies while still allowing you enough time to recharge.
The freedom to work when you want to is one of the biggest draws for many freelancers. The idea of not having to work 9-to-5 is a huge plus. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to keep regular working hours.
First of all, most of your clients probably do keep regular 9-to-5 hours. You’ll need to be available when they’re working and want to get in touch with you.
The other issue is that if you don’t have a set work schedule, you’ll probably find you have a hard time getting everything done. Figure out what time of day you work best, whether that’s from 6pm till midnight or from 3am till noon and then work those hours. But make sure you’re available during at least some regular business hours so your clients can get in touch with you when they need to.
Freelancing can be a lonely business. In many cases, you’re not meeting clients in person very often. You don’t have coworkers around. And you’re probably working out of your house. If you don’t like being alone for long stretches of time, you’ll likely find you’re not well-suited to freelancing.
Of course, there are solutions to this. You can work out of your house some days (from a coffee shop or coworking space). You can foster non-work relationships so you’re interacting with people when you’re not working. Or you might want to set a regular lunch-date with other friends who freelance or work from home.
Freelancing is not for everyone. And there’s nothing wrong with that. So often in creative fields we feel like if we’re working in a corporate environment that we’re somehow not as creative as those who have set out on their own. But there’s very little truth in that.
Freelancing is a career choice and something that every designer and developer has to decide on in respect to their personal situation.
For some, freelancing is a dream come true. But for others, it’s like a prison sentence. Don’t feel ashamed to stick with your corporate job if that’s where you’re comfortable and it’s fulfilling to you.
Copy From: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/04/20-reasons-you-shouldnt-be-a-freelancer/
10 Apr 2010 No Comments
There is endless content available in the world of web design blogging telling us how to do things right, and how to succeed at our chosen profession.
That’s obviously a good thing, and it will certainly continue that way. But once in a while we need reminders on the things we do (or fail to do) that are negative.
That is, things that can have a detrimental impact on our progress as designers and developers — despite that these things may be temporarily helping us pay the bills and keep us afloat financially.
We all need to analyze our situation and assess whether or not we’re forming healthy design and coding habits, and whether those habits could be providing short-term gains that are not conducive to long-term success.
So, take this information with a grain of salt (because I know some of it is highly debatable) and consider whether or not you personally are doing anything that could prevent you from having a job in five years.
This is definitely one of those symptoms that not everyone understands at first. Some might even view it as a good thing. After all, every client you do work for puts money in your pocket, gives you more experience, and increases the size of your portfolio. But not every client project turns out that way.
I’ve worked on projects that I don’t want anyone to know about, because the client did what they wanted design-wise, and my advice on usability and best practices was mostly ignored.
Of course, we don’t all have the luxury of choosing our clients like some really big agencies do. But we have to at least be able to understand for ourselves what type of client we might be averse to working with. There may be circumstances where we simply can’t afford to turn a client down, so that’s understandable. That’s why this section addresses our motivations more than our actions (note the word “intention” in the sub-heading).
If we are able to identify some characteristics in clients or projects that we find undesirable, then it’s likely we’re making some progress as developers, and we’re not so much concerned about making money but are primarily focused on making the web a better place.
This is certainly one of the highly-debatable points I alluded to earlier. But consider this scenario: You’re a web developer who does it all: You can create a logo in Illustrator, design a website mockup in Photoshop, are able to work with a slew of back-end frameworks, can program in multiple back-end languages, can code valid XHTML and CSS, can create raw JavaScript, have learned to play around with 3 or 4 JavaScript libraries, can do copy writing, content strategy, IA, UX, and even dabble in SEO and SEM.
Are you trying to do too many things as a web designer, and as a result failing to excel at any one of them?
How realistic is it that you’ll be able to keep up to date and be on the cutting edge of all of those different technologies, concepts, and languages? It’s not realistic at all, so it’s best to pick a few areas that you can keep up with and focus on, and if a particular client requires other services beyond your focus, well, that brings us to the next item on this list.
One great way to ensure you’re staying on the cutting edge and keeping up with standards and best practices is through networking, both online and in person.
Of course, some of us might be limited when it comes to personal networking, whether because of our location or some other factors. But we can all network and build relationships with quality developers online. Just keeping up with the blogs of some of the top developers in the world and joining in constructive discussions in the comments can help in this regard.
Successful networking can have a significant impact on your success as a web professional
Another fantastic way to make contacts and keep up with recent happenings in the community is to attend any events or conferences in your area. Many of these events are put on by some of the biggest names in the web design industry, and the information shared is always up to date and often ahead of the game.
Finally, besides the usual methods of networking done through various social networking sites, you could also offer to collaborate with some developers in the community on a web app, blog, or other website. Making connections in this way will help you focus on honing your skills in a few areas, while connecting with other developers and professionals who can do work in areas in which you aren’t as strong.
As mentioned, this goes back to the previous point about avoiding wearing too many hats. If you have a solid network of available professionals, you likely won’t need to be a “Jack of all trades” and can focus on becoming an expert in a few specific areas.
The only word of warning I would give when it comes to networking is to be prepared to give of yourself, and not just expect to gain from others. The only way an equal and long-lasting exchange can take place is if greed and selfishness is left behind and you’re willing to be just as helpful to those from whom you expect help.
Everyone wants to be able to create beautiful websites that make an impression while at the same time serve a purpose and provide a usable and intuitive user experience. However, as designers we often try too hard in our efforts in this regard.
We may fall into the trap of imitation (which is fine, in general) but forget that all ourdesign decisions should be based on careful analysis of a website’s purpose, structure, audience, and content. I don’t expect a designer to explain every pixel in a design (although I’m sure some designers can), but most major components in a design should have good justification.
Do the design elements in your portfolio make all your projects look overly similar to one another?
I find it interesting when I browse through the portfolio of a designer and see many similarities in their projects (and I’m sure people would see the same weaknesses in my own portfolio). But unless all your designs are for clients in the same niche industry,design patterns and elements should not be repeated too often across projects. If they are, this might be a symptom of laziness and lack of consideration for what should truly drive a design.
The truth is, if you can’t code raw JavaScript, then you’re not a jQuery ninja; you just think you are.
I’m a firm believer that understanding a language from the ground up is the best way to really excel at it. Although developers and designers can accomplish great things with jQuery without knowing raw JavaScript, they can accomplish even greater things when they do know JavaScript.
A good book covering a JavaScript library will include sections discussing JavaScript concepts that should be understood in order to delve deeper into the library’s capabilities.
The book “jQuery in Action” includes an appendix discussing some important JavaScript concepts that will make your jQuery skills that much better
If a tree falls in the forest, and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Even if it does, the sound is irrelevant, because it didn’t serve a purpose.
This can happen with a website that isn’t backwards compatible and lacks accessibility. This is where progressive enhancement comes in, and it needs to be considered during the planning stages, as it is more difficult (but not impossible) to implement in mid-project or after the fact.
Understanding the importance of progressive enhancement will make you a better web developer
Progressive enhancement (which is one of the key ingredients when implementing accessibility) ensures a website’s content is SEO-friendly and is available to all site visitors, including those with older browsers, assisted technology, or those browsing the web with JavaScript and/or Ajax capabilities disabled. If your site’s content is not accessible to search engine spiders, then it’s like that tree that falls and nobody is there to hear it.
Accessible content will happen naturally on projects with limited use of client side enhancements, but it’s especially important in Ajax-driven sites and applications, or sites that use JavaScript to access important content.
Thinking about progressive enhancement in your web projects is a sure sign that you’re trying to maximize the reach of the site’s content and, by extension, maximizing the site’s ability to turn a sale or make conversions.
In no way am I implying here that web developers should know everything about the latestCSS and HTML specifications (i.e. “specs”) or other admittedly mundane topics, but you should have at least a passing interest in some of the goings-on in the world of web standards, since these are what will shape the web of the future. It also can’t hurt to be able to speak intelligently and practically on these topics in a job interview (or occasionally and tactfully in a client meeting).
Having some interest in the progress of web standards, while not the most exciting venture, is a necessary part of being a successful web developer
The majority of well-known web designers and developers are those who are known for being vocal about standards. Those same developers are the ones who have acquired book deals, have written ground-breaking articles on sites like A List Apart, and have gone on to speak at some of the biggest events and conferences in the world of web design.
Those designers and developers are who they are today because they unselfishly took the time to learn about and educate others on concepts and techniques that have contributed towards making the web a more accessible place. You can reach similar goals if you make it your aim to become educated on the progress being made in the world of web standards.
copy from: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/04/youre-failing-as-a-web-developer-—-and-heres-why/
15 Mar 2010 1 Comment
埋頭埋腦地做著做著……
已經忘了是第幾日不間繼地對著電腦在室內工作了﹐
忘記了女朋友﹐忘記了睡眠﹐忘記了日常生活…..
人的生命是很短少了﹐我不能再這樣下去﹐完成這個BLOG之後﹐我便要去找尋另一個自己﹐一個活躍的自己。世界太大了﹐如果我還在這小空間裡生活﹐我知道﹐我這個井底之蛙會白白去老死。
看著女友和她的朋友一起去擺攤檔﹐雖然辛苦﹐但會享受。那裡可以與人開心交流､體會……那裡有音樂……有人的氣息。這是現在的我所沒有的。
儲蓄真的很少﹐所以﹐我不能太衝動﹐繼續做比較沉悶的工作。
為了將來﹐我要好好地想個策略。
p.s. 我想在看完村上的《舞舞舞》時﹐亦是我這個BLOG完工的日子了!
