Bob Irish @bobirish-blog - Tumblr Blog

I love Instagram and the fall and the view from the train depot.

Cubicle Corridor

It feels good to draw again!

Wasup?

'LOST' photo stitch...I was bored before bed and needed to do something with these images I captured while watching Lost on Netflix.

Mythbustin!

Signs of work

Slow down.

Writing to convince myself again that we are better off if we would just slow down. What if we just focused on three things at a time instead of 15 things? Would the 12 other things get better if we just did the first 3 things really really well? I can't believe how distracted I am everyday with the gadgets, the news feeds, the search engines and the constant stream of information with no time to stop and spend the necessary time on one of those bits of info. We run along side the edge of an overflowing river of information and to do's as it all rapidly leaps form the clif's edge just to fall into an abyss of 5 minutes ago. I'm not suggesting we all go back to typewriters and take down our garage door openers. I'm saying just because we can move fast doesn't mean we should. I'm saying, let's get one piece of technology right before moving onto the next big thing. Let's ask "why do it" before we "just do it." We can still innovate and lead. Let's just rule the world by becoming masters and artists of a few things instead of novices of a lot of things. Slow down and ask why. Slow down and make sure you understand step 1 before moving on to step 2. The web has proven that ideas are endless. They aren't drying up anytime soon so take your time. Just don't let fear of the unknown be your excuse.

My wife had these "Apple logo" cake balls made for me and brought them into my work. Thanks for the Apple birthday! (Taken with Instagram)

Downtown Boise.

Testing local site on Android

If you are designing a website on your Mac and do not have it accesible on the WWW and you want to test it in the Android browser, then it will take some work getting there.

Step 1. Download the Android SDK. Unzip it and put the folder somewhere.

Step 2. Download Eclipse Classic. Unzip it and put next to the Android SDK folder.

Step 3. Open Eclipse from the folder > Help > Install New Software

Step 4. Install ADT by following these steps.

Step 5. I then got a prompt to install the API's. These are the APIs for each version of Android OS. At first I chose all of them which estimated 1900 minutes for installing. I canceled and just installed the latest one.

Step 6. Create an Android Virtual Device (AVD). Eclipse > Window > AVD Manager.

Step 7. Create a new project and associate it with your AVD.

Step 8. Open ADB: Android SDK folder > platform-tools > adb.

Step 9. Run the Eclipse project you created as an application from the green play button.

Step 10. The Android emulator will open, wait, wait some more, then go back to Eclipse and run the project as an application again.

Step 11. The emulator should begin to load the Android OS and your test application. Click the home button and open the Internet app.

Step 12. Type in the address to the site you want to test. If you need to point to a local website replace "localhost" or root with "10.0.2.2"

Setting up your site locally is another story, but I was using XAMPP.

To test on an iPhone simulator, download xCode, install, create project, run project, simulator opens, open Safari app, type or paste in the link to your site.

#android #web design #xcode #iphone

OS Launchpad limitations

Discovered today the limitations of the not so new Launchpad in Mac OS. There's no removing apps from the launch pad. You can only organize them the way they are unless you want to uninstall one of the apps. In that case you need to drop the app into the trash from the Applications folder, empty your trash, and viola! it's gone from the Launchpad. All that other crap you do not want to uninstall but want it out of your way in Launchpad -- throw all that into it's own app group. Here's a video that demonstrates the run around:

http://youtu.be/wTy9PGf5BAw

#apple #lion os

Fear of creative risk

Have you ever jumped or ran away from a spider? Or a flying hammer? Obviously, we react this way out of survival. Unfortunately, most of us react in a similar way to uncertainty. I recently read an interesting article (http://the99percent.com/articles/7085/Uncertainty-Innovation-and-the-Alchemy-of-Fear) about creative fear. Few of us actually lean into the fear that comes from hard work, making tough decisions, or questioning the status quo. All these bleed uncertainty, questions and the unknown. Where the truly brave find success is just beyond this edge of uncertainty. this is where they find the untapped creativity. This is where fire fighters and Jack Bauer's of the world reside because being heroic takes risk. Further, moving past the fear requires making a decision. The question to ask yourself is, are you going to run or are you going to face the fear of being wrong, making a mistake, being embarrassed or sticking out?

#fear #creativity #jack bauer #uncertainty

The Proven Website Project

I'm on a mission to design a website template that is based on research. Using my understanding of web design (having been in the biz since the 90's) I will combine previous research, usability principles and findings from my own research. My goal is to build a framework that other web designers can use as a base when designing websites for their clients.

With every new website I design I seem to re-invent the wheel. There are frameworks out there already, but there are none that I can find that help with where what types of elements are most commonly placed (logo, about us, login, etc). I'm not saying all websites need to look the same. In fact, web design ought to question the status quo. But at the same time, people expect things to be a certain way. They want familiarity and new all at once. With my framework I hope to offer the web designer freedom to innovate while keeping user expectations upfront.

I've already begun my own research. So far I have made a list of 200 websites that include the world's biggest brands, social websites, websites from tech, health, entertainment, and other industries.

I'm in the process of capturing screenshots of all these websites and cataloging them. I found a handy little program that allows me to capture multiple websites at once. So far it has had a struggle with a few that I will have to grab directly from the web browser which also has a handy tool for capturing whole web pages.

Once I have the websites cataloged I will begin to run tests on them. Updates to follow. Oh boy!

#web design

Every year my office does a white elephant mug exchange. This year I contributed this mug. I took one of those plastic mugs with the paper insert and made my own insert with old celebrity mug shots. It's a "mug shot mug." The mug shots include Jane Fonda, Anna Nicole Smith, Steve Tyler and Johnny Cash.

Here's a drawing I did for my sister-in-law and her husband.

A friend at work took some photos of me with my Pixar toy collection.

#Pixar

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