#nathan boyd

[lettersociety-general]

Project 32: (Re)design an Experience

For this project, I took it upon myself to redesign the core interface and interaction experience of the Sling TV mobile app. As a fan of cord-cutting, I love the product offering of Sling but the moment I got past their website and into their mobile and desktop apps, I saw immediately that their app design could use some love.

Their current design is trying to do too much at once and consequently fails to do some core tasks well. First, I addressed the oversized UI elements. For a service that is all about fullscreen TV media, their chrome covers a large percentage of the screen. 

Next I addressed their treatment of iconography and text. The size of both of these elements were extremely oversized, wasting more space and causing more confusion. Additionally, a quirk of Sling is that some channels allow you to pause/rewind and others do not. The current disabled icon treatment has them at half opacity, but that’s inconsistent with all the still functional icons in the header which share the same visual treatment. Which can you tap, which can’t you tap? This creates inconsistencies and confusion that lead to user frustration.

Finally, the main interaction that was most challenging for me as a user was the browsing experience of the Guide. On my iPhone 6, the elements were so large that I couldn’t see both the on demand “watch now” section along with the scheduled shows and scrolling was a challenge. I didn’t rework this screen completely, but I did simplify the expansion transition and make the hierarchy of information much more clear.

Lastly, I broke the Search function which permeated every header in this app into it’s own sidebar navigation destination. I’d be curious to see the data Sling has about the search usage. Is it really relevant to every page, or would a dedicated and easily accessible Search page be more useful? I took a guess and said no in an effort to keep primary actions on all other screens more obvious.

Hope y’all like it!

- Nathan Boyd

[lettersociety-general]

Project 31: Advice For My Art School Self

Art School Nathan,

Hey. Hope time based typography is treating you well. Here are a few things I know now that you would be smart to learn too.

Stress Less

This is an obvious one— plan your time so that you aren’t waiting till the last minute, stressed about getting something done. Give yourself time to be inspired, don’t force yourself to do everything in one night before the assignment is due! You might even do fine enough on the assignment when all is said and done, but is the work as meaningful and as challenging as it could be? Was the result worth the stress at the finish line? I doubt it. Next time, make it worth it.

Freelance Less

Firstly, freelance work is great. It’s fantastic if you can get a few side jobs here and there while you’re in school to help fund you extracurricular activities.  It is! However, if it’s not a necessity for your bills or day-to-day expenses, don’t do it! Spend your time on your assignments. You have your whole life to work for someone else, but these four years are one of very few times in your life when you get to work for you, and only for you. Yes, someone else (a teacher) tells you what you need to do, but you are the designer, editor, and creative director of your work. It’s all up to you! With that better time management, devote yourself to producing work that exemplifies what you want to be and what you want to do when you graduate.

Create More

Make something new every day. Sketch something new every day. Growing your fundamental skills is something that can only happen if you invest the time. Figure out how to spend 10k hours perfecting your craft and then if you manage that, pick a new craft and begin again. Try as much as you can so you know better what you want to do.

Learn More

Learning software is simple. Quickly figure out that you’ll always be redoing this every year with each cool new piece of software. Don’t chase mastery of a tool at the expense of mastery of design. Learning how to design things well is a lifetime commitment and no matter the tool, the lessons you’re being given the opportunity to learn right now are timeless. Pay attention! Find someone to look up to who can mentor you and help you grow in ways you didn’t even know you needed. That’s the kind of learning that will last. That’s the kind of learning you need to do.

Overall, you’re doing ok, but don’t settle for ok. Keep pushing for something greater.

P.S. Even with the recession of 2008 fresh on your mind… the economy is going to bounce back and actually do pretty well in almost all sectors (especially tech) until Q4 of 2015 when we will experience a moderate market correction that lasts into Q1 of 2016… invest accordingly.

- Employeed Nathan

[lettersociety-general]

Project 30: Lights, Camera, Action! - Christopher Nolan

I’ve always loved cinnemagraph style imagery. For this challenge, I decided to take that approach with poster designs for two of my favorite Christopher Nolan films. I almost added a third to the set, Batman Begins, but if I started a poster for Nolan’s first Batman film, I’d feel compelled to do designs for the whole saga… so that will have to wait for another time ;)

Hope you like them!

- Nathan

[lettersociety-general]

Project 29: Style Switch-Up - De Stijl + Brands

I decided I wanted to take the De Stijl style (popularized by Piet Mondrian) and reinterpret a half dozen current logos. It was an interesting exercise in minimalism and simplification to reduce these logos to satisfy the movement’s style.

Hope you like them and are able to pair the originals with the De Stijl interpretations! :D

- Nathan

[lettersociety-general]

Project 28: Presidential Campaign Logo - Yeezy 2020

After Kanye announced his 2020 presidential candidacy during the 2015 VMAs, I knew immediately who I needed to use as my theoretical presidential brand.

I wanted to keep the color and type very simple. For a smaller square mark, the design was inspired by some of his more iconic album art and for the palate I used a quartet of colors that felt patriotic with a bit of Kanye edge.

Finally, I wanted to incorporate the Parental Advisory that is found on his albums because no matter what his presidential campaign might entail, I’ve every confidence he won’t hold back.

Hope you like it!

- Nathan

[lettersociety-general]

Project 22: Data.gov

I only really skimmed the surface of this project. The task was to take some often confusing data from data.gov and make it more palatable and hopefully useful. During my research, I stumbled upon a CSV that contained a list of all 99 commercially operating Nuclear Reactors currently in the US— my interest was peaked. Firstly, I didn’t realize there were so many reactors around the US, but when I started to investigate the information it pointed me to NRC.gov, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. What I found when I arrived was that the website was absurdly convoluted. It was almost impossible to find any relevant info on recent inspections, events, or even a clear list of the reactors and their locations. 

My goal was to take a first step in exploring a visual redesign and overall simplification of the site. This way, the highly obscure information from data.gov would in fact be much simpler to navigate properly. This exploration isn’t too thorough, but I feel like it’s a nice gesture of the refinement potential that could probably be injected into many of our convoluted government websites.

Hope you like it!

- Nathan

[lettersociety-general]

Project 19: Free For All

For this project, I decided to rework a project that I missed last time around, the family crest!

In researching my family name, "Boyd", I found both Irish and Scottish roots, but the Scottish side of the heritage was most interesting to me so that's where I chose to focus.

"Confido" is the Boyd Clan motto, literally meaning "I confide" but adopted by the clan to mean "I Trust." The root of this apparently dates back to Scotland at the Battle of Largs in 1263. King Alexander III called upon Robert Boyd to hold Goldberry Hill. As Robert rode off, King Alexander raised his hand in the sign of benediction (the primary iconography I chose to represent from the traditional crest) and called out --- "Confido!" (I trust -- as in "I trust you to accomplish this!") Since that time the name Boyd has been associated with trustworthiness so much so that it has remained their motto to this day.

I hope you like the design, it was interesting to research and am very happy with how it turned out!

-Nathan Boyd

[lettersociety-general]

Project 17: State Your Case - Florida, "The Sunshine State"

My mom's family is from Florida so I've spent a lot of time there over the years. From the flip flops, to the floral print bathing suits, to the knockoff sunglasses, you don't have to look too far to find any of these staples. With that in mind, combined with Florida's nickname, "The Sunshine State," it all started to fall into place with this poster series. 

Stylistically, I wanted it to feel almost kitsch with pseudo posterized background images and bold colors combined with simple vector illustrations on top.

- Nathan