Scott Kubie shows us how writing is designing with words. He reminds us that someone has to be the writer, and it’s our job to know who that person is. He calls on us to take up the task of writing when nobody else can, and warns of what leaving it till the end will do. He also shares some neat tricks to spur momentum and overcome those intimidating blank pages.
Scott Kubie is the Lead Content Strategist at Brain Traffic, and the author of Writing for Designers from A Book Apart. He can be found online at kubie.co, and in person at various grungy rock clubs around the Twin Cities. Since 2010, Scott has delivered over sixty public talks and workshops on writing, content strategy, and user experience design to audiences of designers, developers, artists, makers, and more. His academic career was marked by several superlatives for “Best Hair”.
Why Do We Forget About Writing? (6:30)
What’s Wrong with Lorem Ipsum? (9:36)
Present the Problem Before the Visuals (12:57)
Are Designers Expected to Be Writers? (15:55)
The Rough-In Process (20:08)
Getting Approval Through Stakeholder Participation (24:11)
Rachel Nabors gives us a deep-dive into the art & science of web animation. She motivates us to sell animation as a UX enhancement, rather than a delight factor. She also exhorts us to animate ethically and responsibly.
BIO Rachel Nabors began telling stories online as a teenager with her award-winning web comics. Her love of web technologies transformed into a career in front end development, where she has worked with Mozilla, the W3C, and currently Microsoft to build the web forward. She tends the web animation community via the Animation at Work Slack and her web animation newsletter Web Animation Weekly. She recently wrote an A Book Apart book called Animation at Work: a book on using animation in web design. When she isn’t traveling the world, giving talks and kissing puppies, she can be found perched in Seattle, sipping a cup of fancy tea! She also used to be an award-winning independent cartoonist with 400k teenage girls reading her weekly comics on an iVillage site.
USE YOUR SUPERPOWER OF SUPPORT
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This episode is brought to you by Adobe, makers of XD
“I saw a study that said speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number one fear of the average person. I found that amazing. Number two, was death. Death is number two? This means, to the average person, if you have to be at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.” – Jerry Seinfeld
If you’re a “normal” human being and not a sociopath like Dexter, even the mere thought of public speaking makes you want to crawl under a desk with your favorite blankie and hide. But yet still, the you can’t escape the thought. It nags at you. It beckons you to share what you know. Because you know something in a way others don’t that could really help them on their journey. If that sounds familiar, and you (like me) have been feeling stirred up about public speaking and aren’t sure where to begin or how to overcome your nerves…this special episode is just for you.
020: Stay Enchanted with Jeffrey Zeldman (Part II)
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Don’t miss Part I of this unforgettable interview with Jeffrey Zeldman.
Jeffrey Zeldman inspires us to not underestimate our users by always testing our assumptions–because we’re often wrong. He reminds us of the tremendous value of writing and synthesizing our thoughts. He teaches us to never underrate our gut instincts. He also encourages us to stay enchanted in our work.
Jeffrey Zeldman is the Godfather of Web Design, and unquestionably the greatest friend of the Web. He’s a guy behind highly esteemed Web Design content initiatives such as A List Apart, An Event Apart and A Book Apart. He’s a prolific speaker and heavily influential blogger. He’s the Author of the our industry’s staple: Designing with Web Standards. He’s the host of The Big Web Show. He’s also the founder of renown Web Design studio Happy Cog. Back in the day, he played synth and Casiotone with The Insect Surfers, a DC post-punk techno-surf band.
[RESOURCE] I think it’s your brain. Everything else is replaceable. If you’re bored, start learning something new. If you’re bored, you shouldn’t be in this field. If you’re restless and easy easily distracted–that’s good. That means you’ll keep learning.
[BOOK] Don’t Make Me Think
Don’t miss Part II of this unforgettable interview with Jeffrey Zeldman.
Jeffrey Zeldman dives deep into his origin story to enlighten us on how he got started on the Web. He inspires us to not get caught up in the buzzwords, but to keep it simple and clear. He also gets vulnerable to reveal how overcoming his biggest failure has led to his greatest successes.
Jeffrey Zeldman is the Godfather of Web Design, and unquestionably the greatest friend of the Web. He’s a guy behind highly esteemed Web Design content initiatives such as A List Apart, An Event Apart and A Book Apart. He’s a prolific speaker and heavily influential blogger. He’s the Author of the our industry’s staple: Designing with Web Standards. He’s the host of The Big Web Show. He’s also the founder of renown Web Design studio Happy Cog. Back in the day, he played synth and Casiotone with The Insect Surfers, a DC post-punk techno-surf band.
DESIGN SUPERPOWER
I think it’s my ability to talk and communicate. I never learn the buzzwords. As long as I’ve been in this field, I still speak in down-to-earth terms and I think it’s really helpful. I went through a period of extreme pretension in my early 20’s in the way I expressed myself. I wanted everyone to know how smart I was it was…like the one thing about myself that I was proud of I guess–and man it’s a big mistake. I’m able to listen, synthesize and feed-back what seems to be happening in a way that makes sense.
DESIGN KRYPTONITE
Bullying. People can steamroller me. I hire good people, let them do what they do, and try not to interfere. My worst characteristic is that I’m not always strong enough with my people. I’m better with clients. I’m not afraid of clients–it’s mainly people that I’m close to, and I don’t want to confront them.
SUPERHERO NAME
Zeld Man
HOW DO YOU FIGHT FOR YOUR USERS?
It’s a combination of listening, research, testing, and also just gut instinct. I don’t want to underrate gut instinct. I think you have to have a tremendous instinct as a designer, and say I wouldn’t do it this way. And then you have to test those assumptions because you’re often wrong. The longer we’re designers, the more we think differently about other people and therefore the natural way we would do something isn’t the way that everyone else would do it. You have to have a feeling for what things work, and then you have to test. I think we underestimate users a lot.
FUTURE OF UX
I think all the principles we’ve been discussing are going to stay the same. We’re still going to be facilitating people uploading their own content and interacting with their friends’ content. We’re still going to be facilitating people watching professional content, and reading professional content. There’ll be a continual blurring of the the lines between both. More wearables, smaller screens like watches. They’re going to be more things we interact with using part of our bodies. Where we interact without looking at something. There will be many more sensors in place to make people’s lives easier, more convenient and more fulfilling. Those are the challenges. The other challenges are keeping it human. I think we’re going to have to be protecting people, and liberating and empowering, but not enslaving. And that’s always tricky.
HABIT OF SUCCESS
Writing. I would not know what I believed if I didn’t write it down and express it. I wouldn’t have design opinions. I love instincts and working on instincts, but I really need to use words to just step back from the trance of doing design as a physical practice.
BEST ADVICE
Don’t be discouraged. Don’t stop. And don’t settle.
USE YOUR SUPERPOWER OF SUPPORT
Here’s your chance to use your superpower of support. Don’t rely on telepathy alone! If you’re enjoying the show, would you take two minutes and leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts? I’d also be willing to remove my cloak of invisibility from your inbox if you’d subscribe to the newsletter for superguest announcements and more, occasionally.
