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Where do I begin?

Working on my portfolio has always been a constant struggle for me. That's the thing when it comes to your own work... It's never good enough, right?

I've been trying to find out (via google) who said "The only thing stopping you is you," but I'm not having any luck on getting a consensus. In the meanwhile, I found these other awesome quotes that are oh so fitting:

'Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.’ – Van Wilder

‘It’s your thinking that decides whether you’re going to succeed or fail.’ – Henry Ford

‘Remember that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.’ – Abraham Lincoln

‘You can do anything, but not everything.’ – David Allen

‘You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.’ – Wayne Gretzky

’The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.’ – Lao Tzu

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Foursquare & Seamless

I'm in the middle of working on my portfolio, but I am definitely not being as productive as I should be. I keep thinking about redesigning things to reflect the Flat UI look that I want to be moving towards.

One of the main projects that I want to change to reflect this is the Foursquare one aka project #3. I know I haven't posted much information about the project on this tumblr, so let me give you a brief overview. The project was to add a mobile payment feature to the already existing app. My group decided to add something similar to Seamless where you can order food via the app for pick-up (but not for delivery which is a whole other story). Ironically enough, two weeks ago, Foursquare announced that it was going to do exactly that! 

So, I finally decided to check it out today... 

And... it's a bad user experience. The overall idea is great-- why not add the ability to order food to foursquare? The problem is you have to have (or be willing to create) a Seamless account in order for this feature to work. That's right, it's an app within an app.

And for me, this is just a no go. I'm a huge Seamless fan (13 orders since January 1st and 70 orders in 2013!), but I don't see a reason for me to enter my Seamless info on Foursquare. I'll pass. I'll just use the Seamless app, thanks.

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A successful day of client presentations. We were all so tired and overworked, but the stress produced amazing results, as it always does. We all felt the tensions of the previous weeks slowly dissipate as the clients expressed their satisfaction. All the students  showed amazing progress and talent. I feel very fortunate to have been in class with these specific instructors and these fellow UXers.

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Sandy could not have done a better job at capturing each of us in our cartoon selves. (She’s also a great teammate, who I had the fortune of working with on the first (Project 1) and last (Project 4) project!)

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Questions to ask when designing

For each page you design for mobile, you should be thinking about three questions:

Where am I?

How do I get out of here?

What do I do next?

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Words of the day

Skeuomorph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph

Pastiche: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastiche

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Geniuses produce a lot of crap before they get to the good stuff.

Get creative (via fastcompany)

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Mobile transitions

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Sessions at UXDI

Things have been busy at GA now that we're on our last project. Here's a shot of what the factory (back room) looks like when UXDI takes over: 

But it's not just workshop hours, we still have to fit in lectures and guest speakers. Wednesdays at 12:30 are now reserved for Ben Tregoing of The Design Team to prep us for our future job search. Two more weeks!

And then there's the occasional guest lecturer. This morning's happened to be Ben Falk from Thomson Reuters. He and Donna told us about their time together at Seamless and why it's important for UX Designers to become best friends with their Product Managers and Developers. Based of their rapport, that's clearly great advice.

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Never a dull moment in class.

Getting tips from (Rabbi/Priest) Celine before our first client meeting. 

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Words of wisdom (from Donna)

Do good work.

Be nice.

Give two options. 

Communicate as much as possible.

50 minute meetings. 

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Last, but not least.

Found out about project #4 today. More specific details after we meet the Founder and CEO tomorrow, but for now... Meet my teammates: Karl, Lucas, and Jen. 

I think I have a great group on my hands. I'm pretty excited. 

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From last Friday!

UXDi class sticks together at General Assembly weekly Happy Hour.

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Vocab

ARPU = average revenue per user

AARRR = Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue

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Every day, millions of people check in on Foursquare. We took a year’s worth of check‑ins in London, Chicago and Istanbul and plotted them on a map. Each dot represents a single check‑in, while the straight lines link sequential check‑ins.What you can see here represents the power of check‑in data

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It has been a long week.