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Cross-functional collaboration has always been very intriguing to me. Imagine you are an electrician by trade. You spend your nights tinkering with circuit boards, actuators, gyroscopes, and anything else you can bolt onto your contraptions.
One day this invention idea hits you. One of your latest contraptions could actually be useful to other people. You'd like to turn it into a product but you're blocked because your product vision hinges on a mobile app, and you have no idea how to even begin creating an app.
That's where this community comes in. We want to build a diverse group of makers so an electrician can ask a software engineer questions. Or maybe a software engineer needs to learn from a woodworker.
That's the environment we're trying to create here.
Working outside your field, or comfort zone, means you've got to be willing to ask dumb questions. It also means the community should be patient and willing to work with dumb questions and help turn them into smart questions.
If you are interested in collaborating with other makers, then join us!
One day this invention idea hits you. One of your latest contraptions could actually be useful to other people. You'd like to turn it into a product but you're blocked because your product vision hinges on a mobile app, and you have no idea how to even begin creating an app.
That's where this community comes in. We want to build a diverse group of makers so an electrician can ask a software engineer questions. Or maybe a software engineer needs to learn from a woodworker.
That's the environment we're trying to create here.
Working outside your field, or comfort zone, means you've got to be willing to ask dumb questions. It also means the community should be patient and willing to work with dumb questions and help turn them into smart questions.
If you are interested in collaborating with other makers, then join us!
I've recently been intrigued by NFT tokens and potentially selling generated art on OpenSea. So I'm starting to develop a technique for creating Rothko-like art.
Here is an example canvas with over 1 million lines painted with a crosshatch gradient.
I like the early results but the technique is still very much a work in progress. There are so many little things to tweak when generating a design. Even though a script does all the actual work, it is still very much a creative process involving a human.
I'm planning to write a tutorial and open source the script so anyone can make their own digital Rothko. I'll share more soon. 👨🎨
Here is an example canvas with over 1 million lines painted with a crosshatch gradient.
I like the early results but the technique is still very much a work in progress. There are so many little things to tweak when generating a design. Even though a script does all the actual work, it is still very much a creative process involving a human.
I'm planning to write a tutorial and open source the script so anyone can make their own digital Rothko. I'll share more soon. 👨🎨
I'm testing a new concept that somewhat diverges from the previous style of creating gradient-like art from millions of small mutations. In this style, I'm generating pieces based on randomizing connected arcs. You'll have to click on the expanded view to see some of the detail.
I'm testing a new concept that somewhat diverges from the previous style of creating gradient-like art from millions of small mutations. In this style, I'm generating pieces based on randomizing connected arcs. You'll have to click on the expanded view to see some of the detail.
It is some times hard to recognize my own experience and skillset. With Two (soon to be three) degrees, travel to nearly every continent, and work experience with some of the biggest names in business and I still feel like an imposter at times. Could this be because of tech world? I mean, there is always someone out there that knows more than me. Could this be due to the internet? There are hardly any original ideas anymore right?
I really enjoyed this paper of "The Imposter Phenomenon," and wonder how we can help others work with the feeling....
I really enjoyed this paper of "The Imposter Phenomenon," and wonder how we can help others work with the feeling....
I've been guilty of putting my head in the sand and focusing on tasks I believe would make a product better. I'm not in the camp of believing the customer is always right and you should drop whatever you are doing any time a customer asks for something.
This isn't to say you should be rude or disrespectful. And you certainly shouldn't ignore feedback. Customer feedback is an absolutely critical signal every maker should be using. It helps shape your mental model of where your product fits into the market. Having a macro sense of what your customers need/want is so important.
My view has simply been more of a pragmatic take on feedback. If you are reactive and address every piece of feedback in realtime, then that restricts your ability to more thoughtfully invest your time.
Treating the customer as the project manager has pros. It's good to have happy customers who feel heard. But there are also cons. You have a lot more knowledge about your app at a high level. You know a lot more about infrastructural trade-offs, the needs of other customers, the needs of the business, dependencies, and where the product is headed overall.
Contributors should be the ultimate deciders of what to build next. They should take in all of the known competing needs of customers and put that in a mixing pot with all of the product needs. Being free from reactive obligation empowers contributors to make quality product decisions.
Having said all that, I do think it is often a good thing to take in feedback and make an instant evaluation to drop what you are doing and make it happen. Here is a great example of that from a conversation I had today with Sergio from MakerLog.
Being reactive and instantly providing a solution is a great experience for a customer. It's like saying "I value your feedback, let's collaborate on this thing". Then customers invest more time thinking about even more meaningful feedback because they know their time won't be wasted.
It's a great tactic that can create a hell of a feedback loop. Just remember, it's a delicate balance and you need to trust yourself as much as you trust external input.
This isn't to say you should be rude or disrespectful. And you certainly shouldn't ignore feedback. Customer feedback is an absolutely critical signal every maker should be using. It helps shape your mental model of where your product fits into the market. Having a macro sense of what your customers need/want is so important.
My view has simply been more of a pragmatic take on feedback. If you are reactive and address every piece of feedback in realtime, then that restricts your ability to more thoughtfully invest your time.
Treating the customer as the project manager has pros. It's good to have happy customers who feel heard. But there are also cons. You have a lot more knowledge about your app at a high level. You know a lot more about infrastructural trade-offs, the needs of other customers, the needs of the business, dependencies, and where the product is headed overall.
Contributors should be the ultimate deciders of what to build next. They should take in all of the known competing needs of customers and put that in a mixing pot with all of the product needs. Being free from reactive obligation empowers contributors to make quality product decisions.
Having said all that, I do think it is often a good thing to take in feedback and make an instant evaluation to drop what you are doing and make it happen. Here is a great example of that from a conversation I had today with Sergio from MakerLog.
Being reactive and instantly providing a solution is a great experience for a customer. It's like saying "I value your feedback, let's collaborate on this thing". Then customers invest more time thinking about even more meaningful feedback because they know their time won't be wasted.
It's a great tactic that can create a hell of a feedback loop. Just remember, it's a delicate balance and you need to trust yourself as much as you trust external input.
Most people are probably not in favor of a 40hr work week. But some of the alternatives don't make sense to me. For example, replacing the 40hr week with a 32hr week (4x8s) is only a slight improvement.
A 32hr week misses the point. The number of hours worked isn't the problem. If people are healthy and engaged, they'll naturally invest more than 40 hours. That's a good thing. People should be encouraged to spend 10+ hours of their day doing something they thoroughly enjoy.
So how can we make work more engaging?
A 32hr week misses the point. The number of hours worked isn't the problem. If people are healthy and engaged, they'll naturally invest more than 40 hours. That's a good thing. People should be encouraged to spend 10+ hours of their day doing something they thoroughly enjoy.
So how can we make work more engaging?
- Companies shouldn't monopolize a worker's time. A worker should be free to invest as much or as little as they want into a company. They should then be free to invest their remaining time in other companies...or other pursuits.
- Workers should be compensated based on value created, not hours worked. When workers exchange hours for pay, they aren't incentivized to work hard or innovate. The incentive is for people to put in the minimum effort while they think about something else.
When companies use power over workers to create obligations such as hours worked, it results in an oppressive environment. People then find ways to kill time and avoid doing actual work. (AKA meetings)
One solution could be for companies to think about the world in terms of opportunities, not obligations. So instead of saying "Ok, we've got 1,000 dev hours this month. What should we do with that time?". Companies should be thinking "Our product would be better if we had X, Y, and Z. Let's put out bounties for anyone interested in delivering any of those opportunities."
A pure bounty-based compensation model would be really empowering for workers. Maybe workers choose not to spend time on shitty tasks because the bounties just aren't priced right. Over time, the undesirable bounties would increase in value until become desirable. But people would spend most of their time competing for the work they find most satisfying. The price of those bounties would go down over time because of demand.
A bounty system would be more challenging in some ways. Workers would need a predictable basic income. It would also be challenging to make sure delivered bounties meet the needs of the company. But both challenges are very solvable.
Thoughts?
So first things first, I'll show what I have going right now:
There are clearly a few issues here:
1. The colors are almost entirely random and should not be taken as final or even as serious choices.
2. The fonts themselves are unreadable in some instances, so I'll be replacing those.
3. Customization leaves a lot to be desired.
4. I have a duplication bug, specifically: when you add text, the graffiti list as a whole is re-rendered on top of the original copy. If you try to move something you'll notice there's another copy underneath, it's janky.
All that being said, you can:
There are clearly a few issues here:
1. The colors are almost entirely random and should not be taken as final or even as serious choices.
2. The fonts themselves are unreadable in some instances, so I'll be replacing those.
3. Customization leaves a lot to be desired.
4. I have a duplication bug, specifically: when you add text, the graffiti list as a whole is re-rendered on top of the original copy. If you try to move something you'll notice there's another copy underneath, it's janky.
All that being said, you can:
- Write on the wall
- Move, scale, rotate, and edit the text
- Share the link and write on the wall with friends
That was the original idea, so that's nice that it's getting to a good state. From here, there are a few things I want to do, in no particular order:
- Improve on the fonts
- Improve on the colors
- Fix the duplication bug
- Fix some weird behavior involving the mouse and editing text
- Add customization options for background, font, size, and color
What do you think?
This is my first cut at designing the listing screen for Evervolt. I feel ok about this design but there is definitely room for improvement. Comments below.
This is my first cut at designing the listing screen for Evervolt. I feel ok about this design but there is definitely room for improvement. Comments below.
- Navigation - Nothing special here. It works but I haven't thought too much about nav links and the information architecture.
- Sample placement - At the top of the left column, I show a screenshot of the sample placement for the ad. I don't think this is particularly obvious or helpful at this stage. You just see a section of the screen with a dark overlay and the portion of the screen where the ad will go in a yellow highlight. I thought it would be important not to have the background from the screenshot clash with the UI so I added the dark screen. This looks ok visually but I'll definitely change the design in the next iteration.
- Logo + Listing Title - This is pretty basic. I felt that overlaying half of the logo over the screenshot would add a nice visual effect without eating up too much vertical space. The logo + title are both centered. I feel like this looks better visually than left-aligned but I could revisit that if I introduce an additional meta data such as the posted data to balance out the design.
- Poster bio - I want people to feel motivated to post here even if they don't get a bid. Having your bio (linking to profile), name, email, Twitter, LinkedIn, and website right at the top of the listing gives you some exposure.
- Sponsorship description - A few paragraphs followed by a link to more listings from the poster. Nothing too crazy here.
- Sponsorship terms - This shows basic key info related to the ad such as the length of the sponsorship, min bid, and creative requirements.
- Large Sponsor This CTA - Helps reinforce the purpose of the page and should make it obvious to any brand interested in a sponsorship what to do next.
- List of bids - Showing all of the brands who've currently bid on the sponsorship. This accomplishes a few things. 1) It is social validation for a future brand thinking about bidding. 2) It gives value to brands even if they don't win the bid. The logo will link to the brand page. That page will link to all of their social accounts/websites, state their sponsorship philosophy, and allow makers to reach out to the brand directly for sponsorship opportunities.
Here are a few things I'm struggling with at this stage:
- Showing stats on this screen to inspire brands to bid seems double-edged. Sure it will be helpful for established Makers that already drive a lot of traffic. But for people making new things, it could hurt. I'll probably eventually make showing stats optional.
- I'm trying to imagine what additional pieces of information the Maker will want to display and the Brands will want to see.
- The typography and layout need to be tightened up.
Hi everyone!
New to the community here, (👋
Dane Lyons
) thought the best way to introduce myself would be to just tell you about my side project: Conjure, a remote note-and-vote brainstorming app.
New to the community here, (👋
In my job as a designer, I often find myself having to facilitate group decision-making with my clients' teams. Note-and-vote is the simplest and most effective tool in the facilitator's kit.
An in-person note-and-vote brainstorming session usually goes like this:
An in-person note-and-vote brainstorming session usually goes like this:
- A problem is presented to a group in the form of a question.
- Group members write their individual answers/solutions on sticky notes (1 per answer) and attach them to a wall or whiteboard for everybody to see.
- When all answers are in, the group briefly discusses the answers and then members vote individually for the answers they deem to be the best. This is usually done by attaching dot stickers to the notes that members want to upvote.
This helps everybody in the group have their ideas heard while avoiding neverending discussions. The objective is to enable remote teams to replicate this process seamlessly through an app.
Where I'm at:
✅ Designed logo (Most important thing right?)
✅ Designed the MVP UI
✅ Hired a dev & started development
I believe I'm a couple of weeks away from a usable v1.
Didn't plan any further than that 😁
Happy to answer any question if you're curious.
Thanks y'all for having me!
Where I'm at:
✅ Designed logo (Most important thing right?)
✅ Designed the MVP UI
✅ Hired a dev & started development
I believe I'm a couple of weeks away from a usable v1.
Didn't plan any further than that 😁
Happy to answer any question if you're curious.
Thanks y'all for having me!
First, the show: https://giant-canvas.vercel.app/walls/Ud3d3fxJxyxFV45OJcx4
The tell: we can edit each others' messages, and the page *should* update in real-time (or near it). This uses simple `contenteditable` divs in HTML to render the content, as you edit and as it's shown on the page. This is a powerful concept, because 1. it's "just" HTML+CSS+JS (with React powering the thing, ostensibly, but it's mostly for state management and rendering, not managing the "canvas" which isn't really a canvas) and 2. because of point 1, you can use alllll the fancy ways to manipulate web pages, on this, as opposed to Graffitoes which depended on a 3rd party canvas wrapper.
Anyway, from here, I want to:
The tell: we can edit each others' messages, and the page *should* update in real-time (or near it). This uses simple `contenteditable` divs in HTML to render the content, as you edit and as it's shown on the page. This is a powerful concept, because 1. it's "just" HTML+CSS+JS (with React powering the thing, ostensibly, but it's mostly for state management and rendering, not managing the "canvas" which isn't really a canvas) and 2. because of point 1, you can use alllll the fancy ways to manipulate web pages, on this, as opposed to Graffitoes which depended on a 3rd party canvas wrapper.
Anyway, from here, I want to:
- Be able to move, rotate, and resize/skew text.
- Show the text in different fonts/colors/rotations by default, as I had on Graffitoes.
- Use the blend mode in css to actually make the text appear as though it's "on" the background.
- Theme the thing and release it!
I'm sure there are bugs to fix, but ain't there always (I still very much appreciate bug reports as you notice them though!). Thoughts?