Results tagged “designers”

This quote is from In The Plex by Steven Levy (via Sci-Fi Hi-Fi via Daring Fireball)

Google products are machine-driven. They're created by machines. And that is what makes us powerful. That's what makes our products great.

This kind of quote is to be expected from a company run by engineers. The problem isn't that Google's products are made by machines. Everyone's products are made by machines. But it is't why you should be proud of your products. And it's not what makes your products great.

What engineers and companies run by engineers need to get past is thinking the general public cares about the same things they do. Like how (supposedly) open their platform is. Or how precise their algorithms are. Or how fast their processors are.

Engineers are very gifted individuals. I know, because my father is one.

Engineers have the uncanny ability to talk to machines. Write code. Fix car engines. Rewire houses. Help their son install a stereo into their car, explaining which wire is connected to the ignition, which one is connected to the battery and which one is grounded (I believe the black wire is ground). Oh yeah, and check to see if your speakers are in phase.

Where engineers need help is converting their brilliance into something a regular person can use and enjoy.

Designers convert brilliance. They connect dots.

This doesn't make designers better than engineers.

They need each other to create anything meaningful or useful.

We as designers strive for our solutions to be elegant, so what's interesting about this story is how it seems to suggest that the most elegant solution, in certain situations, might not be creating anything new at all. Lightness is to be found in substitution or recomposing, not in rote addition.

NYTimes: Designers Make Data Much Easier to Digest

In an uncharted world of boundless data, information designers are our new navigators.

In a Stamen graphic of Twitter traffic during an MTV awards show, the number of tweets about celebrities was reflected in the size of their photos. They are computer scientists, statisticians, graphic designers, producers and cartographers who map entire oceans of data and turn them into innovative visual displays, like rich graphs and charts, that help both companies and consumers cut through the clutter. These gurus of visual analytics are making interactive data synonymous with attractive data.

And:

Visual analytics play off the idea that the brain is more attracted to and able to process dynamic images than long lists of numbers. But the goal of information visualization is not simply to represent millions of bits of data as illustrations. It is to prompt visceral comprehension, moments of insight that make viewers want to learn more.

Bingo. It's great to see what we designers do get recognized by the mainstream press.

Here is a list of solid resources for web professionals, designers developers, flashers and everyone in between:

37signals Job Board - I just discovered this one, and it's great, I just wish there was a way to filter the results by location or job type.

Newstoday - Click on 'Find a Job'

Creative Hotlist - I can't tell you how many calls I get from people who have found me on the Hotlist. In my opinion, it's a steal at $35 for a 6-month membership.

Moluv - take a look at the job section of the forums on the right, you might find some gems in there.

k10k - they post job opening fairly often in the News section on the right.

Craig's List - results from Craig's List can be so-so. I have gotten some great leads from this site, but I've also had to weed through a lot of crap to get to them.

I'm sure that many people have benefitted from recruiters. Not me. I've found that emailing the top companies on my list has gotten me most of my interviews, coupled with using the links above.