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SEARCH KEYWORD -- Designer

  Tips for Putting a Price on Your Work

WHEN I first started as a freelance writer, I was eager to sell myself — but not eager to have to discuss money. So I more or less took whatever was offered. Then I read somewhere that no matter what price a new client states, you always say in a polite but firm tone, “I expected more.” The first time I tried it, I was sweating and I doubt my tone was firm — it probably sounded more like pleading — but to my great surprise, it worked. With th...

   Development,Price,Worl,Negotiation     2012-01-29 04:37:17

  Commonly used AJAX frameworks

Have you ever wondered to design your website like desktop applications? Fortunately, with AJAX we can achieve this. By using AJAX, we no need to refresh the whole page when we just want to update a portion of a website such as the weather information or news panel. This makes our web apps look like desktop applications and bring good user experience to our visitors. You can create an XMLHttpRequest object every time when you want to initialize an AJAX call, unfortunately you may need repeat eve...

   AJAX,framework,jQuery,Dojo,YUI     2012-06-27 04:40:05

  Python: calculate lighter/darker RGB colors

Many times color palettes have lighter and darker variations of the same color. This may be used to convey relative importance, or for something as simple as a gradient. Usually the designer will specify both colors. However, if you have a site that needs to allow user configurable styling, you may not want to ask the user for two variations of the same color. Here is some Python code to take a single color in RGB, and output an artitrarily lighter or darker variation of the same color...

   Python,RGC color,Calucaltion lighter/darker     2012-02-13 05:29:22

  Do designers need code?

So many problems in software occur because programmers and designers don't communicate well all the time. Why don't more designers learn to code themselves or have engineers build abstractions better suited to them? People's minds work in different ways, they can process thoughts differently, solve problems in completely different but equally valid ways. It's a mistake to assume everyone should possess the same skill set.  Also not everyone should be a full stack engineer although full stac...

   Design,Coding     2014-01-07 06:22:52

  Mark Zuckerbeg's hacker way

According to TechCrunch, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote codes for the latest mobile IM application : Poke, the tone played when receiving push notifications is from the mouth of Zuckerberg. This approach reflects the way pursued by Zuckerberg : hacker way.As one of the earliest features of Facebook the "Poking" is invented by Zuckerberg, it is not surprising that Zuckerberg involves in Poke's development.Zuckerberg recorded his own voice on the phone initially just for fun. But he was later ...

   Poke,Facebook,Snapchat, Mark Zuckerberg     2012-12-24 12:01:52

  One interesting story about Chinese software development

I have once seen an interesting complaint written by one foreigner about Beijing South Railway Station (China) on foursquare. It says: "There is simply no way to buy a ticket at the machine unless you have a Chinese ID. What the hell they have English interface for then?" Apparently,the foreigner cannot buy ticket because he doesn’t have Chinese ID but there still presents an English interface for foreigners on the vending machine. Because of my profession, I find this awkward situation w...

   Software design,User experience,Importance     2012-03-26 14:42:50

  Design Secrets for Engineers

If you are a designer like me, you must be asked on a regular basis to “make it look pretty.” The request can stroke your designer ego, making you feel like a design rockstar with super powers to make this world a more beautiful place. This is especially true at startups, where you are one of the few, maybe the only designer there. However, it can also be really annoying–almost degrading at times. Thoughts like “why the hell can’t engineers do this on their o...

   Design,UI,pretty,engineer,designer font     2011-10-24 11:18:25

  TL;DR: Beyond Mobile

In his Beyond Mobile presentation at TL;DR Conference in San Francisco CA, Scott Jenson made the case for moving beyond mobile applications and illustrated what a future without apps could be. Here’s my notes from his talk: The history of mobile phones has been copying the desktop and then realizing it just doesn’t work right.Apps are a holdover from the desktop.There are a number of trends that highlight how we can move beyond apps on mobile.App Glut: are we going to have an a...

   Mobile,Beyond mobile     2012-04-01 04:20:30

  Whatever works for you

In my earlier 20s when I knew everything, I was a much bigger evangelist for my technology choices. I’m accused of fanboyism a lot more these days, but only because Hacker News keeps sending huge waves of people here who tell me I’m an idiot. But I used to be much more annoying with pushing my choices onto others. I’ve naturally reduced such evangelism as I approach 30 and realize I don’t know anything, but I’m now making a much more conscious effort to s...

   Choice,Product,Usability,Fittability     2011-11-29 08:39:09

   Opinion: The Elusive 'Quick Iteration' - Tips for Indie Devs

[In this reprinted #altdevblogaday-opinion piece, WB Games/Kindling Games' Kristen Bornemann offers independent developers advice on iterating and shipping their projects as fast as possible.] From agile and scrum to extreme programming, everyone's trying to nail down what it takes to iterate on products quickly and efficiently. There are a lot of methodologies that you can employ to guide you through shipping products. But today, I'll be talking specifically about video games and how, as a...

   Game,Electronic,Efficient,Development me     2011-08-15 07:41:47

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