Tag: design

Another Project Complete!

Carl Setzer
apple laptop notebook office

I just finished, and uploaded, the “Theme Clock” project, part of my 50 Projects in 50 Days course. With this project, first we created an analog clock with ticking hands! That was pretty awesome. Also, we are able to switch from Light to Dark mode. A pretty popular feature right now. Everyone seems to love dark mode.

I had a few challenges with this one. First, getting the hands centered took me a few minutes. This was an issue with CSS. It also was challenging to get the date information to load correctly. That was due to some mis-typing in the JavaScript code.

I’m enjoying these projects. However, I’m still working on understanding code enough to be creative. Currently, I still need a LOT of coaching to get these complete. I realize that I need to grant myself some grace. Yes, my degree had a “lot” of coding, but it was pretty high level. My main focus was on design. For programming, over the past two years of my degree, we spent a quarter each on:

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • JQuery (a JavaScript library)
  • PHP
  • Visual Basic

Edmonds college had another web developer program with a more solid focus on coding. In that one, you covered a year a Java programming, but wouldn’t get to take any design courses. I’m sure there were other differences, but that was the main one. I was very deliberate in my choice: I wanted the design classes. It’s a long-standing interest and a passion of mine.

So, I’m left to wonder. How badly do I want to master coding? It’s really cool, and quite fun, but it seems like I have a lot of work to do in order to be able to think in code. And I’m not entirely sure how much more I want to learn. Currently, I’m working as a communications coordinator, where I’m spending time creating things like thumbnails, editing videos, creating posters, editing email newsletters, and updating websites (there are examples of my work in my portfolio). I have done that kind of work for years, and I find it fun and satisfying. I see web technologies to be a massively central part of communications type work going forward.

When I started on this journey of web development, I mainly pictured myself “building websites”. I mostly pictured static sites, blogs, things like the real estate sites I built. The past two years have opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities, though. Sifting through them all is challenging. But, really, it’s great to have a huge array of options.

A desktop setup to consider

Carl Setzer

I enjoy looking at desk setups. This one, though, really stands out to me. Now, I’ve been wanting an adjustable standing desk for a number of years, which is a key part of this layout. But the wood desktop and matching bookshelves? *chef’s kiss* I think this desk may be the same one. MAY be….I guess.

And then there are the three monitors. THREE! My son has three and the notion is growing on me.

I plan to upgrade my computer early next year. I may need to think about my office furniture, too.

Function over Form?

Carl Setzer1 Comment

In the great debate about which is more important, form or function, I prioritize function. Ultimately, I don’t think “important” is the right word. Form, style, design must support and enhance functionality. Then the overall experience is better.

The user experience is what’s most important. “Form” takes functionality higher, makes it better. When done right, it turns users into fans. Neither is more important. Form and function are both critical to creating quality. And that should be the goal.

Email Newsletter Fail

Carl Setzer
gold letter y on black background

This morning I received an email where the content was predominantly jpegs. Nothing inherently wrong with this, I guess. However, putting blue-text “links” in the jpeg is almost useless. Sure, I can retype that 30-character URL, but most people are unlikely to do that. Lots of folks won’t even know to do that. This one was peculiar since the content is mostly text. Why a jpeg? Anyway, it pretty much ensures no click-through. Not to mention is not optimized for mobile, or for accessibility tools.

Personally, I retype these (if I only have an image to work with), though there are plenty of OCR tools to convert them to text. Often, the originator can provide the Word document that this was created in. One other option, which works reasonably well, is within Google docs.

  1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
  2. Upload the image
  3. Right-click on the desired file.
  4. Click Open with. Google Docs.
  5. The image file will be converted to a Google Doc, but some formatting might not transfer: Bold, italics, font size, font type, and line breaks are most likely to be retained.

Some Thoughts On Accessibility

Carl Setzer
high angle view of man with laptop on lap and phone in hand

Last week I joined a webinar: “Why We Need More Accessibility Designers“. The presenter is Anna Cook, an accessibility designer. I’ve long had an interest in accessibility and its impacts on technology. Technology can be a powerful solution for accessibility issues, and, of course, can create a whole set of new ones. I appreciated the discussion on the gaps that exist when it comes to addressing accessibility during design education (for my studies at Edmonds College, we have hit on the subject several times. Not with huge depth, but definitely greater than zero). 67% of accessibility issues originate in the design phase, and, of course, correcting issues during design is monumentally less expensive. We also touched on some specific elements, such as color.

Fortunately, this was recorded so you can watch it at your leisure.
https://youtu.be/dQVrfS74xyM

As is the case with these sorts of events, there were many things referenced during the discussion. I think most of them were added to the notes section of the YouTube video. I’ll drop my key links below, though.

Web Designer vs Web Developer

Carl Setzer
apple monitors

Someone recently pointed out that I should label my studies “web design” not “web development”. Now, this was not meant as a troll! But to better describe what I’m studying, and what I offer.

My coursework does NOT dive DEEP into code. Edmonds College does offer an associate’s degree with a similar title that does. That program includes two quarters of Java programming after the Introduction to Programming course I took. In addition, that program covers the same website coding elements I did: JavaScript, jQuery, and PHP. My program spends that time diving into design (two quarters of design). The design courses were what made this program interesting to me. I love studying design!

So, I’m quite happy with labelling myself a web designer vs a web developer. Actually, finding an accurate label for what I love, what I offer and what I “bring to the table” is exactly what I want. I don’t want potential employers to think I have a skill-set I don’t have. That doesn’t end well for anyone.

A Cloudy Summer’s Day

Carl Setzer
a cloudy summer’s day haiku
cloud's gentleness
hints of healing rain
summer's respite

I took this photo this morning after hearing of the possibility of rain. Haven’t seen any yet.

I decided to experiment with animated text. This was created with Canva. What do you think?

Some Thoughts 2 Weeks Into Winter Quarter

Carl Setzer2 Comments
Student

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Winter quarter started January 4th. This round, I’m taking 3 classes: one I’ve already talked about, “Web IV Joomla! and SEO”. I’m also taking Systems Analysis, and, lastly, but not leastly: JavaScript.

Web IV has been the most puzzling. Besides Joomla and SEO, the course also covers Amazon Web Services. All of these are cool, but, what a hell of a collection. I feel a bit of whiplash as I move through the week.

Systems Analysis is something I’ve been looking forward to. Understanding how to look at business systems in a strategic way excites me. I think this will be critical to my future career work.

Then there’s JavaScript. This is the grail! Yeah, this summer I coded in Visual Basic, which was fine and all, but JavaScript is what actual web developers use daily. So I’m delighted. But, code is a double-edged sword.

For several days last week/early this week, two of my projects were stuck. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the code to work. I went through all kinds of imposter syndrome stuff. Finally, grabbed one of my other classmates. It took both of us over an hour, but we figured it out: I was missing ONE curly brace (this thing: “}”). But as I’ve started interacting with the developer community on Twitter, I know this is not uncommon. Every keystroke is important, and variable names are case sensitive. Meaning “GetByID” is not the same as “GetById”. At one point in my career, I highly prided my typing skills. Back in the days of typewriters, that is. Spell check, autocorrect, and even simply being able to delete and re-write have spoiled me. Now my keyboarding kinda sucks. And just when it became critical.

And since I’m never happy unless I’m silly busy, I’m also filling in for a friend who’s on paternity leave. I’m “working” as a media coordinator for Trinity Lutheran Church in Lynnwood, WA (unpaid, but that works fine for me right now). This mainly entails creating graphics, as well as editing videos. Nothing too dramatic. I’m doing some of the photo editing in Photoshop to keep my skills up, but a lot of the stuff I’m creating I’m doing in Canva. It’s a pretty slick tool that really speeds up some workflow. Videos are also pretty straightforward. Our church services are online, and we’re using a fair amount of pre-recorded music and such to keep the number of people in the space to a minimum. Mostly I’m trimming down the videos, adding fades and such, and also plugging some b-roll in so that the videos have more visual appeal.

Here are a few things I’ve crafted recently.

Featured image:

Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile from Pexels