Glen Elkins’ Blog
That’s enough, Bruno
Just thought this needed to be said: http://www.glenelkins.com/dropbox/thatsenough.html
It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it
I’ve been working in the tech industry for over four years now, and within that time one thing has remained constant: it’s not what you say, but how you say it.
Normal office politics aside, being able to communicate effectively with your cohorts is a valuable skill, and one that I have had to learn through experience. Group projects in school don’t prepare you for the long-term hierarchical dynamic you find in a typical office. You don’t plan on seeing a classmate after the semester’s over, and typically you’re not accountable to anyone in the group (just the professor).
By nature, I’m a pretty shy person. When I have something to say, I say it, but by and large, I’ve had to force myself to speak up during group meetings, or more personal pow-wows with a co-worker. It takes me a long time warm up to a social/professional situation an feel comfortable speaking freely. When you’re shy like me, speaking clearly and with tact is even more important.
Tact. That’s the name of the game. It’s not enough to have a great idea, you have to put your audience in a situation where it’s easy to accept a great idea. To get them on board, you need to know how to reach them. This is true in business and elsewhere in life and is probably just part of growing up.
Being confidently tactful is a learned skill, but it’s something I’m learning that pays in spades once you get a handle on it.
Why does everyone think I’m an asshole for not having a TV?
Perhaps my title has a bit of hyperbole, but it’s true! I don’t pay for cable and I don’t I have the 5 local channels in my apartment, and people plainly think I’m an asshole for it. They probably think I’m some neo-intellectual who is trying to enact some half-smart vision of what I might consider an enlightened existence.
Why don’t I have a TV? When TV, as I had grown up to know it, disappeared in 2008 (antenna broadcasts were replaced by a mess of digital converter what-whoozels) I refused to pay $40 for the technology that enabled me to watch the shitty local programming I’d always gotten for free.
Truth be told, I watch more programming than I ever have before, and I would still kill for cable or even normal TV, but it isn’t worth the price. I watch streaming services (Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon, etc…) and my monthly bill doesn’t even come close to what cable would rack up to in my area. Whatever those don’t cover I acquire by other means… I’m sort of ashamed to say. I’m not alone in protesting that if I had a viable option to pay for all the content I’d like to watch, I would.
Take HBO: That’s some of the best programming I’ve ever seen in my life. I am hopelessly addicted to Boardwalk Empire. If I could pay HBO a reasonable subscription fee I would in a heartbeat. The time savings I’d incur from not having to track the show down online would make it well worth a “normal” streaming charge (round $8-$12/month). Hell, they could even serve me ads after I pay them if they want (I’m looking at you Hulu Plus), I don’t care. Instead, to watch HBO online, I’d need to buy cable, then buy a HBO package, and THEN buy the privilege to then watch it online. What gives?
Isn’t it just a matter of time when content providers will realize a screen is a screen, regardless of the method of delivery? Why not treat them all basically the same? How long will we have to wait?
Back to my original point, people think I’m some hipster elitist who scoffs at the idea of frying my brain with an afternoon of cartoons, when in fact I love doing precisely that. It’s time to change our vocabulary. TV no longer exists. we’re plugged in 24/7 and have access to content whenever we want. When will everyone else catch up?
How photo filters are aging us
I was a 90′s kid. I spent my childhood decked out in Ninja Turtles garb and collecting baseball cards. These relics of the recent past often com to haunt our present as nostalgic reminders of who we once were, and by contrast how far we’ve come across the brief expanse of time. These are the kinds of things that age generations, everybody has their own “Ninja Turtles.”
This decade’s “Ninja Turtles” is is far more subtle, but also much more pervasive: photo filters. Continue reading “How photo filters are aging us” »
Notes on being a professional
I recently discovered The Design Pro Show, a design-centered advice video blog from Andy Rutledge of unit interactive. Although I’m not a freelance designer, and I don’t work for a design firm, I found a lot of useful advice from his videos. My work publishes web content and develops software, and I’ve found treating product managers like freelance clients solves a lot of potential problems.
With that perspective, I started to jot down the important things I heard Rutledge discuss in a google doc for my own use.
Today I’ll share my notes. I figure since these ideas and guidelines have been invaluable to me, other designers who don’t want to watch hours of video may benefit from it as well. Continue reading “Notes on being a professional” »
“Scandalous” website (Showtime) blurs the line between fact and fiction
It’s not a new idea in marketing: Establish credibility, deliver marketing. An obvious example is every third radio commercial which starts with a quick blast of three chords, like any other pop song, before the announcer or singer-wannabe chime sin with the “pitch.”
How could this be translated to the web? Social media is the traditional approach… Anyone remember the hubub when Facebook blended fact and fiction by using photos of your friends in the ads they showed you? The backlash forced a retraction, but it’s just a sign of things to come.
Showtime’s “Scandalous” took a different approach. At first glance it appears to be a legit, credible political news site (and in many ways it is), but upon closer inspection, you’ll notice the show’s fictional Mayor of Chicago “Tom Kane” mixed into the news stories.
Although the “news” on the site is little more than categorized twitter feeds, it begs a bigger question, is this the future of marketing? Just because the site has an agenda, does that make it’s content invalid?
By providing some content in the same vien as the show, will it lend the credibility they hope? In any event, it’s a very unique approach to web marketing, and one that I think we’ll see more of in the near future.
Check the site out here: http://scandalousdirt.com/#/
Web design is package design
The main thing non-web people (IE clients) don’t understand about the internet is that web design is package design. It’s a wrapper around what really important, the content.
This is how clients think of the web
Let’s imagine a scenario where you’re a widget maker. Your widgets are friggin’ awesome. Since you started widget-making, these things have been flying off the shelf of your corner widget store. You can’t wait to get your widgets out to a broader customer-base. You say, “Man, I need to expand my widget sales by shipping them to customers that can’t come to my widget store. I need to put these things in a box of some sort so I can deliver them to people.”
We are the box makers
That’s where web designers come in. We are the box-makers. If you think of web design in this way, a lot of basic design concepts come naturally. What kind of box is best for the widget? How should it close? How should it open? Is the box hard to open? Is it clearly labeled? Continue reading “Web design is package design” »
The missing iPhone feature: “Dismiss All”
I love the new(ish) iOS update. Gone are the days where I’d need to frantically check my “Mail” App, wondering if some important work email came through the pipeline and was waiting in my inbox for me. Now I get a nice little summary of each new email I receive, lovingly pushed right to my screen.
This is great! Except when I get multiple emails at a time, as is the case during peak hours at my day job, or when my personal gmail decides to sync up. Then these nice notifications become a huge annoyance. A digital wall of “Read” & “dismiss” button that come between me and whatever I might be doing on my phone. Ever been unable to end a call because of the barrage of emails swarming your screen? I have.
I don’t want to bash Apple too much. I’m a huge fanboy. I love their design, usability, blah blah… You get to picture. That said, a simple gesture the “Dismiss All” could solve this quite easily.
Happy today!
I recently bought a book for my girlfriend for fun and wrapped it up in this. I thought I’d share it because the sentiment applies to all my readers. Happy today everyone!
Why SOPA doesn’t deserve any sympathy
Who’s really the victim?
While streaming the Congressional hearing n SOPA yesterday it seemed to me like the same insane, infantile, and ridiculous argument kept being made. Congressperson after Congressperson would claim “If I Google for ‘Free How The Grinch Stole Christmas’ I can’t tell what’s an illegal site and what’s legal.” By playing the victim, they are essentially claiming they’d like to watch free content, but are unable to determine a legal means to procure the content because of the illegal sources.
Really?
That’s like claiming “I’d like to take some Morphine, but when I rove the streets of the inner city, I simple cannot tell who’s a certified pharmacist and who’s a drug dealer.” They’re ALL drug dealers, just as all search results for “free” content online are pirates. Why in the world would you search for “free” content and expect to get legal means to watch said content? Of course you can’t, and that’s not what this bill will provide. There’s no good reason why anyone could expect to freely view a studio film online legally.
As one Congresswoman brought up, if you simply search for “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” piracy doesn’t clutter results. Only by searching for illegal versions do you get illegal results.
That’s not the real reason they’re pushing the bill through, yet it’s their talking point. The real problem is that the people who pirate already know the sources to get the illegal content. The pirates don’t need Google results to find the latest bit torrent or Megavideo site.
About Me
I'm a web designer & front end developer for the ecommerce and web publishing company Juggle.com and writer for the music blog PlaybackSTL.com.
When I'm not scribbling wireframes, tweaking CSS, or trying to find yet-another way to describe sounds with words, I doodle, play guitar, try to write and kill zombies.