Really funny and worth sharing about which came first UI/UX Egg Vrs. Chicken

http://youtu.be/2wZUTe70w1Y

My Portfolio

Hey I just did an overhaul on my portfolio.. Please visit www.autumnmartini.com


Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Standards and Why They make Sense

Standards and why it makes sense.

The most compelling design solutions are ones that are simple, natural to use, and completely in tune with user’s needs and experiences. Achieving these solutions in technology products are no easy task when you are designing in small sprints. It’s easy for designs to get away from you; ultimately ending in different directions without notice, eventually leaving you asking the question, why are these screens so different from one another?

Implementing Standards are a sure way to gain consistency throughout your product, aligning the approval process, streamlining production, providing elements, components and ultimately gaining production time while saving time and money. For the design team it becomes a forum of rapid communication, approval and sign off. For development this would provide a library of approved visual components that they could follow. In time, the developer could build a component library easily accessible allowing them to never have to start from scratch again. Overall, standards become the visual and functional road map for the entire application.

It’s a course a worth taking with big payoff, however, it’s not a short term project.  Key decision need to be made at crucial points for the project to continue course. Everyone needs to be on board. Below is an overview to get things moving forward to start discussing how you can achieve the bigger picture.

What is the process?

The process of creating a library involves many different activities across four sequential phases:

• Analyze: understanding what it is, how it fits into our process, and what it will contain

• Create a task list items 
• Categorize all content
• Create a visual  library of current screens
• Create the to-do list

• Assemble: building it, including documentation, template assets, and how /where to publish them

• Decide on a place to collaborate the design (meeting, google docs, evernote?)
• Low fidelity wireframes
• Sign off / Approval
• High fidelity design
• Sign off / Approval
• Publish to? Wiki, Twiki, create our own webpage, Google Docs?

• Adopt: communicating and getting everyone onboard

• Communicating the wiki

• Adapt: administering & evolving it over time, through successive releases

• Managing and up keep

Tips and Tricks for Virtual Management

The future is here. Virtual Teams are being built every day. No more commuting and no more coffee talk by the water cooler. So how are people making it work successfully? It's no doubt very tricky. I learn something new every day. Here are some tips and tricks I can pass along.

#1 Trust -

One of the most important aspects of virtual team is the need for trust. As virtual team members work and are managed from a distance, the importants of fostering trust among team members are essential. Team members need to trust the actions and intentions of their fellow team members, as well as those of their manager.

Weekly Check in meetings, constant communication by email or phone will ensure both the manager and employee that the trust is on both sides and the job is getting done.

#2 Communication -

Collocated employees gather information from both informal and formal sources. Informal sources includes the company grapevine and conversations around the water cooler. Formal sources include company memo's and employee newsletters. Virtual team members do not have the luxury of these communication methods. That's why it's important that the manager develops communication strategies that will help the team stay informed.

#3 Training -
In many companies training is an informal hands on process. Is some cases managers use hands on mentoring practices to develop employees for increased levels of responsibility, or employees may learn how to work within a company by observing what is going on around them. This type of training is lost for a virtual team member. It's important to develop training strategies for virtual members