Job change

For those who don’t follow me on Twitter or talk to me regularly, I no longer work at Apple. I am now working at Crush + Lovely, a creative studio located in both New York City and San Francisco. I do interaction design primarily, but I also have my hands in visual design, front end web development, information architecture, etc. So far, I’ve worked on fun projects like Fifty People One Question, By/Association, Crush + Lovely’s own website, among other exciting projects.

Not available for projects

I am no longer taking on any freelance work. Between going to grad school half time and working full time, I just don’t have time to take on side projects. However, I am still accepting speaking engagements and occasional small writing projects.

Book coming soon

I just finished coauthoring a book for SitePoint. That should be released fairly soon.

New Tumblrs

I just really got into Tumblr. I started a couple fun ones:

• Art in My Coffee, a blog that showcases coffee art, which I curate alongside Meagan Fisher
• OMG True Blood, a chaotic True Blood-related Tumblr, which I post to, along with several friends. (Sometimes it’s not safe for work, but that’s to be expected with an HBO show about vampires, right?)

New apartment

I just moved to a sweet apartment in SoMa! I’m stoked. Photos and more information later!

New diet

I gradually moved toward becoming somewhat pescetarian, which means I do not eat meat unless it’s seafood. However, I do eat dairy and eggs. I’m not doing this for any particular ethical reason. It’s an experiment to see if this new chosen diet feels better. I’ve already noticed that I have fewer stomach problems.

New site design

Okay, so as you can see, I have a new site design. I’ve been working on this design for a very long time, and at late hours after long days of work or school or both. It’s still not 100% complete, but I’m happy with where it is at the moment and decided to go ahead and make it live. I hope you guys like it.

You may have noticed that my home page has the same artwork by Jim Mahfood as I had on the previous design for Sushi & Robots. They now rotate randomly (refresh the page to see). I plan to feature more artists in the coming months, and I already have some amazing artwork by some amazing artists queued up. If you’re interested in Jim Mahfood’s work, look for my next post which will showcase his work and include a small interview with Jim.

I’ve temporarily moved my site back over to WordPress, but this isn’t a permanent change. I’ve also disabled comments on my blog as an experiment. I don’t know yet how long this will last, but I want to see if I like it this way.

Since comments are disabled, if you want to share your thoughts on my design, you can either send me an email, write up your own blog post and ping back here, or post your feedback on Twitter (@jina). I look forward to receiving feedback because I’ve been staring at this design for far too long.

Revamp is a post from: Sushi & Robots
Related projects: • Art in My Coffee • Crush + Lovely • I Want Robots
Recommended: • Find or post a job at Authentic Jobs • Enter jinabolton.com as a referral domain at (mt) MediaTemple • Buy type by Adobe and 7 other foundries at Veer • Web Design & Development Books at SitePoint

So, I know I haven’t blogged here in a really long time. Apologies. A follow-up post will come soon about all that. (Look for a new Sushi & Robots soon!).

Okay, onto the topic: much like Jeff Croft, I have been given 10 free spots to Delve:UI in NYC. The speaker line-up includes Lou Rosenfeld, Jeff Croft, Scott Jehl, Andrew Maier, Jamey Kosoy, Jason Santa Maria, Ryan Stewart, Theresa Neil, Robert Hoekman, Joshua Porter, Anders Ramsay, Todd Zaki Warfel, and myself.

I will be speaking on mastering CSS layouts. This is different from Jeff’s talk, which focuses on both typography and CSS 3. I’ll focus more on the technologies we have today and how to combat Mr. Mean-old IE 6.

I already have an idea of what I want to talk about, but it would be good to hear from you; what do you want to hear about? Is there anything in particular that you would like help with? If so, comment here with your ideas. The first 10 to leave a comment that has a great suggestion for the topic, and is interested in attending Delve:UI will get added to my guest list. You’ll have to provide your own travel/hotel accommodations. Please don’t waste the passes; only accept a ticket if you truly would like to attend.

I will choose the suggestions I feel will be best tailored for the class. If it gets into the realm of typography or CSS 3, I may suggest you hop over to Jeff’s post, as his talk is better suited for those.

After the 10 spots are filled up, I can provide a discount pass as well. So don’t hesitate to keep posting your ideas. If you don’t plan to attend, but have a good idea, you can leave your comment here and explain that you don’t want to/can’t go. I will try to use as many of the suggestions as possible, given my time slot, but I may not be able to address all of them.

Thanks, guys, and I’ll see you in NYC!

Free ticket to Delve:UI in NYC; Help me plan my talk! is a post from: Sushi & Robots
Related projects: • Art in My Coffee • Crush + Lovely • I Want Robots
Recommended: • Find or post a job at Authentic Jobs • Enter jinabolton.com as a referral domain at (mt) MediaTemple • Buy type by Adobe and 7 other foundries at Veer • Web Design & Development Books at SitePoint

Jakob Nielsen’s Heuristics:

• Visibility of system status.
• Match between system and real world.
• User control and freedom.
• Consistency and standards.
• Error Prevention.
• Recognition rather than recall.
• Flexibility and efficiency of use.
• Aesthetic and minimalist design.
• Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors.

Nielsen’s Heuristics for Evaluation is a post from: Sushi & Robots
Related projects: • Art in My Coffee • Crush + Lovely • I Want Robots
Recommended: • Find or post a job at Authentic Jobs • Enter jinabolton.com as a referral domain at (mt) MediaTemple • Buy type by Adobe and 7 other foundries at Veer • Web Design & Development Books at SitePoint

• When given instructions, listen well and carefully the first time. It’s easy to not listen when you know the deadline is far off in the future. But when that deadline gets closer, are you going to remember every detail? You don’t want to have to find all that information again.
• Learn to say no. Obviously, you can’t say no to a teacher when given an assignment. But otherwise, if someone asks you to do something, it’s okay to say no.
• Focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking isn’t always your friend; it leads to distractions and you don’t work as efficiently. By focusing and getting things done, you accomplish more.
• Organize your life. Spending 30 minutes looking for something is a wasted use of time. Get rid of everything you don’t need, want, or like, and then group common things together. Also, this saves you money, so you don’t have to “rebuy” things you can’t find.
• Do away with unnecessary correspondence. Cut back on checking your e-mail, messaging on your phone, or IM’ing.
• Set goals. Break big goals up into smaller goals, and knock them out one at a time.
• Use a calendar. Make sure it’s a portable calendar, and take it everywhere with you. Use a pencil.
• Make a to-do list. Every little thing you have to do, write it down. You will forget, otherwise. Find days to add those to-do items on your calendar, and do them.
• Have a plan and follow it each day. It takes 21 consecutive days to change a habit.
• Try advancing your skills in the following:
  • Computer skills. The time it took for you to troubleshoot something could be saved by just taking a class here or there.
  • Speed reading. This can cut 2 hours of reading into 1 hour. That’s an extra hour to do something else!
  • Knowledge. The more you learn, the more efficient you become.

I hope these notes help you in your projects!

Time Management Notes is a post from: Sushi & Robots
Related projects: • Art in My Coffee • Crush + Lovely • I Want Robots
Recommended: • Find or post a job at Authentic Jobs • Enter jinabolton.com as a referral domain at (mt) MediaTemple • Buy type by Adobe and 7 other foundries at Veer • Web Design & Development Books at SitePoint