Pat’s Point of View

One stop shop, one size fits all, one man band, Jack of all trades, great all-rounder—you’ve heard them all before. For some reason we seem to be obsessed with trying to be everything to everyone.

This results in trying to please everybody but catering for none. It’s better to have a strongly defined objective and strive to achieve that.

I used to think I was (or wanted to be) a one-stop-shop. I came from a technical background, so I had a good handle on technology, science etc. I have a fairly good eye for design (or perhaps it’s a passion with zero eye) and I have worked with excellent creative people. I’ve had my turn at team leadership and management; another feather in that cap! Most recently I’ve gotten into this whole user centred, ethical design thing. It becomes easy to gravitate towards the one-man-band trap.

What I’ve discovered is that having a good understanding and appreciation for a variety of fields and being able to interface with multiple disciplines is not the same thing as being able to do it all. There’s a reason why Jack of all trades is usually followed swiftly by and master of none. Like paint, if you spread yourself too thin (I’m just bursting with these sayings today) you’ll never cover anything properly, but worse you don’t have time to concentrate on, and grow in, a particular direction. You’ll keep going around in circles, because a circle is the only true all-rounder.

This isn’t a deflated ego talking, I’ve just realised that a lack of focus is a recipe for mediocrity. One stop shop is the goal you have when you’re not having a goal.

Now for a cunning metaphorical transition. What I’ve described doesn’t just apply to one’s career, it applies equally to things like websites and intranets too; if you try to create an intranet that is a one stop shop you’ll end up with something that doesn’t actually meet anybody’s needs and so they stop using it before long.

So what? you might be asking yourself, well, don’t be mediocre, focus on what you want to achieve and become immersed in it. Learn it, live it. I’ve been narrowing my horizons over recent years, and specialising. It’s a relief to have some clarity. OK, life coaching session over.

I was recently in the unfortunate position of having to work through the night to complete a project for the next morning. In this case, the work involved writing a fairly long report critiquing a client’s website.

The next day, looking back on what I had written, I formulated the ’3am writing’ axiom "at 3:00am sentences often sound really, really good—but they’re not".

I found several instances of 3am writing, but my favourite is:

The site is like a novel but what you want is a fortune cookie.

Scott Berkun, author of The Art of Project Management is running a one day masterclass on Leading successful web and software projects in early September, in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

I’m looking forward to this as I’ve really liked what Scott has had to say in the past, and I sure could use some tips on project management! :)

More information can be found on the Step Two Designs website.

See what people are blogging about: Scott Berkun, The art of project management, project management

This post is dedicated to my pinion passenger on this journey we call life.

Jenn’s feeling a bit blue at the moment and this might just cheer her up. It’s the least I can do since I don’t know what I would do without her, she’s the greatest!

Jenny, Jenny, Jenny
Won’t you come along with me
Jenny, Jenny, Jenny
Won’t you come along with me
You know that I love you
We could live so happily

Jenny, Jenny, Jenny
spinnin’ like a spinnin’ top
Jenny, Jenny, Jenny
Spinnin’ like you ain’t gonna stop
The greatest little momma
You oughta see her reel and rock

Jenny, Jenny, Jenny
Won’t you come along with me
Jenny, Jenny, Jenny
Won’t you come along with me
You know that I love you
We could live so happily

Jenny, Jenny, Jenny
Girl I need you by my side
Jenny, Jenny, Jenny
You know I need you by my side
You know I need you pretty baby
Your ways I gotta really abide now

Jenny, Jenny, Jenny
Won’t you come along with me
Jenny, Jenny, Jenny
Won’t you come along with me
You know that I love you
We could live so happily

Little Richard

A worthy cause indeed, and I’m going to promote this. If you have a site you’d like me to nominate, leave a comment here.

Named in memory of noted Australian web pioneer Nigel McFarlane, the inaugural McFarlane Prize, aims to recognise and encourage excellence in web design by Australian developers.

www.mcfarlaneprize.com

The Prize will reward excellence in web design in the broadest sense, from the appropriate use of technology, to design aesthetics, to its impact more broadly on the web.

Open to Australian designers or teams for a site launched or significantly upgraded between August 1 2005 and July 31 2006, the Prize aims to be a showcase of the best in Australian web design, and to inspire other developers in their endeavours. Nominations are now open.

The McFarlane Prize will be awarded by a jury of Australian experts in various fields of web design and development. Based on two rounds
of judging, the McFarlane Prize shortlist will be announced on September 22nd.

The announcement of the winner of the inaugural McFarlane Prize will then be made at the Web Directions Conference Reception, September 28 2006, during Australian Web Design Week.

The McFarlane Prize
www.mcfarlaneprize.com
info@webdirections.org

See what people are blogging about: McFarlane Prize, web design, Australian Web Design Week

Most people who know me are well aware that I hate radio. Can’t stand listening to the radio for any length of time, certainly not all day. But unfortunately at work we have Triple M on all day, every day, except when it gets too much for my colleague and she changes to Triple J (Mick Molloy’s show at midday, in particular, sets her off).

I can’t stand the stuff they try to pass off as rock, but hey, that could just be a matter of taste. What really shits me is the endless repetition; playing the same set of songs during every segment throughout the day, every day of the week. This goes on for months until the songs are no longer ‘hits’. And it’s not just Triple M, but all commercial stations.

I’ve figured out why. The stations aren’t catering for us long-term listeners who basically leave it on the one station all day. They’re chasing the ‘channel surfers’ who might keep skipping stations, or those who might only listen to the radio for a short stretch (in the car on the way to work for example). So they need to show how cool they are, at any point in the day.

In a way they’re a lot like banks. Most banks couldn’t care less about existing customers, they’re chasing the new customers. There’s and old direct-marketing mantra: “it’s more expensive to get new acquisitions than it is to service existing customers”. In fact, this is probably just a general business rule, and surely this applies to banks and radio too? They could stop spending loads of cash on advertising and new customer/listener tricks, and simply concentrate of keeping they’re existing customers/listeners happy. The good will and satisfaction would make it’s way to other people via word of mouth (and social networking, such as blogs!) and people would flock to them in droves. It’s just good business…isn’t it?

There needs to be a station suitable for those people with more than half a brain who listen to the radio for more than 30 minutes at a time. Oh, there is, it’s called iPod.

Step 2 of my move to the dark side is now complete. I have a brand spankin’ new MacBook to replace our dodgey old PC laptop.

The core duo chip is so quick, makes the Mini looks slow…which I guess it is. I love the built-in iSight camera, and have already started scanning everything into Delicious Library.

I’m loving iLife ’06 too, some small but great enhancements over 05. And I’m starting to use Automator too, using it to synch files and email between my laptop and desktop.

The third and final step will be to decomission the PC laptop, but I’ll have to get Bootcamp up and running before I can do that. She’s served us well, travelling all around the world stuffed into backpacks and suitcases, but is well past her replacement date. Not a bad laptop (Acer TravelMate 360 — 1GHz Pentium 3 512MB RAM) for travelling since it’s light and has good connectivity such as Firewire and WiFi which weren’t common 5 years ago.

See what people are blogging about: MacBook, Delicious Library