Coders Who Can’t Design And Designers Who Can’t Code

You’ve probably encountered these two endangered species in the wild before. The developer who “has no eye for color”, “does not understand typography”, and “absolutely cannot design”. Or the designer who “sucked at math even in primary school”, is a “left-brained person”, or “doesn’t want to mess up the code”…

To help you stear clear of these dangerous specimens, here are some distinctive signs to identify them:

Coders who can’t design…

• Need a Photoshop mockup for every single screen, including the “I forgot my password” dialog and the Terms of Use page
• Assign different values at random to every margins and paddings
• Think 11px is the perfect size for body copy (and 14px is great for headlines)
• Ask you to export a background image even for a 1px black line
• Do not understand the concept of aligning things together

Designers who can’t code…

• Never think about what the site will look like past the dimensions of their PSD
• Have been using web fonts since 1998: they just export all text as JPEGs
• Design a site in Illustrator Indesign
• Think they can set an image’s blending mode to “overlay” in CSS
• Actually use Photoshop’s HTML “generate HTML from slices” feature

To be clear, I’m not saying you should try to do everything yourself. For example, when I work for clients I only provide a PSD or sliced images, I don’t code sites. But at least I know enough about coding to communicate with any developer.

What’s more, people often use their ignorance (real or feigned) as a way to avoid extra work and extra effort. And when each person is trying to do as little as they can, project are rarely successful.

Reaching out to the other side and learning a bit more than the absolute minimum will not only make you produce better work, it also goes a long way towards smoothing the wrinkles in the designer-developer relationship.

“Leadership” and “Followership”

“You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.” – Sam Rayburn

One of the most basic human instincts, a quality that every person is born with, is the act of imitating another person. Children often imitate behaviors as seen from their parents, friends, or the media. These influences determine the character that this particular child develops. As time progresses, imitation gives way to reasoning, opening the door for this person to start influencing others. The contrast between followership and leadership is analogous to this; once an individual is established as a follower, he or she can become a leader.

Followership is defined as “the act or instance of accepting the guidance and command of someone who leads or guides” (dictionary.com). In the Civil Air Patrol, a younger, inexperienced cadet is a prime example of a follower. Having little knowledge about the program, the cadet is unable to make important decisions affecting a group of people nor teach others by example. The cadet is only able to accept the lessons and duties imposed upon him by his ordinates. The follower will imitate the leader’s behavior and actions, gaining self-discipline, motivation, ideas, and responsibility from those experiences, if the leader exhibited those qualities as well. These acquired qualities are quintessential for the cadet’s development as a follower, and eventually, a leader.

Leadership is essentially the converse of followership. Leadership is defined as “the art of influencing and directing people in such a way that will win their obedience, confidence, respect, and loyal cooperation in achieving a common objective” (Leadership 2000 & Beyond, Vol. 1). A cadet leader may have responsibilities such as a command position, a teaching position, or a representative position (cadet advisory council, for example). These leaders have the necessary experience, skill, and motivation to bear responsibilities that a follower might not be capable of handling. The qualities that have been developed through a cadet’s career must be maintained, as well. As mentioned previously, a follower imitates the behavior imposed upon him or her by his or her leader. The leader must act properly as a role model for the follower, evincing self-discipline, motivation, and responsibility to teach the correct procedure or behavior to the follower.

The leader must also act as a follower towards his or her superiors. There is always a level ordinate to a leader. Even the President is a follower; he is a follower of the will of the people of the United States. This is, in fact, the basis for the chain of command. Leaders receive feedback from their subordinates, or followers, and relay this information to the next-higher authority. Theoretically, this chain may continue indefinitely. Cooperation between the leader and his or her subordinate is crucial, or the chain will not function effectively. Therefore, a leader is concurrently a follower.

The differences between leadership and followership, then, are a process of learning and the time needed to gain experience in assigned responsibilities. Once a follower has demonstrated mastery of self-discipline, motivation, responsibility, and other important traits, he or she has the competence to become a successful leader and pass this wisdom on to future generations.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower

What does it take to create an innovative breakthrough product? It is not an insignificant question because business innovators typically invest a lot of time and money getting their big idea to market. For those who make it, the rewards— financial and otherwise—can be incredible. The so-called “first mover’s advantage” is real and means the successful innovator just may dictate the terms in a whole-new field. Consider:

• Amazon.com was the first big e-commerce company. It is still No. 1.
• Starbucks was the first company to popularize gourmet coffee.
• eBay was the first online auction site.

But for every eBay and Starbucks there are hundreds of other companies that never did break out. So what’s the difference? A look at some business innovations—some serious and some fun—sheds some light.

Envisioning a Market
During the World War II rubber shortage, the U.S. government put out a call for industry to invent a synthetic rubber. General Electric created a substance it called “gupp.” It was interesting, for sure—it could stretch and bounce, for instance—but artificial rubber it was not.

Yet, because the stuff was so interesting, GE sent samples to scientists and academics the world over, asking for ideas on what to do with it. Surely someone could come up with a valid scientific use for the strange substance.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
—Steve Jobs

No one had any idea. And then it happened—the eureka moment. After the war, an unemployed marketer named Peter Hodgson saw toy store owner Ruth Fallgatter pulling and playing with the stuff, and they both thought it would make a great toy. A year later, Hodgson borrowed some money, paid GE $147 for the patent rights and many pounds of the stuff, and got to work.

He gave gupp a new funny name, packaged it in a unique way, and actually got it into a few more toy stores and bookshops. But no one bought it… until a writer for The New Yorker bought some, played with it, loved it and wrote about it in the next issue of the magazine.

Peter Hodgson never had to worry about money again. He received 250,000 orders for his Silly Putty over the next three days, and when he passed away in 1976, Hodgson was worth $140 million.

The moral of the story is that sometimes nothing beats some good old-fashioned PR when trying to spread the word about a new product.

Mistake-Proof Ingenuity
In the 1950s, Bette Nesmith Graham was a single mom who worked at a bank as a secretary. Although she was not a great secretary, and made a lot of typos, she did happen to be a very good artist. So every year, the bank had her paint the Christmas scene for the bank’s windows.

One year, she made a mistake while painting the holiday scene, painted right over it and thought to herself: “I wish I could do that when I am typing.”

So Graham took some tempera paint to work and began to paint over her typos. She soon realized this was a great idea that could make a great business. Working from home after work, Graham began to experiment with paint.

After considerable effort she came up with the concoction that eventually became Liquid Paper. But unlike Peter Hodgson, Graham’s innovation was no overnight success. She continued to work at the bank and make batches of then-named “Mistake Out” in her kitchen, selling a hundred bottles a month.

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
—Martin Luther King Jr.

The challenge was that because the product was so innovative, few people even understood why they might need it. But as people learned about the product, the business slowly started to grow. Yet, it was still a full 18 years after creating the product before Liquid Paper hit $1 million in annual sales. Five years later, it was $25 million a year.

The rest, indeed, is history, and ultimately Graham’s fame would be eclipsed by her son’s; Mike Nesmith became a member of the ’60s group The Monkees, as well as a movie and video producer.

There are many routes to innovation success. The instant home run is nice, but far more often it’s persistence that pays off. And it’s not hard to understand why. Creating an innovative product like Liquid Paper often means having to teach consumers why they need it.

Just ask the folks at the Coca-Cola Company about the challenges and hazards of doing that.

Innovative Blunder
In the history of bad business decisions, maybe the worst of all time was the decision by the Coca-Cola Company to scrap Coke for New Coke. As they found out, if you are going to toss out “old” Coke, you might as well ban mom and outlaw apple pie.

The decision came in the mid-1980s amid a battle waged by Pepsi against Coca-Cola. The “Pepsi Challenge” was a television ad campaign that had consumers taking a blind taste test and then saying how Pepsi tasted better.

As a result, nervous executives at Coke began to secretly experiment with new formulations, until they found one that beat Pepsi in taste tests. Convinced they had a winner, Coca-Cola triumphantly rolled out “New Coke.”

“I have always been driven to buck the system, to innovate, to take things beyond where they’ve been.”
—Sam Walton

Maybe never before has a new product been received so poorly. Late-night comedians had a field day; people boycotted the new stuff and even began to horde old Coke. New Coke was off the shelves within six months.

So what went wrong? Somehow the marketing wizards at Coca- Cola never took batches of New Coke and test-marketed them in stores in, say, Des Moines, Iowa. They also never warned folks that New Coke meant no old Coke. It was all too secret.

The lesson should be clear: Innovation is great, but innovation in and of itself is not enough. The truly great innovative product is not only new; it fulfills an unmet market need. There simply was no clamoring for something to replace good ol’ Coca-Cola.

Creating the Next Big Thing is no easy matter. It takes a great idea, perfect execution, a market need and more than a little luck. But boy, put those together, and you can change the world.

Awesome iPhone APPs for this Festival Season

Wonderful App for NEW YEAR!

Send Beautifully Animated Cards to your loved ones on X'MAS!

Holidays are just around the corner! … and so are some really cool iPhone APPs, to celebrate it with

In this fast and evolving era of Science and Technology, modern day man finds it really difficult to spare some leisure time for himself or his family or even his friends, for that matter. No one can be blamed for this, because people need to find means to adopt themselves to the modern lifestyle. Being unemployed don’t help at all, being employed in a firm would help and being employed in more than one firm should definitely help… In the past, people find time atleast for the holidays at Christmas and New Year to spend quality time with their family and friends. Now its tough.

E-Cards to the rescue:

With the increase of the availability of free e-cards online, the sales of traditional cards have declined. Sending an e-card can be a best way to greet someone because they offer many features. It’s fast, has numerous options, saves lots of trees (NO PAPER!) and most importantly its FREE.

Did you hear about the NORTH POLE and the NEW YEAR EXPRESSES?

Modern day e-cards are mainly developed using a technology called Flash. It’s wide range of features helps in creating wonderfully animated cards. But we have a PROBLEM! Apple, one of the world’s leading technology companies, is against it. I don’t blame them; yeah Flash eats up your bandwidth and your battery, which is bad, really bad for mobile devices. Well, if I have to charge by mobile every hour, then there ain’t a point in saying that it’s ‘MOBILE’, right?

Well, you don’t have to worry… People in the Silicon Valley has found a solution for not using Flash, yet creating beautifully animated cards that work for the iPHONE.

Yeah, that’s right, now you can send Beautifully Animated and Hand Crafted Cards to your loved ones, family, colleagues etc.., FROM YOUR IPHONE!

To know the details visit: NORTH POLE EXPRESS or NEW YEAR EXPRESS

Well, thanks to the guys at TouchWeb, we can know celebrate this festival season by letting our loved ones know how much we care and remember them.

Happy Holidays everyone and do try the APP out.

The StartUp An Employee’s Passion or Nightmare

The StartUp – An Employee’s Passion or Nightmare

There is one thing that is a sure bet for employees that join a startup. In employment and non-employment related discussions with friends and family members, they will hear the dreary and almost ear numbing warning, that STARTUPS ARE RISKY.

Money and a high class lifestyle is what most people dream of, while looking for a job. Status and reputation in the economy is what employees struggle to achieve. So, is RISK out of the question? Yeah, obviously for almost everyone, risk is what they are not willing to take. They ask themselves, would Risk bring me Money and Reputation? N

o! is the overwhelming answer they get.

How would I get money if I join a startup and it suddenly closes? Is my job secure? My colleagues earn almost double of what I get in a Startup and they don’t even have to go through half of the struggle and pain that I endure. Would a startup add up to my reputation among others, or would Google, Yahoo, IBM or Microsoft give me a better image? And Oh, I am gonna get married, so, wouldn’t I get a better proposal if I have a safe and non-risky job at a major MNC? The answers to all these questions inside your mind leads to one simple answer DON’T JOIN A STARTUP. Simple as ever, right?

Well, there is a small group among the common man though, who most people initially think are arrogant with a "bring it on" bravado. I would say that they are people who think beyond what a normal person thinks. They are tired of corporate jobs and just wanna get away from cubicle lives that seem too confining and boring. Are you one of them?

Well, I don’t blame people who have got talent but are from developing countries like mine, India, for instance. Parents who dream of getting their child well educated and reach pinnacles that they could only dream of during their lifetime, tend to somehow spend money so tha

t their kids can afford to go to expensive institutions and universities. By the time the highly expensive education is over, their pockets have dried up. Okay, so now we need to find you a job as soon as possible, and that too a good job in a reputed MNC, because I don’t want my neighbors and relatives booing me behind my back. These are the messages that parents start conveying into the minds of their just-out-of-college kids. What are the kids supposed to do? They look for a highly lucrative, safe, non-risky, 9 to 6 behind the desk jobs. Do they really want that? I don’t know you have to answer that question.

“Awakening Your Inner Creativity”, oh yeah, everyone has a little inside themselves, but doesn’t realize it, or should I say they do not want to realize it purposefully. Oh, what can I do, I am just a normal person. There are lots of brilliant guys out there and I don’t want to be a fool among them. Thoughts keep raveling in everyone’s mind.

When will you stand up for yourself? When will you listen to your gut instinct? When will you try something new and different? What you should have is a vision for your ideal personal and professional life. Instead of focusing on what you couldn’t do to make it happen, focus on what you can do. You may get knocked down, discouraged, and even doubt your own san

ity at times (many times), but that’s natural. At the end of the day…It’s not how many times you get knocked down that count; it’s how many times you get up that matter.

So what does all this really mean? Does passion pay? I say YES. Our passions might not always pay dividends to our bank accounts, but they will always pay dividends to our heart and soul. People who stood up no matter what the world said, Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Inc), people who thought out of the box, Mark Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook), people who knew that life is about taking risks, Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Founders of Google and people of who believed life and work is about passion, Jack Dorsey (Founder of Twitter), never thought that they would get recognized, famous and rich as they are now, but they stood for one thing and one thing only, what does their heart say.

When you feel stuck you have to give your creativity a metaphorical shake of the shoulders. It is important to stop and replenish your stores of creativity. And you’ll do that by expanding your view, not by narrowing your focus. Then will you be able to jump back in. As Bob Parson, the Founder of GoDaddy said, “when you think you are ready to quit, just know that you are closer to success than you think”.

You may not find immediate results while pursing your dreams, may be you wouldn’t be respected or recognized for what you do, but one day all your life’s efforts will pay off. May be you would have to wait for a lifetime to see the end-results, but atleast I would say that you can lie peacefully in your bed, even if it is the last day you would see of this world, and know inside that you have left your footprints in history.

Be careful, while being online!

In this new age of Social Networking, most people have a very robust online social life, while their offline lives are gloomy. People just accept friend requests, email invitations, online community invites etc..., without having a clue of what and whom they are dealing with. This is how many people have been molested, defrauded, and even killed by people they meet on the internet.

Do you keep your sensitive personal information, private?
Do you have a clue about the privacy policies and settings?
Do you approach email links/invites, regardless of what they are?

Careless usage, could lead to outbreaks that can damage computer systems and might even steal sensitive information from your home/company.

Last week, I overheard one of my colleagues at office bragging about having 2000 friends on FaceBook. What? He hardly talks to anyone in the office and believe me NO ONE LIKES HIM AT ALL!

How many of us are careful while we are online? How many of us are careful with the friends we choose, or rather should I say, with what we share with unknown friends?

People ought to be careful while updating their whereabouts on their social networking sites, especially when they hardly know most of the friends that they have on these social networks. The danger is publicly telling others (who you don’t know) where you are.

Be cautious when you receive links in messages from your friends (especially when you don’t know who the friend is) on your social networking sites.

Be particularly cautious when you accept a person as a friend on a social network. Thieves and spammers with fake identity would lure you into traps and snatch away vital information. This is also called social engineering.

Following are certain tips that people ought to follow while dealing with Social Networks:
http://bit.ly/10BQF8
http://bit.ly/abmVo

Carelessly posting jokes, insults, or even pictures on social networks, could cost you your JOB.

View the video below to know the truth about employers and how they secretly track your social network behaviorism:
http://youtu.be/eRaG9A9syHI

So be careful and stay safe.....