Category: Work

Musings on work

Doings as of October 28, 2007

Mac OS 10.5 is released. Mixed reviews. Many new features, lots of changed user interface. I currently do not have Leopard as I have an old tower that wouldn’t really run it well, a bunch of 3rd party applications that I require to work effectively, some reservations about some of the changes, and finally, no pressing need to “change”. But enough of that.

At work I will be assisting an internal marketing team and helping MPHI chart out a marketing plan, to diversify our funding/revenue streams so that we will be better protected against the fortunes of this poor state. (Hello Governor and Legislature: Fix. Budget. Now.)

This last Friday I played indoor soccer with the team Winners by Forfeit (made up of some of my co-workers and their friends and spouses). We were handily spanked, 10-0. But we managed to stay upright most of the night and there was no puking. Later as the team discussed how we played, we all agreed we could only get better as the season goes on.

Finally I helped put together a haunted house for our church’s Halloween Carnival. It was a smashing success with many kids going through multiple times and having a blast. Many thanks to Los Eldres.

Oh. And the black locus trees outside the residence have about depleted their leaves which means no more messy carpets strewn full of leaves. The vacuum cleaner sighs in relief.

Designing Forms (Paper)

One of my current projects at work is designing a death scene investigation form. Forms are tricky and full of surprising constraints. They require important information to be relayed and gathered. Yet they need to be simple to use and easy to comprehend. It’s tricky. What typeface or type family do you use? What’s the optimal type size to get the best legibility to paper space ratio? How do you differentiate sections? How will the form be used? Where should the paper-fold go? How will the form be distributed and returned? Are there ways we can simplify it? Do we really need that question or field? Is that data needed? Two column? One column? Can we combine questions to create one field and save space? Designing forms brings with it the best and worst of design constraints.

Doings as of September 19th…

Visited the UP and went camping. Awesome except for the rain and wind on the first night. Jackets still smell of smoke. Need to get foam mattress and camp stove. 

Visited cousin & family and saw the birthday boy even though we missed his actual baptism. Awesome fun anyway. 

Helped create a presentation explaining what services my work group (Interactive Solutions Group) can provide.

 Gave that presentation in front of a live and remote audience (probably over 100 people) for a live, informational webcast. Many state government people in attendance. The conference generated much interest, particularly in webcasting and our video editing capabilities. 

Filming a live webcast tomorrow…Â