This job posting came through one of my RSS feeds.
Rock Star UX Designer/Flex Developer wanted
I always cringe a bit whenever I see job postings looking for rock star this or ninja that. People seem to throw these terminology around lately as if they really knew what the implications meant. Does any firm really want that? Let’s examine this a little.

By definition, a rock star is a famous singer, composer, and/or musician. A rock star spends a big chunk of his/her time touring and giving concerts. They also have music and other merchandise that they sell. They probably spend lots of time promoting their work to build awareness and increase sales. Some rock stars can be demanding divas who require certain types of bottled water or bowls of M&Ms sans the brown ones if they are to play.

If we were to translate this to the software development world, a rock star designer or developer would be famous in their niche in the world, maybe because they created the framework du jour or have some recognized open source project. They spend a big chunk of their time touring and speaking at conferences. They also write industry articles and publish books that they sell. They probably spend lots of time promoting their work to build awareness and increase their personal brand so they can sell more books, charge more for their work and their speaking.

So is this what the firm that wants a “rock star” designer/developer really wants? My guess is no. The firm just wants a good candidate to do the work. Most of the time the person doing the hiring or writing the job posting has no idea what qualities or qualifications to look for and throw around the terms ninja and rock star as catch all.

And what about ninja? What makes you a ninja developer? Do you need a degree in computer science AND a black belt in martial arts? Do you need to be proficient in 5 programming languages and 5 weapons? If that’s the case, very few people would be qualified and it doesn’t even make any sense.

There’s really no point to this blog post other than to rant. Basically people need to do their homework and figure out what are the things they are looking for in a “good” designer/developer instead of being lazy and just saying I want a rockstar this and a ninja that.

http://ipaddevcampchi.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/hackathon-winners/

I’ve spoken and written about hackathons before. I think they are awesome.

Ravi and I didn’t intend to participate in the hackathon. Although I enjoy them, this time, I wanted to enjoy the conference and listen to the sessions. However after getting together with Ravi and throwing around a few ideas, I started messing around with the design for an app idea. After a few hours of doing that while listening to the sessions, the thing started to look like something after all. I spent a few more hours in the evening on it and told Ravi in the morning the next day that we should consider doing the hackathon. It doesn’t matter if we get it done or not. To me, just doing it was more important. Lo and behold we were able to submit something as a last minute entry. I was able to show the design and Ravi was able to show the tech demo of the app. We didn’t expect to win anything but the judges really liked what they saw. We’re working on it and hope to have it in the app store soon.

I think this just reinforces my belief that if you feel like you want to do something or ought to be doing something, you should just go for it. What do you have to lose? The most that could have happened was that we wouldn’t win anything. Who cares? Having done the exercise, we now potentially have an app to show and a possible source of side revenue as well as a showpiece for our skill.

As web designers we must resist the urge to keep adding. Clients often want more features and we struggle with how to do that tastefully, and in a user friendly manner. We also want to make our designs “prettier” by adding more “stuff” to it. This tidbit of advice from Coco Chanel for women resonates with me as a designer.

Do the hair. Do the makeup. Get yourself fully dressed and then, before walking out the front door, pause by the mirror and remove one item. Maybe it’s the hat. Maybe it’s the piece of jewelry you really don’t need. But the line, according to Ms. Chanel, between knockout and near miss could be found in a single overdone object.

link here

With that in mind, I’ve started to really think about the current project I am working on and what I can remove.

I recently gave a talk at the Google Android International Code Sprint in Chicago. I compared two cross platform mobile development frameworks. What that means is that you can use these frameworks to create applications in one programming language and deploy them to different mobile platforms with little or no code modification. This is a major convenience to many app developers. Anyways, here are my slides. They are very visual and don’t have a lot of content. My slides are really only there to support my talk but here they are for your viewing pleasure.

I’ve had the iPad since launch which is about 2 weeks now. I’ve downloaded most of the free apps that are made especially for the iPad and here are the ones that are I like in no particular order.

Kindle I’ve had the Kindle for a long time and love it. I find it very convenient to read books on my way to work. The iPad version doesn’t have that slick iBooks UI however I find that it’s actually easier for page turning. I also find that the user interface for the bookstore is a bit lacking – it’s essentially the Amazon website in a web view. However, I have access to all my books and that’s all that matter. Download link

Netflix If you have a Netflix account, then you need this app. You have access to all the on demand movies which you can stream instantly to your iPad. My only gripe is that the UI for app is basically the website – which isn’t all that iPad friendly. Download link

WeatherBug I like this weather app better than the Weather Channel app because it displays all the relevant information on the first dashboard. It seems they’ve really thought about the iPad screen and visualize a lot of information on a single screen. Download link

TweetDeck The TweetDeck app for the iPad is really nice. They’ve really thought about the form factor of the iPad and designed their app to fit it really well. It’s perfect for any power Twitter user. Twitterific is great as well, but I feel it’s a little too simple, like the Twitter website and for many people, that’s probably a good thing. The two apps are built for different types of users. Download link

ABC Player If you watch ABC shows this app is a must have. I’m a big V and Lost fan so this is great. One annoying thing about this app is that it doesn’t rotate depending on the orientation. I wouldn’t even mention this except for the fact that it’s a big brand. Download link

Epicurious This was one of the first iPad apps I download. I was very impressed. The design of it is really slick and suiting of a recipe book. It showcases the iPad really well. Download link

NYT Editor’s Choice The New York Times has always been at the leading edge of technology. I was an early adopter of the New York Times reader Silverlight app and AIR app that followed. They’ve always made well designed apps and this is no exception. Download link

Godfinger I am not much of a gamer these days but I was hooked on Godfinger for days. The graphics were cute and clean and the gameplay was incredibly addictive. Kudos to the team for sucking me in with all the game mechanics. I would give this game a negative score on utility because it’s got a high chance of making you less productive. Download link

Marvel Comics I’m not a huge fan of comics but I can appreciate the innovation here. The way that comics are presented here is pretty awesome. You can zoom in to the pane view and swipe your finger to the next pane. It’s a totally new comic book reading experience. Download link

Roambi This is a data visualizer’s wet dream. If you didn’t think the iPad had any business use, this app will change your mind. It turns your iPad into an instant dashboard. From a UI perspective, it’s downright sexy. I love it. Download link