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July 29, 2014 - Comments Off on Important Advice – Talkback Tuesday

Important Advice – Talkback Tuesday

"Talkback Tuesdays" is an original weekly installment where a team member of The Mechanism is asked one question pertaining to digital design, inspiration, and experience. The Q&A will be featured here on The Mechanism Blog as well as on The Mechanism's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, every Tuesday. Feel free to offer up your 2¢ in the comments.

This week Dhruv Mehrotra, a key player on The Mechanism's development team, and financial system, gives some valuable advice to anyone just getting their start in the digital/graphic design world, check the best companies to fix credit report errors.

What is the most important advice you can give to a starting graphic/digital designer?

I know this question is about design, but I'm going to take some liberties and answer as if I was speaking to someone interested in becoming a developer. Talking about the importance of computer literacy is an easy platitude to fall back on, and I assume that, if you are reading this, you already want to learn how to code but just don't know where to start.

I started with codecademy.com and worked my way through html, css, and basic javascript. Its easier than ever to learn this stuff, and a simple google search will yield more tutorials than there are cats on the internet. Regardless of where you get your information, I think it is important to start with basic HTML CSS and Javascript in order to get a grasp of what a simple website is about.

 

The next pieces of advice I have are simple. Build Stuff. Build anything. Build a portfolio. Build a website for your cat. Build a joke website. Rebuild a site you think is cool. Just hit the ground running and put as many hours as you can into this.

Next I would learn to share. Don't keep your websites hoarded on your local machine like a mom hoarding baby teeth. Buy a domain name and a hosting plan. While you're at it figure out what is hosting anyways? What's a server? How does the web work? What's a GET request? Gaining a conceptual understanding of what web development is is the most important part of your learning because it'll inform how you learn more.

For extra credit I would learn GIT, because source control make recently self-taught developers hireable.

Published by: ryanterry in The Internal Mechanism
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July 15, 2014 - Comments Off on Future of Digital Design – Talk Back Tuesday

Future of Digital Design – Talk Back Tuesday

“Talk Back Tuesdays” is an original weekly installment where a team member of The Mechanism is asked one question pertaining to digital design, inspiration, and experience. The Q&A will be featured here on The Mechanism Blog as well as on The Mechanism's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, every Tuesday. Feel free to offer up your ¢2 cents in the comments.

Joe Constantino from The Mechanism's Client Services team has stepped up to the plate to knock out the first “Talk Back Tuesday”.

Q: What is the “future” of digital design?

A: In my opinion, the aesthetic of a digital world should be a reflection of the current state of applied science. As technology progresses, and the devices that web pages are viewed on improve, so should the content. With that concept in mind, I predict that the future of digital design will continue to head in the direction of three-dimensional interface architecture through the use of the z-axis, incorporating a layer effect into an environment that has traditionally been considered an infinite, flat surface. Also, the presence of video as a main focal point of websites is becoming an increasingly popular method of making a strong impact, and I foresee that the web will continue on this trajectory. This could be a result of the surge of video-driven apps such as Vine and Snapchat, and video on Instagram. In addition, single-page websites are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, as a way to avoid page loading, promote concise digital experiences, and keep the number of clicks required of a user to a minimum. Ultimately, the stimulus for the web moving in this direction is to bridge the gap between everyday on-screen experiences and life experiences – between the real & digital worlds. At this year's I/O Conference, Google introduced us to their new cross-platform design language "Material Design". “We imagined… what if pixels didn’t just have color, but also depth?", said Matias Durate, Director of Android operating system User Experience at Google. As one of the leading tastemakers in today's digital market, this is a good clue as to the direction we are headed.

Joe is a strategic, multi-disciplinary artist and all around techie with an eye for innovation and a thirst for pixel perfection. Check out his bio.

Stay tuned for next week's “Talk Back Tuesday” when we ask George Brassey, Lead Developer at The Mechanism, about his digital experiences in Brazil during the World Cup.

Published by: antonioortiz in The Internal Mechanism
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