http://www.jeffsargent.com Jeff Sargent is a web UI designer, standards advocate, and markup junkie operating out of Gainesville, Florida. Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:24:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Motivated by the promise of discounted software, I surfed to Microsoft's "Employee Purchase Program" website yesterday to see what prices I'd get. Naturally, I needed to fill out a brief form to verify that I truely am an employee who truely is working for a company that truely is ... http://www.jeffsargent.com/blog/archives/2008/02/10/microsoft-language-preference-not-yours/ I realized a little while ago that my setup for this website isn't going to work for me longterm. More correctly, it isn't working for visitors. The cause is simple, yet fundamental - I wasn't solid on what the site needed to do. More on that below. The ... http://www.jeffsargent.com/blog/archives/2007/08/15/gah-dont-look-at-me-the-dilemma-of-a-pending-redesign/ Sometime ago I learned a very valuable lesson: Sometimes people want you to listen, and sometimes they want you to solve their problems. It's important to know the difference. This isn't always easy For a lot of people this can be very difficult advice to regularly apply. Some situations exacerbate the ... http://www.jeffsargent.com/blog/archives/2007/08/12/listening-to-someone-vs-solving-their-problems/ An experience with an interface today left a bad taste in my mouth, for two reasons. First, I call myself a UI designer, and expect more from interfaces because I know it's possible to make them easier for users to love. Second, I was the poor user suffering under ... http://www.jeffsargent.com/blog/archives/2007/08/07/please-dont-make-users-hate-your-interface/ A few months ago I was feeling a lot of stress, not about any one thing, but rather with a jumble of several things. I found myself stepping outside the office 2-3 times a day to breathe some fresh air and relax. Only...I found I wasn't relaxing, I ... http://www.jeffsargent.com/blog/archives/2007/08/02/if-there-are-no-roses-to-smell-stop-and-see-the-leaves/ This will be relevant to just a small number of people, but if you have subscribed to my RSS feed, you'll need to update your subscription. The other day I signed up for the free version of Feedburner to host my feed. I want to be able to ... http://www.jeffsargent.com/blog/archives/2007/07/31/drinking-the-feedburner-koolaid/ It's been just over a month since I last wrote a blog post, and tonight I intend to nip the slump I've been in. This month has been a perpetual "not tonight, I'll do something else" cycle when it comes to doing anything creative. It's easy to lose ... http://www.jeffsargent.com/blog/archives/2007/07/26/breaking-a-slump/ There's an interesting post at Rands In Repose titled The Enemy that covers some of the reactive personas your manager may assume after you tell him you've seriously screwed up. Take a moment, read it, cogitate, come back. Quick note: if you're extra sensitive to seeing the "f" ... http://www.jeffsargent.com/blog/archives/2007/06/24/panic-mode-management-and-you/ With the encouragement and anecdotes of a few friends I've decided to pick my copy of Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen off the bookshelf and give his program another go-round. My first reading of the book was half hearted; I only read Part One, which covers the ... http://www.jeffsargent.com/blog/archives/2007/06/17/getting-things-done-take-2/ This past week I was in Bellevue, Washington, for 2007 Transforming Local Government conference. Our team was presenting our rules for managing inhouse projects, and keeping them on "trek". That's right - it was a Star Trek themed performance, complete with uniforms, warp drive, a holodeck, and at ... http://www.jeffsargent.com/blog/archives/2007/06/10/back-from-washington-state/