News Archive
October 7th, 2007
South Jersey Massage Therapy was just launched. I designed and coded this site for a growing massage therapy business in southern New Jersey. I had a lot of fun working on this, since my new job consists entirely of user experience and no design or coding.
September 27th, 2007
So it's official. I've decided to do volunteer Web work for any non-profits or charities that may be in need of my services. I'm offering my design, development, and user experience skills. Since I have a day job, I'll be doing this throughout my evenings and weekends. I'll definitely be working at my own pace and won't be able to deliver anything too quickly.
So far I've been in contact with a non-profit in Lansdale, PA. They're looking for someone to update and revamp their site. I've yet to meet the folks in person, but hopefully that will happen soon, as I'm eager to get started. If you know of an organizations that could use my help, please let me know. I'm only tackling one project at a time, so any interested organizations will certainly be considered, but they'll be waiting in the queue. :)
July 25th, 2007
Once again, I've moved onto a new position. This time it's a User Experience Architect position with G2 Interactive, formerly Refinery, Inc. I'm really enjoying myself here so far, and hopefully I can stay put for a while. I'm now part of a dedicated UX team whose members bring a diverse range of experience to the table. There's a full usability lab here with an observation room, and I finally got to see eye tracking software in action (and yes, it's impressive, in an odd and futuristic kind of way).
This new position is almost purely UX, so I won't be doing any Web development here. I'm starting to miss it already, but luckily I'm working on a small site for a friend of mine, so I can continue to stimulate that side of my brain, and I can keep the skills alive. After that I'm considering doing some volunteer Web design/development work for a non-profit or charity. The UX stuff at work is certainly keeping me challenged, but I love Web development too much to give it up just yet.
May 8th, 2007
It's all about the user experience. Period.
I couldn't help but huff and puff today while attempting to use the photocopier at work. I had a stack of 30 pages to copy, so I removed the paperclip from the stack, placed it in the paper feed tray, and pressed the green button. Simple, right?
To my dismay, multiple pages were immediately sucked into the machine, resulting in paper jam after paper jam. I couldn't understand why, since I had removed all paperclips and staples, and the pages themselves showed only minor wear and tear. After several failed attempts to complete a simple task, I realized that I would have to copy all 30 pages manually. By the time I finished copying my stack of paperwork, 15 minutes had passed.
What should have taken me 1-2 minutes took me 15. Needless to say, 13 minutes of my valuable time was wasted. It just goes to show the significant impact of a bad user experience. Having worked in this industry for several years now, I look at everything in terms of user experience: Web sites, road signs, assembly instructions, food nutrition labels, etc. The user experience is invaluable; imagine a world designed with ease-of-use fully in mind. It would be a wonderful world indeed. :o)
February 23rd, 2007
This fall I left my position at Traffic.com for an Information Architect position with Perficient in Malvern, PA. The decision to leave Traffic.com wasn't easy by any means, but I'm enjoying the challenges and responsibilities that the new gig has to offer.
Also, The Chris Arter Band website was recently launched. I designed the page layouts for this site and coded the XHTML and CSS. The logo, header design, and photographs were provided by Matt Walker of New Light Photography.
November 8th, 2006
The Web world has been buzzing over the last few weeks about the release of two major browsers: Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0.
IE 7 is much sleeker and boasts tabs, RSS support, increased security, bug fixes, and more. I came across a decent review of IE 7, and I agree with its conclusion: IE 7 gets a pat on the back as a tremendous improvement over IE 6, yet it still pales in comparison to Firefox 2.0, which includes more tab features, enhanced search options, fixed memory leaks, and a built-in RSS subscriber. For more details, check out this review of Firefox 2.0.
July 8th, 2006
I recently read two great books: CSS Mastery by Andy Budd and Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. CSS Mastery is a must-have guide for any front-end developer who uses CSS on a regular basis. It's packed full of tricks and advanced how-to's that you shouldn't be coding without. I highly recommend getting the book, which you can read more about here.
Don't Make Me Think was a great read as well. Not only was it informative, but it was a quick, tongue-in-cheek, enjoyable read that explores the basic and essential principles of usability.
March 24th, 2006
Not much has been going on career-wise outside of work, with the exception of one freelance project that's been moving a bit slowly. I've also been reading up on Web usability and accessibility.
March 23rd, 2006
New Web site launched. I also just got back from a family vacation in Tampa, Florida.