I've finally started poking around LinkedIn because it seems, unlike all the other social networks out there, to actually have a point. XD (I'm really REALLY not big on social networks, I tend to avoid them like the plague).
Soooo.. 'Write a profile, nugget, write a profile!' quoth LinkedIn. And verily (wearily) I did.
I started with a cut/paste one from my
Web Design and UX Portfolio... which somehow turned into a rant worth reading.
And so without further ado here we go!
While I've picked up a rather eclectic design skillset over the course
of my career, including (but not limited to), web design, copywriting,
packaging, animation, and front-end development, there's a single
passion that unites all these things.
Improving people's lives by giving them kinder, saner tools.
Yup. Cliched. Corny as Hell. Still true.
I'm not talking world-shaking, changing-the-course-of-history improvements.
I'm talking small, everyday improvements. Improvements that make
someone's day just a little bit better, preferably over an extended
period of time. An easy, concrete example? Search with autocomplete. And
there are so many, many more.
I believe that the tools we use should give us feelings of delight or
mastery - or at very least, not make us feel like idiots. Kinder, saner
software (because software is a product and a tool, as well as a
service) isn't just good for customers, it's good for software companies
too.
These kinder, saner tools are the ones that
...we vote for with our wallets.
...help us do things more quickly, more easily, more painlessly, and sometimes, even more enjoyably.
...allow us to go home after a hard day's work with the
satisfaction of a job well done - and not the frustration of having
spent a day fighting the very software that's supposed to help us.
And if, at the end of the day, I get to make these tools look sexy - that's a bonus. ;)