My First Hackathon

About a week ago I saw a post on Facebook looking for designers for an up and coming event with Open Austin. They are a volunteer group that promotes open government, open data, and civic application development in Austin. I had not been familiar with the group or its project until this weekend. Over the course of the year teams had been formed and each were working on a different Civic Tech project. This was their last major event of the year and the focus was on getting the resources needed, together, to finish up any loose ends. I didn't really know what to expect, but my goal was to meet new people, learn new things and improve upon my skill set.  It turned out to be a huge success all around. I met some amazingly talented people and helped out with the Digital Empowerment Community of Austin. I worked side by side with a UX Designer, who introduced me to a new wireframing tool Balsamiq Mockups. Together we were tasked on making the profile page of the site much more user friendly and easier to read. Most of the focus was on creating a hierarchy of the information and finding ways to group like content in a way that would read easier and make sense to the end user. Below is a look into the process, as well as a before and after of the page. #ShipItATX15 

BEFORE

WIREFRAME

AFTER

An inspiring week...

Last week I had the opportunity to attend two very inspiring design events. As a life-long learner I love to attend events such as this when I get the chance. They ignite new energy and new perspective into my career as a designer.

Design Thinking
This was a hands-on workshop ran by AIGA and General Assembly. In groups we walked through the 5 step design thinking process: empathize, ideate, prototype, test, iterate. Once we had a good grasp on our user we moved into the prototype phase. I loved the collaboration of this exercise, it was equally challenging and fun. 

Inside Job 2015: A One-day Conference for In-house Design
On Saturday I spent the day in Houston at the Inside Job Conference. Recently I've been trying to keep up with AIGA's In-house INitiative and this was the first event that popped up within reasonable distance to attend. At the end of the day I was very pleased that I had made the trip. The day was filled with speakers from well known in-house design creative teams like NPR and Newell Rubbermaid. Each person brought a fresh perspective on the in-house creative community and the trends of the future. I would recommend this to any managers, creative directors or eager mid-level designers, like myself, whom aspire to be in those shoes one day. 

Sociable Cider Werks Bike Jersey

This last trip back home I finally got to check out Sociable Cider Werks in Minneapolis, MN. I tried some amazing hard ciders and got my hands on one of the bike jersey's I created a couple months back. I was partnered with BELCH to make this custom design come to life. Make sure to check out the Sociable Ciders and if you are looking for custom bike jersey's contact BELCH he will hook you up!