Commuting with Nature, Worker's Comp / 26.05.2005

Pretty in Pink: My Coworkers and I in the Uniform of the Day Commuting time is usually decompression time. Unlike driving, riding the subway each morning and afternoon allows me to listen to music or This American Life on my iPod, read the morning paper, and sometimes just observe my fellow commuters. Today, as I made my way underground, I was reading Deepsix, my latest less-than-deep sci-fi novel. I casually looked up to notice the five people sitting closest to me were all wearing pink and black. Hmmm. This was a bit out of the ordinary. And as I walked up...

Fairly Odd Parents-Present, Worker's Comp / 06.03.2005

Psst. Hey you. Yah you. Come over here. Wanna buy some cookies? Uh, I got Trefoils. I got your Do-si-dos. I got Double Dutch, Samoas, and Thin Mints. I even got Lemon Coolers. They're lo-cal. What's your pleasure? The Girl Scouts' Thin Mints. Pictured larger than real life, but not as delicious. Thin Mints please. Those delectable chocolate-covered wafers. They seem to melt in your mouth so effortlessly you're scarfing down a whole box before the first commercial of CSI. THIN MINTS! Ummmmm. I want 'em now and I want 'em bad. It's Girl Scout cookie time. I'm not alone. It's the...

Artistic Tendencies, Worker's Comp / 12.02.2005

Since shedding my higher level administration duties at work a few months back I've been able to concentrate on design and geeky things. Being creative in my day job --I'm in heaven. A few weeks ago we introduced a new section to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Web site: Interact. We'll introduce small and fun things to do with our collection and be able to highlight some of the virtual exhibitions we've created. Displaying a detailed photograph on the Web has its drawbacks. It's impossible to get close and explore the image. Click on this photograph I took to view a zoomified...

Worker's Comp / 01.06.2004

At key junctures in our projects my boss will gather our team together and ask if we can "touch magic rings." Can all of us agree to sign off on the work we've done so far? It's one of his endearing phrases that has made difficult large scale undertakings, and even project management itself, well, manageable. Bringing order to what was once chaos is hard work. A lighthearted approach (sparking childhood memories of secret clubs and swashbuckling adventures) takes the edge off arduous tasks. One for all and all for one.

Not surprisingly, the rest of us have found that "touching magic rings" has begun to enter our everyday lexicon. "Bob, have you had a chance to look over that PMP? I need to get it over to OMB with a cc to OHR asap. Can we touch magic rings on that?" Rather than rings, Bob and I gently touch knuckles in manly contemporary acknowledgement. I laugh whenever I hear myself say these words. My coworkers nod in acknowledgement. My wife thinks I'm nuts.

Worker's Comp / 14.02.2004

Found: one two three four five six seven eight iTunes/Pepsi bottlecaps out of 11 tries. In a vending machine in the basement of my office building. I won. I won! You really like me iTunes/Pepsi. As usual, I brought my lunch to a midday meeting I was running yesterday. We're setting up a "cutover" schedule for migrating to our brand new Web site redesign. I opened my special bottle of Diet Pepsi right there in between bites of my brie, apple, and pinenuts sandwich --one must always balance bureaucracy with high class sandwiches whenever possible. It makes project management so much...

Fairly Odd Parents-Present, Worker's Comp / 23.06.2003

I had a mild epiphany this morning. Movie listings are not as clearly designed as they could be. My 24/7 role as a parent has led me to this point. But it was my day job as a Web designer that opened the way.

We’ve been looking at how to incorporate usability testing in the development of our Web projects at work. When I used to teach art and design I often talked to my students about the clarity fallacy. As in art, there is often a disconnect between what we, the creators of new media, know and understand our project goals to be and how much of that is actually being communicated to our users. The object is to keep viewers on our site with good content that is easily found. Usability testing confirms just how successful we are.

Testing doesn’t always require a lab setting with a large staff and a large number of test subjects in order to come to valid conclusions. We invited a professional, schooled in these ways, to help us understand these simplified testing concepts. As an exercise (certainly not scientific), we went out into the museum and asked individuals if they could help us “test drive” our site. It only took a few minutes before I had my moment of enlightenment.

Book Reports, Fairly Odd Parents-Present, Idiosyncratic Celebrations, Worker's Comp / 26.12.2002

Was it visions of sugarplums that made my Christmas Eve day commute to work so sweet? Or was it President Bush's "pardon" for all us Federal workers one half day of freedom for the upcoming holiday? No, as I looked around the subway car I realized everyone was contentedly reading the Health section of the Washington Post. More specifically, they were reading The Happy Heretic, an article about Dr. Martin Seligman's new book, Authentic Happiness. Wellbeing saturated the underground air. With Christmas just past and New Year's up next, the burden of marking time (more specifically, marking this point in my...

Medicinal Properties, Worker's Comp / 14.02.2002

I've got laryngitis. The rest of my body feels fine. In fact, my throat and voice box feel completely normal. It's only when I attempt to speak that I even realize I've got a problem. I'm revisiting puberty as my voice cracks and jumps two octaves without prior notice. But this might be a good thing. Co-workers don't expect you to answer them. In fact, you aren't called upon at meetings to report. If you try, you are given sympathy (a valuable commodity in the workplace). It can be a problem in an emergency, like when your 3 year old...

Artistic Tendencies, Worker's Comp / 13.01.2002

It's January in Washington, DC. Nestled snuggly between The Holiday Season and The Tax Season in this town is The Performance Review Season! This is the period when all good federal government supervisors are "tasked" with evaluating the performance of their staff. Deadlines loom and are taken very seriously, so it's important not to procrastinate. Before I was hired, in my interview with our Administration people, I was asked what I would do if I had to fire someone. Since this was my first 9-5 job ever, and the only people I had previously supervised were my students, I only had...

Idiosyncratic Celebrations, Worker's Comp / 21.12.2001

It's ¡El Día Más Corto del Año Pero de los Días Está Consiguiendo más Largo y Soy Día Feliz! This is one of my most favorite holidays! Yes, it's the advent of winter (my second least favorite season) and I am not a cold weather person. BUT, the days are finally getting longer. The sun will not rise any later than it did today nor will it set any earlier. And I now have my personal equinox day to look forward to!! A few early winter discoveries I've made: First, I love these!! They make my feet feel toastie and keep me...