Don't Call it a Comeback...

...I've been here for years.

It's been nearly 2 years since I've truly been active here at deviantART. The reasons I left extend beyond the drama surrounding the termination of the yellow alien, and while I'm not sure I'm really all that interested in making a return, I felt it was time to make my presence felt and let you all know what I'm up to these days.

All Work, No Play?

Almost 2 and a half years ago, just about the same time my participation here at deviantART dwindled, I started a new job in a new city. I moved my whole life from a fairly small city in Rochester, NY to the hustle and bustle of Boston to work as a UI Designer at Harvard. It's been nothing short of a spectacular ride so far.

My job is fulfilling, fun, and I work at the most well known university in the world. Not only that, but I get to work and play in one of my favorite cities, regardless of the cold winter months which I'm very much used to, growing up in Buffalo and all.

Conferencing

Moving to Boston and working at Harvard lead me to yet another change in my life. I started going to conferences. It started with SXSW in 2006 (which I will be attending again this year for the 3rd time in a row) and it's blossomed into one of my favorite things about being a web designer. The best part is, I'm not only attending conferences now, but I'm also speaking at them too.

I was lucky enough to be a part of a panel at last year's SXSW called The Influence of Art in Design. At the end of this week, I'll be giving a short talk at the DC Design Talks on design principles. In July, I'll be speaking at the Higher Education Web Symposium in Philadelphia, PA. And in August, I'll most likely be speaking again at a conference in Seattle that is still in planning stages.

This is not only a big step in my career, but it also allows me to visit friends all over the country, and to meet new people in the design world. It's fun, exciting, and I not only help other people learn, but I get to learn a bit myself.

Personal Projects

As far as my own projects go, I've been fiddling with my camera as per usual. I have a Leica D-LUX 3 and I love it. It's just enough camera for me since I don't know a whole lot about manual settings, but have access to most of them on a somewhat compact body.

I've been doing some web projects on the side as well as some t-shirt designs, so hopefully I'll have more on that soon. I've also been dabbling in the iPhone area, working on 2 separate iPhone native applications (the UI at the moment). I'm hoping to learn some Objective-C so I can start on making these applications a reality once the official SDK comes down from Apple.

Pixel art. How I've missed you, oh crazy art form, you. Hopefully I will explore you once again in the near future.

Twitter

Have you heard of Twitter yet? It's a quick way to let people know what you're up to. Kind of like IM or IRC, but broadcast to anyone who wants to listen.

If you want to know what I'm up to, you can create an account for free and follow me. I can't guarantee it'll be interesting 100% of the time though!



Latest albums listened to:

Burial - Untrue
Timbaland - Shock Value
Faithless - To All New Arrivals



I keep track of all my useful links on Ma.gnolia these days, so check out my account if you want some good stuff.

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Archer Typeface

A gorgeous slab serif from Hoefler & Frere-Jones.

ScreenFlow

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`splat
Patrick Haney, not a sausage
Designer, developer, deviant.

I'll start this journal entry, my first in 5 months, with a bit of 2Pac lyrics (which, oddly enough, isn't unusual for me to do) from Troublesome:

"Shit ain't changed since my last rhyme

The crime rate ain't declined"

That's how I feel about deviantART these days. What's changed? A few little things here and there. I can set my mood on each individual comment?! Yeah, because that's necessary.

And the crime rate hasn't declined at all. The crimes are being committed against you, the user, by the people who make the decisions about this place. They're adding features you don't really need rather than fix bugs that have been known about for years. YEARS. We're not talking days, or weeks here folks.

It's sad for me to see deviantART like this. It's like a good friend who's gone down the wrong path in life and as much as I had tried to help in the past, he just won't do the right thing. So I gave up. And maybe I'm a quitter in some people's eyes, but I'm not the only one. I've seen too many great people and deviantART enthusiasts take off over the last few years to not notice.

Lastly, I just want to say that I've been sticking with flickr lately for all my photos, and for featuring design work I like. Also, my personal site, patrickhaney.com, has been redesigned recently and is still a work in progress. You can keep up on the latest in my life over there.

Am I ever coming back here? Who knows. Never say never (even though that's an oxymoron, because you're saying "never" right there in that statement). But right now, I'm staying away. And look... almost 4,000 deviantMESSAGES. Ouch.



I'm curious about what you all think...

Should I start becoming more active at deviantART again?

`splat
Patrick Haney, not a sausage
Designer, developer, deviant.

I've been missing from deviantART for quite a long time now, if you haven't noticed. And to borrow a line from Office Space, "I wouldn't say I've been 'missing' it, Bob."

It's a little sad, I know, but it's the truth. Maybe I needed a break from it all, or maybe I'm just not into it anymore. I'm not sure.

After dAv5 came along, I just felt like this site, this community that I helped build, has lost some of its luster. The new design is not a good one in my opinion, and features that should have been delivered 2 years ago (features we actually requested) have not been implemented.

My subscription has apparently expired recently, but at the moment, I do not intend to renew it. Not yet anyway. I've not yet decided whether I will continue to be an active member of this community due to all the other things going on in my life and my lack of real concern with deviantART, but that may change.

If you want to know what's going on, or you want to get a hold of me, my website is a good place to start. It'll be getting a redesign soon too, which is part of what I've been spending all my time on lately.

So, good luck my deviant friends. I shall stop by once in a while at the very least, but I make no promises to whether or not I return to the land of the devious.



I'm curious about what you all think...

Should I start becoming more active at deviantART again?



`splat
Patrick Haney, not a sausage
Designer, developer, deviant.

Back in April, I held the first Boston devMEET in Harvard Square. It was a small turnout, but went pretty well. Afterwards, ¢eStunt was talking about putting together a summer devMEET in Boston, but it seems to have faded and nothing was done.

I'm looking for people interested in putting something together in late August or early September before the weather starts to cool off. If you want to help plan it, make suggestions or just want to be there, let me know (comment here, that would be fine). It'll probably happen near the Boston Common downtown this time, just FYI.

`mick-mick, ¢eStunt, `avatar8, I'm looking at you first!



What are your thoughts on the new version of deviantART?

deviantART Version 5 is...



`splat
Patrick Haney, not a sausage
Designer, developer, deviant.

I've been gone for quite some time now. My subscription expired, I missed deviantART's 6th birthday, and my activity has dropped to almost nothing around these parts. Life has been busy, my computer has been in for service (and will go back in for service soon), and I've been spending a lot of time at the dentist lately. But I digress.

So I return to deviantART today, and what do I find? v.5 of the site has launched, and I can tell you that I am more than disappointed with it. Let me tell you why.

1. If Looks Could Kill...

Does v.5 look better than v.4? Sure, I think so. At least in some regards. The problem is, I'm surfing around and finding all sorts of CSS problems.

2. Hidden Features

So there are more features in v.5? Really? Because I didn't notice right away, as they're hidden. See that dA logo next to your username at the top of every page? I wouldn't have known to click on it to find a nice dropdown of quick links if °liquisoft hadn't pointed it out. Why? Because there is no indication that it does anything.

After I figured that out, I realized I could also click on the little guy with the green ball (my status icon) and I'd get a list of my "friends." Again, hidden functionality that wasn't obvious to me.

3. Bad UI Kills Kittens

Well, not really. But if one were to get frustrated enough by a bad UI, he/she might kick a kitten. Might.

Why are the links in the message bar highlighted only when you mouseover them? That is the exact opposite of what users expect. On the web, links are underlined. They should be obvious to users, not disguised at regular text.

Those 2 dropdown options that I mentioned above are also bad UI. I should know without clicking or mousing over them that they do something.

And speaking of the user status button on the far right, why does it look like it's floating off in space by itself? It looks disconnected from the rest of the interface.

4. Consistency

The old tab-like subnavigation (such as the boxy links in the "Your Journal" section) look nothing like the new rounded tabs on a profile page. Choose a style and use it throughout the design.

And why are the links on the profile page blue while links elsewhere are the old grey color (which, by the way, need to be changed because they look almost identical to regular text and are hard to distinguish as such)?

5. The Front Page

I can't stand the new front page. Sorry, I just have to say it.

Where is the news? Poll? Partner links? Why does it look like someone hurled 20 images on the screen without any thought as to how to organize them or separate them? At a glance, I can't even tell that some are prints, some are Daily Deviations, etc.

Conclusion

I'll have more to say on this subject, along with suggested improvements (instead of just saying "this is crap"), but for now you can take all of this with a grain of salt. However, last time I checked, I was a User Interface Designer at Harvard University, so I tend to believe I know what I'm talking about.



What are your thoughts on the new version of deviantART?

deviantART Version 5 is...



`splat
Patrick Haney, not a sausage
Designer, developer, deviant.