Words for numbers
October 17,
2011
I’m Tommi Koskenoja.
I like to design and then build
things for the web.
October 20,
2011
It’s always exciting when great companies, with large followings, hire new people. Even more exciting is when you get to be a part of it.
The most common way of recruiting people for highly regarded companies in design probably goes a little like this: The company contacts a designer they are interested in and hires him/her. This time, though, Carsonified arranged a different kind of process. They openly stated in their blog that they were looking for a designer. To apply you had to do a small design task.
A great way for “unknown” designers to get noticed and get their foot in the door. Also, a good way for Carsonified to promote their Treehouse project. Win-win!
They stated that they are looking for a designer who has:
I feel all of those things could be said about me, so I decided to apply.
The design task each applicant had to do was an app for keeping track of your heart rate, drinks consumed, food eaten, hours slept, and highfives received. It needed to have a logo and a name. It didn’t need to be functional, just flat HTML was good. Even if I wasn’t going to get the job, this sounded like a nice design exercise.
The deadline for the task was yesterday, so I figured I would share my application app with you. It’s called Appendix.
The main view of Appendix.
The history visualization.
Sketches from the notebook.
The design process was pretty much dominated by the idea of having all the previously inserted information displayed as bar charts. This was the first thing that popped in my head when I started thinking about what I wanted to create. I stuck with it, and I think it turned out to be a good first iteration.
Sure, there are things that I would do differently if I would do this whole thing again. Maybe I would change the entire concept to better fit the mobile side of things, too. The current version relies too much on JavaScript animation to work smoothly on mobile or older browsers.
I took a conscious risk when I went with a bold, maybe even a Scandinavian, aesthetic look for my app. The Carsonified website, their Think Vitamin blog, or the portfolio of their superstar designer Mike Kus, clearly show that they value a playful and illustrated style. It’s a style I enjoy very much as well, but I decided to showcase the graphical style that is most natural for me to produce.
My main realistic goal for this whole experience was to get complimented on my design skills by a well respected member of the design community. At the end, knowing how good you are at things depends on the opinions of other people.
I guess the best and a very reassuring part of the application process was how much fun I had while designing Appendix.
So, thank you, Carsonified.
October 17,
2011
September 21,
2011
August 29,
2011