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Showing posts from 2016

Castle Cross Section

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Worked on a fun castle cross section illustration the other week. Figured I'd do something new and actually had a lot of fun doing it.

Raptor Rider

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Finished a new illustration, the "Raptor Rider". Featuring my sister-in-law Alicia atop an awesome  velociraptor . This is another addition to my series of "Warriors Riding Giant Beasts". Hope you all enjoy it. 

Poster Designs For Puzzle Room

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Photos of two of the posters that I designed for a Seattle based Puzzle Room company. 

Elevation Charts - Capital Trails RVA

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Created a bunch of elevation charts for Capital Trails web map (Richmond Va).

The Wolf Rider

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Finished a new illustration, the "The Wolf Rider". Featuring my friend Harris atop a ravenous wolf. This is another addition to my series of "Warriors Riding Giant Beasts". Hope you all enjoy it. 

Custom Icons

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We often have to create custom iconography to help represent very specific map features and ui elements. These are a few recent sets that I've been working on.

Photo Editing

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Had a request from marketing to remove power lines. 

New Illustration In The Works

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Started on a new illustration this week. 

Payed Off My Student Loans!

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I'm free! I payed off my student loans!

The Leopard Warrior

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Finally finished my latest illustration, the "The Leopard Warrior". Featuring my friend Thorne and his dog Winters. This is another addition to my series of "Warriors Riding Giant Beasts". Hope you all dig it.

Introducing Gamification Into Your Mobile Strategy

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You may have heard the term Gamification being thrown around a great deal in recent years. I would consider the Gamification of an application a key component of the overall User Experience in that good gaming mechanics lead to a pleasant experience and continued application use. If your application features repetitive functionality, Gamification may assist in keeping the user engaged and coming back for more. It may also contribute to a more competitive/active social environment within your application’s community. Any company wanting to create a public facing application with hopes of engaging it's audience should consider moving in this direction. App Audience – Every application has a target audience and identifying and catering to this audience is key to a successful User Experience and Gamification. Your audience may be diverse or it may be a specific target demographic. It is important to evaluate your target audience’s expectations and preferences and reflect th

The 10 Commandments of Design

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1. Hick’s Law Every additional choice increases the time to complete an action. This means that the more options a user has when using your website or web application the more difficult it will be to use. This law really speaks the importance of simplicity. 2. The Pareto Principal, or the 80/20 Rule A high percentage of users will perform a low percentage of actions. In terms of web applications, most of your users will perform a small percentage of tasks. Using the 80/20 rule can help prioritize features or remove unnecessary functionality that may only cater to 20% of users. 3. Proximity Elements that are near each other will appear related. Space around elements are key. 4. Feedback Giving a user a clear indication that something has happened, is happening, or could happen. 5. Fitt’s Law The larger we can make the clickable areas the easier it will be to interact with. 6. Occam’s Razor Simplicity over complexity. Less is more. “A design isn’t finis

Escape Room Posters

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I completed three posters commissioned by an Escape Room Company on the west coast. They provided photos of there actor for the photo manipulations. These were used for hints in solving puzzles so the text and imagery was very specific.

Playing With Pixels

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I've never done pixel art before and figured I'd take a stab at it. 

The Dog Warrior!

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Finally finished my latest illustration, the "The Dog Warrior". It's a self portrait of me riding my Boston Terrier with my Parrot and a beer stein. This is another addition to my series of "Warriors Riding Giant Beasts". Hope you all dig it.

How to Implement an Effective UX Design Strategy

Had an article published in GIS Lounge concerning User Experience Design, check it out: http://www.gislounge.com/how-to-implement-an-effective-ux-design-strategy/ A little sample: "A designer’s voice on the relevance of User Experience (UX) design in modern GIS application development from  Aaron Woodard , Timmons Group .   There are many examples of elements in everyday life that are perfectly constructed but fail when it comes to usability. Have you ever tried to put together a piece of furniture and found the directions to be overly confusing? Or have you ever been driving around town and found an intersection particularly awkward? Those are examples of bad User Experience Design.  Just like a printed document or road sign may lead to a bad experience, so can a web or mobile application. Applications can be great functionally with all the necessary tools, but can provide a horrible overall user experience...."