Well - had to be done. I needed to get my site updated from Drupal 5 to 6 in order to implement some better features and in general keep up with what I do for clients. It was also useful to go through the upgrade process on an existing site to get used to the pitfalls.

Overall it wasn't all that bad, but I did have to reimagine how I wanted to deal with some views, and recreate some of them from scratch. I haven't had time to really dig into the design, but this had to come first and setting a deadline helped move things forward faster.

While I've been 'away' from posting here, a big change has come about for me professionally: I've decided to leave (add)ventures and start my own web strategy and design consultancy. There's been a huge amount of interest in my work, and it seemed like the right time to move. My role previously was far too focused on just implementation, and this way I'll more often get to bring my full experience to projects rather than only a small slice.

So there it is: the shingle has been hung: web strategist, designer, technologist - now for hire.

I’ve traded a few tweets over the past day or two on the subject of good books for web professionals. I use that term to avoid ‘designer’ - as that seemed limiting or possibly a bit arbitrary. I think that information architecture, understanding business requirements and translating them into web site features and functionality, usability/user exerience, interaction design and visual design are all distinct enough that they can be a specialization unto themselves.

I’ve been working full-time at (add)ventures since late 2007, but thought it would be worth it to share my thoughts on the process of interactive projects. When I was interviewing at (add)ventures I was asked the question ‘how do I tackle interactive projects,’ and this got me thinking about not just the steps, but the philosophy behind them. While I think this might have been more than was anticipated, I thoroughly enjoyed the process!

Marketing? Corporate Communications? Or is it IT?

My friend Steve Cross sent this along yesterday - a post from lifehacker that talks about how for some people doodling can actually increase focus on another task, such as listening. I don't pretend to have gone that deeply into all the other reasons why I sketch, but I got a good chuckle out of the positive reinforcement. Thanks Steve!

Drupal is a quite capable platform, and I've used it quite a lot, both for work and for personal projects. Its Achilles heel though is the admin interface - with ultimate flexibility comes a lot of configuration choices. While the simple solution is to tell the client 'just don't look at that stuff' - it's not ideal, and can be intimidating. Enter some key modules: jstools, form_store and formfilter.

I've been trying to keep up a good habit: reading more about not just what I do, but about other creative disciplines. Having heard Hillman Curtis speak at the FOWD conference on election day, I'd put his MTIV book on my 'wish list' on Amazon. I hadn't worked my way down to it but got a prompt from someone in the office, saying it was an absolute must. So I picked it up and couldn't put it down. I read through it over a weekend and it has made a huge impression on me, and given me a huge refresh in the inspiration department.

At the Future of Web Design conference last month in NYC, one of the presenters was Hillman Curtis. There were a number of amazing presentations (Carsonified) does an amazing job - there really were no ‘throw-aways’), but his stood out for a really important reason: inspiration.

Well, the FOWD conference was last week and I have to say that it was absolutely the best (work-related) two days I've spent in a long time. Everything about it was just fantastic (apart from leaving at 4:30am on Monday to get to the workshops starting at 9). Workshops with Paul Boag and Armin Vit were great, lunch in between with Paul Boag, Steve Smith and Dan Mall was really nice as well. Tuesday's conference was just packed with great presentations, and the after-party (and the 'in-between-the-conference-and-afterparty' stop at the bar next door) was a blast.