Portfolio Updates: 2020 Build

I recently updated my portfolio again. I do it every year, I guess. As before, I designed it in Sketch, with some on-the-fly updates in CSS. Here’s a look at the after:

Top to bottom screen capture of portfolio landing page

 

List of changes

I still have some changes to make, but those are relatively minor. Here are some things that have and haven’t changed:

CSS Framework

I’m still using Tachyons, which is a low-level, utility CSS framework. I’ve started to move some styles to my stylesheet, partially to keep the HTML clean and also because I enjoy writing CSS classes.

Now Optimized for Wide-screens

Something I wasn’t aware of before was that the page content was floating left on super large, 4K screens. I optimize my site for mobile use, but I only have a laptop screen at home. I didn’t even think about this previously!

Well, I fixed this, by giving the pages a max-width and centering content, but I’m annoyed that it happened and I didn’t know until now.

New Inspirations

The overall inspiration for my website comes from Swiss design posters, but I was additionally inspired by two more websites.

  • Paravel has a simple global navigation and conveys a lot of information about projects, without being cluttered. A good example of including text, but not too much. I borrowed from their All Work section at the bottom of the page. paravelinc.com
  • Salt & Pepper sticks to neutral tones of black, white, light tan, has lots of white space, and uses big titles for their sections. It reminds me of some of the original goals for my site. I added more white space to the landing page, similar to their main page. snp.agency/en

New Projects

Overall, I added three projects, moved one, and removed one. The one I moved went to the new section, as described next.

Below the main project area, I replaced the images of brands and companies, and instead added a grid of rectangles with logos. Some of the logos lead to new pages with shortened projects. I decided to call these shortened projects “Small Bites”. Most of these projects are examples of individual design artifacts, rather than complete case-study reviews. The reason for this is I wanted to share examples of good work, but I don’t always have a strong story to tell.

Main web page update

I also updated my main website home page. Previously it was yellow and dark gray. At the time, I wanted to give an equal weight to my Cargo collection portfolio (which is really only because I am paying extra for that), and my blog. I decided that page was embarrassingly bad, so I updated it for something a bit nicer. I had to admit to myself that most people will be viewing my website to view my UX portfolio, so I made that more prominent.

Maybe I’ll update this page to include more personal stuff, like my GoodReads list, or a recent blog post, or something. And, I’d like to make it more Swiss-poster style, so there may be more changes.

Favicon

I updated the favicon to a little green square. I used to get confused about which page I was on, but I’ll probably change it back. It’s  not really meaningful for me.

I like the tree. 🙂

Still no subdirectory for Work

I’ve considered moving my projects into a sub-directory, like alliwalk.com/ux/work/project-name. But there are 2 reasons for not doing that.

The first reason is creating a work directory would require creating an index page. The obvious thing to include on that page is the list of projects, which would mean moving my projects to that page. I’d like to keep the navigation flat and stick to the one-page design.

The second reason is I don’t want to be using long urls. And I guess another reason is that the About and Colophon would then be hierarchically above the project pages, and that’s not right, either. So everything will stay where it is.

Help from StackOverflow

I ran into two CSS/layout issues, related to images and the footer.

Problem 1: Images. In one case, I was getting this thin, black line showing up around some images on a new page I’d added where I wanted to use a different effect for image hovers. The effect meant I had to wrap the images differently than just placing them on the page. The only problem was that I could not figure out where the border was coming from, until finally I found an “How to remove a border of background-image“.

I had been adding images using like this:

<img style="background-image: url(https://www.w3schools.com/css/trolltunga.jpg)"/>

This is incorrect. Image tags require a “src”. The other option is this:

<div style="background-image='url(image.jpg)'"></div>

The only problem is that it’s not exactly semantic, and it’s not accessible, as is. However, it can be made accessible by using role and title attributes, which is what I did.

Problem 2: Footer. The other question I found helpful was related to the footer, which was not sticking to the bottom of the page on some pages. Bootstrap has an easy solution for it, and I thought I found another option that would work, but it failed, too. Finally, I found “DIV content overflows into footer, makes footer go upward on page” which provided a simple solution, though kind of hacky solution.

And, I guess the other thing is I never shared the results of the research I did in 2019 on UX portfolios. I checked on it again, to remember all of my findings. But, I don’t know if it should be on SlideShare, or if I should put it on LinkedIn, or just on this blog. I don’t know. Something to think about.

I was hoping to present it at UX Camp this year, but….

Month Notes, May-July 2020

Just a mini list of all the stuff I’ve been consuming/doing. Portfolio updates, books, and courses.

Portfolio Updates

I’ve made several adjustments to my portfolio. I’ve already started another post detailing the changes, so I won’t go into much detail now. But one change was to update the website index page. Instead of the yellow and dark gray, with Courier font, I updated the page to stick with all Inter font and emphasized the portfolio link. I may change it again, but I prefer the gradient gray over the yellow.

Courses and Educational Film

The Dynamics of Desegregation

Over the past few months, I’ve been watching The Dynamics of Desegregation which is available via my local PBS station. This series originally aired in 1962 and 1963 as a 15-part “intensive study of race relations in the United States.” It is hosted by Thomas F. Pettigrew, PhD, who was then Harvard psychology professor. He is now at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

3 MOOCS

In the past few years, most of the online courses I’ve completed have been about tech, business, or design. While I find these courses valuable for work, I do sometimes wonder what I’m not learning. Serendipitously, due to the lockdowns, ClassCentral sent an email about courses and I decided to try some new topics. Here are three courses I’ve completed, or almost finished:

1. ChinaX: Creating Modern China on EdX

I’ve always been interested in Chinese history, but this is truly one of the most interesting courses I’ve even taken, anywhere. The 5-parts are:

I suppose I selected this course on modern China because I have been hearing about the country so much in the news media and from government officials, who I assume are biased. I wanted to form my own opinions about the country. I also took it because I know the history of modern China had a communist period. Supposedly the country is still communist, but given the people I’ve met, the stories I’ve heard about the growing wealth in China, and how aggressive China is towards developing technology, I wasn’t so sure.

Anyway, it’s a fascinating course. I highly recommend it. This series is Part 2. Part 1 is about pre-history of China and the earlier dynasties.

2. Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society on Coursera

This course is from the University of Pennsylvania. It’s focused on the design of physical artifacts. I really enjoyed the breakdown of solving design problems by breaking them down into separate issues and using charts to deciding which prototype to progress into the next stage. It’s much more professionally focused than the others.

Given the circumstances, where I’m not really going out and not able to talk with friends, I did not attempt to create an artifact. But I did appreciate the lectures and hopefully I can come back to this in the future.

3. Sheep in the Land of Fire and Ice on EdX

“This short course discusses the sustainability of sheep grazing in Iceland and explores how history, socioeconomic factors and environmental conditions have shaped the management of grazing resources.”

I tell anyone who will listen about my dreams of farming sheep and/or goats. When I saw this short course from the University of Iceland, on a topic related to sheep, I figured I  should try it.

What I learned is that because Iceland’s soil is volcanic, it is prone to erosion when the native plants that keep the soil together are destroyed by overgrazing or by too many sheep that simply crush the plants. There was more information about the history of Iceland, sheep farming, and geography. Needless to say, I will never be a sheep farmer on Iceland.

You can also learn more at sheepfireice.org.

Personal

Last time I did a post like this, I mentioned finishing “Flights”, by Olga Tokarczuk. Since then, I’ve finished:

Food-wise, it’s now summer which means I don’t use the oven much. Due to the lockdowns, I also haven’t been buying fresh milk too much. I’ve switched to non-fat dry milk and almond milk because they are more shelf stable, reducing my trips to the grocery. It turns out I really enjoy almond milk in my iced coffee.

Image credit: Hand schrijvend met een kroontjespen, by Isaac Weissenbruch, 1836 – 1912, paper, h 72mm × w 113mm — View original at Rijksmuseum.nl 

(I believe the title is translated as ‘Hand writing with a dip pen’.)

Event: Omotesenke, Green Tea Ceremony

Japan Society's workshop on the Japanese Tea Ceremony
Screen capture from event page for Japan Society’s workshop on the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

The Japanese art of tea ceremony is a time-honored tradition still widely practiced today, but with so many tools and so much etiquette, learning this beautiful practice can seem daunting. At our workshop, an instructor from the Omotesenke Domonkai Eastern Region USA school of tea ceremony will guide guests through the delicate steps of a traditional tea ceremony in a casual setup.

I forgot to write about this event I attended, from way back on 26 February, 2020. Given the number of world events that occurred since then, it kind of slipped my mind. It’s something I would write about, so I’m going to include it now.

History

We’re usually given pamphlets at most Japan Society events. I kept my mine, so here are a few basic facts:

Chanoyu is the green tea ceremony and Omotesenke is one of the schools of green tea ceremony. Members of the Omotesenke school taught our course. The other two schools are Urasenke and Mushanokojisenke.

“Sen no Rekyu established the basics of Chanoyu as it is practiced today.” Rikyu (1522-1591) was a tea master during the Momoyama period, and was a tea master for both Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi who were shoguns during his lifetime.

The Metropolitan Museum has a detailed essay, Japanese Tea Ceremony, that provides an overview of the history and culture surrounding this ceremony, and the development of “the simple and quiet form of Chanoyu called Wabicha”. This led to the wabi aesthetic, and there are examples of beautiful, wabi artifacts related to the tea ceremony on the Met website.

Tea Utensils

The pamphlet listed all the tea utensils, and we also had our own at our individual place settings.

  • tea bowl
  • Chaki, the container that holds the powdered tea
  • Chashaku, the tea scoop
  • Fukusa, the silk cloth for wiping the tea container
  • Mizusashi, container for holding fresh water
  • Kama and Hishaku, kettle of boiling water and ladle, respectively
  • Kakemono, a scroll hung for guests
  • Tokonama, alcove where scroll is hung
  • Chaseki, the tea room

Overview

For the ceremony, first they demonstrated, then we got to try. They provided us with a little tin of matcha to take home. I didn’t take any photos this time, but there are a few on the Omotesenke website. Given the time that’s passed, don’t remember as much, but  here are a few things I do remember:

One thing at a time. Something that gave the tea ceremony a more ceremonial feel was that there was no multi-tasking. For instance, no holding the tea cup while pouring the water. Put down the scoop before picking up the whisk. It was more meditative and slowed things down a bit.

A place for everything and everything in its place. We had little placemats for our tea settings showing where items should be placed before and sometimes after being used. It was very organized.

Very sweet desserts! There’s a type of sugary sweet that is served before the tea ceremony. To me, it tasted like a block of pure sugar! This was something I did not expect. We were told the reason is because green tea is kind of bitter and the sugar helps it taste nicer.

A few more questions

How does matcha differ from sencha, hojicha, or other green teas? From attending another event on green tea, I am much more informed about tea. All tea is made from the same plant. It’s only in the processing that determines if it’s black tea or green tea, etc. Most teas are steeped. Matcha is the actual tea leaves, that have been finely ground into a powder. So where green tea has many health benefits, it’s still only steeped in water. In matcha, you actually consume the leaf itself. But matcha has caffeine, so we were told to be careful of how much we added to our cups.

What do people talk about at a tea ceremony? I asked one of the two presenters if people talked to each other at the tea ceremony. She turned the question around and asked the group what they thought. People guessed that the ceremony was quiet and there was no talking at all. She said there can be some discussion, but usually only one person asks the questions to the host and talking is kept to a minimum. The focus is on the ceremony and the meditative atmosphere.

The actual tea ceremony didn’t last that long. I suppose I assumed it would be longer or more elaborate than it was. Maybe other activities like putting on a kimono or selecting the scroll would add to it.

PS – I didn’t take any photos, but one of the people from the tea school took one and I found a picture of me.

Tea Ceremony at Japan Society
Me sitting right by the screen at the tea ceremony presentation.

Event: Lecture on Sake Etiquette

I recently attended an online lecture on sake etiquette. Here are a few notes from the lecture.

In 2020, the Japan Society’s Annual Sake Lecture & Tasting was held online. View

Normally the Japan Society holds an annual sake lecture and tasting, which I’ve missed in previous years. Due to the restrictions on large groups, they didn’t hold an in-person event but they still held an online lecture on sake etiquette.

The lecturer was Timothy Sullivan, founder of UrbanSake.com. He was very knowledgable about sake etiquette and sake. He had a long sake list, with tasting notes, which you can find on the Japan Society website.

Here are a few tips from the lecture.

Sake Etiquette Tips

Here are eight tips for enjoying sake, if you want to have proper etiquette:

Tip 1: Don’t pour for yourself. I’m not sure if this is bad luck, or bad manners, but this was the Number 1 tip our lecturer made sure to share with us. He later explained that “O-shaku” is the manner of pouring for others.

Tip 2: Keep the Wa. Wa (和) is a Japanese concept of peaceful unity and conformity in a group. It focuses on harmony. In general, it’s rude and/or impolite to disturb the wa – including in sake etiquette.

Tip 3: Use 2 hands when pouring for others.  Our lecturer compared pouring sake with 2 hands to the way business cards in Japan are received with 2 hands, too. I think this practice holds true for more formal situations, but it’s considered more polite.

Tip 4: Don’t “slam” your sake when drinking. Although the small sake cups resemble Western shot glasses, that’s not why they’re small. The smaller cups allow you to pour for more people.

Tip 5: When pouring for other people, only fill the glass about 80% full. It’s considered rude to do this. When it’s full to the brim, it makes it difficult to actually drink from the cup without spilling.

Tip 6: Offer to pour for someone else, to get someone to pour for you. Getting back to the first tip, if you want more sake and your cup is empty, offer to pour for someone else.

Tip 7: When receiving sake, use 2 hands to hold your cup. One hand holds the cup, while the other supports from below.

Tip 8: Don’t drink before the kanpai. Kanpai is like the group cheer and it disturbs the wa to drink before the kanpai. At formal gatherings, often the sake will be already poured so that they can do the kanpai quickly and no one has to worry if everyone has been served.

Drinking Styles

Kenpai/Henpai

This is a style of drinking and sharing sake in which two people of unequal social or professional status actually share the same drinking cup. The junior person pours for their senior, who drinks the sake. Then there’s a large dish of water that the sake cup gets rinsed in. Then the senior person pours for the junior person. This style of sake etiquette is apparently restricted to only one region and discouraged when anyone might be sick (like now).

Mokkiri, overflowing style

This is more for casual drinking settings. In this situation, a taller clear glass is set inside one of those wooden sake boxes. The sake is poured into the glass until it overflows into the wooden box. The lecturer recommended lifting the glass and drinking from that, first. Then when the sake level has gone down, pouring some liquid from the box into the glass.

Finally, one last tip…

In casual settings, the rules relax a little. But, even in a casual setting, it’s polite for everyone to drink the same drink. For example: don’t ask for sake if everyone else is drinking beer. Remember: don’t disrupt the wa.

Isolation on Film

When we all started isolating, I immediately thought of a few films that captured different aspects of social isolation. If you find yourself with a desire to reflect on isolation, here are 3 movies and a tv series to watch.

Physical Isolation: The Wall

In German with English subtitles — 2012

In this movie, a woman on a weekend retreat to the country finds herself suddenly and inexplicably trapped by an invisible barrier that separates herself and everyone else. She learns to adapt and cope with her isolation. I saw this movie in the theater, I think at the IFC Center. It’s a movie I think about from time to time, and try to think about the invisible barriers I put up for myself.

Domestic Isolation: Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

In French with English subtitles — 1975

Jeanne Dielman is a single mother who goes through her days completing repetitive and mundane domestic tasks. Although many scenes were choreographed, the director filmed many of these scenes so that they appear real-time, slow, deliberate. Jeanne chooses her daily activities, from shining shoes, to making meatloaf, to turning the lights on and off, but she is essentially trapped in her domestic life of repetition. It’s clear she puts in focused effort as she carries out these tasks, but does she enjoy it? Does it matter?

And there’s something about watching this older movie, which came out in 1975, with no cell phones, no internet — you just feel the pressure of domesticity closing in on Jeanne. There are definitely some surprising plot twists in this movie, though.

I think about this movie often, like when I’m washing the dishes or cleaning the bathtub. I believe I saw this movie on Hulu, back when a Hulu subscription came with access to the Criterion Collection. I hope to watch it again.

Cultural Isolation: Walkabout

In English and an Australian indigenous language (not translated) — 1971

Title card for film Walkabout, 1971
Opens IMBD in a new window

In this movie, a white adolescent girl and her younger brother find themselves abandoned in the Australian outback. Eventually, they meet an Aboriginal adolescent boy, roughly the same age as the girl, out on his ritual Walkabout. The rest of the movie tracks their physical journey together.

This film is a masterpiece. It stars Jenny Agutter, and was the film debut for David Gulpilil.

Despite the sister and brother being thoroughly dependent on the Aborigine for their physical survival, the sister, in particular, remains unable — unwilling, really — to break out of her cultural frame of reference and the trio remain alone together. I suppose the Aboriginal boy also seems to lack the sense to realize that sticking to his cultural traditions alone isn’t enough to connect with this sibling couple.

Rogerebert.com has this to say:

“The movie is not the heartwarming story of how the girl and her brother are lost in the outback and survive because of the knowledge of the resourceful aborigine. It is about how all three are still lost at the end of the film–more lost than before, because now they are lost inside themselves instead of merely adrift in the world.

…there is a wide range of experiment and experience that remains forever invisible to us, because it falls in a spectrum we simply cannot see.”

Despite the pessimism of this film, I really love the soundtrack for this movie, which was made for the film by composer John Barry. The song, Who Killed Cock Robin is set to a minor key and slow tempo, with orchestra and a chorus; a beautiful effect. You can hear it toward the end of the video.

Marital Isolation: Scenes from a Marriage

Swedish with English subtitles — 1973

Scenes from a Marriage is a 6-part, Swedish miniseries. The series follows a husband and wife, starting from what seems like marital bliss and over time their marriage slowly falls apart. It’s been a while since I originally saw it, but I remember wondering if these two were every really connected or if they were still in their own world but together. They do argue, but it still seems somehow measured.

Anyway, this movie was directed by Ingmar Bergman, and stars Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson; good reasons to watch.

 

The Escalator

An attempt at a plot development technique called “The Escalator” — from an online creative writing course, focused on plot.

Many years ago, I took a continuing education in creative writing at Rice University. I never took another one, until recently when I got it in my mind to try again. This time, I wanted to look for an online course.

Despite most online courses these days centering on coding or engineering, I found an online creative writing course, focusing on plot development, on Coursera from Wesleyan University. Because I’m not a paying student on Coursera, I cannot submit my writing, so I’m going to share it here.

The assignment from Week 1 is called “The Escalator”. The instructions are below, but the goal is to move the plot along by the use of certain words, like ‘tiger’ and ‘appliance’. It feels a little contrived, but actually these action words really help move things along.

Assignment: The Escalator

Write a scene of 250-350 words featuring a character with one concrete want (a table, a moose, a toothbrush, anything physical is fine!) and one weakness. Use these two features to drive the action of the plot. Set up the story where every other sentence is a rising action. To help you come up with rising actions, use one word from the following list of twelve words in each sentence that has a rising action. In other words: Write your first sentence introducing your character. Make the next sentence a rising action using one of the following twelve words. Write your third sentence, which may introduce the weakness, then write your fourth sentence with a rising action that includes one of the remaining eleven words you haven’t used. And so on.

  • trick
  • memory
  • aboard
  • tiger
  • pretend
  • carrot
  • appliance
  • cage
  • rings
  • crow
  • filthy
  • explode

You must use at least 6 of the 12 words, but you are encouraged to challenge yourself to use as many of the words as possible while still meeting the word count.

Submission: Gold Ring

Abby had recently started a new job after a long period of unemployment. As she found herself in the jewelry department of Bloomingdale’s, she could feel a small part of her explode with pride that she had finally secured full-time work and start living again. 

In the past, Abby had purchased earrings or a necklace to celebrate a new job, but since she wouldn’t get paid until the end of the month, she didn’t have the money to buy anything new. She tried to pretend eagerness in buying the set of pearl earrings the sales girl was showing her and smiled when she looked in the mirror.

As she looked around she noticed the jewelry department wasn’t that busy, but it wasn’t that crowded. She had an idea to somehow trick the sales girl and get the jewelry — by stealing. 

She’d never stolen before and could hardly believe she’d formulated this idea on her own. But after those many months of unemployment and self-doubt —- pinching every dime, and eating rice and lentils every night —- she finally felt like she’d escaped her cage.

Well, she told herself, if she was going to possibly get caught stealing, she wanted to make sure it was worth it. She moved around the glass cases like a tiger stalking prey, making notes in her head of pieces she liked and didn’t. 

Finally she came to a case of rings and asked to view them closer. When the rings were placed in front of her, she cocked her head like a crow, this way and that, trying to eye both the sales girl and the rings. 

The ring she chose to try on was a simple ring of rose gold and opal. She admired how it looked on her finger and tried to remember the moment to form a memory in her mind. 

She hadn’t figured out exactly how she was going to steal it and began to feel her confidence waning. Suddenly, what had been a loud murmur at the other end of the jewelry case exploded into a commotion. A well-dressed man and woman began to yell and scream, hurling filthy insults at each other.

All of the sales attendants immediately hurried over to the couple, including the sales girl who had been serving Abby. 

Like a tiger, Abby pounced at her lucky opportunity. She put her ringed hand in her pocket, picked up her bag and began quickly walking, almost running, towards the door.

Just as she reached the door, she heard a voice call out to her, “Oh, Miss! Oh, Miss!”. But Abby didn’t stop.