ut Unsolved Zoom Mysteries: Why We Have to Say “You’re Muted” So Much By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 29 Apr 2020 09:36:00 -0400 Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world. As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking. Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.” That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk. In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time. Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now. Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking Why does this keep happening?!? Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk. Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.” We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted. Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders: Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place. Meet is only slightly better: Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail. Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted: Teams is the worst offender: The mute button is an icon rather than words.The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator. Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted: Pros:Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.Cons:The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator. Potential Cons:While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state. Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls: Pros:The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.Cons:Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.Unrelated Con:While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬 I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use. But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs. I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for. Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again? This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it): The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key. If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.” There are two traps in this reflexive thought process: First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music. Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker. This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume: Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem! In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting: MeetMac: Command(⌘) + DWindows: Control + DTeamsMac: Command(⌘) + Shift + MWindows: Ctrl + Shift + MZoomMac: Command(⌘) + Shift + AWindows: Alt + AHold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis: Cisco Webex MeetingsMac: Ctrl + Alt + MWindows: Ctrl + Shift + M GoToMeeting Mac: No keyboard shortcut? Windows: Ctrl + Alt + A Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut! Full Article Process User Experience
ut A Parent’s Guide to Working From Home, During a Global Pandemic, Without Going Insane By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 15:06:00 -0400 Though I usually enjoy working from Viget’s lovely Boulder office, during quarantine I am now working from home while simultaneously parenting my 3-year-old daughter Audrey. My husband works in healthcare and though he is not on the front lines battling COVID-19, he is still an essential worker and as such leaves our home to work every day. Some working/parenting days are great! I somehow get my tasks accomplished, my kid is happy, and we spend some quality time together. And some days are awful. I have to ignore my daughter having a meltdown and try to focus on meetings, and I wish I wasn’t in this situation at all. Most days are somewhere in the middle; I’m just doing my best to get by. I’ve seen enough working parent memes and cries for help on social media to know that I’m not alone. There are many parents out there who now get to experience the stress and anxiety of living through a global pandemic while simultaneously navigating ways to stay productive while working from home and being an effective parent. Fun isn’t it? I’m not an expert on the matter, but I have found a few small things that are making me feel a bit more sane. I hope sharing them will make someone else’s life easier too. Truths to Accept First, let’s acknowledge some truths about this new situation we find ourselves in: Truth 1: We’ve lost something. Parents have lost more than daycare and schools during this epidemic. We’ve lost any time that we had for ourselves, and that was really valuable. We no longer have small moments in the day to catch up on our personal lives. I no longer have a commute to separate my work duties from my mom duties, or catch up with my friends, or just be quiet. Truth 2: We’re human. The reason you can’t be a great employee and a great parent and a great friend and a great partner or spouse all day every day isn’t because you’re doing a bad job, it’s because being constantly wonderful in all aspects of your life is impossible. Pick one or two of those things a day to focus on. Truth 3: We’re all doing our best. This is the most important part of this article. Be kind to yourselves. This isn’t easy, and putting so much pressure on yourself that you break isn’t going to make it any easier. Work from Home Goals Now that we’ve accepted some truths about our current situation, let’s set some goals. Goal 1: Do Good Work At Viget, and wherever you work, with kids or without we all want to make sure that the quality of our work stays up throughout the pandemic and that we can continue to be reliable team members and employees to the best of our abilities. Goal 2: Stay Sane We need to figure out ways to do this without sacrificing ourselves entirely. For me, this means fitting my work into normal work hours as much as possible so that I can still have some downtime in the evenings. Goal 3: Make This Sustainable None of us knows how long this will last but we may as well begin mentally preparing for a long haul. Work from Home Rules Now, there are some great Work from Home Rules that apply to everyone with or without kids. My coworker Paul Koch shared these with the Viget team a Jeremy Bearimy ago and I agree this is also the foundation for working from home with kids. When you’re in a remote meeting, minimize other windows to stay focusedSet a schedule and avoid chores*Take breaks away from the screenPlan your workday on the calendar+Be mindful of Slack and social media as a distractionUse timers+Keep your work area separate from where you relaxPretend that you’re still WFWExperiment and figure out what works for you In the improv spirit I say “Yes, AND….” to these tips. And so, here are my adjusted rules for WFH while kiddos around: These have both been really solid tools for me, so let’s dig in. Daily flexible schedule for kids Day Planning: Calendars and Timers A few small tweaks and adjustments make this even more doable for me and my 3-year-old. First- I don’t avoid chores entirely. If I’m going up and down the stairs all day anyway I might as well throw in a load of laundry while I’m at it. The more I can get done during the day means a greater chance of some down time in the evening. Each morning I plan my day and Audrey’s day: My Work Day:Audrey's DayIdentify times of day you are more likely to be focus and protect them. For me, I know I have a block of time from 5-7a before Audrey wakes up and again during “nap time” from 1-3p.I built a construction paper “schedule” that we update and reorganize daily. We make the schedule together each day. She feels ownership over it and she gets to be the one who tells me what we do next.Look at your calendar first thing and make adjustments either in your plans or move meetings if you have to.I’m strategic about screen time- I try to schedule it when I have meetings. It also helps to schedule a physical activity before screen time as she is less likely to get bored.Make goals for your day: Tackle time sensitive tasks first. Take care of things that either your co-workers or clients are waiting on from you first, this will help your day be a lot less stressful. Non-time sensitive tasks come next- these can be done at any time of day.We always include “nap time” even though she rarely naps anymore. This is mostly a time for us both to be alone. When we make the schedule together it also helps me understand her favorite parts of the day and reminds me to include them. Once our days are planned, I also use timers to help keep the structure of the day. (I bought a great alarm clock for kids on Amazon that turns colors to signal bedtime and quiet time. It’s been hugely worth it for me.) Timers for Me:Timers for Audrey:More than ever, I rely on a time tracking timer. At Viget we use Harvest to track time, and it has a handy built in timer, but there are many apps or online tools that could help you keep track of your time as well.Audrey knows what time she can come out of her room in the morning. If she wakes up before the light is green she plays quietly in her room.I need a timer because the days and hours are bleeding together- without tracking as I go it would be really hard for me to remember when I worked on certain projects or know for certain if I gave Viget enough time for the day.She knows how long “nap time” is in the afternoon.Starting and stopping the timer helps me turn on and off “work mode”, which is a helpful sanity bonus.Perhaps best of all I am not the bad guy! “Sorry honey, the light isn’t green yet and there really isn’t anything mommy can do about it” is my new favorite way to ensure we both get some quiet time. Work from Home Rules: Updated for Parents Finally, I have a few more Work from Home Rules for parents to add to the list: Minimize other windows in remote meetingsSet a schedule and fit in some chores if time allowsTake breaks away from the screenSchedule both your and your kids’ daysBe mindful of Slack and social media as a distractionUse timers to track your own time and help your kids understand the dayKeep your work area separate from where you relaxPretend that you’re still WFWExperiment and figure out what works for youBe prepared with a few activitiesEach morning, have just ONE thing ready to go. This can be a worksheet you printed out, a coloring station setup, a new bag of kinetic sand you just got delivered from Amazon, a kids dance video on YouTube or an iPad game. Recently I started enlisting my mom to read stories on Facetime. The activity doesn’t have to be new each day but (especially for young kids) it has to be handy for you to start up quickly if your schedule changesClearly communicate your availability with your team and project PMsLife happens. Some days are going to be hard. Whatever you do, don’t burn yourself out or leave your team hanging. If you need to move a meeting or take a day off, communicate that as early and as clearly as you can.Take PTO if you canNone of us are superheroes. If you’re feeling overwhelmed- take a look at the next few days and figure out which one makes the most sense for you to take a break.Take breaks to be alone without doing a taskWork and family responsibilities have blended together, there’s almost no room for being alone. If you can find some precious alone time don’t use it to fold laundry or clean the bathroom. Just zone out. I think we all really need this. Last but not least, enjoy your time at home if you can. This is an unusual circumstance and even though it’s really hard, there are parts that are really great too. If you have some great WFH tips we’d love to hear about them in the comments! Full Article Process News & Culture
ut Occupations that may be taken off or put onto the skilled migration occupation lists By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Dec 2019 03:27:50 +0000 The Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business is considering removing the following occupations from the Skilled Migration Occupation Lists (Skills List) in March 2020: Careers Counsellor Vehicle Trimmer Business Machine Mechanic Animal Attendants and Trainers Gardener (General) Hairdresser Wood Machinist Massage Therapist Community Worker Diving Instructor (Open Water) Gymnastics Coach or Instructor At […] The post Occupations that may be taken off or put onto the skilled migration occupation lists appeared first on Visa Australia - Immigration Lawyers & Registered Migration Agents. Full Article Work & Skilled Visas Aged or Disabled Carer Animal Attendants and Trainers Baker Business Machine Mechanic Careers Counsellor Community Worker Corporate Treasurer Diving Instructor (Open Water) Fitter and Turner Gardener (General) Gymnastics Coach Gymnastics Instructor Hairdresser Horse Trainer Massage Therapist Nursing Support Worker occupations list Pastrycook Personal Care Assistant Poultry Farmer skilled migration Vehicle Trimmer Wood Machinist
ut Social Icons Widget 4.0 — Now With a Social Icons Block for Gutenberg Included By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 21:07:29 +0000 In 2015 we launched Social Icons Widget by WPZOOM with the intent to provide WordPress users with a simple and easy-to-use widget for adding social links to their websites. With over 100k installs at the moment and continuous positive feedback from the users, it kept us motivated to constantly improve and keep updating this free plugin. Now, to keep the […] Full Article Plugins
ut Unsolved Zoom Mysteries: Why We Have to Say “You’re Muted” So Much By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 29 Apr 2020 09:36:00 -0400 Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world. As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking. Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.” That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk. In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time. Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now. Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking Why does this keep happening?!? Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk. Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.” We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted. Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders: Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place. Meet is only slightly better: Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail. Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted: Teams is the worst offender: The mute button is an icon rather than words.The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator. Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted: Pros:Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.Cons:The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator. Potential Cons:While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state. Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls: Pros:The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.Cons:Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.Unrelated Con:While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬 I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use. But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs. I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for. Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again? This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it): The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key. If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.” There are two traps in this reflexive thought process: First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music. Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker. This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume: Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem! In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting: MeetMac: Command(⌘) + DWindows: Control + DTeamsMac: Command(⌘) + Shift + MWindows: Ctrl + Shift + MZoomMac: Command(⌘) + Shift + AWindows: Alt + AHold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis: Cisco Webex MeetingsMac: Ctrl + Alt + MWindows: Ctrl + Shift + M GoToMeeting Mac: No keyboard shortcut? Windows: Ctrl + Alt + A Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut! Full Article Process User Experience
ut A Parent’s Guide to Working From Home, During a Global Pandemic, Without Going Insane By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 15:06:00 -0400 Though I usually enjoy working from Viget’s lovely Boulder office, during quarantine I am now working from home while simultaneously parenting my 3-year-old daughter Audrey. My husband works in healthcare and though he is not on the front lines battling COVID-19, he is still an essential worker and as such leaves our home to work every day. Some working/parenting days are great! I somehow get my tasks accomplished, my kid is happy, and we spend some quality time together. And some days are awful. I have to ignore my daughter having a meltdown and try to focus on meetings, and I wish I wasn’t in this situation at all. Most days are somewhere in the middle; I’m just doing my best to get by. I’ve seen enough working parent memes and cries for help on social media to know that I’m not alone. There are many parents out there who now get to experience the stress and anxiety of living through a global pandemic while simultaneously navigating ways to stay productive while working from home and being an effective parent. Fun isn’t it? I’m not an expert on the matter, but I have found a few small things that are making me feel a bit more sane. I hope sharing them will make someone else’s life easier too. Truths to Accept First, let’s acknowledge some truths about this new situation we find ourselves in: Truth 1: We’ve lost something. Parents have lost more than daycare and schools during this epidemic. We’ve lost any time that we had for ourselves, and that was really valuable. We no longer have small moments in the day to catch up on our personal lives. I no longer have a commute to separate my work duties from my mom duties, or catch up with my friends, or just be quiet. Truth 2: We’re human. The reason you can’t be a great employee and a great parent and a great friend and a great partner or spouse all day every day isn’t because you’re doing a bad job, it’s because being constantly wonderful in all aspects of your life is impossible. Pick one or two of those things a day to focus on. Truth 3: We’re all doing our best. This is the most important part of this article. Be kind to yourselves. This isn’t easy, and putting so much pressure on yourself that you break isn’t going to make it any easier. Work from Home Goals Now that we’ve accepted some truths about our current situation, let’s set some goals. Goal 1: Do Good Work At Viget, and wherever you work, with kids or without we all want to make sure that the quality of our work stays up throughout the pandemic and that we can continue to be reliable team members and employees to the best of our abilities. Goal 2: Stay Sane We need to figure out ways to do this without sacrificing ourselves entirely. For me, this means fitting my work into normal work hours as much as possible so that I can still have some downtime in the evenings. Goal 3: Make This Sustainable None of us knows how long this will last but we may as well begin mentally preparing for a long haul. Work from Home Rules Now, there are some great Work from Home Rules that apply to everyone with or without kids. My coworker Paul Koch shared these with the Viget team a Jeremy Bearimy ago and I agree this is also the foundation for working from home with kids. When you’re in a remote meeting, minimize other windows to stay focusedSet a schedule and avoid chores*Take breaks away from the screenPlan your workday on the calendar+Be mindful of Slack and social media as a distractionUse timers+Keep your work area separate from where you relaxPretend that you’re still WFWExperiment and figure out what works for you In the improv spirit I say “Yes, AND….” to these tips. And so, here are my adjusted rules for WFH while kiddos around: These have both been really solid tools for me, so let’s dig in. Daily flexible schedule for kids Day Planning: Calendars and Timers A few small tweaks and adjustments make this even more doable for me and my 3-year-old. First- I don’t avoid chores entirely. If I’m going up and down the stairs all day anyway I might as well throw in a load of laundry while I’m at it. The more I can get done during the day means a greater chance of some down time in the evening. Each morning I plan my day and Audrey’s day: My Work Day:Audrey's DayIdentify times of day you are more likely to be focus and protect them. For me, I know I have a block of time from 5-7a before Audrey wakes up and again during “nap time” from 1-3p.I built a construction paper “schedule” that we update and reorganize daily. We make the schedule together each day. She feels ownership over it and she gets to be the one who tells me what we do next.Look at your calendar first thing and make adjustments either in your plans or move meetings if you have to.I’m strategic about screen time- I try to schedule it when I have meetings. It also helps to schedule a physical activity before screen time as she is less likely to get bored.Make goals for your day: Tackle time sensitive tasks first. Take care of things that either your co-workers or clients are waiting on from you first, this will help your day be a lot less stressful. Non-time sensitive tasks come next- these can be done at any time of day.We always include “nap time” even though she rarely naps anymore. This is mostly a time for us both to be alone. When we make the schedule together it also helps me understand her favorite parts of the day and reminds me to include them. Once our days are planned, I also use timers to help keep the structure of the day. (I bought a great alarm clock for kids on Amazon that turns colors to signal bedtime and quiet time. It’s been hugely worth it for me.) Timers for Me:Timers for Audrey:More than ever, I rely on a time tracking timer. At Viget we use Harvest to track time, and it has a handy built in timer, but there are many apps or online tools that could help you keep track of your time as well.Audrey knows what time she can come out of her room in the morning. If she wakes up before the light is green she plays quietly in her room.I need a timer because the days and hours are bleeding together- without tracking as I go it would be really hard for me to remember when I worked on certain projects or know for certain if I gave Viget enough time for the day.She knows how long “nap time” is in the afternoon.Starting and stopping the timer helps me turn on and off “work mode”, which is a helpful sanity bonus.Perhaps best of all I am not the bad guy! “Sorry honey, the light isn’t green yet and there really isn’t anything mommy can do about it” is my new favorite way to ensure we both get some quiet time. Work from Home Rules: Updated for Parents Finally, I have a few more Work from Home Rules for parents to add to the list: Minimize other windows in remote meetingsSet a schedule and fit in some chores if time allowsTake breaks away from the screenSchedule both your and your kids’ daysBe mindful of Slack and social media as a distractionUse timers to track your own time and help your kids understand the dayKeep your work area separate from where you relaxPretend that you’re still WFWExperiment and figure out what works for youBe prepared with a few activitiesEach morning, have just ONE thing ready to go. This can be a worksheet you printed out, a coloring station setup, a new bag of kinetic sand you just got delivered from Amazon, a kids dance video on YouTube or an iPad game. Recently I started enlisting my mom to read stories on Facetime. The activity doesn’t have to be new each day but (especially for young kids) it has to be handy for you to start up quickly if your schedule changesClearly communicate your availability with your team and project PMsLife happens. Some days are going to be hard. Whatever you do, don’t burn yourself out or leave your team hanging. If you need to move a meeting or take a day off, communicate that as early and as clearly as you can.Take PTO if you canNone of us are superheroes. If you’re feeling overwhelmed- take a look at the next few days and figure out which one makes the most sense for you to take a break.Take breaks to be alone without doing a taskWork and family responsibilities have blended together, there’s almost no room for being alone. If you can find some precious alone time don’t use it to fold laundry or clean the bathroom. Just zone out. I think we all really need this. Last but not least, enjoy your time at home if you can. This is an unusual circumstance and even though it’s really hard, there are parts that are really great too. If you have some great WFH tips we’d love to hear about them in the comments! Full Article Process News & Culture
ut 2017 Best WordPress Themes for Boutiques By www.wpthemedesigner.com Published On :: Thu, 26 Jan 2017 22:06:54 +0000 Boutique Boutique offers you full means to create a tremendous on-line retailer. It’s trendy design and completely different layouts and limitless potentialities will aid you to place your merchandise in focus, It’s also fully responsive and you won’t worry how your prospects reach your store (It really works fantastic with both desktops and smartphones) Boutique […] The post 2017 Best WordPress Themes for Boutiques appeared first on WP Theme Designer. Full Article Blog
ut There is no longer any such thing as Computer Security By blog.codinghorror.com Published On :: Fri, 21 Sep 2018 09:50:53 GMT Remember "cybersecurity"? Mysterious hooded computer guys doing mysterious hooded computer guy .. things! Who knows what kind of naughty digital mischief they might be up to? Unfortunately, we now live in a world where this kind of digital mischief is literally rewriting the world's history. For proof of that, Full Article
ut The Cloud Is Just Someone Else's Computer By blog.codinghorror.com Published On :: Sun, 17 Feb 2019 02:15:26 GMT When we started Discourse in 2013, our server requirements were high: 1GB RAM modern, fast dual core CPU speedy solid state drive with 20+ GB I'm not talking about a cheapo shared cpanel server, either, I mean a dedicated virtual private server with those specifications. We were OK with that, Full Article
ut New website design launch for Automated Irrigation Systems in Zionsville, Indiana By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 10 Oct 2018 19:27:54 +0000 We’re delighted to launch the first ever website for this local irrigation company that has been around since 1989! Automated...continue reading Full Article Web Design
ut Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida Website Design Launch By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Mar 2019 01:25:23 +0000 We recently completed a website design and development project for Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida. This National Health Service...continue reading Full Article Featured Fort Myers Web Design Naples Web Design Web Design Website Launches
ut She’s Geeky: My First Unconference & Having Feels about Solidarity Between Women in Tech By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Sun, 11 May 2014 21:07:29 +0000 This Friday I attended the first day of She’s Geeky here in Seattle. It was my first experience of the Unconference Format and I had no idea what to expect, but ended up having a GREAT TIME. Discussions that I joined in on throughout the day included subjects such as Impostor Syndrome, Diversity Groups, Side- […] Full Article Community Liz
ut Getting My Butt in Gear with Digital Strategy School! By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 22:25:19 +0000 I have been running CMD+Shift Design since 2008. In those 7 years I learned a lot, I made a lot of mistakes, found some amazing clients, did some really fun projects and made some good money. I’ve had ups and downs and these past 2 years have been tough… really tough. Part of it has […] Full Article Uncategorized
ut Let’s talk about how much I suck at business lately…. By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 21:27:08 +0000 A couple weeks ago, I saw a tweet come through my Twitter timeline from my buddy Tim Smith, a designer and podcaster saying, “2014 was my worst year in freelance. My business revenue declined by ~10k.” I immediately related, but hesitated to reply. Who wants to talk about their failures? Business being slow is actually pretty […] Full Article Business Interviews Liz Podcast
ut Microsoft bundled its beautiful Bing wallpapers into a free Android app By thenextweb.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 09:08:00 PDT https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2020/05/08/microsoft-bundled-its-beautiful-bing-wallpapers-into-a-free-android-app/ Full Article
ut How To Build A Vue Survey App Using Firebase Authentication And Database By www.smashingmagazine.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 13:10:00 PDT https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2020/05/vue-survey-app-firebase-authentication-database/ Full Article
ut Check Out These Famous Logos Practicing Social Distancing – McDonald’s, Mercedes, and More By webdesignledger.com Published On :: Tue, 31 Mar 2020 10:34:51 +0000 We all know about the new coronavirus that has been affecting hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. And while scientists, researchers, and doctors are all working tirelessly to find a cure for this terrible disease, one thing is for sure: staying home is saving lives. The greatest tool that we have right now to help […] Read More at Check Out These Famous Logos Practicing Social Distancing – McDonald’s, Mercedes, and More Full Article Editors Pick Featured Inspiration News Uncategorized
ut Reducing brain damage in sport without losing the thrills By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 17 Mar 2020 10:36:11 EDT When Olympic gold medallist Shona McCallin was hit on the side of her head by a seemingly innocuous shoulder challenge, she suffered what was originally thought to be a concussion. Full Article
ut What a trauma and PTSD psychologist tells us about dealing with the coronavirus pandemic By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:30:30 EDT We’re all experiencing varying levels of trauma. Full Article
ut My PTSD can be a weight. But in this pandemic, it feels like a superpower. By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 01 May 2020 10:44:28 EDT For the first time, it seems, the entire world knows what it’s like to live inside my head. Full Article
ut Video Tutorial: How to Turn Anything into Gold in Photoshop By blog.spoongraphics.co.uk Published On :: Wed, 08 Apr 2020 07:00:16 +0000 In today’s Adobe Photoshop tutorial I’m going to show you how to turn anything into gold using this simple combination of Photoshop filters and tools. The effect smooths out the details of a regular image and adds an array of shiny reflections to mimic the appearance of a polished metal statue. A gradient overlay gives […] The post Video Tutorial: How to Turn Anything into Gold in Photoshop appeared first on Spoon Graphics. Full Article Videos gold effect photoshop photoshop gold effect photoshop gold effect tutorial photoshop tutorial video video tutorial
ut Video Tutorial: How to Create an Embroidered Patch Design in Illustrator By blog.spoongraphics.co.uk Published On :: Wed, 22 Apr 2020 07:00:22 +0000 In today’s Adobe Illustrator tutorial I’m going to take you through the process of creating a colourful embroidered patch, based on the kinds of designs associated with National Parks. The artwork will incorporate a landscape scene at sunset, which helps to keep the design simple with a silhouette graphic and a warm colour palette. Stick […] The post Video Tutorial: How to Create an Embroidered Patch Design in Illustrator appeared first on Spoon Graphics. Full Article Videos embroidered patch embroidered patch tutorial illustrator illustrator patch design illustrator tutorial patch design video video tutorial
ut Video Tutorial: Vintage Letterpress Poster Design in Photoshop By blog.spoongraphics.co.uk Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 07:00:35 +0000 In today’s Adobe Photoshop video tutorial I’m going to take you through my process of creating a vintage style advertisement poster with letterpress print effects. We’ll start by laying out the design with a selection of fonts inspired by the era of wood type, along with some hand-drawn graphic elements using a limited 3-colour palette. […] The post Video Tutorial: Vintage Letterpress Poster Design in Photoshop appeared first on Spoon Graphics. Full Article Videos letterpress letterpress effect letterpress photoshop tutorial letterpress poster design photoshop photoshop tutorial poster print effect video video tutorial
ut My PTSD can be a weight. But in this pandemic, it feels like a superpower. By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Friday, May 1, 2020 - 10:44am For the first time, it seems, the entire world knows what it’s like to live inside my head. Full Article
ut How to make sure your call to action buttons convert the way you want By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 11 Mar 2020 07:37:59 +0000 You are probably already familiar with the concept of call to action, but if somehow you are new to web design, call to action refers to elements in a page that request an action from its visitors. If you are indeed new to web design, there are high chances that you will neglect this important […] Full Article Blog How-to & tutorials UX Web design
ut Teamstack: Easy Automation of Identity Management (Sponsored) By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Mon, 23 Mar 2020 17:19:26 +0000 Access management can be a bit of a nightmare, especially when we realize that we rely on a number of different, independent services that power our organizations. Many businesses use Gmail for email, Google Docs for documents, Slack for communication, GitHub for their codebase, etc. Yet each of these services provides their own permissions screens, […] The post Teamstack: Easy Automation of Identity Management (Sponsored) appeared first on David Walsh Blog. Full Article Sponsored
ut 5 Essential git Commands and Utilities By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 26 Mar 2020 16:20:37 +0000 For many of us, git and GitHub play a huge role in our development workflows. Whenever we have a tool that we need to use often, the more fine-tuned we can make that tool, the faster we can get things done. The following are five git commands or helpers that can make your developer life […] The post 5 Essential git Commands and Utilities appeared first on David Walsh Blog. Full Article git
ut Top 8 WP Multipurpose Themes that you should check out By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 08:20:06 +0000 There are situations when using a specialty theme will enable a web designed to proceed more easily and efficiently. But, in most instances a multipurpose WordPress theme will do what needs to be done and do it well. Premium multipurpose themes generally provide all the functionality needed to create websites for most industry sectors, business […] The post Top 8 WP Multipurpose Themes that you should check out appeared first on WebAppers. Full Article Design multipurpose themes themes wordpress
ut 20 Minute Tut! Create Your Own Customized Chalkboard Text Vector By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 09 Apr 2020 14:00:00 +0000 In this Chalkboard Text Vector tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a chalkboard vector effect with some gradients, a bristle brush, and some freebies from Vector Mill! This chalkboard text vector effect tutorial is relatively simple and can be applied to many other Illustrator projects. Use this effect for logo creation, back to school backgrounds, […] The post 20 Minute Tut! Create Your Own Customized Chalkboard Text Vector appeared first on Vectips. Full Article Tutorials chalkboard text effect chalkboard text vector chalkboard text vector effect chalkboard vector how to create a chalkboard text how to create a chalkboard text vector how to create a chalkboard vector
ut How To Create A Retro Sunburst Vector In 10 Minutes or Less! By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 14:00:00 +0000 In today’s tutorial, we will find out how to create vector sunbursts by using Transform effect and stroked paths. The techniques described here allow you to edit previously-created sunbursts that can result in an infinite number of variations. Have fun learning in our vector tutorial! Tutorial Details Program: Adobe Illustrator CS5 – CC Difficulty: Beginner […] The post How To Create A Retro Sunburst Vector In 10 Minutes or Less! appeared first on Vectips. Full Article Tips and Tricks free Stroke panel sunburst sunbursts Transform live effects tutorial vector vector sunbursts
ut 10 Step Tutorial: How to Design Flat Skateboards Using Adobe Illustrator By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Tue, 28 Apr 2020 14:00:00 +0000 Summer is in full swing here in the states! It’s a perfect time to grab your skateboard and go cruising. Today we’re going to learn how to design flat skateboards and colorful vector longboards in Adobe Illustrator! We’ll be working with Clipping Masks, Stroke, and Pathfinder panel. Let’s get started! Tutorial Details Program: Adobe Illustrator CC Difficulty: […] The post 10 Step Tutorial: How to Design Flat Skateboards Using Adobe Illustrator appeared first on Vectips. Full Article Tips and Tricks adobe illustrator design flat flat style illustration illustrator illustrator tutorial longboard summer Tips tutorial vector vector illustration
ut Create a NAS Icon in Just 30 Minutes Using Adobe Illustrator By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 14:00:01 +0000 Welcome back to another Illustrator tutorial from our retro hardware series! In this how-to, we’re going to learn to create a NAS Icon (or a Network-Attached Storage icon) using some simple geometric shapes and tools. So, get your software up and running let’s jump straight into it! Tutorial Details: How to Create a NAS Icon Program: Adobe […] The post Create a NAS Icon in Just 30 Minutes Using Adobe Illustrator appeared first on Vectips. Full Article Tips and Tricks adobe adobe illustrator design icon illustration illustrator line line art line icon nas network network attached storage retro hardware series storage storage media storage unit
ut You Might Be Tempted to Use These CSS Tricks But Should You? By webdesignerwall.com Published On :: Wed, 14 Dec 2016 14:00:00 +0000 The temptation to dive right into new and exciting CSS tricks is strong – you might even do it without knowing it through learning by example or implementing that hot new framework everyone is talking about. It is more important to fully understand new CSS classes and properties, experiment with them and learn their limitations […] The post You Might Be Tempted to Use These CSS Tricks But Should You? appeared first on Web Designer Wall. Full Article Tutorials CSS
ut Tutorial: Trendy Splitscreen Layout With CSS3 Animations (Pt. 1) By webdesignerwall.com Published On :: Thu, 29 Dec 2016 18:00:54 +0000 There is no better time than the end of the year for some fresh inspiration! One of the most popular trends this year, features splitscreen layouts, lots of white space, clean typography and subtle effects. With this playful trend in mind, I’ve created a two-part tutorial to show you how to use flexbox, 3D transforms […] The post Tutorial: Trendy Splitscreen Layout With CSS3 Animations (Pt. 1) appeared first on Web Designer Wall. Full Article Tutorials CSS jQuery
ut Tutorial: Duo Layout With CSS3 Animations & Transitions (Pt. 2) By webdesignerwall.com Published On :: Thu, 05 Jan 2017 11:00:01 +0000 Last week I demonstrated how to build a split-screen website layout using CSS flexbox and viewport units that offers an alternative way to present a brand’s featured content. Clicking on one side or the other navigates further into the site without a page load, using CSS transitions and 3d transforms. This week, I’ll show you […] The post Tutorial: Duo Layout With CSS3 Animations & Transitions (Pt. 2) appeared first on Web Designer Wall. Full Article Tutorials CSS jQuery
ut Report Warns that Ocean Plastic Waste Will Soon Outweigh Fish By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 22 Jan 2016 11:21:31 +0000 By Lauren McCauley Common Dreams At this rate, plastics production will account for 20 percent of total oil consumption and 15 percent of the global annual carbon budget by 2050. The weight of plastic waste clogging the world’s oceans threatens … Continue reading → Full Article ET Perspectives Ocean ocean ecology plastic pollution
ut Corruption Is Bad, But Sabotage Is Worse By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 14 Jun 2018 00:17:23 +0000 By Jill Richardson Otherwords Both are bad, but Scott Pruitt’s abuse of our environment is far more dangerous than his abuse of taxpayer money. Did you hear that the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt, is so … Continue reading → Full Article Points of View & Opinions corrpution EPA Scott Pruitt
ut We Must Heed Storm Warnings to Build a Brighter Future By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 21 Sep 2018 21:28:49 +0000 By David Suzuki with contributions from Senior Editor Ian Hanington David Suzuki Foundation In 2012, North Carolina’s Coastal Resources Commission warned that sea levels there could rise by a metre over the next century. The warning was based in part … Continue reading → Full Article Points of View & Opinions Climate Change forecasts Global Warming sea level rise
ut Harbingers: Florence, Forest Fires, and the Future By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 26 Sep 2018 22:31:26 +0000 By John Atcheson Common Dreams If past is prologue, the media will soon move on, leaving the greatest threat humanity has ever faced virtually uncovered Climate change catastrophe is upon us. We see it in the record-breaking floods from storms … Continue reading → Full Article Points of View & Opinions Climate Change extreme weather events media
ut Is Zero UI The Key Factor For The Future Of Interfaces? By icanbecreative.com Published On :: Tue, 10 Mar 2020 05:54:37 PDT Zero UI is about removing everything that comes between users and their devices, about making the interaction easier, seamless, more direct. Does it sound to you like a concept from a science-fiction... Full Article Technology
ut Profession Of The Future: Why Is Programmer Education Still Relevant? By icanbecreative.com Published On :: Mon, 16 Mar 2020 08:07:37 PDT In 2020, there is no doubt that people and technology will be very close friends in the future. The modern inhabitant of our planet spends about 45% of his time connecting with technology. We are... Full Article Learning
ut 5 Tips That You Absolutely Must Know To Design A Unique Metal Business Card By icanbecreative.com Published On :: Sat, 04 Apr 2020 04:15:51 PDT Every day thousands of business cards exchange hands, and these business cards often get lost in mounds of other cards. Often, clients are unable to reach you just because they couldn't find your... Full Article Design Roud-up
ut What Stephen Hawking Taught Us About Living with Disability By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Monday, March 19, 2018 - 9:16am Stephen Hawking, a world-renowned scientist who recently passed away, had a brilliant mind that was trapped inside a paralyzed body, and I could not stop thinking about how the opposite is often the case with traumatic brain injury. Full Article
ut Unsolved Zoom Mysteries: Why We Have to Say “You’re Muted” So Much By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 29 Apr 2020 09:36:00 -0400 Video conference tools are an indispensable part of the Plague Times. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and their compatriots are keeping us close and connected in a physically distanced world. As tech-savvy folks with years of cross-office collaboration, we’ve laughed at the sketches and memes about vidconf mishaps. We practice good Zoomiquette, including muting ourselves when we’re not talking. Yet even we can’t escape one vidconf pitfall. (There but for the grace of Zoom go I.) On nearly every vidconf, someone starts to talk, and then someone else says: “Oop, you’re muted.” And, inevitably: “Oop, you’re still muted.” That’s right: we’re trying to follow Zoomiquette by muting, but then we forget or struggle to unmute when we do want to talk. In this post, I’ll share my theories for why the You’re Muted Problems are so pervasive, using Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom as examples. Spoiler alert: While I hope this will help you be more mindful of the problem, I can’t offer a good solution. It still happens to me. All. The. Time. Skip the why and go straight to the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now. Why we don't realize we’re muted before talking Why does this keep happening?!? Simply put: UX and design decisions make it harder to remember that you’re muted before you start to talk. Here’s a common scenario: You haven’t talked for a bit, so you haven’t interacted with the Zoom screen for a few seconds. Then you start to talk — and that’s when someone tells you, “You’re muted.” We forget so easily in these scenarios because when our mouse has been idle for a few seconds, the apps hide or downplay the UI elements that tell us we’re muted. Zoom and Teams are the worst offenders: Zoom hides both the toolbar with the main in-app controls (the big mute button) and the mute status indicator on your video pane thumbnail.Teams hides the toolbar, and doesn't show a mute status indicator on your video thumbnail in the first place. Meet is only slightly better: Meet hides the toolbar, and shows only a small mute status icon in your video thumbnail. Even when our mouse is active, the apps’ subtle approach to muted state UI can make it easy to forget that we’re muted: Teams is the worst offender: The mute button is an icon rather than words.The muted-state icon's styling could be confused with unmuted state: Teams does not follow the common pattern of using red to denote muted state.The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from all the other controls.As mentioned above, Teams never shows a secondary mute status indicator. Zoom is a bit better, but still makes it pretty easy to forget that you’re muted: Pros:Zoom is the only app to use words on the mute button, in this case to denote the button action (rather than the muted state).The muted-state icon’s styling (red line) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.Cons:The mute button’s placement (bottom left corner of the page) is easy to overlook.The mute button is not differentiated in visual hierarchy from the other toolbar buttons — and Zoom has a lot of toolbar buttons, especially when logged in as host.The secondary mute status indicator is a small icon.The mute button’s muted-state icon is styled slightly differently from the secondary mute status indicator. Potential Cons:While words denote the button action, only an icon denotes the muted state. Meet is probably the clearest of the three apps, but still has pitfalls: Pros:The mute button is visually prominent in the UI: It’s clearly differentiated in the visual hierarchy relative to other controls (styled as a primary button); is a large button; and is placed closer to the center of the controls bar.The muted-state icon’s styling (red fill) is less likely to be confused with the unmuted-state icon.Cons:Uses only an icon rather than words to denote the muted state.Unrelated Con:While the mute button is visually prominent, it’s also placed next to the hang-up button. So in Meet’s active state you might be less likely to forget you’re muted … but more likely to accidentally hang up when trying to unmute. 😬 I know modern app design leans toward minimalism. There’s often good rationale to use icons rather than words, or to de-emphasize controls and indicators when not in use. But again: This happens on basically every call! Often multiple times per call!! And we’re supposed to be tech-savvy!!! Imagine what it’s like for the tens of millions of vidconf newbs. I would argue that “knowing your muted state” has turned out to be a major vidconf user need. At this point, it’s certainly worth rethinking UX patterns for. Why we keep unsuccessfully unmuting once we realize we’re muted So we can blame the You’re Muted Problem on UX and design. But what causes the You’re Still Muted Problem? Once we know we’re muted, why do we sometimes fail to unmute before talking again? This one is more complicated — and definitely more speculative. To start making sense of this scenario, here’s the sequence I’m guessing most commonly plays out (I did this a couple times before I became aware of it): The crucial part is when the person tries to unmute by pressing the keyboard Volume On/Off key. If that’s in fact what’s happening (again, this is just a hypothesis), I’m guessing they did that because when someone says “You’re muted” or “I can’t hear you,” our subconscious thought process is: “Oh, Audio is Off. Press the keyboard key that I usually press when I want to change Audio Off to Audio On.” There are two traps in this reflexive thought process: First, the keyboard volume keys control the speaker volume, not the microphone volume. (More specifically, they control the system sound output settings, rather than the system sound input settings or the vidconf app’s sound input settings.)In fact, there isn’t a keyboard key to control the microphone volume. You can’t unmute your mic via a dedicated keyboard key, the way that you can turn the speaker volume on/off via a keyboard key while watching a movie or listening to music. Second, I think we reflexively press the keyboard key anyway because our mental model of the keyboard audio keys is just: Audio. Not microphone vs. speaker. This fuzzy mental model makes sense: There’s only one set of keyboard keys related to audio, so why would I think to distinguish between microphone and speaker? So my best guess is hardware design causes the You’re Still Muted Problem. After all, keyboard designs are from a pre-Zoom era, when the average person rarely used the computer’s microphone.If that is the cause, one potential solution is for hardware manufacturers to start including dedicated keys to control microphone volume: Video conference keyboard shortcuts you should memorize right now Let me know if you have other theories for the You’re Still Muted Problem! In the meantime, the best alternative is to learn all of the vidconf app keyboard shortcuts for muting/unmuting: MeetMac: Command(⌘) + DWindows: Control + DTeamsMac: Command(⌘) + Shift + MWindows: Ctrl + Shift + MZoomMac: Command(⌘) + Shift + AWindows: Alt + AHold Spacebar: Temporarily unmute Other vidconf apps not included in my analysis: Cisco Webex MeetingsMac: Ctrl + Alt + MWindows: Ctrl + Shift + M GoToMeeting Mac: No keyboard shortcut? Windows: Ctrl + Alt + A Bonus protip from Jackson Fox: If you use multiple vidconf apps, pick a keyboard shortcut that you like and manually change each app’s mute/unmute shortcut to that. Then you only have to remember one shortcut! Full Article Process User Experience
ut A Parent’s Guide to Working From Home, During a Global Pandemic, Without Going Insane By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 15:06:00 -0400 Though I usually enjoy working from Viget’s lovely Boulder office, during quarantine I am now working from home while simultaneously parenting my 3-year-old daughter Audrey. My husband works in healthcare and though he is not on the front lines battling COVID-19, he is still an essential worker and as such leaves our home to work every day. Some working/parenting days are great! I somehow get my tasks accomplished, my kid is happy, and we spend some quality time together. And some days are awful. I have to ignore my daughter having a meltdown and try to focus on meetings, and I wish I wasn’t in this situation at all. Most days are somewhere in the middle; I’m just doing my best to get by. I’ve seen enough working parent memes and cries for help on social media to know that I’m not alone. There are many parents out there who now get to experience the stress and anxiety of living through a global pandemic while simultaneously navigating ways to stay productive while working from home and being an effective parent. Fun isn’t it? I’m not an expert on the matter, but I have found a few small things that are making me feel a bit more sane. I hope sharing them will make someone else’s life easier too. Truths to Accept First, let’s acknowledge some truths about this new situation we find ourselves in: Truth 1: We’ve lost something. Parents have lost more than daycare and schools during this epidemic. We’ve lost any time that we had for ourselves, and that was really valuable. We no longer have small moments in the day to catch up on our personal lives. I no longer have a commute to separate my work duties from my mom duties, or catch up with my friends, or just be quiet. Truth 2: We’re human. The reason you can’t be a great employee and a great parent and a great friend and a great partner or spouse all day every day isn’t because you’re doing a bad job, it’s because being constantly wonderful in all aspects of your life is impossible. Pick one or two of those things a day to focus on. Truth 3: We’re all doing our best. This is the most important part of this article. Be kind to yourselves. This isn’t easy, and putting so much pressure on yourself that you break isn’t going to make it any easier. Work from Home Goals Now that we’ve accepted some truths about our current situation, let’s set some goals. Goal 1: Do Good Work At Viget, and wherever you work, with kids or without we all want to make sure that the quality of our work stays up throughout the pandemic and that we can continue to be reliable team members and employees to the best of our abilities. Goal 2: Stay Sane We need to figure out ways to do this without sacrificing ourselves entirely. For me, this means fitting my work into normal work hours as much as possible so that I can still have some downtime in the evenings. Goal 3: Make This Sustainable None of us knows how long this will last but we may as well begin mentally preparing for a long haul. Work from Home Rules Now, there are some great Work from Home Rules that apply to everyone with or without kids. My coworker Paul Koch shared these with the Viget team a Jeremy Bearimy ago and I agree this is also the foundation for working from home with kids. When you’re in a remote meeting, minimize other windows to stay focusedSet a schedule and avoid chores*Take breaks away from the screenPlan your workday on the calendar+Be mindful of Slack and social media as a distractionUse timers+Keep your work area separate from where you relaxPretend that you’re still WFWExperiment and figure out what works for you In the improv spirit I say “Yes, AND….” to these tips. And so, here are my adjusted rules for WFH while kiddos around: These have both been really solid tools for me, so let’s dig in. Daily flexible schedule for kids Day Planning: Calendars and Timers A few small tweaks and adjustments make this even more doable for me and my 3-year-old. First- I don’t avoid chores entirely. If I’m going up and down the stairs all day anyway I might as well throw in a load of laundry while I’m at it. The more I can get done during the day means a greater chance of some down time in the evening. Each morning I plan my day and Audrey’s day: My Work Day:Audrey's DayIdentify times of day you are more likely to be focus and protect them. For me, I know I have a block of time from 5-7a before Audrey wakes up and again during “nap time” from 1-3p.I built a construction paper “schedule” that we update and reorganize daily. We make the schedule together each day. She feels ownership over it and she gets to be the one who tells me what we do next.Look at your calendar first thing and make adjustments either in your plans or move meetings if you have to.I’m strategic about screen time- I try to schedule it when I have meetings. It also helps to schedule a physical activity before screen time as she is less likely to get bored.Make goals for your day: Tackle time sensitive tasks first. Take care of things that either your co-workers or clients are waiting on from you first, this will help your day be a lot less stressful. Non-time sensitive tasks come next- these can be done at any time of day.We always include “nap time” even though she rarely naps anymore. This is mostly a time for us both to be alone. When we make the schedule together it also helps me understand her favorite parts of the day and reminds me to include them. Once our days are planned, I also use timers to help keep the structure of the day. (I bought a great alarm clock for kids on Amazon that turns colors to signal bedtime and quiet time. It’s been hugely worth it for me.) Timers for Me:Timers for Audrey:More than ever, I rely on a time tracking timer. At Viget we use Harvest to track time, and it has a handy built in timer, but there are many apps or online tools that could help you keep track of your time as well.Audrey knows what time she can come out of her room in the morning. If she wakes up before the light is green she plays quietly in her room.I need a timer because the days and hours are bleeding together- without tracking as I go it would be really hard for me to remember when I worked on certain projects or know for certain if I gave Viget enough time for the day.She knows how long “nap time” is in the afternoon.Starting and stopping the timer helps me turn on and off “work mode”, which is a helpful sanity bonus.Perhaps best of all I am not the bad guy! “Sorry honey, the light isn’t green yet and there really isn’t anything mommy can do about it” is my new favorite way to ensure we both get some quiet time. Work from Home Rules: Updated for Parents Finally, I have a few more Work from Home Rules for parents to add to the list: Minimize other windows in remote meetingsSet a schedule and fit in some chores if time allowsTake breaks away from the screenSchedule both your and your kids’ daysBe mindful of Slack and social media as a distractionUse timers to track your own time and help your kids understand the dayKeep your work area separate from where you relaxPretend that you’re still WFWExperiment and figure out what works for youBe prepared with a few activitiesEach morning, have just ONE thing ready to go. This can be a worksheet you printed out, a coloring station setup, a new bag of kinetic sand you just got delivered from Amazon, a kids dance video on YouTube or an iPad game. Recently I started enlisting my mom to read stories on Facetime. The activity doesn’t have to be new each day but (especially for young kids) it has to be handy for you to start up quickly if your schedule changesClearly communicate your availability with your team and project PMsLife happens. Some days are going to be hard. Whatever you do, don’t burn yourself out or leave your team hanging. If you need to move a meeting or take a day off, communicate that as early and as clearly as you can.Take PTO if you canNone of us are superheroes. If you’re feeling overwhelmed- take a look at the next few days and figure out which one makes the most sense for you to take a break.Take breaks to be alone without doing a taskWork and family responsibilities have blended together, there’s almost no room for being alone. If you can find some precious alone time don’t use it to fold laundry or clean the bathroom. Just zone out. I think we all really need this. Last but not least, enjoy your time at home if you can. This is an unusual circumstance and even though it’s really hard, there are parts that are really great too. If you have some great WFH tips we’d love to hear about them in the comments! Full Article Process News & Culture
ut Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create an iPhone Icon By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 29 Mar 2019 11:57:20 +0000 Welcome back to another Adobe Illustrator based tutorial, in which we're going to take a close look behind the process of creating a simple iPhone icon, using nothing more than some basic geometric shapes that we're going to adjust here and there. 1. Set Up a New Project File As with any new project, we’re […] The post Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create an iPhone Icon appeared first on Bittbox. Full Article How To Illustrator Adobe contacts dialer Featured icon iphone icon line icon phone phone icon UI
ut Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create a Simple Computer Icon By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Fri, 12 Apr 2019 14:50:36 +0000 In today’s tutorial, we're going to take a close look behind the process of creating a simple computer icon, and see how easy it is to build one of our one using nothing more than some basic geometric shapes. 1. Set Up a New Project File As with any new project, we’re going to kick […] The post Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create a Simple Computer Icon appeared first on Bittbox. Full Article How To Illustrator adobe illustrator computer icon Featured flat icon icon Vector vector icon
ut Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create a Folder Icon By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Thu, 02 May 2019 02:04:36 +0000 In today’s tutorial, we’re going to take an in-depth look behind the process of creating a folder icon, and see how easy it is to build one from scratch using nothing more than a couple of basic geometric shapes, which we’re going to adjust here and there. So, assuming you already have Illustrator up and […] The post Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create a Folder Icon appeared first on Bittbox. Full Article How To Illustrator Adobe adobe illustrator Design Feature Featured folder folder icon icon Icon Design Vector
ut Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create a Watch Icon By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Mon, 29 Jul 2019 17:02:39 +0000 Welcome back to another Illustrator based tutorial, in which we’re going to learn how to create a simple watch icon, using nothing more than a couple of basic geometric shapes and tools. So, assuming you already have the software running in the background, bring it up and let’s jump straight into it! 1. Set Up […] The post Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create a Watch Icon appeared first on Bittbox. Full Article How To Illustrator Adobe adobe illustrator Feature Featured Icon Design vector icon watch watch icon
ut Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create an Icognito Icon By feedproxy.google.com Published On :: Wed, 11 Sep 2019 18:04:04 +0000 Welcome back to another Illustrator based tutorial, in which we’re going to take a close look behind the process of creating an incognito icon, using nothing more than a couple of simple shapes and tools. So, assuming you already have the software running in the background, bring it up and let’s jump straight into it! […] The post Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create an Icognito Icon appeared first on Bittbox. Full Article How To Illustrator Adobe adobe illustrator Featured icon incognito incognito icon line art line icon Vector vector icon