Fear is an exceptional motivator. If you are running an early stage startup and you are not in a constant state of terror, you are doing something…

Fear is an exceptional motivator. If you are running an early stage startup and you are not in a constant state of terror, you are doing something wrong. Fear is wasting a day working on clerical housekeeping or spending weeks chasing funding, and not improving your product or service. Fear is having quit your $200,000 a year job to now earn zero. Fear is seeing a competitor launch a genius new product or feature. Fear is not knowing whether you can afford payroll 3 months from now. Fear is a day going by with no customer signups. Fear is having no Plan B for your life. This startup is your life. Fear is your market hypothesis being wrong. If you are running an early stage startup and you have no fear, you will fail. If you have no fear, it means you don't have enough on the line. Perhaps you've raised a lot of funding and think your worries are over. Perhaps you don't have any rent or bills to pay or a family who depends on you. Perhaps you live in an echo-chamber of self-congratulation. No fear results in zero business model "traction first" startups that only Silicon Valley can sustain and reward. This is not your goal. No fear results in frivilous spending and high burn rates. No fear results in lethargy, procrastination and a lack of drive. No fear results in blindness. If you stumble upon a great opportunity - pivot. Fuck over-analysis. The number one goal of an early stage startup is survival. Is your company going to be around a year from now? How? Raising a round of funding? Wrong fucking answer if you're outside of the USA. Early stage startups - please be more afraid.

A favorite topic of the times is "this economy". What is "this economy"? I'm so very ignorant when it comes to these big topics. I always tell my husband,…

A favorite topic of the times is "this economy". What is "this economy"? I'm so very ignorant when it comes to these big topics. I always tell my husband, "That's why God gave me you. To help me see the big stuff." It's not always easy to understand why things are the way they are or why certain things happen. Sometimes frustration fogs up my mind when trying to sort out reasons and facts so all that big stuff gets pushed to the back until inspiration to deal with it hits. What I do find easy, is to evaluate the things I do understand and try to improve in that department. Sometimes I am asked, "How do you find time to do all that?" Make my own laundry soap, tend to a fairly large garden, raise three children, take care of my home, make my own bread....and so on. You know all the stuff you read about in this blog. I view all the stuff I do around here as my "job". Just as cost cutting and time management was important when I worked a secular job, it is equally if not more important since I made the decision to not work. When my second child was born, I simply quit work and informed Byron I wouldn't be going back. Somehow we would have to make it on his salary. I needed to be with my children. As much as others wished to help, no one would love them or care for them like me. I needed them and they needed and need me. I am an event florist and I still do events when and what dates I want to. Byron being the man he is was actually happy that I made this decision. It wasn't easy, but working together we identified those things we could do without and we cut cost where ever we could. Contentment is so much more important than stuff that it cannot be compared. It's amazing, but we are better off and happier now than we have ever been. We eliminated debt, cut up ALL credit cards (we do not have even one), and only buy if we have saved for it. For a great plan on how to do this look up Dave Ramsey. The first step to cutting home costs is identifying what really is a need. Most of our Neeeeds...are wants. Does everyone in the household neeeeed a cell phone? Do you neeeeed television? Do you neeeeed a manicure? Do you neeeeed a four wheeler? Do you neeeeed lots of "friends" and parties? I have an acquaintance (a real sweetheart) who has admitted to not having saved a cent, but has a huge house and note, she gets a manicure every week, her toes done, her skin sanded, she eats out all the time.....do you see a ticking time bomb? By the way she also takes anti-depressants. These very same type people loudly complain about "this economy". Which I know is bad and worsening. I find that when someone grows up and figures out the difference between a want and a need they just naturally know where to look to shore up the family budget and cuts costs. They also naturally will find contentment and in contentment they will find God.

If you haven’t heard, sliders (almost always) suck. As Brian Krogsgard talks about, there are many many reasons why sliders aren’t a good idea most of the time.…

If you haven’t heard, sliders (almost always) suck. As Brian Krogsgard talks about, there are many many reasons why sliders aren’t a good idea most of the time. But we, as designers, need to know where and when to use them so they don’t suck. *** The Problem It’s become the default layout. We have put them everywhere. We put them in our comps when we’re not really sure what else to do. We sell them to a client because we’re not sure what else will make them happy. Our clients come to us and say, “I saw this thing on this other site. Can you give me one of those?” For to long, we’ve used the slider to fill the gap. The problem is they aren’t providing value anymore. We’re not using them correctly. Here’s three simple rules to follow when designing with sliders. *** Sliders, Sliders everywhere but Not a Slide with Substance As readers, we don’t search through a slider looking for important information. If’ we’re just browsing, we click a few times to see what’s there and then move on. If we’re hunting for something specific, we disregard the slider altogether. When important information is needed, simple actions are taken. That won’t ever change. So that brings us to the first rule when designing with a slider. Don’t put vital information in a slider. When designing, I think to myself, if this page didn’t move, and there was no sliding, would it be complete? Would the viewer understand the purpose of this page? If not then there’s some vital information left out. Make sure it’s not buried in your slider. The worst thing I see a lot is burying your calls to action in your slider. People don’t want to use your slider like a navigation menu. If a section on your site is important enough to tease it on the home page, give it proper space. This rule seems obvious but it’s worth stepping back and taking a look. If you think people are going to look through all your slides you’re wrong. Most won’t make it through the first 3. *** Truly Illogical When sliders are used to expand the content at the top of the page, they tend to be a mess. They have slides for featured services, recent news articles, top clients, company history, upcoming events, etc. All this information will exist within one slider and a reader won’t know what to expect next. So rule number 2 is, one slider, one content type. This is why a slider works well in portfolio situations. All the information is the same. When they push that next button, they know the next thing will follow a certain format. I think of it like each slide is iterating on a certain concept. Take for instance a travel website. A slider on the homepage could be full of different destinations with photos and captions about each place. Each one has the same types of information. They all follow the same format. It’s easy for the reader to browse through the slides thinking of all the places they could go. And it won’t matter if they see them all. The point was to inspire them. *** Simple There’s 1,000,001 plugins, scripts, snippets, git hubs, packets, extensions, widgets, add-ons, whatever out there all making it easier for you to add a slider to your site. But don’t be fooled, while the process might be simple to put it on there, adding sliders only adds complexity. So rule three is, keep it simple, stupid. Ok so I’m not the first person to use that line but stick with me. This is more of a life lesson, but it’s important for sliders too. Don’t stack more than one slider on top of each other. Actually, just don’t have more than one on a page. Don’t use sliders that have more than 2 buttons. Don’t use a slider that has a transition more complicated than fade or slide left/right. In fact, don’t use sliders that move in more than one direction unless going back. It’s simple. Don’t over complicate it. *** I Don’t Want to See it Again Stop it. We are the designers and we are the experts. Don’t default to putting a slider in all of your comps. Think about the most important elements and design with those. When talking to a client, don’t let them start throwing in useless elements into the design. Figure out what they aren’t happy with and fix it. The next time a client suggests a feature that looks cool, gain their trust by telling them the truth about sliders (read Brian Krogsgard’s article). And don’t point that finger at me. Ok fine, time to come clean. I’ve broken these rules. All of them. Sometimes all three on one project. But that’s between me and my priest. I’ve stopped now. For you, there’s no excuse anymore. You’ve read the article and your eyes have been opened. Now it’s your’s and my responsibility to bring back the good name of sliders before they go the way of the scrolling marquee. *** Examples So I started looking for examples of sliders that followed the rules, but disappointingly, gave up trying. I had a few I used as inspiration but they’re reverted back to sucking. So, I ask you. Have you seen any that exhibit these rules? Post them for the rest of us.