Why Steve Jobs Brought Out the Best in Me

Today marks the passing of one of the greatest innovators ever to walk this planet.

Steve Jobs

I remember Steve Job’s last keynote for Apple, it was the first time in my life I was excited and upset at the same time. It was great seeing Jobs in his element but it hurt watching him present.

I don’t mean that in a harsh way, I could tell he didn’t have long and that the cancer was winning.

He looked exactly how my father looked before he passed away from Leukemia. Once you get to skin and bones, you don’t have long.

I respected Jobs for finding the strength to do this and it made me appreciate him so much more than I already did. I started listening to his audio book and I’m finding out that we have a lot in common.

• We’re both pisces
• We both are obsessed with design
• We both hate Windows — I make fun of EVERYONE with an Android, I don’t care who you are or what you do (Ask my girlfriend)
• We’re passionate about what we’re creating
• We love nature
• We love walking
• We think different
• We believe in the impossible.

Design

I always studied Apples products and how well they were designed. I translated their design principles in Chad, the app I’m creating.

We wanted a social platform that was more personal which is why we named it Chad. Having a smiley face in our logo we feel helps draw people in, when people see a smiley face they think happy thoughts. The smiley face is surrounded by a location symbol to represent what the app does which is provide users with location based chatrooms.

For those who don’t know, Chad is:

A new social media platform that is focused on sparking conversations with people through our location based chatrooms.

I know I keep writing about Chad, but as a founder it’s my duty to. I really believe Chad is going to change not only the social media market, but how we use it.

The greatest achievement so far with Chad is that I designed it.

Throughout each wireframe I studied how the app works and feels and I’m designing it, I continue to hear Jobs voice in my head.

Designers, live by this quote.

As I’m designing Chad, I wanted to make sure I was following these steps. I wanted a design that drew people in but at the same time showed them how we were different.

Here are some of the screenshots I’ve designed, tell me what you think. Their not completed yet as the team and I are still working out a few kinks.

Home (Left) this is the screen users will use to explore chatrooms around them. We offer a horizontal scroll to check out more chatrooms, instead of the common vertical scroll, the numbers attached to these bubbles represent the population of that chatroom. Explore (Right) users can jump in other locations to connect with people in that area. The numbers on these bubbles represent the amount of chatrooms in that location.

Designing my own app has been a lot of fun, not only am I creating the vision I want, but I’m getting better at designing as well. Here are my original designs that I had for Chad…

Please. Don’t. Laugh.

I mean, I don’t even know what to say. I went from this to what you see above in 6 months just by studying other apps, playing around with the design software (Framer/Sketch), watching Youtube videos and reading up on Apples Design principles.

I can’t believe I was able to share the vision I had for Chad with other people. These designs don’t do a great job at showing what I wanted to do. It takes time to communicate your message through design and thats something I learned over the past couple of months. I encourage anyone who wants to be a designer to keep putting in the work, you will eventually get the hang of it.

Can we take a second and to laugh at this explore page?

It’s really cool to take a step back to see how far I’ve come. If you’re a designer I would suggest saving every design you create. Every iteration I’ve done on my designs I have stored on my computer.

For shits and gigs I sometimes go back to look at the old designs I’ve created and it actually ends up motivating me.

Seeing progress can always helps when it comes to mastering your craft.

I want to thank Steve Jobs for instilling the importance of design when it comes to a product. When Chad succeeds he will always be the first person I thank.

Think Different 