Web Worker:
Have You Lost That Lovin’ Feeling?
Heart pounding like a first kiss from your true love. Thin bead of sweat forming on your brow. Ear-to-ear smile that could only be removed with an unexpected punch in the nose or a ballad crooned by William Hung.
Love At First Site
Do you remember that defining day your index finger hovered over the left button of your linty rubber ball mouse just waiting to click that adequately-beveled “Publish” button for the first time? Remember the indescribable feeling of exhilaration that something you just created could now potentially be seen by millions of people all over the world with just a few key strokes? Remember plowing through David Siegel’s criterion “Creating Killer Websites” and immediately designing and coding your first big website idea that would (and maybe even did) draw a large audience to your content?
Remember how simple things used to be?
There’s a passage in the Bible that says, ‘A day is like a thousand years to the Lord’. Do you ever feel like a day is like a thousand years on the web? There are countless things to be concerned about, and just as many to have a depth of knowledge and experience of in our field today (and there’ll be more tomorrow). Some examples include:
- Ever-increasing varieties of mobile devices
- Countless viewports (and counting)
- Wearables
- Internet of Things
- Performance for sluggish mobile networks (back to the past)
- Accessibility
- User research
The list goes on and on. We’re expected to be magical unicorns now!
Still wanna do this??
If this new somewhat unrealistic reality can sometimes get you down too, and you feel like you’d rather just take “the blue pill”, allow me to encourage you with a few nuggets of hope!
Here are 3 ways to stay fresh and energized in our craft and help bring back that lovin’ feeling:
1. Learn Something New
I’d be willing to bet the number one reason we can lose heart is we feel overwhelmed by the demand to keep up with our ever-evolving digital landscape. One of the best ways to reclaim our passion is to dive in head first and master new and necessary disciplines.
Tap Into a Training Resource
There are so many ways and methods available now to learn and grow in our industry. I use lynda.com primarily (so does my 13yo son). Frontend Masters is excellent too. Some others I haven’t tried but are probably also great resources are Treehouse and Code Academy (which is free). You could also enroll yourself in a certification program at a place like Full Sail University, or possibly at your local college. Center Centre is a new unique educational program that is committed to training the next generation of UX Designers. Definitely worth looking into.
Attend a Conference
Let’s not forget about some of the many enlightening web design conferences that exist as well such as An Event Apart and UX Mobile Immersion to name a couple of the great ones I’ve attended. Lanyrd has quite an exhaustive list.
The possibilities are limitless. We are only limited by our level of passion and desire to learn and grow. Stay hungry!
Set a Personal Goal
For me personally, I’ve set a goal this year to learn JavaScript. Yes, I’ve been at this for almost two decades and I still am not comfortable handcoding JavaScript. I would like to (and have already started to) protoype micro-interactions that I can test on my mobile device using a great new tool called Framer.js, but guess what…you have to know JavaScript (actually Coffeescript which is based on JavaScript) to make that happen. [sigh]
2. Land (or Initiate) a Dream Project
Maybe another reason we could be feeling a little Eeyore in our work is that we aren’t working on projects we are truly excited about. Projects where we feel ownership and empowerment to effect change and make a difference.
If this sounds like you, maybe now’s the time to start moonlighting and seeking out the types of projects you really want to work on. This could also be a great way to build your experience in an area that you are hungry to grow in (See 1.).
Or perhaps you have an idea for a product or app that will make peoples lives better. If so…we need you to build it! I believe this is an excellent way to keep the fire burning in our craft.
3. Find a Mentor
By now, we should all have a decent network and have access to someone in our field who would be a dream to be mentored by and collaborate with. One great way to stay passionate is to reach out (or get introduced) to that someone who is doing the things you want to do or feel like you should be doing. See if they would be willing to mentor you. Shadow them as often as both your schedules would allow.
Observing their process, disciplines, passion and results could definitely help light the fire again and heck, that dream mentorship opportunity could even turn into a full-time dream gig!
My friend Ben Callahan at Sparkbox puts great emphasis on mentorship in their highly successful and nimble shop. They not only almost always seem to have an internship slot available, they also hold workshops with some heavy hitters like Brad Frost in their office frequently. Collaborating on a project with those you greatly respect, can definitely help bring you back to your career first love.
“Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development.” — Jim Rohn
Conclusion
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to invoke Louis C.K.’s hilarious “Everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy” bit. Things are definitely better (albeit significantly more complex) than they were when I started doing this almost two decades ago. Back then, I was elated just to get the right frames to scroll and nested tables to center. There are so many more things we can do now, and many more ways to reach people with our content. The opportunities abound! It’s all really a matter of how far we’re willing to go to continue breathing oxygen onto the flickering flames that desire to turn into a lasting inferno of love for what we do.
I’ve laid out a few ideas of how we can stay excited and passionate in our craft. Do you have other ideas of ways we can help bring back (and keep) that lovin’ feeling?
Love to hear them in the comments!
Also, I’d love to engage in conversation with you about this and/or any other design-related goodness on Twitter.
This article was originally published April 20, 2015 on jasonogle.com
