edash

We are looking for someone to join our team on a full-time, contract basis to lead front-end design and user experience. Our team currently lives in Austin, Chicago, and New York. You can live and work anywhere.

You code clean. You follow best practices. You comment key areas of your code. You meticulously test for cross-browser compatibility. You have a talent (and obsession) with writing highly responsive, speedy code. You take pride in what you've written, but can set your pride aside when it’s time to debug.

You have a pixel-perfect eye for design, or at least you think you do :). When looking for the color gray, you nudge left and right on your RGB scale until you find the perfect shade. You understand and can implement fluid, grid, and responsive designs. You're not afraid of retina screens, because it doesn't really change the way you design things anyway.

We work from anywhere and believe in your ability to manage your own schedule. This is a contract position that pays competitive rates. If you need to upgrade your gear, we'll pay for it. If you're interested in a coworking space outside the home, we'll pay for that too.

Sound interesting? Learn more at http://www.paperlesspipeline.com/jobs

Comment · 14 years ago

What classes or groups would you want to see in this space?

I'm guessing many of the existing tech oriented groups (Austin on Rails, Austin.rb, et al) will start meeting there. Many of these groups already met at the OtherInbox offices on the 8th floor. OIB is moving up to this new space—so it's natural that those groups will move up as well.

There are also several (albeit more business-focused) groups like Refresh Austin and Lean Startup Circle that have held meetings at Buffalo Billiards. That space is not really conducive to meetings of any sort (it's loud, dirty, and has few outlets) so I'm guessing those groups will move two blocks to the new space as well.

Comment · 14 years ago

You are on your own for parking...but there are lots near the Omni available for rent starting around $50 / mo. I believe most of the people working there now rent spaces in the St David's lot a couple blocks away. I personally live downtown and so I'll walk or ride my bike there.

Comment · 14 years ago

I just got a tour of the space...and I think it's going to be a great thing for Austin startups. The startup scene here has been fragmented over the past few years, with little pockets across the city in smaller coworking places, creative spaces like 501 Studios, and smaller offices in downtown buildings like the Omni. I think this space will really bring people together and gel the Austin community in a way that hasn't happened before.

It occupies the entire 16th floor of the Omni, which is right in the heart of downtown. It's also just a few blocks from the Austin Convention Center where they host SXSW. Right now there are 60 dedicated desks and room for another 100 people for general coworking—and they have plans to expand to about 250 people total when they're fully up to speed.

I'm going to start there on Monday. If anyone has questions or is interested in seeing the space, feel free to get in touch.

Comment · 14 years ago

I agree that an explanation would be an interesting glimpse into the designer's process. However, the author clearly put more thought into this than simply "rearranging elements around a page."

The "Quickstart" link was removed, a menu was created below the main graphic with various uses described, applications (and their practicality) were featured much more clearly than in the previous design. All the changes I noticed seemed thoughtful and intentional, both from a design as well as a marketing perspective.

So sure, an explanation would certainly add to the post and spur more discussion. However, the author has demonstrated that they know what they're doing and should be spared a lecture on what design is or isn't.

Comment · 14 years ago

This isn't an either / or decision for a company. It makes sense to create a net if you're early in the lifecycle of a company or product—before it's reached product/market fit. Once a startup has reached product/market fit, however, creating a funnel and A/B testing the hell out of it is probably a good idea.

To use an example from your post, now that you know what people are looking for (and how they're behaving) on your paystub page, you can begin to tweak the design, layout, and flow of that page to optimize whatever it is you want to optimize.

With the above in mind, "make a net, not a funnel" is another way of saying "don't optimize prematurely".

Comment · 14 years ago

Why show the second figure to the user? They don't need to see the calculation you made to determine the sort.

Just sort the objects in the order determined by this formula and only show the ratings given by users in the interface.

Comment · 14 years ago

That was the author's assumption, but it's not correct. iMessage requires both the sender and the recipient to have compatible devices with iMessage enabled.

Even putting your iPhone in Airplane Mode will cause you to receive all your text messages via SMS rather than iMessage.

Comment · 14 years ago

The author had already disabled cell service on the iPhone, which is why disabling WiFi should be a sufficient alternative to stop the phone from receiving iMessages.

Comment · 14 years ago

I believe the author can just turn off iMessage on the iPhone and it'll solve the problem. In fact, simply turning off the WiFi is probably enough as well.

In other words, this issue only occurs when a user switches away from iPhone as their primary phone but continues to use the iPhone for other purposes.