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User Experience v Client

2011-11-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

User Experience v Client

How many times have you been in the following situation? You just spent two weeks working on a design that you’re showing to a client. He likes it, but he wants to make a couple of changes that would take a couple more hours of work. Why? You don’t know.He doesn’t know. Nobody knows. He just thinks that adding an embedded map on the right side of the web page is cool. He really likes his own idea and wants you to make the change, and you’re left with one of two options: make the client happy, or make users happy.

We all know who signs the check.

Luckily, there is a third option: Using User experience (UX) to back your arguments.

In my design career, there hasn’t been a project where the client didn’t request to make design changes that felt subjective and unjustifiable, and there hasn’t been a case where UX hadn’t come to the rescue.

UX takes clients off the center of their own arguments, and puts users back in the center of the design, therefore turning subjective (and sometimes egotistic) design change requests into rational arguments that benefit the user.

User experience not only guarantees that designers and clients are moving forward on a common ground, but also aligns future changes and product updates with the original product vision, hence ensuring long term design integrity.

What is UX?

It is a framework where beautiful designs happen as a result of identifying the right problems and finding the best solutions for them.

Contrary to popular belief, UX is not a pure creative process, but rather a rational sequential repeatable process that can be applied to solving design challenges. It is concerned with how users feel when they use the end-product.

Integrating UX into Your Design Process

So before launching Photoshop, or even creating sketches and wireframes, take the following steps to guarantee that you’re solving the right design problems.

User Research

Start by doing some user research to identify the target audience. Whether you’re designing a website or a mobile app, create simple descriptions of the ideal users, their demographics, their technical proficiency, and their goals.

User Stories and Personas

Then write a couple of short stories about how they will use the product to accomplish these goals. At this stage, don’t be concerned with too much detail, but rather try to identify high-level use case scenarios. This activity is called creating personas.

System Flow

Based on these stories, draw a diagram of the system: a snapshot of the main entities and how they relate to, and interact with, each other.

For instance, I am working on a web app that enables companies to find the right users for early testing, so I created entities for users, companies, and studies.

Then I draw arrows between these entities to indicate relationships such as “a company can create/edit/delete a study” and “users can browse/view/apply to a study”.

If you’re familiar with database design, this is similar to creating an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD).

So far, we’ve been working in problem space: We’re staying at a high level, and we’re not concerned with too much detail. At this stage, momentum is more important than trying to get everything right in each step before moving to the next. Because the process is iterative, you can always go back to a previous step to add or modify something.

Now that the problem and its attributes are defined, it’s time to move into solution space.

Wireframes

Start by outlining all the screens needed, and how users will transition between them. For each screen, identify one or two task to be accomplished, and the next steps to be reached.

Then sketch high-level block designs for each screen, stepping back every once in a while to do a quick walkthrough of the design using the stories you wrote in the second step.

Once the high-level design is congruent with the previous steps, add more detail to each screen, still doing design walkthroughs whenever possible to ensure that the users flow intuitively through the screens.

I often go through all these steps using pen and paper, or a whiteboard. This helps me stay focused on what I want to do rather than being constrained by what an app can or cannot do.

Prototypes

The final step is to prototype some screens, and click through them to get some feedback for how the design feels when it’s live. I usually use Apple Keynote andKeynotopia, and it doesn’t take more than a couple of hours to put something together that I can show to clients and prospective users and get quick feedback about.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve had the client’s consensus throughout the process (or even better, involved the client in the UX process), you have a good foundation to launch your favorite design program and create high fidelity screens.

You’ve also got a great reference to go back to whenever you’re faced with anotherbut-I-like-it-this-way client.

“When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

Coast Movie - It begins

2011-05-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

I'm so thankful to say that my Best mate (alan Stewart aka fatelvismedia) and I have finally got around to a dream since we were kids; a mini series with decent script, good gore and NI style. We are currently in production off it, our actual progress is on our facebook page, please if your not already a LIKER - become one and drop by to see what we are doing or if indeed you can become involved in it.

The pilot is filming over the next few months and promises to surpass your expectations. The production is shot entirely on a canon 5mkII and a 550d - we plan to tour it around festivals and approach for funding to produce the rest of the 6 part series.

Here is the link to the coast facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/coastmovie

7 up reveals new branding. I think fail.

2011-03-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

http://creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/march/7up-redesign

The new brand looks distinctively 2010 adobe illustrator. It's not iconic enough for me, take a peek at the 1990's version which I still hail as king. Although the winged 7up does have it's classy merits. Would love to know how much they paid for it.

Overall the logo is good. But they always look well on a White gloss I-pod style mockup.

Rebrand much.

2011-02-24T05:35:00.000-08:00

I do a heck of a lot of re branding work at the studio. To be honest I'm kept so busy I don't update enough the actual work I get through. I realise that not updating has no excuse so here I am posting some of the things I find on my machine.

The most beautiful picture to any designer...

2010-11-12T07:37:00.000-08:00

Yes, a blank page, an empty canvas. Awaiting great design or awaiting comic sans, massive fonts in RGB 255 lime with your nan's cat stretched big in the corner.The choice is yours.

Chris Mcclenaghan invited you to Dropbox

2010-10-22T02:54:00.001-07:00

Dropbox has Fraped and fraped me.

Last design of the day...

2010-10-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

This took me about an hour more than it should have, but it begins a new series of news sheets for the Lagan Valley Regional Park. It has been really nice working with the guys and they are fantastic clients to design for.
They put so much trust in the work that we produce.

Press the images below to zoom em.

Wonderfully Wondrous Web Workings

2010-10-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you will know that I design a ton of websites some fantastic, some a bit plain. But if by chance you have just found this fact out, then why not take a peek at what we do at the studio and then give us a buzz, we are doing a very mad one time only deal called:

Two nine nine online...
Meaning you can get your company on the internet, looking foxy for just a few beans. Obviously we can do a lot more, but get your foot in the door and see what the internet can do for you with our limited offer.

A tutorial for you guys on pimping a simple studio shot.

2010-10-15T04:46:00.003-07:00

Just coming to gift time for xmas, I though you mates and hates of mine would like a free tip from me on pimping a cool art shot for a canvas or perspex print.

Wedding Work at the studio

2010-10-15T04:29:00.001-07:00

You may or may not know that our studio do weddings, turns out we are amazing at them and with being creative designers we are even more awesome at designing wedding books.

If you know anyone looking a wedding photographer or indeed thinking yourself into that situation, please call us and book in for a free consultation.

New Shoots New times

2010-10-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

Been getting a lot of requests recently to do shoots out of the studio, why do these people wait to the winter comes in?

Anyways, I'm all about getting new work online and showing that I'm progressing creatively. It's been a long road, learing lots as I go.

Here is a snap off my latest work:

My Latest Wedding

2010-03-09T06:50:00.000-08:00

A few weeks into my new build from old

2010-01-13T12:04:00.001-08:00

Well I've finally sold my home. But all in all it turned out to work for my good, had we moved when intended lindsays dad would have just been admitted to intensive care and we would have had our worlds upside down.

We got the keys a week before christmas, got moved in by the weirdest but nicest guys. They took 12 hours to move us!! We closed the doors and had Christmas with out visiting the other house. So life without the Internet is sucking. I hate having to sit in mcdonalds and sneak wifi to order my bathroom online or browse for kitchens. Lol. It's real nice to have the ability to demolish a house then drive home to a tidy one.

So far we have destroyed the kitchen, bathroom, shower, mini bathroom and taken down 1.5 Walls internally. The neighbours are great, I hate making so muh noise but i've only nights and one day with light available each week, so I've to just plow on.

We are getting some good and some real bad quotes in from contractors to do work. Some hidden costs are a bit naughty. But we are still surprisingly on target for time and cash.

I just thought I'd share some of his on the blog before I forget about I all. We are healing our wounds and working hard to see ourselves in for my birhday. 16th march 2010. Now you read that set it in your diary and get me a good present :)

- Posted using my silly billy iPhone. But we all know iPhones are evil.

iPhone let's me blog easy.

2009-11-19T16:14:00.001-08:00

Just back in from a pub quiz minus the pub. Was at church but I still had a goo time despite the amount of Christians there. Honestly, the guys at church really make life so much more fun. I'll need to start uploading some of the pics as I go.

Note the very 70's Stevie g now with added moose.

- Posted using my silly billy iPhone. But we all know iPhones are evil.

May I introduce the iphone killer...

2009-11-17T05:58:00.000-08:00

Microsoft have done it again, a perfect rival to the iphone, much like the successful zune - Microsoft have developed a fantastic touch screen device using many of apples ideas but made them better. The best function to this sleek new phone is (unlike the apple phone) the ability: to reset on the fly. Simply use the function buttons above to make this happen real time, apple bosses are furious over the new release and are looking into the microsoft patented '3 finger salute function'. There are rumours that there may be a new 'ireset' function key available as an add on to the existing iphones as a way of winning back Microsoft customers.

The online battle continues with a stunning line up on online games, such as solitaire, chess and legacy xbox titles. Apple really need to get their game plan on for the coming Christmas rush if they plan to counter this intelligent device. We will release more screen shots as we take them...

Anylise this:

2009-09-30T03:18:00.000-07:00

On a wee mass web note, check out all these people who are minty with their sites, to be honest - I'd have put facebook higher in the chart, but money talks.

Zynga
4,675,441
$121,986,913

Playfish Ltd
4,218,008
$53,653,919

Rock You
2,140,355
$63,067,230

Slide
1,681,919
$55,793,168

Facebook
958,105
$7,638,216

Flixster
955,084
$22,004,638

Project Agape
944,178
$31,943,509

FamilyLink.com
771,873
$9,562,005

SA Ventures
677,760
$7,698,577

SNAP Interactive
626,980
$11,103,130

How to make real ginger beer (GBP tutorial)

2009-05-02T02:30:00.000-07:00

A true Ginger Beer Plant. (DSMZ Strain 2472)

Ok this is my first ever blog project that may actually get me some real followers to this rubbish I waste my time on every other day. I have and always will love and cherish Ginger Beer, or as its marketed by Coca Cola - tangawizi.

I however, hate the carbonated rubbish that the soft drink companys make as it's too sweet, carries junk contents and tastes like you need to brush your teeth immediately after drinking it.

So I used my mate: google. Google said to look at several blogs and articles, so I did - and may i point out if you plan to read only one persons account of making ginger beer then you may fail. I noticed that in some they added or left out parts that others had. So I combined them all together and made my own (bit like that mad religion that takes all the good bits and makes a new one from it).

So Here is what I done for day one:

We want to create a cool named mirk callled lactobacillus, a culture that lives and makes the fizz and more for the brew. Ginger beer is a fermented drink - don't think otherwise. It is special and dates back to ye olde tymes. So, enough with my stupid into, onward to the beer.

1. Grab a jam jar, coffee jar and wash it good.

2. Find some fresh ORGANIC fruit, if you miss this and get tesco/supermarket stuff the yeasts and nice things are all dead with the chemical bleaching etc. So find something like your kids raisins (they are great) I grabbed 3 wee boxes and tipped them into the jar.

3. Fill with water about half way up, dont put the lid on the whole way on the jar - leave it 'ajar' lol. This lets the air at it and allows the yeasts and lactobacillus to start making it happen. Now leave for a warm five days in sunlight, yeast don't like sun but lactobacillus do.

4. By day five you have yeast and lactobacillus and a bunch of smelly fruit, so ditch the fruit and now you have a certified and sought after GBP - a ginger beer plant. You may notice that it does not pack the funky leaves and flowers a plant boasts, but it has all kinds of cool happening, this is the base for any fermented drink from beer to cola.

5. After this period tip the contents through a strainer, transferring the water into another jar. You then added a teaspoon of dried ginger (you could also use freshly grated ginger) and 2 teaspoons of sugar. The sugar feeds the culture, which should be a mixture of lactobacillus and some wild yeasts which will largely be suppressed by the bacteria. In winter the plant needs to be fed 1/2 teaspoon of ginger and 1 teaspoon of sugar every 2-3 days in order to keep it lively. In summer it will need to be feed more often as it is more active in warmer weather. Malt extract will give the culture a more nutritional feed.

You are now a GBP owner.

For more info join this group like a nerdy me:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GingerBeerPlantArchive/

Part two coming soon. Once I brew it!

I am rich, so filthy rich!

2009-04-27T01:24:00.000-07:00

Success! I have finally caught a break in these tough times, I received a fantastic offer by email from Africa, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to get ahead - to throw caution to the wind and take the dive into financial freedom!

All I need to do is take secret funds from an account and place them into mine, I then in turn get 40% of the whole deal for helping a friend in need. My peace of mind is guaranteed too:

I will not fail to inform you that this transaction is 100% risk free. On smooth conclusion of this transaction, you will be entitled to 40% of the total sum as gratification, while 60% will be for me. Please, you have been advised to keep "top secret" as I am still in service and intend to retire from service after we conclude this deal.

I am so excited about it I had to tell you all about my future success. I even took the time to copy and paste the amazing deal I'm presented with:

FROM THE OFFICE OF MR. HAKIM JAFAR

AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING SECTION OF

BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A) OUAGADOUGOU

BURKINA-FASO WEST AFRICA.

Dear Friend,

Do not be surprised in receipt of this message as though, you don't know me but I want you to pay attention while reading this mail, you will understand better. Well, I am Mr. Hakim Jafar, the director in charge of auditing and accounting section of Bank of Africa (BOA) Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso in West-Africa. With due respect and regard, I have decided to contact you on a business transaction that will be very beneficial to both of us at the end of the transaction.

During our investigation and auditing in this bank, my department came across a very huge sum of money belonging to our deceased customer, Mr. Emmanuel Etukudo who died on May 2nd, 2004 in a gassy car accident with his entire family on there way back from Bobo-Dioulasso, the formal capital city of Burkina-Faso, and the fund has been dormant in his account with this Bank without any claim of the fund in our custody either from his family or relation before our discovery to this development.

The said amount was U.S $9.8M (Nine million eight hundred thousand United States dollars). As it may interest you to know, I got your impressive information through yahoo search on foreign business relations here in Ouagadougou , Burkina-Faso.

Meanwhile all the whole arrangement to put claim over this fund as the bona fide next of kin to the deceased to get the required approval and transfer this money to a foreign account has been put in place and directives, and needed information will be relayed to you as soon as you indicate your interest and willingness to assist me and also benefit yourself to this great business opportunity.

In fact, I could have done this deal alone but because of my position in this country as a civil servant (A Banker), we are not allowed to operate a foreign account and it would eventually raise an eyebrow on my side during the time of transfer because I work in the same bank.

This is the actual reason why it will require a second party or fellow who will forward claims as the next of kin with affidavit of trust of oath to the Bank and also present a foreign account where he will need the money to be re-transferred into on his request as it may be after due verification and clarification by the correspondent branch of the bank where the whole money will be remitted from to your own designation bank account.

Finally, I will be monitoring the whole situation here in this bank until you confirm the money in your account and ask me to come down to your country for subsequent sharing of the fund according to percentages previously indicated and further investment, either in your country or any country you advice us to invest in. All other necessary vital information will be sent to you when I hear from you.

I will be expecting to hear from you soonest. Please if you are not interested in the deal don't bother to reply me and delete this message from your mailbox ok.

Have a nice day.

Mr. Hakim Jafar.

If you are interested in this non scam, call me. It is so worth it!

Chris

My daughter went missing!

2009-04-24T15:05:00.001-07:00

I am sitting here, sweat on my face, my heart beating and I feel sick. As I had mentioned, my family have got sick; and when your family are sick you put them to bed and check in on them over the course of the night. BUT... Tonight I put Belle to bed (my 4 year old daughter), I went down stairs and put on a few episodes of 24. I was right in the middle of one and I heard the door bang, so I paused the show and decided to take a quick toilet break, so I see Belles light on and I go in to check up on her with her new found measles virus.

To my amusement she was gone, I thought: "ahh, bless her, she is in our bed resting all snuggled" so I go to check on Lindsay and Belle, there was no Belle, I then started to calmly panic, I went up to my loft, no Belle, down to the kitchen, living room, addisons room, toilet, every where: no Belle. I then checked the kitchen patio door and it was open!!

I freaked! I ran and waked lindsay, turned on all the lights and then checked again, no Belle! I felt sick, really sick. I called for her: nothing. Lindsay was really panicking so we started frantically checking all the hide out holes around the house, then she ran out from behind our bed (bay window cove) she was sleeping behind our bed. What a relief. What a horrible few minutes, I can only think I caught a glimpse of the poor McCann family. That was by far my worst 3-4 minutes of my life. I would take anything in place of that happening.

So in that, the only good I can think is that I will post a link to Maddie McCann's Blog in some hope that these guys get some closure either way on that 2 year feeling that I experienced.

Horrible.

Link:

My work on BBC new tonight at 6pm

2009-04-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

Be sure to check my work on BBC tonight, I'm really happy with the outcome, I guess I can't really, truly call it my work as I was only the hands that built it from two artists I worked with, however I am stealing the show today as I am responsible for all the hard, hard work that went into appeasing two very contrasted artists.

I also had alan from thefatevlis shoot some video from it, so who knows where this will end up, but I can tell you where it has ended up for now; Belfast's Lanark Way peacewall. It's not the worst art installation, but its not really the best. I like the fact I built and managed the print for it. But they really should have let the boys at it to sort the artwork out with some dog heads and the like.

Enjoy.

DNA promos - check out the dogs!

2009-04-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

I set some pets to the new dna promo stuff for elevate. Loving where this thing is going and that I can be a part of promoting it. The team are all busy working away on various bits, watch this space to see the kool stuff.

Here is the brochure-ism: LINK

50's wins

2009-04-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

I came back at it after lunch, I think I'll try a blend of pac man meets 50's prude. I think this represents us Belfast type people? Our approach to sex has to be mental. Every thing else is.

Let you know how it gets on.

I'm off home.

Which way to design it...

2009-04-20T05:02:00.001-07:00

Today on my desk lies a new bit of work for the Belfast Trust, they are a great crew and generally allow me to fire away on anything I design, this is on sexual health - I can just fire anything on it as it needs to have the ability to go to the very young and very old. So, does pac man win this or a 50's scrap look?

Pdf on it's way on print time...

First of many - I just discovered lovely blogger supports pdf!

2009-04-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

Yey, great news for my brain, it found out today that I can upload the work I produce to this blog, meaning that I actually can document the work I create. I find that my whole life has whizzed by with not a single shred of evidence that I work in design.

So here is a first off, rob if your reading, yes, I have spammed your document to the internet before proofing it with you, something you should have signed against when placing your order.

LINKY HERE!

Hope you all like the work. Its vector so download is small.

My mate draws on peoples backs

2009-04-12T13:02:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to give you fine folk a look at my mates art: THEFATELVIS

It's not every day a bloke asks you into the mens toilets at church to take his clothes off to show you something, at fist this reads bad, but my mate alan needed a shot of his new tattoos and they rock, so this fine bloke gave a demo.

Alan has been going from strenght to strenght on these super awesome inks, he is available for consultation and indeed to hire for his foxy services. You want some art that means something? Art that is not on 1000 other people? Then seek ye the fat elvis.

Click here to see the skill.

Easter eggs

2009-04-12T06:37:00.001-07:00

I am choc'd out and it's only lunchtime. Easter eggs are nice, but why
do all these people make them with the secret suprise on the outside?
When I was a kid they were inside and it made it special. What next:
kinder will put the toy wrapped to the foil? We need to unite. We need
to say no to the packaging whore mongers.

Sent from my iPhone

I fedd RSS like a pimp feeds his hoes...

2009-04-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

YES! I did it, took 4 nights to work it out, but there is software out there if your willing and it creates one fat RSS feed from all the mini feeds from the likes of twitter, facebook, flickr, blogger and all the others I have, now I can send them all in one swoop to each of my sites, better still I know how to do it for my clients.

This means good things for this web designer who hates designing for the web! I am so lost right now that I hate what I do, but can't do anything else. It is a creative process but it's just not the right creation I want.

Ahh, the news is that RSS is here to stay its beautiful, powerful and harnessed.

Google got street cred

2009-04-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

Google never cease to amaze, I have played around with street view or the wee orange man as you may call him and I must say its way cool. It baffles me to how they decided that this would be a good thing to do, but I now see estate agents using it and news teams. It makes my life easier as designer too, things like a mural off a wall I need for a bit of artwork or a profile of a landmark I need to trace can all be grabbed off this wonderful thing.

I do tip my pointed hat to google for this amazing feat, however, when I done what all you must have done first thing on discovering this new tech; went to see my house - I discovered that the lazy google driver never bothered to bring his car past my neighbours, he switched off the cams and headded home! Come on!!! I want views of my house, I live in a major city on an important road! I'll be watching out for them if they ever come back to finish the job.

I thought it worth mentioning all this in case some of you stumble upon this one day and ask what is it for... The way I see it is that it beats maps into the ground for coolness. The technology in how they mapped the place out was using 360 cams with gps plottings, much like some of the high end dslr's out there. I may have to finish the job they started and upload my shots to google HQ.

It is also available on iphone for you fine folk to use and abuse.

Cleaning the house

2009-01-29T11:04:00.000-08:00

Well all I got to say is the iphone is a good way to scive. Right now my dear wife cleans while I sneak about wirelessly checking up on by blogs, facebook and forums. Heh heh. Gotta love it.

Google sites now online

2009-01-28T01:48:00.000-08:00

Well google are taking over the world and their newest thing to offer is a fantastic wysiwyg web editor with features that would take any web developer weeks to add to a site. I love that they off these things free, but what about the humble web designer now? He will have to up his game, I say shame on you google.

If you want to be the first to test out the app then http://sites.google.com/ get your name on it before they get snapped up. Who knows, you could sell it in the future? Or it could sell you.

Enjoy.

New year, new media

2009-01-25T14:05:00.000-08:00

I like my mate Alan have decided that this year I will steal back time stole from me in the wonderful world of media, I want to see a dear project finished, my dragonprince. I have decided to make it so and get the webs off my keyboard and begin making 3d models again, I was really happy when I was doing it and when I stopped it I was sad.

So new year, new film and new video, watch this space for future updates on the wonderful work of the dragon prince and AC productions (I'm not sure that was even the name) 10 minute feature.

Iphone hangups - why the iphone has suckable things they don't tell you

2009-01-23T04:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, we all love mac's not the dirty rat burgers either. But I recently got myself the new 3g iphone, well to be honest I guess they will release the 4g shortly with all these problems fixed; but to date they have not, so I thought it would be constructive / destructive of me to tell you fine folk the real drawbacks to the phone.

I use computers a bit, so naturally I hoked and poked for workarounds, they are not there without the help of third party software (yes - pay for what apple left out).

Ok here goes:

1. The sms abilities are poor. By that I mean you can't forward a text! You cant copy and paste the words you sent either. This will hurt you lots if your the type of guy that copies old love texts and pastes them into new ones that you reckon your wife/girl won't remmeber. Now you have to slave over a new note, most likey not being as good as the ones you copied from the net.

2. The iphone camera is terrible, it does not zoom, it can't take multiple shots, it's way slow, it blurs, it has no timer, it has no editing ability, it really is a simple thing made for a housewife with 10 kids and no brain left over. Further more it is terrible to take your own picture with it as you have to bend your fingers around the front of it and try and guess the position of the button and then wonder if it took the picture. When it does, its blurred, off centre and just about the worst wide angle shot a phone can take.

3. Bluetooth - I got this phone and was so excited to sync with my mac and have incoming calls pop up on screen and then the ability to sms over bluetooth like my last phone, guess what!??! Apple decided to enable this amazing skill for everyone with a real phone other than their own spawn. I really am confused over this as it defies common sense - which is apple's selling point!

4. Well there is a four, but I'm taking too much time at the minute ranting, so I'll be back for 4 later.

I hope this helps you in making your future iphone purchase.
I'll be back with more.

BTW - the phone is awesome, makes my last smartphone look like a window licker.

Ok, so I'm back

2009-01-15T07:16:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a bit - this whole social networking thing is a bit much, apparently is part of 2000 living, so I guess I better get on the ball.

I got a facebook, myspace, blogger, friends reunited, flickr, photo forum, 3d forum, church forum and blogs that I frequent. I'm kind of thinking these things are taking a lot of my production time away from me.

The reason I post this new update is that there are a lot of developments from my life at present, I'm not sure if I mentioned; but I have a number two child now: Addison Grace, she is amazing, I have moved work to a warehouse that is very cold, I drive a poke van that has adverts on it, I take photos now as a big part of my living.

I think that covers my things to date, the great news on my productions are the following:

1. DragonPrince is well underway

2. Im freelancing 3d for companies such as UTV and Developers

3. Best of all is this one: I'm making a 10 minute film with my buddy Alan, it's going to complete our pact since we were about p4 - to make a motion picture. It's not feature length, but a darn good try at doing it pro.

Life is great, my family are great, my mates are great. I'm a very blessed guy. I owe it all to God who makes all things possible. What more can I say...?

Face book finds Chris McClenaghan - ism.

2008-08-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

Face book rocks, just joined it and it makes good sense, you can reach the nations with it and its free. If you are afraid of it, then stay that way.

But to better your life and family; then join the beast. It supports RSS feeds and nifty embeds like the one above, I like it because I see the conectivity of the thing for websites and cool ways to link each site with, you may like it cause its blue and has nice pictures on it. Satan may like it cause it has online dating - that is great if your evil.

Trip to Rosses point Ireland!

2008-07-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

Here are two shots from a dirty grounded boat at Rosses Point, Ireland. I went snapping over the weekend with my new 50mm f1.4 lens. Was good fun, wife hated me shooting anything that moved, including her. But I had a blast.

The whole trip had me clicking in all I have learned from two magazines over the past week - its been a real eye opener to lenses and f stops and film speeds. Now I look at TV and think on the lenses they may use to get that shot, its sad, sad.

Got a new camera

2008-07-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

So its been a bit, but good news, I can now shoot with a glossy new camera and a few lenses to make it boooshy. I am very happy and I've fired in a few shots so far... The two shots are my wee girlys... Addie and Belle. Mummmhhhh!

Sold Out Sell Out.

2008-02-24T16:41:00.000-08:00

Well it came and went, not bad may I say for marketing. I just placed one advert online for the car and with the use of some free viral videos I made my car sell over the others in a matter of days. I guess having such a fantastic car helped some, the bloke that got it was a gem, he was into GTV's and seems really happy. So I guess job done, I now have dropped my engine by half to the audi a2 sport. When they call it sport they must surely not really mean sport. I mean its no where near a fast car, yet I do like it - give me a few weeks to get my sound system into it and I'll be smiling again.

Last video of my cup

2008-02-07T15:12:00.000-08:00

This is it, the last of my cup in action. I loved and lost. She has potential buyers lining up now and I fear she will go, you watching this may even be one.

Enjoy!

Chris

car pics

2008-02-07T09:54:00.000-08:00

Just to update my ad, here are some new pics, I asked our photograhper we had at our studio to take some today, he done a great job. Thanks Gary!

GTV cup fun!

2008-02-05T13:01:00.001-08:00

After posting my car for sale online on a fourm I frequent, I checked back one day to see how the sale was going to find that a typo had caused a whirlwind of madness! This vid clears it up and teaches me to watch what I type!

Talk about a marketing ploy! It created a load of posts from a user who had my car number (badge number) and others who where just looking, they thought I was a trickster, a theif or some other type of creature, It was funny. But I'm still trying hard to sell my car, it turns out I have it for way under what its worth, some go for £11k and mines £6.8k so I guess I should sell it easy, keep you posted - who ever you are reading these!

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BETTER QUALITY .wmv VERSION HERE

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Just excuse the bad camera (you try a over the shoulder cam in that car!)

New site designed

2008-02-04T10:07:00.001-08:00

I just finished this new site for a local charity in Belfast, they do great work with people infected with HIV/AIDS. The guys there are the best you'll meet, best of all they like us and work with us a lot. If you want more info on them check out their site:

I used blogger to host their CMS for the site, the current systems I used to use are now useless compared to the FREE version that Google Labs provide! How I love them.

http://www.thehivsupportcentre.org.uk/

GTV cup for sale :(

2008-02-02T16:22:00.000-08:00

Hi there eveyone! I had my fun and now must hang my hat up, my wife is due in april and I must get a 'family' car. Though I must admit that my 2 year old fitted into the back ok over summer months there!

The car is indeed mint condition, I had a lot of upset with it previously in the summer, but have since done the timing belt and installed a new steering rack, all the work carried out by the only alfa dealers in N.I. Mervyn Stewart Belfast, they sold it from the first ower (christian musician) then to my boss (who never used it!!) then to me who loved it dearly. I have had EVERYTHING checked and oked by the dealership in Dec running the computer over it etc.

The car is perfect and with low miles I expect it will go over the 100k with no issues from here, only thing left (known gtv issue)to change is the bushes that were checked in dec 2007. and are perfect (I thought they were the blame of the steer rack so had them checked). The car is a joy to drive and a head turner!

Heres the engine spec:
Engine: V6, 2959cc, 24v Max power: 218bhp @ 6300rpm Max torque: 199lb ft @ 5000rpm 0 - 60mph: 6.8secs Top Speed: 154mph

Heres the car spec:

Momo half leather leather seats[*]Lowered suspension[*]Fiber Glass bonnet[*]Alfa red paintjob[*]all-aluminium 218 bhp 3.0 V6 40HC 24v engine[*]6-speed gearbox [*]Alfa GTV Cup with factory bodykit (zender) unique front and rear spoilers, front wheel arch side panels, side skirts and special 17" dark grey alloy wheels. [*]leather steering wheel and panels, plus a special central console with numbered plaque complement the sporting interior[/LIST]
There is more I think that make this stand out from the crowd, I love it and really hate to see her go, there is no way Im giving it to a local dealer as they will never appreciate the car for what it is.

Top gear point it as a future classic and it will help its future sale. I have new wheels on it, a new head unit and focal speakers through out in proper install extra £300 if you want them kept in. Though I kept the factory ones too along with the cd changer etc... the car is a stunner.

Its a car you take care of, a car you look at evey time you leave the car park, you glance back, you smile, you feel special at the traffic lights in, you get looks from kids, birds and other alfa owners. Its the car you want in your drive.

It's going cheap, you can look it up in the car search to prove its legal and legit: YCZ 5230 I live in Belfast but am willing to make a trip if there is a genuine sale. I need it gone in a few weeks, drop me an email if your interested:

thedesignboy @ gmail.com - ( remove spaces from address, spam)
offers over £6.900

Maffia Night At My Local

2008-01-28T15:02:00.000-08:00

Hi, more video for you fine people. This time in the form of a recap of a church event. I went along as camera man bob for the night, felt a plank, most likely looked one too. But all in all this is what I made, enjoy.

Soprano's theme music 'n all, really pushed the envelope :)

Finished new site

2008-01-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to give my church a big shout with love and niceness. Along with a shiney media team we produced a killer site that really promotes just how how cool God is. Check it out if you have 5 and post up on the forum.

www.teamjvc.org

Jim weir music design

2008-01-23T18:05:00.000-08:00

A mate of mine who works next door to our studio called in a year or so ago and asked to make a CD for him, as you do when its a year away you say 'yes'. I did this and a year later paid the price! Jim is a fantastic guy, his music really clear and powerful - so to put this to press I shot a few mug shots of him on my small fuji camera. As usual they were awful, a bit of photoshop later and we were lit, the job now looks like a pro.

To top it all off, I threw in an ecommerce site for the release for his album (now doing very well I hear) and its available here: www.jimweirmusic.com . Check it out and buy his album, its really cool (honest!).

New effects test for JVC

2008-01-22T18:09:00.000-08:00

As you may or may not know, I am owned by a church in Northern Ireland where I spend my time planning coolness. Our first camera production (45sec long) was an effects scene to blow up the pastors car for a murder night (yes our church is murdering people).

Heres the youtube;

It begins...

2008-01-11T08:37:00.000-08:00

Well here is my first ever post for my own twisted purposes. Well to be honest, not really that twisted. Its basically a blog showing the work that I do each week. I plan to make this my hub for seeing what I actually do with my time on this planet. Im thinking its the best way to keep track of myself before I expire.

Anyways, who is this guy you say? I am the great and powerful OZ! I am the silicone wizard who makes things, from print to screen I really do them all - jack of all trades, master of none. I can dabble at each thing, but never really do any of them well. At least not to the standard I'd like, but maybe thats the way every one is, there is very little people I meet that are happy with the work the do, there is always something that needs done to it that we never do.

I love God, I love my family, I love life. Life is good.
Before I go I just want to say thanks to all my friends, my wife and child that make my world so much more complete. Its cheesy its horrible, but people make a difference. After 28 years on the planet I have finally discovered the importance of relationships - its what you leave with people that makes your mark on the world - not what you do or how you do it. If I happen to die prematurely - then I know that I made a difference in what time I had, I also got to see and do a lot of things that I never thought would happen. For all this and every word I type in this blog for the future I give God the glory for what He has trusted in me, cheers G.

To all my peeps, you know I love you, thanks for hanging in with me over the years.