Delightful Reveal #4
A weekly update on all things Flagrant
Unveiling what’s been rumblin’ in Flagrant’s belly.
What we did
- Met with the CMO of our client to discuss branding timelines and our application’s value proposition
- Discussed an improved Kanban-style workflow for our team using Linear
- Expanded our responsive design/development using mobile ViewComponents.
- Planned for user research. Created a clickable prototype in Balsamiq Cloud. Informed our acceptance criteria via three user research sessions (concept testing)
- Planned for a Flagrant-wide workshop
- Iterated on UI wireframes after a first meeting with users
- Automated the generation, and delivery, of a daily report for a client
- Wireframing out UI for multi tabs and filtering systems that are customizable…very complex system stuff while staying within legacy design patterns.
- Met with freelancer Christine Maggi about possible future collaborations
- Connected with Tanish Singh, Chief of Staff at Mighty Networks, on the power of community focused platforms, difficulties of building an inclusive culture with a fully remote team, and complexities in designing a virtual home base to support member owned co-ops
- Learned how to create issue templates in Github
- Started reaching out to our network to see what other opportunities exist for folks preparing to ramp down on efforts next month
- Built out more process in our sales efforts
- Made peanut butter cookies
- Made a headdress for a Lundi Gras parade costume featuring white beans, fake pearls, giant bubbles, and fake lily pads
- Illustrating a band logo & album cover for the Back Issues (new local Madison Band) and new Madison Reading Project character illustrations for their My First Pages campaign
What we’re reading
- The one thing missing from UX today? Hope by Vivianne Castillo (Fast Company)
- A bunch of stuff about Erlang and Elixir
- The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks (The StoryGraph)
- High Variance Management (sbensu.com)
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (The StoryGraph)
- Killer Mastodon thread on the Netflix login changes: (also available here)
- GROUNDHOG-DAY.com
What we’re listening to
- “King Hokum” and “Gon’ Boogaloo” albums by C. W. Stoneking
- “American Utopia” by David Byrne
- Daft Punk’s Tron Soundtrack for all the deep thoughts
- Christine and the Queens - à la clairefontaine (Lyric Video)
- Boards of Canada’s “Tomorrow’s Harvest”
- 2000’s Pop Punk
- Janelle Monae
- Music to Calm Your Canine by Through a Dog’s Ear
- 8-bit Dub Step playlist
- Party Dog ft. Ernie thee Corgi (Music Video) - Tom Cardy
- You’re Wrong About : Karen Carpenter
What we’re interested in
- Videogame: God of War: Ragnarok
- Videogame: Diablo IV
- Boardgame: Dune
- Boardgame: Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
- A Mindfulness Exercise to Calm Your Emotions
- Zach Bush 4 minute workout
- Aura Bora’s strawberry cursor trails
- Cooking with School of Wok
- Narvik: Hitler’s First Defeat
- Season 4 of The Great Pottery Throwdown
What we’re buying
- King cake
- Banana dog
- Wool sweaters for dogs. Pit bulls get chilly in Wisconsin in the winter.
- Supplements to support mental health
- Tiny Tree Houses - FYI Kelly watercolor’d the surfaces as she built it. Takes around 2-3 hours of build time and helps if you grew up doing lego builds. The instructions are similar. I found this out because I built one with a friend who did not and she super struggled building it.
What we’re struggling with
- Sleep
- Unlearning feeling guilty about taking care of yourself and shedding our previous hang up on capitalistic values - sharing mental health issues openly to create more empathy cross team and build it as a safe topic in our culture
- Having a beagle/husky mix who doesn’t mind the -10ºF wind chill
- Overhead lighting that makes your face look red
- Making tiny motions that tire out the tiny muscles in our shoulders during physical therapy (ouch)
- Paper forms and mail in process vs online form submitting
- Building UI for Tables/Tabs…and make it usable and look good - shit is HARD
- Balsamiq
What we’re celebrating
- Balsamiq
- New Tiger Team is assembling!
- My mom, who owns a coffee shop, got a new espresso machine (old one broke). They are now able to froth oat milk
- Warmer weather - in the near future… (Wisconsin optimism)
- Colder weather - starting today (Florida/Louisiana problems)
- Starting up therapy again!
If you’re looking for a team to help you discover the right thing to build and help you build it, get in touch.
Published on February 6, 2023