Yahoo! Finance is listed as no 2, after wikipedia, for the list compiled by Time.com called Sites We Can’t Live Without.

Naturally, this kind of recognition is very encouraging for me as one of the designers for this property.

What can one say to this? Only one word: “BBBBBBBOOOOO YEAHHHH!!!”

Excerpt from that article:

For all the criticism about Yahoo!’s failure to innovate, its finance site showcases the best of what the company has to offer.

Go check it out at Y! Finance.

People who have been using the flash/interactive chart get this version starting last week.

If you’re not one of those cool people, you need to switch to it by clicking on the link that says “Try Interactive Charts” on the chart page or the “Interactive” link on the left nav.

I’m curious to hear what YOU think about this change.

AOL recently unveiled its new home page (in beta).

As covered in Techcrunch, it’s a very close copy to Yahoo!’s portal.

The conversation that’s been going on basically either say “AOL sucks, here’s the proof” or “Yahoo copied AOL first!”.

I think copying is one thing, but copying midlessly is another. Let’s face it, there’s almost nothing original anymore.

Why try to reinvent the wheel when you can build on top of someone else’s success?

That’s the key: Don’t just clone someone else’s solution, learn from it, and improve it. That’s the difference between making a progress and being a follower.

It shouldn't take long for any designer to realize that his role in any project is to make something looks pretty. 

Designers are communicator and influencer. What we create affect the lives of our audience.  We change their behavior, their perception or even their ideology. 

Those are great things that I, as a naive young design student, thought I would do for the rest of my life…then reality hit me: design always has a purpose and that purpose often times is defined by the business side of it. 

Over the years I started to try to do great and grandeous things less and less. Why bother? It'll never come to life since those dumb business people cannot see my vision.

Is it really their fault though?

If I can't convince them of the great ideas that I have, there are few possibilities:

1. They're dumb
2. The idea is not that great after all
3. The idea is great, but I don't do justice to it in communicating it

It's always easier to blame others when things don't go our way, but blame game is never productive.

I need to do my part of keep on dreaming, believe in my dreams, develop them and present them well. If after all these, the business people still don't buy it, at least I'll know that it's not my fault.

Recently, the major theme that keeps coming up in my professional life is the need/importance of having unified vision in every project.

I used to think that imparting the vision for a project is the job of the team leader or project manager who runs the show, but what if the person who is in charge of the project lacks vision?

In the past, when this happens, I take on the defensive position of doing what I should and have evidence for it so I can have my ass covered when things don't go so well, and most of the times in this kind of situation, things don't go very well because everyone just tries to go after his/her own goal. 

More and more I start to think that perhaps I could leverage my skill and ability as a visual ommunicator to help the team to see a unified vision and work as one. 

"I am a sincere believer in the idea that miscommunication and mistakes are evidence that you are doing something. Especially when you are doing both. Doing something right is highly unlikely. Thus doing something wrong is almost usually guaranteed. If you don't do anything at all, in the short term you win because you do nothing wrong. Which immediately looks better as compared to the person that's messing up all the time because they're trying to get something done for the first time."  -John Maeda

the above is an excerpt from John Maeda's blog titled "Setup for failure = setup for success ". 

Last night, on my flight back from New York, I tuned in to an episode of Inside the Actor's Studio with martin lawrence as  the guest actor.

Towards the end of the show, a first year acting student asked martin for something to motivate her to keep on going despite of all the rejections that she received.

Martin responded by saying that you can have 10,000 failures and have the 10,001th opportunity to be your  big break. You have to be destined to prove your critics wrong.

From the same blog entry, John Maeda says:

"Having good luck is proof that you're iterating over and over and over and because you're failing so much, your potential for success increases."

In conclusion, we should take comfort in knowing that we're going forward; not in the situation we're at. Look inside and ask ourselves if we're advancing in our personal journey.

A challenge:

How can I show my love and passion in my design, have fun in the process of designing and allow users to experience all these in the end product? 

"I just refuse to take offense," she said. Then she explained, "If a person is stupid or ignorant, it's his problem, but if  I let his stupidity offend me, it becomes my problem." I overheard this at a coffee shop last weekend.

We can't control how other people act and behave, but we can control how we respond to their action or behavior.

Just drop it.

This is also true in dealing with critics, clients or supervisors.

Whatever they say or do (or don't do), you're in control over your own feeling. You always have a choice on how to respond to what they throw at you. Evaluate yourself and take any valuable input that could build you up, but make sure that you don't let any negative emotion slow you down.

Refuse to take offense. Keep on running.