avatar

Matth-ijs.nl

Blog of a nerdy designer

Hugo import Jekyll

This blog used to run on Jekyll. I was quite happy with that, until some kind of Ruby change meant Jekyll stopped running and I got into an arms race with Ruby versions. Jekyll needs Ruby A.64, the gems for Jekyll need Ruby B.85, the gem-updater won’t work with Ruby A.64, OSX ships with a different Ruby, Linux on the server yet another… Added to that, my theme used gulp as a task runner and needed lots of npm modules.

Yearly Review 2023

Stepping into a new world. The world of Freelance Last year’s theme was “everything, everywhere and all at once”, and I asked myself: I started many more projects than I finished: will 2023 will be a year of wrapping up this undirected energy? And it’s safe to say: no, I did not wrap up projects. I (again) started many more than I could finish. Still, 2023 has a very different feel than 2022.

Video did not kill the radio star (AI will not replace all human artists)

There’s a lot of talk about AI’s impact on artists. Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Dall-E, ChatGPT, they are already taking over and this is just the beginning. I don’t think so. An AI can make beautiful images, but these images do not have the same worth (in the eye of humans) as does real art. I can frame a print of the Mona Lisa and hang it in my living room. It will look amazing.

Start working on my Easter Puzzle!

Welcome to this year’s easter puzzle! This crypto puzzle is super-sweet and is all about our favorite sugary treats! It can be candy, desserts, ice cream or sugary-drinks. Think gummy bears, snickers, pop tarts, cookies, brownies, lemonade… I hope you brushed your teeth because the glazing is going to get some action! Solving these cryptograms can be as easy as saying what you see out loud, but some may take more time.

Apple versus Spotify and Netflix: who wins on quality?

This week we bought an Apple TV. It complements our Chromecast: now we can buy the movies we want to watch on iTunes if they are not on Netflix. But this blog post is not about the machine: it’s about the attention to quality of the Apple services. I got a couple months of “free” services (LOL, I paid that with the ridiculous profitmargin on the physical product): two months for Music and three months for TV+.

Yearly review: 2022

At the beginning of every new year, I take a look back at what happened in the year before. I don’t write this article for other people (although nearly 80 people read my review last year), but for myself. It’s writing-therapy. These yearly reviews are a way to reflect and learn, but also a ‘congratulations’ to myself. I often get the feeling that I didn’t accomplish anything, and with my yearly review I realize that my years are actually quite action packed.

New Rijswijk Talent Award: theme transition

Two years ago, I participated in the first edition of the Rijswijk Talent Award. It was a great experience. I got challenged to do something new, and got a lot of recognition for it (I won!). This year there was a new edition, and of course I couldn’t resist participating and even my daughter entered the competition! Transition 🔗The theme this year was “transition”, which I found quite challenging. The concept is very vague and difficult to grasp, and at the same time applicable to nearly everything.

Usability testing a mobile app remotely: 4 simple methods

So you have a mobile app that you want to test with your target audience. Problem is, you are “here” and they are “there”. Remote usability testing is an outcome, but how to do this with a mobile app? For all methods below, it’s necessary to have a testplan and participants. The GoogleVentures Research Sprint has great resources to get you started. 1. A regular video call 🔗The simplest and cheapest way to test a mobile app is to schedule a video call with your participants on their desktop or laptop.

Make your research reusable: the information library for UX Research

Of course, it’s great that you already store the results of your research in a place where others can find them. A folder of reports (in Sharepoint), a wiki (like Notion or Confluence), or maybe even a dedicated research repository (like Dovetail, Reveall, or EnjoyHQ). Sharing your findings in such a way will help in making your conclusions more accessible. But does it help you as a researcher? Diving into our information library (image by me, in collaboration with Dall-E)

Enjoy a puzzle for Easter!

Me hardcore puzzling Wet from snow we arrive at my parents’ house. “You’re here!”, my mom shouts. “Come in, your brother’s also just arrived”. I see him hunched over the table, looking at the newspaper, “I already have five”, he says with a smile. I wave to my dad and join my brother. “What’s the theme this year?”, I ask. It’s Christmas time. It’s puzzle time. Every year the local newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden publishes a Christmas puzzle with cryptic images.