US:
Small interactive design agency specializing in forward-thinking solutions, specifically in the mobile/social realm,
to help our clients engage their audience in new and exciting ways. We’re also incredibly passionate about what we do,
and we bring that passion to every aspect of our work.

YOU:
Keen eye for design and design translation across multiple platforms.
A strong passion for digital creative.
Experience with all things Mobile and the desire to learn as this medium evolves.
Experience leading other creatives or working closely with a group of creatives.
Background in the development/coding process (actual development skills a HUGE bonus, but not required).
3-5 years experience in the interactive/digital industry.
Strong communication skills.
Self-Motivated.
Team oriented, willing to work in a highly collaborative/flexible environment.
Appreciate the ancient art of Karaoke.

All interested individuals should email a copy of their resume (PDF is always nice) and a link to their Website* to jobs [at] sevnthsin.com
We will contact you to arrange an interview time, please do not email more than once.
Please no phone calls.
Do not “pop-in” †

* Website absolutely necesary.

MORE: HTTP://JOBS.SEVNTHSIN.COM

http://jobs.sevnthsin.com

While the site is currently a little slim on info (like the unfortunate lack of contact info), they’ve laid out the co-working vision for 4 personas.

My initial reaction is cautious optimism.

While their ‘What does it include’ list thankfully doesn’t include Herman Miller furnishings, it’s still 3x longer than necessary and lists items already accommodated by each of the 4 personas already (PC workstations, phones).

In addition, there are a number of reasons work clubs don’t already exist (rent is expensive, my home office is comfortable, the public library is free, etc).

The third workplace is inherently a transitional place – a place to go until. Until the home office is renovated. Until the go-to-the-office habit is kicked.

That said, the big win for a network of places described by the WorkSpace3 vision may be for corporations that want to save pile of money on real estate costs. They send their employees home, put the corporate campus up for sale, and make mini-satellite offices available for their newly nomadic workforce.

The big need locally is a place with:

• Good WiFi
• Good Coffee, Beer, and Wine
• Good Food
• Space to comfortably hold 150-200 people
• Lots of different sized rooms for meetings of different sizes (1+ telephone, 2-6, 10-20)

This place would quickly become the hub of not only the mobile worker community, but a fully functioning 3rd place in the community. It’s also the place we’re constantly looking for to host un-conferences.

A couple years back I wrote about work clubs at my other blog.

In my decade of experience, a website isn’t real to clients until they see some pictures, sketches, something, anything. With this in mind, my goal is to provide initial wireframes (black and white skeletons of the website) earlier rather than later. Something that represents current thinking, grounds the conversation, and provides a malleable vision. Without a visual artifact conversations quickly fly into the ether, and you quickly spend cycles speculating what do build when you should be building. I talked about this need on my other blog.

The most productive meetings are where the visual artifact or prototype is revised in real time, rather than capturing changes in notes. This gives clients something to digest immediately that represents current thinking. No waiting, and no “homework”. There’s a point where the project team runs out of information – even with a prototype. When you reach that point, stop revising and get more information or move to the next stage of development. Again, don’t spin cycles speculating – while wireframes are cheap, changing and changing back and back again is demoralizing.

Ben’s reminder that “The interface is the product” needs to be taken to heart by information architects and interaction designers as well. Wireframes and flows are not a web application – they’re a communication tool, a conversation starter. To me, using them as anything more is mistaking a tree for the forest.

A client this morning referred to me as “Santa” – because they tell me all their wishes for their app and I return with a nicely packaged interface. Fits perfect – the metaphor, not the suit.

CoWorking.Info is aggregating info about worldwide coworking efforts. I see Madison, Chicago, and Milwaukee, but not us.

Bueller?

ELSEWHERE:
Ben Edwards unpacks the need for an open source office space and Justin Grammens started the coworking minneapolis wiki. Thank you both.

I think all meetings should produce some moving-the-project-forward artifact – new team member tryouts (the thing formerly known as a job interview) included.

Seth Godin sketches out a strategy for making this work:

“There are no one-on-one-sit-in-my-office-and-let’s-talk interviews. Boom, you just saved 7 hours per interview. Instead, spend those seven hours actually doing the work. Put the person on a team and have a brainstorming session, or design a widget or make some espressos together…If the person is really great, hire them. For a weekend. Pay them to spend another 20 hours pushing their way through something…”

The gist is – dedicate a pre-determined amount of time to a single problem, and you’ll be surprised at the results.

Now, take a framework like Ruby on Rails, and a reasonably experienced team of 3-5 people, covering visual design, CSS, and programming and give them a decent-sized web app project and leave them alone. I suspect you’d be surprised at the productivity.

Let’s say $5,000 bought this team’s focus for 1 day.

Seems to me, with the right projects and clients this web design A-Team could build some pretty amazing stuff and have plenty of time to train.

I caught the MN-ASIS conversation with Jerry Baldwin on Library ROI tonight.

Jerry’s spent the past 30 years in the Minnesota Department of Transportation Library and he shared some intriguing numbers on the value of a good librarian. Not news to a fan of the classic Tracy and Hepburn flick Deskset, but good numbers.

• Average value created by someone reading a requested article: $600
• Average hours saved by librarian handling request: 1-2
• Average hours saved by librarian handling in-depth analysis: 8-16

Even in these 3 points, it’s easy to see the value of having someone focus on an organization’s information needs. When Jerry pulled together his numbers, the library cost $700,000/year to maintain. Yet, the aggregate value added was more than $8 million. More than 10:1 in favor of librarians.

With more information published than ever before, the need for better information filters and organizers (librarians) actually increases.

Here I am at home. I am working. It is a blizzard outside, but I’m here toasty in my comfortable clothes. I didn’t have to go out on a day that was very unappealing to tackle.

Garrick predicted for 2005

“Good Bye Desk, Hello Starbucks”
You already have a mobile phone, a webmail account, and an instant messaging account. The chances of you replacing your 5 year old desktop computer with a laptop and wireless card is 99%. All the tools you need to work are mobile now. Feel more productive on your couch at home? work from there. Feel more comfortable at the coffee shop on the corner? Perfect, besides, meetings are far more enjoyable there.”

So as well as the benefits of staying home on a truly wintery day in Minnesota I can go out too. I can go to anyplace that has a high speed internet connection and work. I can meet my friends and work from coffee shops. I can travel and still be working. No need to take vacation time for travel, just go and work. I still have the option of plenty of vacation time, but this extends my abilities to be anywhere and still working.

Why should I be tied to a physical location? My employer doesn’t think it’s necessary. I’m trusted and valued and that just makes me want to work harder for them. Good thinking on their part. Treat people like adults and trust them. Let people create their own schedules and trust them to choose the equipment that works best for them.

I’ve always said that you need the right tools to be really good. If you don’t have the right tools it just makes it that much harder.

Trust your workforce and they will do great things for you. I have freedom to work anywhere. I am a nomad of the work day. I am not a slave to casual Fridays.

Once this gets out, everyone will want to do it. That’s why I think Garrick’s right. Hello Starbuck’s!

I recently learned of an SFTP app that is actually a joy to use. I come from a Windows background so when I “switched” (re-converted actually) to the Mac, I didn’t care much for Fetch and ended up using MacSFTP. The little app that I found is named Fugu. It’s handling of bookmarks is not initially intuitive but once you learn how they are implemented, it works really nice.

Finally, are there any decent financial apps for the Mac? I use Quicken 2004 and it is about as poorly designed as Notes. Unfortunately, Quicken 2005 looks like more of the same.