I thought I would take a minute to write down some of the basic things you can do when taking a creative idea through the development process to completion. I am going to be relating these concepts to web projects, but they apply to almost any creative endeavor. These are some basic concepts I have picked up over the years spent doing Web Design and Development, and they have worked well for me.
There will be much more to come about where we started, where we are going, who we want to take along with us and the purpose of this Blog. But for now I am going to address an amazing process that occurs about once a quarter around here at Utah Web Services. My techs seem to all want together and shoot at each other. No not paint balls, lasers or heaven forbid some sort of strange reality street deal. No, they network 15 laptops, desktops, notebooks and about anything they can connect together and play computer war games!! All night. You would think a bunch of really bright and just slightly strange guys would not want to be around a computer after having been in front of one all day.
The evening goes something like this. About a month in advance they begin planning the evening. Then they begin dreaming about the fun they will have in their tournament, then they try to convince their wives and girlfriends that this is really a wholesome and non threatening way to spend the evening away from them. Once they have pleaded, begged and bribed their significant others into a often times guarded approval to go, they are off with sleeping bags in hand and a large quantity of junk food and all of the power backups they can carry, just in case.
The evening must be fun as they team up and try to eliminate each other playing Unreal Tournament 2004 or Enemy Territory. As the boss around here I am always amazed at how these guys spend their “down time”. They are continually doing something online learning, researching, exploring or just trying to find out how somebody did something.
Even though I don’t understand the mentality completely, I am absolutely supportive of these very talented designers, graphic artists and SEO specialists, programmers and database guys enjoying something so much. I don’t worry about them in bars, calling me in the middle of the night to bail them out of jail or finding themselves in Las Vegas married to someone they don’t know. Just a fun evening for guys that love to let loose once in a while in their own way.