Another set of weeknotes, another glorious chance to write up how it’s gone.

Started rough, got busy, and ended on fire - this is how I like my weeks to end.

Work-wise, we are running into stumbling blocks, mostly around my workload and the time it takes to make “good” design decisions, the to-do list grows by the day, and inheriting a design system that is short of mobile-sized designs is now costing us going forward (and no dark-mode process).
Every designer will tell you, it’s not easy to work on a desktop first and trying to explain what mobile will look like while the other work is piling up in the background is no mean-feat - especially when I am one designer with a team of waiting developers. So, it’s time to plan, prioritise a sprint devoted to mobile designs, usually I would lead by designing components, but this is a pre-made UI, and the site is led by patterns (I know, that doesn’t really make sense, but delivery overpowers normal process) and it’s more around making sense of it in a border-fashion than anything else.

So far, midway through it, it’s happening much quicker than I expected. I am asking myself two questions:

Is it experience?
Is it a must to work fast not to stop workflow?

The answer lies somewhere between both I’d imagine, it’s the kind of chase I like to work with, give me problems, give me deadlines and I’ll give you solutions. I will admit, leaning on 17 years of design (and designing design systems for some pretty big hitters with huge design requirements) means I can pretty much work out and implement what would be ideal, how it would work, and how it could be whipped up pretty snappy.

Working with developers also means I can lean on my past 12ish years of being a developer (the last 5 have been exclusively designing), this allows me to group tickets in JIRA (yep, you read that right, a designer who doesn’t mind JIRA) in a rough order or build that can help support the build, the mighty build, this has helped hugely on what design I churn out when the value is user needs, business needs and delivery requirements (time).

Life-check: This week has been a tough one, personally and work-wise. Had to take some leave due to family things, and these came at short notice and put pressure on me to deliver things at work (self-made pressure) and carry on as normal at home - school runs, nursery, endless swimming lessons, and a very poorly wife, it’s just been a tough one.
The shine is shining more and more each day - but damn, I do not fancy going through that again, I work best in a team not solo!

What am I looking forward to: Friends, the design I’ve been waiting for has arrived and.. my wife is my client - wish me luck, wish her luck and wish our life long happiness luck.
This is one client I can’t sack, but could she sack the designer?

Frank MF Skinner is on Saturday - YES.

Watch of the week
I saw a trailer that has perked interest - Mickey 17.
THEN I saw its not out till bloody January!