Author Archives: Nik Fuller

05.03.13
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Graduation: Light at the End of the Proverbial Tunnel

I wrote this blog post in early February of this year, 2/5 to be exact. And as I look back at all the unfinished blog posts that never see the light of the “Publish” button, I felt this one is the most relevant considering graduation is in 8 days and I took my last test of my undergrad last night. It was open note and we had all the questions and answers ahead of time. No complaints here.

Since writing the post below I have found a full-time job and have started packing up my belongings. I will start with Accenture as a technology consulting analyst in the fall (date is still tbd) and will move to Lenox Park with the lovely Connie next week, leaving GSU behind. My summer plans involve working part-time and playing golf every Friday morning; trying to prepare for the C-suite life style. And, hopefully, more than a few Braves games.

I, thankfully and unknowingly, networked the heck out of college. I have made so many great contacts and even greater friends here. Georgia State may not have been my first or second choice but it was the right choice. I even got in the school newspaper for the final edition of the year! Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you’re looking for a job orwant to grab lunch or want to play golf on a Friday morning this summer. I’ll be playing at one of these courses. Seriously. I need someone to play with.

Below is the aforementioned blog post:

I can see it! After four quick years at college, this undergraduate journey is nearly complete. As I type this I’m debating whether or not to email my corporate recruiter about my search for full-time employment. The email is even called, ‘Full time job search’.

Man. Can you believe this? On May 11th, I’ll be standing up with 6,000 of my closest friends/acquaintances/strangers/creepers and moving that tassel on the cardboard-structured cap for another time. Man, that’s crazy. College has been great. I realize I’ve been fortunate to have this opportunity and I’d be crazy not to have jumped on it. I am even more fortunate to have surrounded myself with a solid group of friends. My personal motto is ”you are who you hang out with” and in my case I’m going to be too smart for my own good and playing awesome golf.

I’ve always enjoyed my time in school and these past four years are no different. I’ve experienced so many different cultures and ideologies at Georgia State, it’s crazy. With a school this large (33k+) and this diverse, it’s hard not for it to have an impact on you as a person. I mean who would have thought four years ago I’d be wearing business casual on a regular basis. Four years ago I didn’t own a single polo and now I order custom fit dress shirts.lol. Just thinking about that made me laugh.

I may not be graduating with a 4.0 or going to law school next semester but that’s ok. I have friends who are so I’m not too worried about my legal future. An MBA may be in my future (4-5 years) but outside of that I think I’ll soak up as much IT and business knowledge as my little brain can handle.

I briefly, very briefly, thought about summarizing all the major events of my college experience but thankfully realized that was a dumb idea. I wouldn’t read it so why should you. But I will say this: On move in day a new door opened up before me; on graduation day a whole new world will open up and it’s ripe for the taking.

P.S. I just sent that email.

05.02.13
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Check out the story I’m featured in!

Check out the story I’m featured in!

I contacted the Georgia State Signal, our student run campus paper, and asked them to look into a story.  I became fed up with the “career fairs” on campus and wanted my opinion to be voiced. After speaking with one of the editors at the paper they decided to pursue the story. I think they did a fine job expressing the main idea of my frustrations. With the exception of the one spelling mistake of my name in the infographic, I’m very happy with the end results.

Have a look and let me know your thoughts!

03.06.13
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The Current and Future State of Advertising

In my strategic management class we were “discussing” Google and its competitors. I put “discussing” in quotes because it was really the teacher and two other students who had read the case study but none of them understood the points they were trying to make. Class that day was equivalent to pulling teeth for a first year dental student. It was painful for everyone involved.

According to the “discussion”, Google makes 97% of its revenue from its ads platform. The point of the “discussion” was whether Google should continue to stay down this path or if it should pursue other areas of revenue more aggressively. My teacher expressed a point of view that I disagree with but held my tongue during class. I tend to challenge his and other’s point of views during class and figured this wasn’t worth another class “discussion”.

My teacher, we’ll call him Josh since that’s his name, thinks the future will have less advertising. He thinks there is already a downward trend in online advertising and that will continue, thus hurting Google’s bottom line. This is where Josh and I disagree. I think advertising is not on the decline but actually increasing. Yes, this is my opinion hence why this is on my blog. And the reason Josh thinks it’s on the decline, (since he presented no numbers to support his claim I will assume he does not have any, same as I), stems from how integrated advertising blends with our lives. He doesn’t notice how intertwined advertising really is with our daily lives.

Let’s take a step back and look at the current product landscape. Sitting at my desk I can think of three major examples at how integrated ads have become part of our lives.

  1. In-app ads:
  • After every round of Temple Run I play on my girlfriend’s phone (Windows Phone still doesn’t have it) I am presented with an ad. A nice little X on the top right-hand corner allows me to close the ad and return to fleeing from some strange gorilla monster. I pay no attention to how this app is throwing an obvious advertisement in my face post-success run. Normally, I would be furious if some marketer bought the time after I successfully ran away from giant monster and ruined my celebration but I am not. I don’t bat an eye. It’s just the norm now. I’ve come to expect it. And it allows me to play the game for free.

2. Kindle:

  • Amazon sells a version of the Kindle with ads. It’s not a based on the Freemium model. It functions 100% as a Kindle without ads works. Users can download books to their device and check out books if they have Amazon Prime. The whole shebang. When the device is just sitting there on the bed a nice, unobtrusive ad appears. All this saves the consumer money on the device and Amazon easily makes up for the difference on ad revenue.

3. Indian cell phone plans

  • In India they have a different structure for their phone plans than what we have here in the States. Many companies charge little or even nothing for text messaging. In exchange for the steep discount, users allow the company to send them targeted text messaging advertisements. I don’t have specific numbers but this blog says 40% of urban Indians get this service with about a 12% conversion rate on those ads. Seeing as companies can offer text messaging for practically nothing today, they’re making money a good chunk of change by throwing in ads. This saves consumers on their monthly bill and providers make up the difference.

Have you noticed a pattern yet?

If consumers are willing to give up their screen space for a few seconds then we save money. Products allow us the ability to pay less for a device or service we already want in exchange for allowing to run ads when the product is not in use. I imagine we’d be far more annoyed with an in-app ad if it were to appear mid-turn as I am jumping onto a rope in level 13 (if there’s such a place; I’ve never made it that far). But that’s not the case. Presented at the right time and place, consumers willingly accept product placements if they benefit from it somehow. I tend to be a big fan of my wallet being fat, so of course I will let you run some ads on my device when I am not using in exchange for keeping my wallet on the porky side.

I don’t know what the future looks like but let me guess (or hope). Gentlemen, imagine watching TV at home and never seeing those awkward tampon commercials again. Gosh. I would pay someone to not subject me to those ever again. But maybe they’ll pay me? The next TV you buy could (read: should) come at a discount if I allow the cable company to anonymously know my basic demographics: age, income, occupation, location, maybe even interests. These targeted ads benefit the consumer because they don’t waste my time with cat litter commercials since I’m a dog person. It benefits the service provider with better data to provide potential marketers with. A lot of this would be made more accessible if we switched from an always-on cable market to a demand-driven cable market. I pay for a subscription to a content provider or a TV show and then give me ads that I may actually like and end up paying. We don’t have to live in a one-size-fits-all world any more. We have the data to live in a this-fits-me-and-no-one-else world.

Other places I can see these integrated ads in:

  • My phone screen saver – give me five dollars off my monthly plan and I’ll allow you to put ads as my screen saver. Saves me money and gets you more ad revenue.
  • Idle TV screens – When I’m not watching TV feel free to throw a silent ad up there. It’d work just like a Kindle.
  • Digital picture frame – Feel free to rotate an in every 10 pictures in exchange for a discounted price on the digital picture frame.

The initial “discussion” from class warrants a whole different blog post.

What do you think of this concept? Am I completely off? Where can you envision ads in the future? Let me know in the comments below!

02.25.13
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Surface Pro: A glimpse to the future

 

As a late Christmas present I was gifted a Surface Pro 128 GB with a blue touch cover. Plagued with a rather suspicious launch, considered by many to be a ploy to drum up excitement, I was forced to wait for my chance to hand Microsoft my money until yesterday, Sunday February 24th - a day I will tell my children about. I whole-heartedly believe the future is in mobile and the mobile workforce. I believe the future workforce AND the future consumer will look towards these all-in-one devices to be their primary systems. Of course there are exceptions but I’ll let you point those out in the comments below. I figured I might as well practice what I preach (to myself) and see what the future is all about. And man, it’s awesome!

This post won’t touch much on Windows 8 and how beautiful it is or how flexible it is. You can find that on my friend’s blog (http://kireetnimmagadda.com/post/35825117284). It also will not be about the device specs or some elaborate testing scenario created to quantify some opinions. This is intended to describe the unquantifiable. I want to describe the feeling you get from using one of these machines. Expect a completely skewed view throughout this post but hopefully I can skew your views a little too.

So, why the Surface Pro? Why not an ultrabook or some other device? Well, I have a few reasons. But the major one is that I, as alluded to before, really do believe this is the future of productivity. In my time in corporate America I’ve had the chance to test out different tablet form factors and use cases. In the end, nothing really stuck with me until the announcement of Windows 8 Pro and the Surface. A blend of both the mobile app economy and the dominated desktop app world, just makes common sense. Why shouldn’t I be able to leverage everything that’s been great about the past 20 plus years of computing and marry it with the ultimate trophy wife of mobile computing? A laptop with a touch screen or a tablet with a huge screen just doesn’t tick all my boxes. They may be the best at what they do: the fastest and lightest laptop, the coolest and hippest tablet. But that’s all they are. There’s no connection between two. In the end I’m stuck monitoring, updating, and switching between two different ecosystems. My travel bag gets that much heavier when I am out the road. The Surface Pro allows me to meld those two distinct worlds into one universe. As of this writing, there’s nothing to my knowledge that can do this yet. And I am willing to live with the tradeoffs of 2mm thicker and .5lbs heavier. The technology to get faster and thinner and lighter is on its way but right now this is the bee’s knees. This is that Asian piano kid from School of Rock and I’m Jack Black. He has the potential to be great but all he needs is a little bit of encourage, support and faith and he’ll turn into a rock star. A really productive rock star with a lot of cool apps and sweet accessories. (Wonder what happened to that kid.)

To answer some general questions about my experience with the device so far:

  • Battery life is decent. About 5 hours of use. Whole day-ish if you use it for some light browsing and simple Word docs and sleep it the rest of the time. Nothing ground breaking but you already knew that.
  • Pen is really sturdy and attaches nicely to the device for storage. Wish it could be attached to the power brick when the device is charging. Wouldn’t want to lose it then.
  • Touch cover just amazes me. I’ve written this whole review on it and the thing just flies. It definitely takes a few hours to get used to and that’s mainly a mental thing. If you set your hands on it as a normal keyboard and type on it as a normal keyboard it will function as a normal keyboard. I tend to put more weight on the D key when my hands are at rest. Just an observation.
  • App selection is limited – blah blah blah.

To describe some general plans I have for the device:

  • I want to install Steam and use it for some casual gaming. I plan to travel a lot this coming year and would love to kill some plane time by playing an RPG or an FPS of some sort. I’m new to the PC gaming world so any suggestions would be welcomed.
  • This became my primary device as of last night. I’ll take all the necessary docs off my old laptop and put them here. I hope to never buy a laptop again. My old laptop will turn into some sort of DVR or in-home server.
  • I’m excited because I can manage my phone from here too.

So what should you take away from this blog? Some may say I am Widows fan boy and wouldn’t know up from down but the real reason I have committed to these platforms is because I see growth. I see a break from the big two: Android/Google and iOS/Apple. The more competition the better the consumer fairs. If we all adopt one platform, then innovation dies and our wallets shrink. So really you should thank me for my purchase and buy me lunch with all that saved money I’ve saved you years from now.

Written entirely on a Type Cover (Blue).

Questions/Comments/Concerns? There’s a little comment section, feel free to use it!

12.05.12
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My Career: What I’m Up To

Come Monday I will have made my ‘biggest’ career move yet. I put the word ‘biggest’ in quotes because it is still an internship. I’ll still be an hourly wage earner. But I will be in a new internship, with a new manager, in a new environment, with a new group of coworkers, working on different projects than anything I’ve done in the past year and a half while staying within the same company. I thought about putting ‘career’ in quotes but purposely chose not to. I may be an intern but I am definitely choosing my future career. This foggy, hazy thing called a career path becomes clearer with every step and that’s a big deal for someone my age.

[I'll talk about two different internships. The old internship is the one I have been at for a year and a half and will be leaving. I recently started the new internship.]

The past year and half has been great. I have had the opportunity to learn some technical skills, develop my interpersonal skills, grow my professional network, and actually leave a mark on the company I plan to stay with. Plus the CIO and CTO know me by name. The CTO even took me to lunch last month.

Old internship:

My official title for the old internship was: IT Co-Op: CTO Office. Here I worked as a SharePoint and Salesforce.com admin. I owned and managed a number of sites for members for the CTO office, providing senior level managers with needed SharePoint support. (SharePoint Foundation 2010 for those wondering. Nothing fancy but still SharePoint.) I admin’d a few object/things on the Force.com platform as well.

My manager was in charge of Research & Strategy for corporate. This means he provided research for the different business units, enabling them to make necessary business decisions. I contributed to the research efforts by gathering as much information on the web, summarizing, and providing it to my manager. He would then combine it with his own research and present it to the business.

The position also allowed me to experiment (read: play) with different tablets and their form factors. IT in Corporate America is very interested in how mobile devices will play a part in the future enterprise landscape. I would often be given a device, most likely running Windows 7, and would document its different features and create tutorial videos for non-tech users to easily understand how it works. (Ex: where the power button is, what these buttons do, how to turn on the camera, etc.) Always the envy of my fellow interns, I will be sad to leave that part of the job.

“So why the change? Sounds like it’s a pretty sweet gig. I mean, you get to play with tablets all day.” – You may be thinking

Great thoughts. Glad you asked. I asked myself the same thing last summer.

How I got here:

Sometimes I like to throw my resume out to a couple of interesting sounding jobs and just see who bites. Well, May of this year SunTrust bit. Pretty hard too. They offered me a ten week summer internship, 40 hrs/week and a huge pay increase to work on a summer team project I personally could finish in about two weeks max. So what did I do? I told my manager. I told him my predicament and asked for his advice. He made some very valid points and then he did something I wouldn’t have expected: he offered to find me a different internship within the company. I gladly accepted. Why leave a company where, most importantly, managers know and see the value I bring to the company, where I’m comfortable and enjoy the culture, and fit in. Plus, I would have no income once the summer internship ends. And like my manager promised, he helped me find a couple of potential internships within the company. I actually interviewed these managers to see what they were looking for and what kind of work the position did. Kind of fun.

After finding my replacement, a rather lengthy process, I bring you to present day. Thursday afternoon my stuff will be moved to the twelfth floor to an entirely different division. By Monday I plan to be settled into my new cube and breathing air seven floors higher than what my lungs have been used to for the past year and half.

“So what will you be doing?” – You might be thinking

Jeeze, calm down. I can only type so fast.

New internship:

I think my new official title is: Rollstock Optimization Analyst. I’ll have multiple roles, but the one addressed in my title involves saving box plants money. Analyzing data I pull, developing a solution, and presenting the findings to my manager and, hopefully, the client. I will also be in a programming position, something I have no experience with besides a painful winter internship at my parents’ company. I will be able to fully apply the lessons I learned throughout my CIS career at Georgia State, a top 10 program in the country.

Summary:

I am extremely excited to be in a position where I can think analytically, provide a quantifiable service to a company, interact with clients, and grow and learn both professionally and personally. The quantifiable part is important because I can leverage the amount of savings I helped generate come May when I need a full-time job. Who doesn’t like saving money? Besides that baby in the Jimmy Fallon commercial.

Welp, that’s pretty much what’s going on for me career-wise. Life’s good, school’s good. Graduation on May 11, 2013.

11.04.12
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Herman Ernest Kuck: Life Story

Below is the speech I wrote for my late grandfather’s funeral on 11/2/2012. He passed on 10/30/2012. It was given by myself and my two cousins, Ashley and Casey Kuck.

Good morning. On behalf of all the grandchildren, we’d like to thank you for celebrating Poppy’s life with us. In a few short words, he was witty, friendly, and quick to compliment. Always with a smile on his face, Poppy brought joy to all who had the privilege to engage with him.

In 1935, Poppy was born to German immigrant parents in Manhattan, New York. He spoke only German until grade school where he learned his New York style English. His high school years were spent in a military boarding school in Bordentown, New Jersey. Shortly after graduating high school Poppy joined the US Army and served in Germany during the Korean War. He was an expert marksman and even had the chance to carry the bazooka.

After the Army, Poppy worked in New York City’s China Town at a bank. He ate Chinese food every day for two years and for some reason never wanted to eat it again. In 1960 Poppy married my grandmother, Dorothy, or as we know her as, Nanny. They met at a wedding in April where Poppy was a groomsman of a groom he barely knew and Nanny was the maid of honor. They married October 1 of the same year. They recently celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary.

They say the 60s were a great time, but especially for our grandfather. He and Nanny welcomed 3 children into the world: Charlie, the eldest was born in 1962; Susan, the second eldest was born in 1964; and Jimmy, the youngest was born in 1967.

During this time, he owned an ice cream parlor with his cousin Herman. The parlor couldn’t house both their families so one day they flipped a coin to see who kept it. He lost. Poppy moved his family to Northburgen, New Jersey and opened a diner/candy story. Here he joined the Free Masons in 1962. He would have been with the group 50 years come December. He was also very active in Republican politics throughout the 60s and 70s.

In 1973, he sold the diner/candy store to become a manager at a local beer garten, Schutzenpark. Poppy was a devilish pool player and he taught his children to play pool in that beer garten. He wasn’t fond of the Northburgen area so the family moved again to upstate New York, to a town called Barryville. He opened a candy store, Barryville House of Candy, in the living room of their house – only furthering his sweet tooth – and also ran a meat route selling Thuman’s meat to local delis and butchers.

In 1979, the Kuck family joined the LDS Church. Poppy sent his two sons on missions and his two eldest children to BYU. In his later years, Poppy would wait at home on Sundays while his grandchildren were at church and have hamburgers ready for them when they came by for the regular Sunday lunch.

In 1977, Poppy sold his meat route and purchased a restaurant/gas station/candy store in Eldred, New York, 5 miles from their home – Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe. Here his children were taught how to serve others in the form of a waitress, a gas station attendant and a fry cook. They remember and apply these lessons every day as they raise their own children.

Poppy and Nanny moved to Florida in 1982 where he worked for Hughes Plumbing Supplies. Afterwards, Poppy worked for Raymond James as a file clerk. In March of 1990, Poppy had his first of 5 attacks at his

youngest son’s wedding in Atlanta, GA. He had Nanny drive him back to Florida because he thought it was just gallstones. Did I mention he was stubborn?

In 1998, he and Nanny moved to Georgia. He had retired but that only lasted 3 months and decided to drive a school bus. He drove a school bus for Fulton County for 10+ years. He had the opportunity to drive kids from the neighborhood he lived in. They affectionately called him Mr. Herman.

When he retired from driving his bus, he found a new passion: the internet. Poppy loved the internet. He made it his quest to meet as many Herman Kucks as he could find. What always impressed me was his ability to make and maintain friendships. He would go out of his way to stay in contact with people, even those he met online – leading a great example for all of us. He spent a great deal hiking the Appalachian Trail and traveling in the RV with grandkids.

Poppy committed to everything he did. He loved reading, especially westerns with a hero cowboy. He made a goal of reading 1 book a week for a year, and he did it. For multiple years. He even has the spreadsheet to prove it. He would write comments about the books he read on the inside front cover. ‘Great read’. ‘Lots of killing’. ‘Too much loving’. He walked religiously and made many friends along the way – even our new family friend Bill.

During the late 80s and on, I believe were Poppy’s happiest times, but maybe I’m biased. Nanny and Poppy become grandparents. 11 times. He taught each grandchild many important life lessons. How to eat scrambled eggs: with ketchup. How to answer the phone properly: ‘Yellow, Herm here!’ And how to watch ESPN with the volume on 98. He was quick to compliment and to support. He went to more grandchild related events than should be legally allowed.

He is famous for his dry humor. When speaking with friends and family, one thing everyone points out is how funny he was. Poppy had the ability to make anyone chuckle with a quick joke and a sly smile.

My favorite saying of Poppy’s is ‘When you got it, you got it.’ And boy, did Poppy have it. He lived a rich life full of love and happiness. He changed countless lives and impacted every single one he touched. We will miss you Poppy but we will cherish our memories and look forward to meeting him again.

Thank you.

10.05.12
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Stop Pushing Me: Living in a World of Push Notifications

Eh hem. You have a new comment on your Facebook status…

Eh hem. It’s raining outside…

Eh hem. Conan O’Brien just tweeted…

Eh hem. Eh hem. Eh hem.

My smartphone has enabled me to be always connected and always on, just like my devices. I never miss a beat any more. Nothing gets by me. I’m like Batman or better yet, Sherlock Holmes -  always aware of what is going on in my digital surroundings, solving any mystery about tomorrow’s hazy Atlanta weather or catching that sneaky email the second it lands in my inbox. Gotcha! No escaping my grasp. Muahaha. Of course I wasn’t surprised when you told me that girl from high school was pregnant, my phone beat you to the punch. Of course I knew to wear pants this morning but bring a change of shorts for the afternoon; my phone sends me a message every morning about the weather. I’m omniscient and omnipresent now that my smartphone sends me push notifications – I’m just not sure if I like it or not.

It is hard for me to say stuff like, “Back in my day, we had to read the newspaper to find out which celebrity was pregnant.”  Smartphones gained popularity and texting became a regular source of communication. Facebook was second nature to logging on the computer. ‘Apps’ were the new thing. Today is back in my day. Maybe I’ll say this stuff fifty years from now and sound like an old man who walked butt-naked, in the cold of winter, up-hill to and from school both ways, but until then I am just living in my day.

In my day, information is thrown at you. Left and right, up and down, front and back. All day, all night, every waking minute, every sleeping second. It is amazing how much information we’re getting. I just wish I could be surprised for once; genuinely wow’d. But it is tough because my phone is buzzing me every 10 minutes telling me something new, something I signed up to find out. Is it spam? No. I voluntarily chose to receive this information. At some point in time, I enjoyed the idea of knowing the millisecond @JobFaust tweeted his Mid-day Breaks, but now I want some me time.

There’s a lot of talk these days about bullying. Kids pushing other kids. Telling them stuff they don’t want to hear. Are push notifications bullying me? But I started it! Right? Right.

08.02.12
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What a Windows 8 Tablet Needs to Bring to the Enterprise

If Microsoft can bring a successful tablet in the enterprise domain, they are set for the next 30 years. iPad’s are cute for the kids and Android does not get the time of day for security reasons leaving Windows 8 a chance to consume the market. I mean just ravage it. Tearing it limb from limb making us wonder why we ever took a bite out of the poisonous Apple when this was in the near future. But before we can regret our sunk costs, Microsoft and/or its OEMs have to deliver on a few key areas.

  • Security
  • Form factor
  • Speed
  • Dock

Security:

This is on Microsoft and how Windows 8 was built from the ground up. Give us a device that we can turn on, connect to Active Directory and log in using work credentials. Allow us to push our normal security patches, managing it like a regular PC/laptop and you’ll have IT in your pocket. IT will love how easy it is to manage. And the business will love that IT isn’t complaining about it. Win-Win.

Form factor:

Do not give us an 11.6” screen like Samsung did with their Windows 7 Slate PC. I feel like Moses with the 10 Commandants holding this thing. It literally feels like a giant slate. I personally think 10.1” is too big too. I am not a fan of the Galaxy Tabs by Samsung. Not proportional enough. They are both too wide. 7” is cute but not much in the ways of business productivity. Apple has a good size that people like so stick to the 9” range. 9” inches provides a big enough screen to use the onscreen keyboard but it still remains easy to hold with one hand.

Speed:

Make it beefy enough to run smoothly and have the feel of normal computer. I am not too concerned about this aspect but it is a must. Touch needs to be very responsive. Having users touch the screen 4 times before the click registers is a definite no-no.

Dock:

This is an area where the cannibalization takes place. We want a device that can replace a laptop. Give us a dock we can put the tablet on that hooks into an Ethernet cable, keyboard and mouse, and dual screen monitors, natively. Ethernet so we are not constantly running on WiFi. Keyboard and mouse for obvious reasons. Native dual screen monitor support is the kicker. End users love dual monitors and will not revert back to single monitor use. If this dock can extend the tablet screen across two desktop monitors smoothly, you have a winner. The less third-party software the better which is why it should be native to the device.

If a secured 9.6” Windows 8 tablet with healthy technical specs and a fully functioning dock comes into the market then they win. What do they win, Bob? They win billions of dollars in corporate money looking to get their mobile solution in place for the future. And if they fail to produce a successful corporate tablet? Microsoft will continue to be a giant in the software industry in the short-term but will be out of business in 30 years. They have to get this right. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I hope Apple and Google are building panic rooms because Microsoft is out for blood. Tablets are the future and we’re living in it.

07.11.12
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Screens.

I think I need a full-time job that does not require me sitting in front a computer screen all day. It’s not that I don’t like my computer screen or jobs associated with sitting on my butt (or lack there of); I just think my life is consumed by a sea of screens. Screens of all shapes and sizes, not just the very object I’m looking at while I type this.

Screens are everywhere I turn. It’s really quite amazing. According to this article, by year’s end there will be more smartphones in the world than people.  I completely believe that. I bring this up is to show you just one aspect of the number of screens in the world. If there will be 10 billion smartphones by 2016, imagine, if you can, the number of televisions, computer screens, digital watches, digital thermostats, handheld gaming devices, etc. The list goes on and on because just about anything imaginable can and will have a screen. We don’t even read books on paper anymore. They’re on a screen. I am fascinated and repulsed by it, at the same time.

My eyes get ‘tired’ of staring at the screen quicker and quicker. I used to be good for hours but now it’s only an hour. I am a little scared for my future and I am only 21. To rest my eyes, I tend to pick up my Windows Phone and browse some apps or navigate my MP3 player for a change of song. After a long day of work, I go home and either browse Facebook from my laptop or turn on the TV. But don’t worry, when I watch TV I have my tablet right next to me, just in case. When I get bored with watching TV shows, I play some Xbox; completely submerged in LCD screenage.

I feel like the paragraph above can easily describe your average day. Work – computer screen/smartphone. Home – computer screen/smartphone/TV/tablet. There’s nothing wrong with this but to get a little philosophical with you, all these screens feel a bit unnatural. Almost like an addiction. Instead of going outside and practicing my golf swing, I watch a TV show or YouTube clips on how to fix it. Instead of playing sand volleyball, I watch highlight videos.

It’s difficult to get away from a screen these days. And by ‘these days’, I really mean my whole life. I have grown up in a generation that grew up with this growing technology. Lots of growing in that last sentence. We are practically BFFLs who went to the same K-12 and have finally become college roommates. It was great at first but I am getting a little tired of seeing him every day. I just want my space.

And this brings us back to my opening statement. I do not want to stare at screen all day. The tricky part is I still want to be surrounded by technology. I love it. It is my passion. How do I balance the two?  There’s so much more to say but I don’t read articles any longer this and I don’t expect you to either. Now take some time to rest your eyes by playing Angry Birds.

P.S. This post could have easily been called Connected. Just replace the word ‘screen’ with ‘internet connection’. I just feel the internet is nothing if you can’t view it. A bold statement and something I questioned the second I typed it but I stand by it. For now…

06.20.12
by

Creating Smart User Documentation

Over the past year of my internship I have created countless tutorials and application guides. I have created video tutorials walking users through complex workflows in SharePoint 2010 Foundation and simple video tutorials showing off the features of an internal team SharePoint. I have created written documentation guiding users through the data management process in Salesforce.com and all its anomalies. And, in rapid fire format, just general user information such as OCS for Blackberry, Twitter Jumpstart guide, top QR code readers for all smartphones, LED vs. LCD, desktop video conferencing options, and many more topics.

After a few initial missteps, I developed a method to all this documentation madness. I intend this post to give an inexperienced documentation creator a few tips to keep in mind when forming their user guides.

Tips:

  • Begin with the end in mind
  • Don’t overlook the intuitive
  • Picture it with pictures
  • Cite your sources whenever possible
  • Develop a template

Begin with the end in mind: Well, duh. But you’ll be surprised how many times I have started a Word document with a ton of research links or put 7-8 user steps together but none of it connected. Great, I now know how Facebook and Twitter can help each other but that does not tell me the steps a user must take to sign up for Twitter. (There are 5 steps, by my count.) If you have a clear and concise picture (the original name for this step), you will be able focus your documentation in a more efficient manner. Just like taking a road trip, knowing where you want to go is half the battle. You may not see as many places – sometimes that’s a good thing when it comes to the internet, it gets pretty weird out there – but you will definitely use a lot less gas and have more time for activities.

Don’t overlook the intuitive: My generation tends to take for granted the fact that user manuals are not needed for new technology and if they are present we just throw them away. I’d rather dive into a new product than to read a whole booklet teaching me how to turn it on. It’s just natural for me to figure something out as I go but many of the older business users are not like me. They don’t like exploring what this button does or where this page takes you. The point of this whole speech is to say you should document the simple stuff you might think is obvious. If you think the steps are just 1-5, take a second think if there’s a 1.a, 1.b, 1.c. Chances are the answer is, “Oh yeah…Oops.”

Picture it with pictures: Screen shots are your best friend. Your BFF Jill. Like OMG. It’s easy to say click on the settings icon above the text box but do all settings icons look the same? Are all icons created equally? Pretty sure they don’t all look the same otherwise there would be someone making mad money on the copyright infringement. Each company creates their own icons. They might have a similar look but there is always room for icon creativity. To avoid any confusion on what the icon looks like take a screen shot. Put in right next to the sentence.  As simple as that.

Cite your sources whenever possible: Citing sources is extremely important in the business world and it can as simple as providing the link from where you pulled in the information. Adding your source saves you so much time and headaches. People won’t ask where you got the current number of active Facebook users from because they have the link staring them in the face. It is a beautiful thing. Make sure they are reliable sources otherwise you will be busted for providing some shoddy information. Save yourself a headache and gain some free time by providing a source for your information. The more the merrier.

Develop a template: As you begin to create more and more documentation, it is important to keep the formatting consistent. By consistent I mean a regular format you follow with bolding titles similarly, staying with the same font between papers, using the same indentation, and other formatting styles. This not only reduces the amount of work you have to do but it provides documentation with a voice and style your audience will become familiar with. It reduces your work load because the template turns all this research into a fill-in-the-blank process. “Ok, this header goes here and the source goes below it with one indent and a bullet point.” The template allows you to focus on the content you are providing versus the way it has been presented.

I hope this provides a little insight into providing documentation for business users. Remember the tips above and I think you will have a good base to start from. If you have any tips of your own, please let me know in the comments below. Thanks!