Digital Terroir

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Jordan Koschei

Productized services

A podcast episode got me thinking about Productized Services — basically, taking a consulting service, standardizing the way you provide it, and selling it as a product. Services are more flexible, but less scalable. If you’re a web designer who builds WordPress sites for clients, there are only so many

"Digital Terroir," presented at CatskillsConf 2018

Hello, CatskillsConf! This is the written version of my talk, given on October 20, 2018 at 4:00pm. There might be some slight differences between the written version and the spoken verison. All images are from Unsplash, except for the Hudson Valley image, which I took myself from the top

Losing the "thinginess" of the world

Adam Greenfield, author of the book Radical Technologies that I quoted recently, was interviewed on the Hurry Slowly podcast. The conversation retread familiar terrain from the book, but it's always worth a reminder. The episode focused mainly on the sociology of the smartphone, and I found two parts

The generosity of creating

For is there any practice less selfish, any labor less alienated, any time less wasted, than preparing something delicious and nourishing for people you love? Michael Pollan, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation This quote is about making food, but I think it goes for making anything: artwork, music, or

Radical Technologies

I’ve been reading the book Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life by Adam Greenfield, and I thought this quote insightful, on how smartphones shape our lives: It’s easy, too easy, to depict the networked subject as being isolated, in contact with others only at the membrane that

Designing for designers is like cooking for chefs

I like reading books written by chefs and food critics. One common theme is that they bemoan what happens to their social lives — nobody wants to cook for a famous chef or critic, so the dinner party invitations dry up. Who’s going to cook a meatloaf for Ruth Reichl?

A designer by any other name…

I don’t know what to call myself anymore. My job title is “Director of User Experience.” My day-to-day professional life looks a lot like that of any designer. I work in Sketch. I make wireframes and mock-ups.I read Designer News. I stress over color choices and font pairings.

Why care about design?

Why care about design? Even as a professional designer, I ask myself that sometimes. There are days when my work feels inconsequential. After I’ve spent an hour agonizing over a button’s pixel alignment, or vacillating between two indistinguishable shades of gray, I find myself wondering: will anyone even

Why care about code?

Last week, Bloomberg published a 38,000-word behemoth entitled What is Code? It took up an entire issue of their print edition, though to really appreciate the piece in all its glory, it needs to be experienced digitally. Everyone should read it, especially if you aren’t interested in programming

A scriptural view of beauty, creativity, and craft

This is the transcript of a talk I gave in a Christian small group on April 28, 2015. I haven’t changed any of the text from its spoken form, so some turns-of-phrase may not make much sense in writing. I have added links where relevant, though. Preface I have