Man time really flies. I was just posting a couple months ago about how I would be back in the market hunting again, and my contract (even though it was short) is already done with and I'm already moving back into the market again.

This last contract has been a blast, with some serious hurdles that taught me so much. I learned that I would gladly take browser patrolling and code validating any day over a full time design job, and I also learned how much respect I had but didn't know I had for designers. The design industry is rough, cut throat, and exhilarating all at the same time.

If you haven't been following, or if I didn't even post it, I've been working for Peopleclick doing UI Design and Usability for some of their public facing programs. I can't even begin to describe how much fun it is to get my hands dirty with the clients that use the application and do flow studies and reports. I also can begin to describe how much of a salesman you have to be as a UI Designer, or a designer at all for that matter. It's always hard for me to not get attached to that one design. And you just can't do that, because almost always, its going to change. My UI input stayed intact, but the flourish of design always changed. That was probably one of the most difficult things about this job, which is probably why I've disliked being a designer lately.

What a lesson though, to learn that to finish this job, I had to really be a designer, and really let go of my "babies" and let the customer pick and choose and decide. Once I released my designs to them, it was a breath of fresh air, and it was fun all over again. Because it wasn't a chore anymore to design and ruin my original, it was just another chance to do more design, and I ended up getting excited when they would both shoot things down and come up with their own ideas, and I would get excited when they would accept them as well.

Overall, I'm hoping to pick up the next contract (really hoping for a full time job though) to be doing HTML and CSS again. I sorely miss those semantic battles I would have with myself and architecting beautiful css documents. I'm in my comfort zone there though, and sometimes, just to make sure your still alive, you have to shake up everything around you and dive into the waters. I'm definitely glad I did, and my hat tips to you designers out there.

-Ken