Innoveering Nebraska

I have a terrible confession to make.  I’ve been spinning my wheels for almost two weeks on a project.  And not just any project.  It’s the biggest, riskiest, most public and most expensive project  I’ve ever attempted.  Which may explain why I’ve been trapped in my loop of indecision – or rather flip flopping between decisions. 

I’m not completely out of the woods yet, but I had a breakthrough today.  I went back to using  gomockingbird to sort out my project.  Gomockingbird is a free on-line tool for laying out the mechanics, language and page layouts for a website or web application.  Those in the technical know call these wireframes.  I’ve also heard them referred to as fishbones, but not by professionals. 

The lovely thing about gomockingbird is that you can save your wireframe and even share it with your collaborators.  The unpleasant thing about gomockingbird is that novices such as myself might find it difficult to learn to properly navigate.   Which is why I initially gave up on it.  This is also why I had to take many breaks throughout the day to avoid swearing too vehemently as I forced myself to figure it out today.  (I actually scared the dog so badly at one point that she hid under the bed.)  Gomockingbird, if you’re reading this I would love a brief tutorial like evernote provides.  Also, what’s so wrong with Explorer?  Why only Safari, Firefox or Chrome? 

To make sure I keep making progress, I’ve set an artificial deadline for myself to be done.  We’ll see if it helps.  Part of the reason I’m struggling is that I went too far down one path without proper feedback.  Once I got feedback, I realized I had to simplify.  It’s far easier to add than to subtract.  It’s hard to find the essence of something once you’ve added layers of fluff – or muck.  Maybe mucky fluff.  Say that quickly several times (sorry Mom).  So with the aid of gomockingbird, I’m starting from scratch, envisioning what I need and then grabbing it from the old content if I can.

Wish me luck.  It’s been a dreadful mental struggle and I’m ready for it to be over. 

By the way, I owe a great big thanks to @5t3ph of thinkdobecreate for recommending gomockingbird.    Check out her blog or her book if you are the least bit interested in webdesign.

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