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Nick Disabato
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Chicago, IL
As an interaction designer, I work to make technology simpler, more humane, and easier to use. I write specifications about software features, outline the way that web sites are structured, and analyze the way that people work. I want us to live easier lives.
I also like craft beer a lot.
I'd love to talk with you about usability or craft beer.
Projects by Nick Disabato (1)
Nick Disabato is Backing (17)
Recent Posts by Nick Disabato
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Nick Disabato
Posted project update #22SXSW starts Friday! Let's do this!
Hello! It's been almost a month since I last wrote here. Thanks to everyone who emailed about Illustrator; I think I have a solution worked out. Two other things are noteworthy:
1. I've worked on Cadence & Slang exclusively for the past three weeks. Surprise! My freelance contract expired recently, and I have a month between it and my next gig, after SXSW. I have enough cash saved up that I can go jobless for a month and work daily on the book – so I have, spending about eight hours a day on it. I feel really happy with where I currently am on it. In a couple of weeks I'll be giving a manuscript to my friend Daniel Bogan, so he can draw some nice illustrations.
2. I'm going to SXSW Interactive on Thursday. Thanks to the generosity of a backer, I have a place to crash a few blocks from the convention center. If you find yourself in Austin a little early, I'll be grabbing a beer or three with whomever wants to show up at the Ginger Man, at 301 Lavaca, on March 11 at 8PM. It's apparently the best place in Austin for craft beer – and with this tap list, I'd be astonished if anything tops it. We can talk about beer and usability.
If you can't make the Ginger Man or hate deliciousness, I'll be roaming Austin all weekend, of course. If you helped make this book a reality I'd love to meet you. Shoot me an @-reply on Twitter and I'll try my best. Or here's the list of panels that I'll be attending – subject to change, naturally, but I'll try to keep this up to date. (I've found that site, sitby.us, really useful, so you should head over there and add your own picks!)
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Nick Disabato
Posted project update #21Illustrator, SXSW.
You should have stickers and/or Cadence & Slang Mini by now. If you don't, email me at nickd at nickd dot org. So far only one person has expressed shipping issues, which is a pretty amazing proportion. Fingers crossed that it stays that way when I mail books.
Writing is now done for every section. In nerd terms, this means the book is feature complete, but not bug-fixed. I have the next several months to clean up the writing, fire drafts off to friends, finesse the whole thing, work with my illustrator to develop pretty doodles, and make some doodles of my own.
On the last point: it's easy to spend 37,000 words discussing interaction design (and yes, that's where we're at right now), but it's much easier to express those ideas pictorially. I'm ahead of time a little, and want to find novel ways to deal with this. It makes more sense, especially given how I've laid out the book, to establish its own internal visual grammar. Every operating system has its own way to visually express a form pull-down, for instance, and countless more ways exist to wireframe it. At the same time, the instant you use any elements from any real-world operating system, the book dates itself. But I want to express these conventions, and familiarity is on my side: after 20 years of stagnant GUI design, everyone on Earth knows what a checkbox is.
Other books have been successful with this. For example, the influential books of Edward Tufte have dozens of graphs that are near-uniformly set in Gill Sans, with the same color palette. And while I have no interest in comparing C&S to Visual Display, the concept makes sense, especially considering both books concern themselves with cleaning up current work to some degree.
So I'm thinking of trying my hand at Adobe Illustrator over the coming weeks, and seeing what happens. I can already sketch well, and wireframing looks decent, but we'll see how well I work with vector graphics for the first time. I'm super adept at Photoshop, but Illustrator... not so much. This is all a long way of saying: if you have any decent tips or resources for learning Illustrator fast and correctly (I'm acutely sensitive to there being a right way and a dumb way in Adobe products), dump them in the comments.
I'm going to SXSW Interactive, and need a place to crash. I'm weighing my options, but if you have a decent place near downtown or want to split a hotel room, let me know.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a project updateVituperative. I told my girlfriend I would; it is her favorite word.
Story #1 - Send me your input!
So I know, I laid out a schedule that had me asking for your input for stories on Wednesdays. But honestly, I spent this weekend far too relaxed. I am itching to get started. Itching, I tell you! S...
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Nick Disabato
Posted project update #20Mini and stickers are now mailed!
Copies of Cadence & Slang Mini and stickers were mailed out today (January 12). People in the US and Canada should receive them in the next few days. People outside North America, hopefully within a couple of weeks. My computer-inclined butt is a relative newbie to the world of snail mail, so I hope I put on enough stamps for everyone and filled out the right forms and your addresses are written correctly and the right things are packed.
If anything has gone wrong, please forgive me. I am fallible, especially since I am doing this entire thing by myself. Then send me an email at nickd at nickd dot org explaining what went wrong. Maybe your copy of Mini has the wrong pages. (I collated all of them by hand.) Maybe you didn't receive stickers. Maybe you didn't receive your copy of Mini. I hope none of these are true, but should they be, I'll try to fix them as quickly as possible.
In lieu of a packing manifest, I enacted a simpler system. I ran through all the envelopes and placed little marks below your addresses, to indicate what you're supposed to receive. If your envelope has a blue mark on the front, I should have packed just stickers. If your envelope has a silver mark on it, both stickers and Mini should be inside. The way my project's rewards work out, those are the only two possibilities, so it made (way) more sense to cut the number of steps in packing, and avoid writing up bills of sale and so on.
It's really exciting to have these out the door. I have a few extra copies of Mini, and many (like, uh, over a thousand) stickers sitting around. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy your rewards!
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Nick Disabato
commented on a project updateBrice, that's a good idea. It's snowing pretty hard in these parts right now, but once the entire town isn't covered in a thin layer of ice, and the temperature goes above 10F...
Stickers and Mini should be heading out next week!
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a project updateDiesel Fuel - http://www.dieselfuelprints.com - they handled my problem gracefully, given that they weren't in the office much over the break. But I think they just do screenprinting, which covers stickers, posters, and t-shirts.
Stickers and Mini should be heading out next week!
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Nick Disabato
Posted project update #19Stickers and Mini should be heading out next week!
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a project updateMany congrats. This is one of my favorite projects on Kickstarter.
101%!!
Rich Wertz's pledge just put us over our $12,000 goal, exactly 15 minutes before we hit the 3 week point! We have always felt very confident that we would reach that goal, but we're thrilled that ...
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Nick Disabato
commented on a project updateNice catch, Jon - the Aeron was my parents' present for when I earned my master's degree. Other than my iMac, it's probably the most expensive thing in my bedroom.
Stickers printed; addresses requested; the first batch of mailings...
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a project updateI would like to apologize for the disheveled condition of both my bedroom and my hair in that photograph.
Stickers printed; addresses requested; the first batch of mailings...
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a projectit's so great to see you guys on here. totally pulling for you to reach your goal!
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Nick Disabato
commented on a projectIt is deeply amusing to have both my parents on here. And my grandmother pledging. That is all.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a projectThanks, Eliot! I just tweeted about it, hopefully Digg folks will come out and support.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a project updateCredit where credit's due: my girlfriend made the cookies.
Grassroots. Building an audience. Fancy audio production.
Random administrivia: You may be wondering how the project's video sounds so good. My friend Maya Kuper of » View full post
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Nick Disabato
commented on a projectMaya, I hear that - the front page has needed an update for a little while. I'm posting something new right now. Thanks!
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Nick Disabato
commented on a projecti pledged. jvo may or may not know this, but i grew up listening to him on q101 for many years, on rides back from school. not only that, but: it would be completely insane of me to be writing a book myself and not support ventures similar to my own. totally gunning for you to hit your goal. best of luck!
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Nick Disabato
commented on a project updateNice catch, Jon - the Aeron was my parents' present for when I earned my master's degree. Other than my iMac, it's probably the most expensive thing in my bedroom.
Stickers printed; addresses requested; the first batch of mailings...
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a project updateI would like to apologize for the disheveled condition of both my bedroom and my hair in that photograph.
Stickers printed; addresses requested; the first batch of mailings...
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Nick Disabato
Posted project update #18Stickers printed; addresses requested; the first batch of mailings...
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a projectit's so great to see you guys on here. totally pulling for you to reach your goal!
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Nick Disabato
Posted project update #17Here's how this is going.
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a projectIt is deeply amusing to have both my parents on here. And my grandmother pledging. That is all.
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Nick Disabato
Posted project update #16WE MADE IT, with five days to spare!
So this happened. And then fifteen minutes later
that happened, and I was curious, so I check my email. And I see the total on the project has broken - nay, demolished - $9,800. And so I present to you:
Cadence & Slang Is Funded, Via iPhone Screenshots
(Cascade and Tettnang are hop varietals.)Hilariously, two backers were already in town for the holiday weekend, and we had already planned to grab a beer with them. So I show up, big bear hugs all around, I order one of these, &c. &c. Which is why I didn't update last night.
So: we did it. Cadence & Slang will see the light of day by the end of 2010. And who's the publisher? You. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your generosity and faith in this. Thank you for promoting this. Thank you for telling your friends and getting excited about this. I can't wait to show you my work, and I hope to keep you involved in the whole process.
But there looms the question: what happens if we raise more money than $9,800? This isn't rhetorical: we're already almost at $11,000. I'm going to get a few more quotes from the printer regarding spot colors, process color, maybe even making the book hardcover.
We've already made our goal, which means I get to sleep a lot better. But we can always improve the product with more funding. We have three more days to raise enough to cover even better printing, better paper stock, and a better cover. I plan to make no profit from this book's publication. Every single dollar pledged between now and Friday goes straight to the book.
So let's finish this with a bang! -
Nick Disabato
Posted project update #15Digg, Hacker News, $2,000 left, some more numbers... and a new site?
Six days left. If we don't raise $9,800 by 9PM CST on Friday December 04 (03:00 UTC Saturday), this is all for naught.
We're raising around $300 every day, and we have a tick more than $2,000 left to go. Most of our pledges so far have been $40 preorders. If only fifty people preorder books in the next six days, we're done. That's it.
So things look pretty encouraging, but we can't slack off in the home stretch. On every single Kickstarter project so far, the majority of funds are pledged in their final days. Please tell everyone you know about this - tweet it, Facebook it, Tumblr it. If just a third of you convince a friend to preorder, then we get to party early.
Another big help: some enterprising backers have posted this project to two popular link blogs. Vote for Cadence & Slang on Hacker News. Vote for Cadence & Slang on Digg. If this project is voted onto either site's front page, it would be a huge publicity boost during a critical time. You can register for free accounts and tap the buttons (HN, Digg) to register a positive vote. (Thanks so much to Eliot Sykes and Kev Burns, Jr. for posting this on their own.)
Lastly, over the past few days, I've worked on a new site for the book, which I'll launch if the project is fully funded. It'll contain information about preordering for the next few months, between now and when the book is printed. It'll also have a bit more about the book's contents.
I'm really happy about how the site looks. Hopefully we'll get to use it.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a projectThanks, Eliot! I just tweeted about it, hopefully Digg folks will come out and support.
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Nick Disabato
commented on a project updateCredit where credit's due: my girlfriend made the cookies.
Grassroots. Building an audience. Fancy audio production.
Random administrivia: You may be wondering how the project's video sounds so good. My friend Maya Kuper of » View full post
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Nick Disabato
Posted project update #14Stickers! Enthusiasm!
This post is exclusive to backers.
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Nick Disabato
Posted project update #13Timeline and facts.
Slightly impertinent: I've just added a new gift for any backers feeling particularly flush in the net two weeks. Pledge $1,000 for a full-page advertisement in Cadence & Slang. I've waffled on the idea of advertising for a long time, although I'm already devoting a page in the book towards listing and thanking all of my backers. After a few conversations on the topic, I decided to pull the trigger on it. If you know anybody that's looking for some novel, long-term advertising, by all means send them my way.
Mostly pertinent: Should Cadence & Slang become fully funded, I'd like to talk about the future of this project: what will happen, and when. Note that most of these dates are worst-case estimates; many will happen sooner.
December 04: We pass $9,800 in pledges. I write a tearful thank-you to my backers. I place incoherent phone calls that involve a lot of yelling. I write incoherent text messages that involve a lot of emoji.
December 05: My friend and I throw an annual holiday beer tasting for our closest friends, which we've spent the past fifteen months preparing for. I do not cry tears of bitter sorrow into a beer of which only 300 bottles exist.
December 06: I resume writing Cadence & Slang. (Per the previous post, I'm not writing for the next two weeks to focus entirely on fundraising.)
December 07: I send emails to those who ordered usability reviews, requesting more information for what they want me to review, and developing individual timelines with each one of them. I also set up a page for people to pre-order Cadence & Slang who, heaven forbid, didn't back my project in time.
December 20: Amazon removes the hold on my Kickstarter funds and they hit my bank account, which will go above $80 for the first time in two years. At this point I plan to move them into a savings account or short-term CD, for I won't be actually spending your money on printing and shipping until mid-to-late 2010. (If you have any good suggestions on where to conveniently store around ten thousand dollars for a short period of time, let's talk. I know a lot about interaction design, but very little about fiscal wonkery.)
February 01, 2010: I finish Cadence & Slang Mini, request your addresses, and mail out the copies. I'll also mail out the stickers at this point.
April 01: I finish the first draft of the entire manuscript, and send it on to a few friends and backers for revisions and editing. By this point I hope to be done with all of your usability reviews.
July 01: I finish writing Cadence & Slang and send the first draft off to the printer.
November 01: I receive the book from the printer, request your addresses again, and start shipping out your orders.
Partially pertinent: Some people have asked me how I came up with the figure of $9,800. I received a quote of $9,200 from my printer, and added $600 to account for shipping charges and mailing materials (bubble wrap, envelopes, etc) for both sets of books I ship (normal and Mini).That $9,200 figure includes both printing the books and shipping them across the pond to me. (My printer has offices in both Chicago and Hong Kong.)
Cadence & Slang will be a perfect bound paperback, DIN A5 (which is a European printing size, equivalent to about ~5.8"x8.3"), offset printed at ~2,400DPI on natural-colored paper with a laid finish.Which is all a long way of saying: if this project gets funded, the book is going to look awesome.
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Nick Disabato
Posted project update #12Grassroots. Building an audience. Fancy audio production.
Random administrivia: You may be wondering how the project's video sounds so good. My friend Maya Kuper of Studiomedia Recording is to credit for that one. I propped her on various "micro-blogging" services in the past, but I should give a formal mention here. We devoted an entire evening to get it right, and her patience and talent can't go unmentioned. If you have any need to record voiceovers or music in the future, and you live in Chicagoland, now you know where to go.
Focused administrivia: Fifteen days left. Getting down to the proverbial wire. It feels pretty great to hit various milestones, but in the long run, they don't mean very much if the project isn't funded in full. It's a little disingenuous to throw a party over the momentous occasion of hitting halfway if we end with only 60% and nothing comes of it. So for the next two weeks, I'm focusing entirely on getting us to the end of this project. I'll restart writing on December 06, and should be finished with my next draft of chapter 1 by December 15.I spent three hours yesterday talking with a Kickstarter administrator, about 5 feet away from where I'm typing this. After sleeping on it and thinking quite a lot about what all was said, one major thing stuck with me: the most successful project creators bust their ass to get the word out. Quite a bit of that is through tweeting and facebooking and tumblring and complaining on my own part. But I'm not as well-known in my field as certain other people, and tweetblrbooking can only take you so far when your initial audience is, by default, substantially less.
There are many ways to bridge that gap, but probably the most effective - and certainly the most common - is through word of mouth. If I talk with the 200-odd folks who follow me on Twitter about Cadence & Slang, then I'm reaching 200 people. But if I compel a tenth of those people to write about this project on their own terms, then I'm suddenly reaching vastly more than 200. Orders of magnitude more. (And then the people reached thuswise write about it, and so on, etc., into infinity, and then suddenly I have my own Wikipedia article, a third of which is accurate.)
This means: the more people that you tell about this project, the better. This also means: this is about you just as much as it is me. When you tell others - via Twitter, through personal emails, carrier pigeon, trebuchet, paper airplanes, anything - you benefit, too, because you're increasing the likelihood that you get whatever you pledged for, and you're supporting independent publishing in a way that didn't exist just six months ago.
I think Kickstarter projects are all about this sort of support. For example, if you go to my own Kickstarter profile, you'll see the project I started, but also the ones that I've chosen to back. Because of the financial stakes involved, people don't back projects lightly. It's not like favoriting a photo on Flickr or liking a post on Facebook. Showing your volitional support for a cause, and putting your money behind it, can become a point of pride - sort of a way through which one can suss out your values and beliefs as a backer. I value ridiculous emoji translations of classic novels. You may value something different, like saving an indie music festival or a hilariously inadvisable homerolled fusion reactor. Or Cadence & Slang.
Which is all to say that quite a few very complex things can be pulled out of a mechanism that is, at its core, astonishingly simple. There are so many intangible psychological aspects to the otherwise simple premise of home-rolling your own fundraising drive that pausing to think about them can drive a project creator nuts. When do you launch? How do you market it? What gifts do you offer? How do you make it beneficial for pledgers? How intimately do you link those pledgers with your own project's narrative? What's your project's final dollar amount? How much of the project are you willing to bankroll? Do you highball or lowball the estimate? How do you determine the end date?Thinking about all that, this is one of the scariest things that I've ever done.
Next: How I came up with the estimate, timeline, and logistics. -
Nick Disabato
commented on a projectMaya, I hear that - the front page has needed an update for a little while. I'm posting something new right now. Thanks!
