Projects, et al - C. Kennedy Design

Projects and Updates, 2022Q1

Mini-update of recent things I've done: Fall in love with HBR Tend to my plants Buy some analog clocks and watches Playlist of music in this post: Spotify Drawing Blood I finished Drawing Blood by Molly Crabtree, recently. Some favorite moments: A moving paragraph about "mi abuelito". "

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2021Q4

🤤 Playlist of music in this post: Spotify Pandemic Communications and HR Tech Stacks Two projects from this quarter: A Pandemic Communications Wish List - things that would help make sense of the pandemic HR Tech Stack Considerations - a look at the software that helps keep HR running A Cocktail

Designing A Better Workplace

HR Tech Stack Considerations

I was doing some research, recently, and couldn't find useful examples of HR Tech Stacks. Besides companies pitching how their own products might fit into a hypothetical HR Stack, I didn't see much out there. So if anyone finds it helpful, (including me in the future,) here's what I'd consider

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2021Q3

I fixed my cupcakes. Playlist of music in this post: Spotify Remembering To Water My Plants Last I checked in, I was at the beginning of building a plant watering app, and I was hopeful Microsoft Power Apps would do the job well. Now it's now, and I've been using

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2021Q2

So I've been baking recently... Playlist of music in this post: Spotify Baking Science is the Best Science A friend recently said "baking science is the best science", which is hard to argue against... FOR SCIENCE! Here are some recent baking adventures. Earl Grey Cupcakes I've been experimenting

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2021Q1

Update: 21 plants + 6 plant cuttings ¯\(ツ)/¯ Playlist of music in this post: Spotify Remember To Water Your Plants There are 21 plants in my home. 5 plants is probably when I began using a basic app to track waterings. Now that I'm at 21, I'm longing for three more

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2020Q4

Playlist of music in this post: Spotify [1] Task Queueing with Microsoft Planner and To Do I wrote about task queueing and how I decide what to do next. Check it out here: Task Queueing with Microsoft Planner and To Do Gather.Town One of the magical things about gathering

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2020-10-01

Blank dice are a new favorite thing. Playlist of music in this post: Spotify Risk, Dice, and SARS-CoV-2 In the age of SARS-CoV-2, one of my personal disappointments is that individual citizens have been put in charge of analyzing both their own behavior, and also that of others, and deciding

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2020-07-01

It's been a weird three months. Playlist of music in this post: Spotify Life in the age of SARS-CoV-2 Obviously the novel coronavirus has thrown everyone's life kittywampus; luckily I've been able to continue working from home. While that's introduced a set of challenges, addressing these challenges is absolutely a

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2020-04-01

I was considering writing a section on the Google Home app and how it isn't fully functional on the Google Pixelbook or Google Pixel Slate. Instead, here is a one sentence review: If you sell stuff that supposedly all works together, you should make it all work together. Playlist of

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2020-01-01

Dear Amazon- In fairness, it was sort of fun in the beginning! See you in a few years, once you own all the other companies in the world. xoxo Me Playlist of music in this post: Spotify Support your community* *(but only if you want your community to survive) I

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2019-10-01

A quick party hack: I've been adding Post-It Notes to my door to let guests know they've found the right place. (The crowd favorite is a note that simply reads: "It's this one.") We've all experienced being unsure you're in the right spot; this helps. Playlist of music

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2019-07-01

For the last 3 months, I've definitely spent more time playing tennis than designing or coding. It's been great. Playlist of music in this post: Spotify App Updates I've been using my Invitation Managing/Event Planning app more than I've been designing and building it, which is great... that means

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2019-04-01

People of Minnesota: eat the last cookie. Please. Don't leave it, don't cut it in half. You crushed the first 49, finish the job. That's apropos to nothing in this post, it just needed to be said. Playlist of music in this post: Spotify The design and testing of a

Projects, et al

Using Python and Python-Docx to build Word Docs

As someone who loves automating things, I've learned to... well... not. It's often not worth it. I'll look to automate if I think it will improve the accuracy of a process that needs to be particularly accurate (e.g. calculating commissions)[1]. I'll also shoot for automation in cases like

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2019-01-01

I moved! And it consumed as much time and energy as you would expect. The new view is great and I'm excited to drink ALL THE BUBBLES on my new balcony, once it stops being cold outside. Playlist of music in this post: Spotify I moved! All things considered the

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2018-10-01

Event and Invitation Managing Software My phone now runs a beta alpha whatever-comes-before-alpha version of my event planning/invitation managing software. I've been using the software for about 6 weeks and the results have been decent: it's replaced Google Keep as my invitation managing tool, and that was my primary

Projects, et al

Projects and Updates, 2018-07-01

Here's the thing with testing voice interfaces... you sound like you're losing your mind while you're doing it: "Computer, where's my train? Computer, where's MYYyyyy train? Computer, where's mahtrain? Computer, WHERE'Smahtrain? Computer..." Voice interfaces and my Alexa skill Previously on CKDSN: I made an Alexa Skill that tells

Projects, et al

Project Updates, et al: 2018-04-01

Creating an Alexa Skill Sometime in January, I decided I wanted a better way to time my morning commute to work. A few obsessive weeks later, I have an Alexa skill that uses real-time train data to tell me when my train is arriving at the station. A post shared

Projects, et al

Project Updates, et al: 2018-01-01

Event Planning App Everyone has their neuroses. One of mine: I keep slightly obsessive track of whom I've invited to things, if they've responded, if I need to forward them event details, etc. I like to be a good host and make sure everyone's taken care of; beyond two to

Projects, et al

Project Updates, et al: 2017-10-01

A Spotify Alarm Clock for Raspberry Pi Back in July, I transformed a Raspberry Pi into an alarm clock that plays Spotify playlists. Favorite Part One of my favorite parts of the project was physically assembling the Raspberry Pi. It's great that the very first step of the project is

Projects, et al

How To: A Spotify Alarm Clock for Raspberry Pi

Alarm clocks are the devil and I hate them. Sleeping is the best, and I don't know why we willingly ruin such a delightful activity with terrible auditory violence. But I'm here to tell you there's something else: a Spotify Alarm Clock. If I'm being honest, one day I hope

Projects, et al

How To: Manually Installing Ghost

The software behind CKDSN.com is an open source publishing platform called Ghost. Ghost is great. [note: At some point I decided to have Ghost host/manage the site instead of doing it myself. As such, these instructions won't be updated as I'm no longer involved in the site management/

Projects, et al

Project Updates, et al: 2017-07-01

Looking Beyond What's Your Type Despite a new day job (which is a delight) and spring/summer (also a delight), I found some time to figure out one last thing in What's Your Type: retaining data and visual states when a user rotates their screen. Portrait and landscape orientation What

Projects, et al

What's Your Type: 2017-04-01 update

Project highlights from last quarter Data sorting interface In the first few waves of testing, people overwhelmingly preferred drop-down boxes to a drag-and-drop interface. However, the drop-down test always came after the drag-and-drop test; it's possible users were biased toward whichever interface they saw second.[1] To allay my concern,