I want you to know that this portfolio goes against many of my principles, while at the same time embracing one of my favorite qualities: minimalism.

So I thought: "Why not try something different for a change?"
Here goes nothing.

some minutes later

Ough, looks kinda edgy all of this, doesn't it?
Well, you'll have to put up with it now.

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end of prologue

goal(s)

1. reflection
2. imperfection
3. improvisation

reflection

I want this to be a place for myself to reflect on why I'm doing certain things the way I do. Or why I concern myself with topic X, or enjoy spending time doing Y. It'll be a process of learning along the way, not just for my readers, but also for me, as the writer. And hey, maybe there's something new for you to learn every now and then :)

imperfection

I am, and have always been, a perfectionist. I tend to spend way more time on doing things right than actually getting things done. Mostly, it's because I enjoy doing that – but sometimes I don't.

Here, I want to create 80% of what's possible (and not 100% of it) by spending something like 20% of what I could've invested. We'll see how that goes haha.

improvisation

So then, what's next? Well that's exactly the point – there's no plan.
No structure laid out before me. Just an open space for me to populate with articles, images, videos or whatever content I feel like.

Maybe I'll write about UX, since that's something I want to learn more about. Or how about tech? some random thoughts on credit cards and insurance companies? travelling? music? the London Underground? Oh, and cars!

creation/creativity

Because most importantly, this is about creating something creative. I like to write, but I hardly ever do it just for fun. I don't care whether anyone will read this or not – as long as I can enjoy making it.

And I especially enjoy the English language, but often end up trying too hard to find the right words, to make my text sound sophisticated and special. I focus on not using the same word multiple times on the same page, and end up with structures that are unnecessarily difficult to read. I want to refrain from doing that here.

Perhaps now is a good time to note that I haven't used AI to create any of this, and I don't plan to use it either. Sure, every now and then I might ask ChatGPT to help me out with an individual issue I have concerning CSS, or the deployment configuration of the site, or whatever. But definitely nothing mayor/nothing more than a few lines of code here or there.

how'd it go so far?

okay-ish, I guess? As I said, I'm new to this style of better done than perfect, so it's tough.

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but despite being a software engineer with a knack for web development, I used a template for this project. Looks cool, right? I hope so! Anyway, I like it.

What else... well, I love the feeling of creating something. While I don't consider myself to be a creative person (I can't draw for sh*t), I do think that making a piece of software (or in this case, a website) can be very satisfying.

However, one thing I'm noticing already is the limited scalability of these articles within a modal-dialog. Let's see what I can do about that in the future. See you there 👋

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This "first article" might never be truly done. I'll come back to and update it whenever I see fit, so that it contains new ideas and goals for this portfolio as they come to my mind.

I meant to publish one of these articles every month, preferably always on the first. Well, I guess I'm changing my schedule now, since this one is already late. But hey, this way, at least others will be early!

seeing my portfolio for the second time only

Yup, still edgy.
But I'm not here to overhaul the design now.

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end of prologue

content analysis project

1. so, about that semester project
2. what went well
3. things to improve upon

so, about that semester project

I performed a competetive audit of the STUDY EXPLORER for Graz University of Technology (my employer) under the supervision of Doris Eichmeier. Here's a brief summary of what that website even does:

The STUDY EXPLORER is an interactive guide for choosing a bachelor's degree at Graz University of Technology. To get a recommendation and reach a decision, the user rates questions based on their personal preferences, on a scale of 1 to 5. These questions are divided into 4 categories, and concern some or all of the 21 bachelor study programs. In the end, all of those studies are listed in descending order by preference, starting with the most relevant one (believed to fit the user's needs the most, based on their inputs).

what went well

I liked the topic. While the STUDY EXPLORER started out as a website that I was supposed to create for my work, it quickly turned into a sort of passion project of mine. I strongly identify with its mission and purpose, which helps me genuinely enjoy developing it further.

I liked putting my recent experience in doing competitive audits to use, thereby expanding my knowledge in this discipline. It made my participation in the Content Strategy master's degree at FH JOANNEUM feel actually meaningful.

And I also liked my supervisor, Doris Eichmeier. Giving me and my colleagues just the right combination of enough space to work at our own pace, make mistakes, find out what sticks and what doesn't. Yet simultaneously also helping us pull through, giving pointers and direction when needed, and seeming involved and fascinated by our ideas and projects at the same time.

things to improve upon

I've already reflected on a couple of factors within my written work, so go ahead and find it buried somewhere in Zotero in case you're interested in that. But here's a new insight which I didn't include there:

Procrastination is a ****. I keep wondering again and again how it can be so difficult to just do it. Take some time, sit down, and start researching/writing/working. It's not like this was my first attempt at (scientific) writing/working on a large written project. But getting it done always seems hard. When in reality, it really isn't. Once you compose yourself and simply get to it.

How do I plan to do this right the next time around? Well, I believe I need some "external pressure". Someone who's waiting for progress. Someone who frequently asks for updates or results. Someone to remind me of the deadline. Stuff like that.

Sounds horrible, I know. Spelling it out like that makes me not want it either. However, I do think that kind of guidance would enable me to do even better. Or maybe, that's not even necessary.

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Will I manage to learn from these past mistakes? The second semester's content design project will show that, I suppose!

A lot of "reflection" going on here recently, right? Well, apparently, that's what this portfolio is all about!

I was recently invited by my colleague Omar Alsarayreh (whose name I actually feel confident pronouncing correctly!) to join him for an episode of his podcast. He wanted to "discuss our master's program from lifestyle and day-to-day perspective". Feeling slightly honored to be asked, I of course agreed! So here's how it went.

you can listen to the episode here (once it is released by the end of June!)

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COS life in a podcast

To be honest, I was actually a little nervous at first. However, Omar did a great job in creating a chill atmosphere that was not tense at all, but instead just felt like having a normal chat with a friend. Granted, I also knew the talking points beforehand and had made up my mind about a couple of things to mention. Still, by the time we were done, I was already fully into it and would've loved to keep up the conversation.

Afterwards, I remembered having thought about setting up a tech-podcast with another friend of mine a couple years back. We'd often have these discussions about new products, software updates, our preferred type of note-taking app or whatever for hours on end. So why not record the whole thing and put it on Spotify? (we never did though)

side note

This actually wasn't my first ever "podcast".

Ok, so I never joined someone else's podcast before. But there were two personal projects I've worked on, which both involved me sitting in front of my laptop and recording my voice. Granted, I was reading back the content from a document I had written shortly before, which makes it more like narration of a story, but still. I think it counts!

why bring this up now?

Well, you see, those projects are definitely part of the reason for why I joined this master's degree. Back then, I was creating small snippets of content for a website on a daily basis. I realised how much I enjoyed this work – it felt fulfilling, satisfying and genuinely fun (albeit a little stressful at times). The entire process from brainstorming, ideation, drafting, writing, executing, creating text or images or pieces of the site and making it all come together, that was awesome! I was telling a story, all parts of it, and it was my responsibility to care for and meaningfully present it. Considering some of the things we're learning here in Content Strategy, a lot of it feels natural to me.

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Once again, thank you Omar for having me join your podcast, it was my pleasure! Perhaps we can revisit some of the questions once again towards the end of our program, to see what's changed?

I don't like doing "here's my top 3 insights from XYZ" type of content. But I still want to share some things about Arvid Brobeck's recent workshop.

Sometimes, words or sentences remind me of songs. Notice those musical notes next to some words? Don't be afraid to click them ;)

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some reasonable observations

1. good enough
2. the placeholder is a content decision
3. why are you here?

As eluded to before in an earlier article of mine, sometimes it is sufficient to create content that is just good enough. Most businesses cannot afford to waste resources on improvements that take 80% of the total time invested, while yielding only 20% of a product's overall value. I know this, I've known it for years and still I'll need someone to remind me of it every now and then. In almost all cases, I'm not creating something for myself, but rather, for somebody else. A company, a target audience, a user who simply isn't me. Not everything I make must necessarily become a passion project of mine. Sometimes, good enough is indeed good enough.

Content should not come last. But then again, what should? It seems to me like everything must be considered early on, or before something else, and definitely not as an afterthought. Although prioritization itself might be a discussion for another day.

By avoiding placeholders in headings or navigational interfaces, a decision is forced early on. This can be great, not only to sort out what needs to be done at some point anyway. It also portrays a clearer, more true picture of what the final product will actually look and feel like, which is always something I want to support.

The default is still a decision.

In some cases, the occasional "coming soon" may be appropriate. For example, I find my placeholder texts quite amusing (the ones on this site for articles that are undecided yet). And I'll probably still use Lorem Ipsum from time to time – I don't think that's always wrong.

The moment you've been waiting for. A million answers are correct, and everyone has their own. Mine is: To care.

About content (duh). The user's experience. Details. Making sense. Capturing the whole and doing the right thing and keeping it that way.
And so much more.

But to be able to do that, I need to learn. Gain confidence. Build credibility and a reputation that say's "I'm the one who can make it happen and bring it all together". Only then will I be in the room where it happens. Where the possible paths are discussed and decisions are made.

That's what I'm here for.

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Curious what others thought? Continue reading my colleague's posts, Maty Mihalko or Angela Lau.

Back in June of 2018 (when I was still at school), I held a presentation on "Artificial Intelligence" together with 2 friends, as part of an exercise for our English class. We were fascinated by this (what we thought was a relatively new) technology and the things it could achieve in the future. In retrospect, much of what we discussed was perhaps a bit out of scope (like the details of how AI was portrayed in various science fiction or fantasy movies), but other things still hold true today (like moral dilemmas and the question of responsibility).

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AI

1. what I think about it
2. how I use it
3. should I use it more?

what I think about it

AI in its various forms is an amazing tool. I like progress, and have always been a fan of technology I highly anticipate change, most of the time. When utilized for the right purpose by someone who knows what they're doing, I'm convinced that this "invention" makes so much sense. And I'm absolutely certain it has plenty of very productive and useful applications. But the hype is just too much.

I don't like generic, bland, repetitive, average. Yet it seems like that's exactly what most AI produces. It's never perfect, always off by a little bit, doesn't stand out, simply lacking the final touch. While it can get you 80% of the way there, it crashes on the final straight. As long as that doesn't change, I'm not scared of it. Just let me take you all the way to the finish line.

how I use it

Well, not a whole lot, to be honest.

When I start working on a new task, my first intuition is not to dump everything from the task description into ChatGPT and wait for a response. I prefer to think by myself. To ideate what can and can't be done. To discuss my thoughts with others and get their input as well. I like to browse online for tools that might be helpful, approaches which have tried and tested, processes that have proven themselves to be useful. And then I go ahead and try out those things.

When I'm done, I don't ask ChatGPT for approval. I don't instruct it to polish my creation. I don't let it reformat what I wrote. This is my work, and I want it to stay that way.

Only when I'm really stuck, is when I reach out for artificial intelligence. After having searched for a solution to the problem myself. After having asked colleagues or friends about the issue. After having gone out of my way to not use AI.

There are exceptions to that, though. When a task seems completely overwhelming from the get-go (simply because I lack any sort of required expertise), then I might turn to AI straight away. Or when I know, based on experience, that AI can help me solve this issue within a minute or two, while anything else would take at least 10x that long. Or when I'm curious as to whether AI would have delivered the same conclusion that I came to. (after all, despite myself obviously not being a huge fan of AI, I (sometimes) try to keep an open mind at let myself be proven wrong)

should I use it more?

perhaps...

It might help me to improve my productivity. Learn new things I didn't know about before. Consider alternative perspectives I might have otherwise missed. Which begs the question:
Why don't I just use it more often, try to integrate it into my workflows, and so on?

Probably because I'm scared of the uncertainty of answers being incorrect, and me being responsible for it. "It's the user's fault" holds true here in my opinion. So I want to be careful, do my own due diligence. Which seems cumbersome, but not every task requires absolute correctness, right?

From now on, I'll try to think about whether AI might make sense a bit more often. I hope you do too!

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No AI was used in the creation of this article, or any of my other articles, or even this entire portfolio. I'll update this line as soon as that changes ;)

you can watch the full talk on YouTube

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getting to know the web

To kick things off, I totally agree with Sophie's mindset of "you need to learn the basics first". Jumping straight into a framework, or vibe coding your way through will only get you so far. Such attempts often fall short in various ways, because best practices, coding standards, performance or accessibility optimizations, etc. are disregarded simply for lack of expertise in these fundamentals.

exploring the internet

I remember Christmas back in 2008, when I got my first laptop from my grandfather. Amazingly, my family already had wifi at home by then. It didn't take long for me to start experimenting with personal website builders/providers - in 2010, I was using "nPage" (because "Google Sites" had failed to satisfy my needs, but I did switch to "Jimdo" later) to create a collection of Adobe Flash based games. My friends liked it, so I kept trying out new things, like creating a wiki for all the items of "BrickForce" (a game I used to play), or a helpful list of tips and tricks for Apple devices (I was fascinated by the iPad when it was introduced). Unfortunately, all those pages are lost by now - I never considered archiving/saving them.

the current state

One thing that stood out to me was Sophie mentioning "what's wrong with the current state of the web". Don't get me wrong, I do agree that there's problems which need fixing and should be addressed (like how I cannot, for the love of god, seem to find the opening hours and a menu on what seems like 9/10 restaurant websites). All jokes aside, I believe that the web will always keep moving in some direction. I evolves, changes, improves in certain regards and gets worse in other aspects. But crucially, it stays being dynamic. The early web was never perfect either (or so I would at least assume, not that I was around in 1994). And neither will the web ever be perfect in the future. But it can keep being engaging, fun, annoying, informative, and so much more. This interactive form of media we have created is capable of so many things. Let silly sites be one of them!

Build your own website. Make it fun. Make it pointless. Make it YOURS.

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I would personally love to see the internet go back to being in a state where people just create things they are passionate about, purely without commercial interest. Be it a blog, portfolio, minigame or just some silly joke project. Perhaps we should be asking: Can't these things just coexist with all the other stuff?