Swimming With Sharks

Hack Design - A Primer On Software Design Principles

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:47:18 -0400

Although keeping up with the skills I learned at Grooveshark while in school is difficult, I have been greatly helped by websites like Hack Design which provides simple lessons into various aspects of digital design.

These lessons range from color correction in Photoshop to Typographic principles to UX principles and concepts. New lessons are created each month and include articles as well as tools and resources for the budding designer or developer looking to learn some basic design principles.

Services like Hack Design, Code Academy, and others are a great way to try something new and expand your knowledge of the various disciplines that make up a great product.

Update

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 08:57:39 -0500

It has been some time since my last post. In that time I have left Grooveshark to study law at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, GA. Since that time, Grooveshark has undergone a beautiful redesign and I recommend checking it out.

My passion for startups and entrepreneurship hasn’t changed however. In what spare time I have, I continue to read and learn more in the hopes of being able to contribute once again someday.

Be Your Own CEO

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:30:45 -0400

Over the weekend I completed reading Zynga: From Outcast to $9 Billion Social-Game Powerhouse wherein Mark Pincus described a management technique he applied at an earlier startup he founded.

The basic notion, as Mark told Fast Company, is that “if you have clear goals and people know they own them, it makes up for a lot. No one likes to be given a list of tasks. You want to know what hill you’re supposed to take and the fun is figuring out how.”

Fostering real ownership and stake in company decisions and product is the surest way to have employees involve themselves organically and enthusiastically.

What We've Been Up To

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 21:44:59 -0500

Things have been a buzz at Grooveshark lately and we have big plans for 2012! The world may be ending but we are intent on making Grooveshark easier to use for a broader audience than ever.

For those of you encountering issues, check out the redesigned Grooveshark Help. In addition to the snazzy new Grooveshark colors, we tried to make searching as effortless as possible by grouping the articles more intelligently by topic and subtopics.

Dropping a line to our dedicated support sharks is a cinch with the Contact Us section included on the right side of every page. It is now simpler than ever to let us know how we can improve Grooveshark or just to ask for some tech help.

We have also launched html5.grooveshark.com for mobile browsers accessible on all devices from iPhones to Kindle Fires. Though only in a Beta with limited functionality, the HTML5 mobile version of Grooveshark has already been used by over 40,000 people at the time of writing.

I look forward to the fresh perspective these new eyes and ears will bring with them, furthering the development of Grooveshark into a product of greater quality and enjoyment.

What A Year It Has Been

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:44:48 -0500

Develop with the 51 best and worst quotes of 2011 here.

Values not valuables.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:51:27 -0500

Values not valuables.

Too Much of A Good Thing

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:32:00 -0500

I recently picked Borderlands up again after a 2+ year hiatus. The last time I tried playing the post-apocalyptic team-based shooter, there was a crippling bug that prevented any progress from being saved beyond the 5-hour mark. The only thing worse than discovering that your hard trip through Pandora, blasting baddies with a friend, was erased was when it happened a second time.

Tired of being fooled, I tucked the game away to pick it up when Gearbox managed to patch it up. Over two years since, the bugs have been eradicated and I recently finished a playthrough with a friend. Putting in close to 40 hours into a game gives you a strong appreciation for its strengths as well as its faults.

Interestingly, even the sheen from the game’s features begin to show the tarnish before long. The massive array of guns found in Borderlands is tantalizing enough throughout most of the early campaign but as the novelty wears off and the passionless, routine search for better weapons becomes standard fare, what was once a draw in becomes a chore.

The dizzying weapon possibilities means distinguishing one weapon’s worth on the battlefield in comparison to your own outfit requires the following accounting: picking up the weapon, navigating to the item screen, comparing the properties of the newfound weapon to your current setup, weighing the pros of a better zoom with the cons of less damage, ascertaining the worth of elemental effects in terms of damage per shot, and so forth. Rinse and repeat x 1000 as every enemy is bound to drop a weapon at some point. I once killed an Ant Soldier, back from an afternoon of skeet shooting I suppose, who managed to drop a corrosive sniper rifle upon combustion.

In trying to be the best shooter possible by providing an absurd amount of guns, Borderlands provides the player with too much of a good thing. Players are left with a game consumed by frequent visits to the menu system. Plagued by over complication, the resulting experience is the very opposite of the visceral excitement which has come to define shooters of the modern generation.

Much More Than A Pretty Face

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:57:00 -0400

This morning the Grooveshark redesign was rolled out to our premium subscribers through preview.grooveshark.com—a video introducing the new features can be found here. The new layout will be available for our entire user base in a few weeks once any newly found bugs are resolved and any design alterations are implemented.

The degree of commitment I have witnessed by the developers and designers in these last few weeks has been inspiring—to say the least. Just consider that over 50, 000 new lines of code had to be written for this redesign to become a reality!

The dedication shown by all those involved, embodied in their unparalleled work ethic, is something that should be strived for by all, regardless of occupation or industry.

Grooveshark on Your TV!

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:57:00 -0400

It has arrived!

The Grooveshark application for Boxee was released yesterday, August 11th, in the wee hours of the morning. The application has been in development for several months with a whole host of individuals involved in this project from developers to designers to QA testers. The current release is, when compared to Grooveshark.com, comparatively light—the lack of radio being the most apparent distinction. However, this release is version 1.0 and, as such, was intended to support basic functionality such as searching for, and streaming, music.

Since the release of the application to the public, I have been monitoring feedback across social media and within Grooveshark’s own community support channels. So far, I am relieved to say, the response has been wholly positive. There are still some known bugs which are in need of immediate fixing but, after rigorous testing, the incidence of newfound, similarly dire bugs has diminished.

Testing the Boxee application and working alongside the developers to tackle any problems which arose, as well as providing my own personal user impression of the application has been an enjoyable experience. This is the first Grooveshark product where the majority of testing fell to me and it was, I admit, a bit daunting initially.

In the short time I have been working in quality assurance, I have come to realize that to best understand how a product can be improved requires far more than a cursory overview of its features. It requires direct, hands-on experience with the product over a prolonged period of time. Exploring the application, developing a feel for its features and, perhaps most importantly, its limitations made the QA process more intuitive as I had come to replace Grooveshark.com with the Boxee application for my music needs.

By developing a level of comfort with the product, a plateauing of satisfaction will take place within the user experience. At this point, users will desire greater usability from the product whether it be in the form of aesthetic design changes or feature recommendations which may change the way the product operates.

The role of the QA tester, in addition to catching critical bugs and technical slipups, is to precipitate any such changes in the tide. This benefits not only the developers, who find themselves with a greater foresight into how the product should move forward, but the users as well, whose collective wishing acts to amplify the recommendations put forth prior by the QA flag-bearer.

The First Gasp

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 03:54:00 -0400

Hello Internet!

I have been meaning to start a blog for sometime. Every time I attempted to begin I was preoccupied with the precise tone, appearance, and content of the blog to be completed and would, inevitably, brush it aside in favor of more immediate concerns.

But no more! So, I decided to bite the bullet and begin this blog. Though I am not sure of my exact motivation I think it comes from a selfish desire to be heard because I think I am worth listening to; if you consider that a poor reflection of my character, I can at least take solace in knowing ~750 million others share this same narcissism (see: Facebook).

It is only fair that if I expect anyone to listen, they should expect an explanation as to who I am. My name is Gene Goldmintz and I work as a Community Developer at Grooveshark. I am a videogame enthusiast and my posts will reflect this obnoxiously. My goals in life are to continue learning and to eventually play a part in the videogame industry to ensure this unique medium can be appreciated by as many people as possible.

I try to take advantage of every free minute I have and hope to prepare well-thought out, deliberate, and reflective posts in the future.