Tariq Ismail

If you can’t get through your day with one or more cups of tea, the most important phrase you need to know as you roam the markets of Dubai (and the UAE) is “Ek karak chai” which loosely translates from Hindi/Urdu into English as “One strong tea [please].” Toronto’s got its hot dog stands, London’s got its Fish & Chips, in Bangkok you’ll find anything from fried coakroaches to freshly cut fruits, in Dubai our equivalent to street food is our vast oversupply of Cafeterias.

Our cafeterias serve shawarmas, sandwiches, fresh juices, and most importantly Chai (tea). And its not just any tea cooked with a tea bag, to make karak chai water is boiled and then loose tea is added and boiled for two to three minutes. Then a little bit of milk and sugar are added. The tea is ready when it starts boiling again after adding the milk. Its unique taste is a treat every time.

So who then is the chai-wala? To the people working in the shops and stores in the markets he’s more popular than Santa Claus. He’s that wonderful being who brings you your piping hot chai right to your store front exactly one moment before your craving for tea popped into your head. He’s always there, never late, and you know as soon as you see his familiar face that you’re in for a treat that is going to help kick start your day or to rekindle your spark in the late afternoon to help you get through the rest of your day.

[Cost of 1 Cup of Tea = Dhs. 1 ($0.30)]

I’ve come to accept the reality that in my new line of work, I’m not always going to be on the cutting edge of technology. In fact, in a few short months I’ve seemed to go from early adopter to the sad kid in the corner who doesn’t ever know what’s going on. I’m exaggerating, I don’t think I’m that bad just yet. Nonetheless, I’ve realized that while many people I know who’ve acquired an iPad recently and then gone and downloaded every app they could land their eyes on, I’ve been very conservative in the way I’ve used my iPad, using it as a tool to read articles and blogs online, surf the web, check emails, and to use Skype. Like I said in my last post, its really replaced 99% of what I use my computer at home for. Its only reasonable then that I’m probably very late in posting a blog entry on my discovery of Flipboard and deep affection for this app, but in the hopes that I might be able to guide some poorer soul than myself towards the light and for the sheerly for the reason that I can, I’m going to go ahead and write about my discovery.

If you own an iPad and you haven’t tried out Flipboard yet, you are indeed a poorer soul than I. It is by far my favorite app on the iPad right now. Basically, this app pulls your social media feeds (i.e. facebook, twitter, etc.) and any other news feeds from some great online publishers like the Huffington Post, etc and lays it all out in a very cool interactive magazine layout. I never use the twitter app on my iPad anymore, and I never open Facebook on my iPad’s web browser, or any other website anymore. All my feeds are called straight into Flipboard and its so much for fun and interesting getting all my news this way. Check out the video if you’re not convinced.

Even though I’m only getting a chance to publish this blog entry after returning from my trip due to the the lack of free wifi Internet availability at airports, I’m sitting here writing this post from my iPad at the panorama lounge in transit at Zurich Airport.

Every time I travel I carry my heavy, overloaded laptop bag with a similar packing list every time: 15″ MacBook, my point and shoot digital camera, an iPod (these days it’s the new iPod touch), my AKG420 head phones, my blackberry torch with an unlimited roaming data plan, and of course of all the relevant cables, chargers, and regional power adaptors. I would also usually carry my Sony HD Handycam.

Now here’s all I really needed on this trip:

1. My new iPod touch – functions great for music, quick access to the web where wifi is available, takes very decent photos and shoots HD video. I had no use for my digital camera, it was just taking up space and weight.

2. My iPad – since I bought my iPad 2, i barely ever use my laptop at home even, (and I have my 27″ core-i7 iMac at the office) and I didn’t touch it once on my trip. It was the perfect travel companion, pre-loaded with a bunch of ebooks and videos and a few key apps (and even a few rarely played games) I had absolutely no use for my laptop. Even though many airports still charge an arm for wifi Internet access, at least I had wifi access at the hotels which was enough to check email, Facebook, twitter, and do a little bit of reading online. Between the Flipboard app and the CNN app (which now let’s u stream CNN’s live broadcast to your iPad) I was set for content when connected.

3. My blackberry torch – if wifi was freely available everywhere as it should be in this day and age I wouldn’t need this either, but the blackberry is still an occupational requirement. Together with Etisalat’s Unlimited Global Roaming Plan, the blackberry connected me to the office when wifi failed me.

With all these portable, easy to carry, and extremely functional mobile devices, the use for our bulky oversized gadgets is severely diminished. Unless you’re an avid photographer or can’t lice without your world of Warcraft fix, I don’t see the point of carrying bulky cameras and laptops around when you travel anymore. I for one have learned the secret to traveling light.

Recently we were approached by an old friend we knew from Western. By we I mean iUnituS (don’t know what iUnituS is? I’ll explain later). So anyways this guy was with the TEDxUWO organizing committee and needed help to develop a website. I love everything TED, its a fantastic initiative and frankly speaking I was honored to build a website for such a great initiative. We were told that time was of the essence, so we pushed ourselves. Luckily for us, iUnituS’ team is spread out over several different timezones, so when one of us went to bed somebody else continued where we took off. It was a great exercise, it was quite fun to work on a such a collaborative and fast-paced project knowing that through the power of the web the sheer size of land and water mass that separated us made no difference.

Now, sure we were happy to be helping out an old friend and supporte a great initiative, but like I said there’s no such thing as a free lunch. We’re all very busy people, we have day jobs, careers, and plenty of other great initiatives that we could be working on. We knew that building this site would be great for PR. It has been awhile since we’ve had any public activity, and this would be a nice way to get our name out there to a crowd that we believe is very much like us.

All of a sudden though, our old friend disappeared. For many days he harassed us to get the website up as quickly as possible, and then we finished it, he disappeared. We tried very hard to get a hold of him, but he still hasn’t gotten back to us. We’ve learned a very important lesson from all of this which unfortunately means we’re going to change the way do things from now on:

1. Don’t work for free! It’s not worth it. If you consider yourself a professional at what you do, you deserve to be paid. When you give away your work for free, people end up not valuing the work you do.

2. Avoid working with people you consider your friends, and if you have to, ask for full payment in advance. Your friends will take your work less seriously, and at the end of the day the two types of relationships, client and friend, should remain mutually exclusive.

We have no regrets about doing the job, we had a great time, and we learn a lot with every new project we do. We’re just a little disappointed that we wont get a chance to show a piece of work that we’re quite proud of and unfortunately never work again with our old friend.

If you want to check out our work for TEDxUWO you can see the beta site on our test server at http://iunitus.com/tedxuwo. Keep in mind that we were still waiting on final content and we had a few more tweaks to do once it went live.

We’re always pleased to receive any constructive feedback on our work,  and we’re always looking for creative, enthusiastic, and out of the box inventors, inspirers, and innovators to join our team. If you’re interested just shoot an email over to unite@iunitus.com

Yes it actually took almost 10 years to finally get this built and published. Mind you this isn’t the first website that has been built for Al-Dar, but this is the first one that has actually been approved and been made publicly available. Every few years or so the under construction page was updated, and in 10 years this is the third design made for Al-Dar.

The challenge, like it is for oh-so-many websites, was content. In my experience developing websites, this is always the bottleneck. A company wants to develop a website, they have all these ideas in their head about how everyone has a website now, and how its about time that they have one too. So they start the process, and then they stop. Who’s going to come up the content? Nobody realizes how hard it is, until they come to it. Even a couple paragraphs ends up being this crazy task that nobody ever really has the time form. After all, its only website, it can be put off until we can find some time for it. Of course that time is really hard to come by.

For Al-Dar, the challenge wasn’t just writing the copy, but more a debate about more debate on what the best light to portray company was. With several stakeholders involved, all requiring something different out of the site. It took this long until all the decision makers could come to a unified decision, and not just a compromise, but a merging of perspectives.

A very important lesson that any web developer can tell you about (and really you learn this the hard way) is never begin developing a site until you have all the copy from your client. You’re just asking for trouble otherwise.

I have a real passion for anything creative to do with design or marketing. And as I pursue  my own career within the industry there are so many blogs and websites that I visit everyday to find inspiration, tutorials, ideas, and stay up-to-date on the latest industry trends. A friend of mine recently asked me to put together a list for them so I though I would share a few of them here (in particular order).

Note: I follow these sites on twitter. Its  a convenient way to stay up to date. And since I don’t have the luxury of sitting around all day reading articles, I’ll use Instapaper.com to bookmark my favorite links so that I can read them later on my iPad.

Smashing Magazine

One of the best resources for Web designers and developers, offering the latest information and trends.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com

Creattica

Design and Inspiration Gallery showcasing everything from Business Card Design to Logo Design, Advertising to Websites.

http://www.creattica.com

PSD Tuts+

Be sure to check out the rest of the Tuts+ network, this one is my favorite and dedicated to photoshop tutorials. Have learned countless amounts about photoshop and design by going through these tutorials.

http://psd.tutsplus.com

Inspired Magazine

Inspired Magazine is a daily inspiration source for web designers, illustrators, Twitter addicts, iPhone lovers, and other creative humans.

http://www.inspiredm.com

There are countless resources out there and so much of what I’ve learned has come from the web, but these are definitely some of the top resources out there. Post your favorite resources in the comments, I’m always trying to expand my list. (there were thumbnails but wordpress has been giving my difficulty with formatting recently)

Its remarkable how quickly time flies. Its already been a month and half since I’ve moved back to Dubai. It all happend so quickly. One moment I was still in summer school and the next moment I was frantically selling my furniture and packing my stuff. July 20th I dropped my personal belongings and car off to a freight forwarding company, who’s owner was kind enough to then drop me off at the airport and that was it. The end of a chapter of my life that lasted 4 years.

And back to Dubai, major moves are an extremely stressful activity. The pressures and stress of packing and figuring what you want to keep and what need to get rid of. Although its a great way to purge all that accumulated material junk with one swift motion. You realize that 80% of the crap you’ve gathered is a total waste of space and money, but alas the accumulation starts right over once the move is over.

Its an interesting experience starting over in a new place (even if that place was a place you’ve lived before). Four years changes a person, you’re prioties, perspectives, and lifestyle are all different. And especially when you’ve grown accustomed to living alone and doing things your own way it can be shock to having to learn how to compromise again when you move back home.

Nonetheless, the advantages are endless. Its so nice to be able to eat 3 wholesome meals a day, and that being your Mom’s amazing home cooked food. The burden of maintaing a household, from cleaning to cooking to worst of all laundry, being lifted. And of course it gives you all this new free time making one realize how much time housekeeping tasks can really take away from your day. So it has left me with a great amount of time to dedicate to personal and professional development, and surprisingly even a little bit of time to give to my endless hobbies.

It was a difficult decision to make, bringing me back to a poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, which my 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Ridley, insisted that we memorize. The poem is about those times when your life comes to a fork in the road, and you have to decide which path to take. The narrotor finally choose “the path less travelled by…” and for him that “made all the difference.” But how do you really know what decision is the right one for you? It was decision between remaining in Canada and pursuing a career there, or returning home and seeking out my opportunities here. From what I’ve been able to figure out, you don’t ever know. You just got to trust your gut.

These moments shape the outcome of your life. The opportunities look good so far. I can’t tell you yet if I took the easy way out or the hard way out by moving home. But so far I’m damn happy with the decision. Lets see what comes next.

blogging isn’t easy. i’m still having a hard time consistently updating my site. life gets busy. but new posts and updates are coming soon. what’s been going on? new logos and projects completed, in the midst of relocating back to dubai, and of course iUnituS.

things have been interesting, so will be this blog…soon.

Had to bring my car in today to the dealership (2007 Nissan Altima 3.5SE 6-speed). Barely 2 months after my warranty expires my tire pressure sensors go all crazy, one of my chrome exhaust tips falls off and today my driver side window decides it doesn’t want to close anymore.

Warranty: the built in time bomb in your toys waiting to go off.

Tried convincing them to give me the Nissan GTR they had sitting in the showroom as a loaner. Didn’t go over so well but how sexy is this car? I think I’m ready to trade up (I wish!)

http://www.ssscwestern.ca – Today I finally moved what I consider to be my first true real project to my completed projects archive. Today is a milestone for me. This project is a landmark. A door I dared to open that changed the course of my life, a changed career path, a new perspective even.

It’s astonishing how much I’ve learned through building this website. An interesting journey it was. Starting with a torrent download of a PDF copy of Web Development for Dummies in the summer, a random desire to sit in on a university student council meeting, the impeaching of a soon to become friend and respected peer, a two week insomniac binge for a  student government election campaign, and of course iUnituS.

It gave me a taste of it all–social media, web design, graphics, communications. And even now, when I have officially retired myself from the site and handed it over to its new operators, I have this urge to go back and make those small little tweaks I’ve told myself I always wanted to do and never gotten to. Of course its all those little things that keep bothering me the most, the things that most people will never notice but every time I visit the site will irritably stick out at me. I’m always going to want to come and apply every new thing I learn that I possibly can.

This is a product of many sleepless and frustrated nights. Lots of Tim Hortons coffees were bought, a lot of yelling and stomping was done, and many many set backs. The patience paid off, thats why the next few projects made it to the archives first.

Who know’s social science, maybe I’ll sneak in a few tweaks and upgrades here and there when I get my chances.

Lets see what next.

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