Darcey Beau - Darcey Beau

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Darcey Beau

Freelance Designer

True North: Living life on your own terms

True North: Living life on your own terms

It appears common for people in their late twenties and early thirties to come to the realisation that they've waited too long to chase after their dreams They often feel stuck, caught between the choice of "settling down" and taking risk to pursue a life that

The Nomad Parlay: My 6 stage playbook to travel forever

The Nomad Parlay: My 6 stage playbook to travel forever

I’ve been travelling the world indefinitely since 2016 I always get asked: "When will you stop? What are your plans? Where are you going next?" The truth is, these are the types of questions I’ve asked myself every day for the last 2,190+ days How

A story of implementation: How I changed the weather

A story of implementation: How I changed the weather

"Having the freedom to decide how you spend your time on this planet is the most valuable asset you’ll ever have"

Why I’m betting big on Web 3.0

User experience

Why I’m betting big on Web 3.0

Web 3.0 ≡ version 3 of the internet. The simplest way to identify the difference between Web 1. 2. 3 is: 1. Read 2. Read / Write 3. Read / Write / Own Like many people who first dabble into blockchain and crypto there is an invisible event horizon you will inevitably surpass

Hard choices, easy life

Hard choices, easy life

"Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life." - Jerzy Gregorek

One of the highest returns on intellectual capital

One of the highest returns on intellectual capital

When you spend time on the bridge of a ship with a large compass in front, you can easily develop the impression that the compass is directing the ship rather than merely reflecting its direction. This is called an epiphenomenal belief. In an epiphenomenon, you don’t usually observe A

Which jobs won’t be remote in the future?

Which jobs won’t be remote in the future?

I came across this video of an excavator operator in Germany digging in Korea. This lead me to think, with the advent of new tech and 5G - what jobs won’t become remote in the future? 🎥 Excavator operator in Germany digging in Korea [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

4 things I learnt from 5 days of vlogging

4 things I learnt from 5 days of vlogging

Possibly one of the hardest parts about vlogging is accepting you look like a fool and risking the fact you may look like an idiot. Once you’ve accepted that without caring about it too much, the rest is relatively straight forward.

7 things I deliberately avoid

7 things I deliberately avoid

Inversion is rarely considered an accomplishment. It’s much easier to sell: “look at what I did for you.” Rather than: “look what I avoided for you.” Inversion has been a strategy I’ve employed throughout my life. An example would be: avoiding role models. Instead, I had 'anti-role

Day 5: Transitions

User experience

Day 5: Transitions

Based on the prototypes we came up with on Day 4, we can really start to create a realistic-looking flow from the splash screen all the way to some specific data points in a particular destination. This would almost be enough to qualify as our first MVP (minimal viable product)

Day 4: Prototyping

User experience

Day 4: Prototyping

Today we start to visualise all of the work we've done so far. Using the sketches, user flow and data points as a reference to achieve the goal we set out to tackle right at the beginning of the project: > A simple, easily navigable application for digital

Day 3: Wireframing

User experience

Day 3: Wireframing

We've got a lot done already. The foundation of the app in terms of data points and user flows are fine for now. We can use these to start piecing together some rough sketches and feature ideas Today is all about working hard to put as much down

Day 2: User flows

User experience

Day 2: User flows

Now we've kicked off this project with the initial ideation phase [https://darcey.io/im-designing-an-app-in-5-days/], it's time to get a rough outline of a high-level user flow. This will give us a loose framework to start sketching ideas and understanding the overarching architecture. At this stage,

I'm designing an app in 5 days

User experience

I'm designing an app in 5 days

I'm an advocate for doing stuff instead of talking about stuff. I always have been and always will be. Which is the main reason I hate meetings and is the sole reason why I'm designing an app in 5 days. Day 1: The idea Today I

How my photo’s got 2.5 million views

How my photo’s got 2.5 million views

Today I surpassed 2.5million views, 27,000 downloads and almost 300 likes on Unsplash. This post outlines how this happened My Unsplash stats [https://unsplash.com/@darceybeau/] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I started to use Unsplash [https://unsplash.com/@darceybeau/] around December 2018. For those who have no idea what Unsplash is,

The efflorescence of nomadic entrepreneurs

The efflorescence of nomadic entrepreneurs

The 24th December 2018 marked my first expedition to Chiang Mai, Thailand. 432 years after Ralph Fitch [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Fitch], the first recorded Englishman to step foot into Chiang Mai back in 1586 For those unfamiliar with the significance of this journey; Chiang Mai is universally

A numinous adventure into a digital nomadic lifestyle

A numinous adventure into a digital nomadic lifestyle

In short; Digital nomads are people who use telecommunication technologies to earn a living, and more generally, conduct their life in a nomadic manner. From my recent (and frankly, fragmental) experience, I would identify and summarise this lifestyle as one which is bespoke, crafted with care and moulded by the

User experience

Incremental changes to a mediocre product, will end in its demise

Product design is becoming more of an intensely fierce and competitive production. We’re living in a world today where there are thousands of small, agile companies with the single focused aim of being ‘disruptive players’within their dedicated industry. Ultimately, in order to come even close to this competition

6 things I’ve learnt from 2 years of travel

6 things I’ve learnt from 2 years of travel

Almost 2 years have passed since I commenced my Digital Nomadic adventure [https://medium.com/@DarceyBeau/a-numinous-adventure-into-a-digital-nomadic-lifestyle-2445b9fe498a] . During this time, me and my terrible sense of direction somehow managed to navigate to over 30 countries, spending a grand-total of 7 days worth of time on countless flights. Naturally, that’s

User experience

UX Essentials: Fitt’s Law

Many people perceive user interface design to be more of an art, opposed to a science. However, Fitt’s law [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255638674_Evaluation_of_Mouse_and_Touch_Input_for_a_Tabletop_Display_Using_Fitts%27_Reciprocal_Tapping_Task?_sg=biaGFvXLuFeRJWrcwt2496dpX5sXzobZTRjTtBgbNjFrASRLp_3mEmxqBlVPcPCdTH7OWmUrBw] is a mathematical equation which

The user experience of urban planning

User experience

The user experience of urban planning

Modern metropolises Modern metropolises are often divided into a grid system of single use zones with the perceived benefit of efficiency and functionalism. Apartment blocks, shopping malls, business parks and leisure areas are built and subsequently connected to each other by various means of transportation. Regardless of the perceived efficiency