Studies show kids prefer Comic Sans for screen reading vs. common serif and sans-serif fonts (namely, Arial, Times, Courier). They prefer it for both appearance and readability: http://t.co/P3ebZjUi
So, if you're designing for kids, these things seem to matter less. Perhaps there's a better alternative not explored (marker felt, etc.) but there are use cases for these typefaces that adults disagree with for technical reasons.
I've found that most people don't care about this unless you're delivering an extraordinary native experience (ala Path)
A native app is great if you've got a team who can do it well. If you can't, simple PhoneGap-ish apps will suffice. It's a sunk cost in that if you get traction, you'll eventually need to switch over to native to compete: effectively a re-write.
"The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the supposed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.[1] According to this theory, as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. Brickman and Campbell coined the term in their essay "Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society" (1971).[2] During the late 1990s, the concept was modified by Michael Eysenck, a British psychologist, to become the current "hedonic treadmill theory" which compares the pursuit of happiness to a person on a treadmill, who has to keep working just to stay in the same place."
UX guy and former management consultant here. I can tell you the grass is always greener...
As a management consultant I was expected to grind out pointless "decks" (powerpoints) all day long. And all night long? Grind out RFP's for new business (which are usually more decks).
UX designers generally have a higher job satisfaction if they are with the right team. However, these jobs are difficult to get and easy to lose. Many of the UX designers I graduated with from HCI school are now looking into front-end dev, visual design and business strategy. Why? Because UX designers can easily become marginalized, and if all you can do is sketch and put together a few basic wireframes, you can quickly find yourself on the periphery of the team. You should see some of the bored/desperate emails I get from colleagues who either have 1) nothing to do or 2) don't get the respect they 'deserve'.
I was speaking with a colleague about Node and he suggested using Coffeescript instead of JS directly for the exact reasons you mentioned.
I'm also coming from Obj-C, C and Ruby background and recently read "Javascript: The Good Parts". I'm still looking for the good parts promised in the title and introduction.
Except he didn't. In douchey-business-guy fashion he tries to put an entire community of transdisciplinary people in their place by telling them to be happy with handling the technical side of things, while people like him interface with users, design the product, run the numbers, market and sell it.
I'm a programmer/interaction designer. In design school we were told by professors that "programmers think in terms of X, but designers think in terms of Y. You should never code if your a designer, and never let a programmer design" While they are correct that exercising one muscle will benefit at the exclusion of others, they go to far with the assertion that there exists some cognitive boundary between design and development. The same goes for singular-thinking business guys, like the author, who attempt to dress down engineers who want to try their hand at something new.
I've never met a engineer tell an aspiring business guy "just be a business guy, don't try to code". In fact, most engineers I know will heap praise at business people who bootstrap their idea, even if the first attempt is a bit wonky. This just proves how badly the person wants their vision to be realized.
New years resolution for 2013: stop trying to clip other's wings.
My immediate knee-jerk reaction (as someone currently in an emerging field within education): pursue it as a side project. You have a background and connections in this field, which is extremely important. Education is a notoriously difficult market to crack without some leads, and even then it could take years.
If you feel you need a set amount of time to complete this (say, a few months full time) then see if you could take a leave of absence from your current employer. If you're already on your way out for whatever reason, see if you can find some contract work on the side while you build this. You could even score some contracts within the edu industry which will also serve to build relationships toward your product offering.
Please read Linus Torvald's book "Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolution" http://www.amazon.com/Just-Fun-Story-Accidental-Revolutionar.... It mostly deals with his experience building Linux and the insane amount of work it took (he was a student at the time he wrote the first version, with the help of hundreds of other people via distributed development). It might give you some additional insight into the effort involved.
The thing I notice about a lot of software/games/whathaveyou made by people <18 is that it basically fits my expectations ("Nice going kid! This looks meh. I'll reserve any critique as you're 15")
Looking at this module, had you not informed us otherwise, I would have not have guessed the person that made this was 15. It's impressive both in its focus and goals, and having no prior experience with IM/GM I'm now even more interested in using this as a pickaxe.
You should be proud of what you've done outside of the fact that you're 15 - it's really cool!
His website was designed by agency. The agency tasked a designer to create layout, including 'patriot' photos. The designer, perhaps someone who disagrees with Santorum's politics, decided to add a photo of Moot as their own personal jab.
So, if you're designing for kids, these things seem to matter less. Perhaps there's a better alternative not explored (marker felt, etc.) but there are use cases for these typefaces that adults disagree with for technical reasons.