Chasing Creativity

The news of Steve Jobs’ passing and one particular article I read from NPR got me thinking about the role Apple, as a consumer electronics company, and Jobs, as the genius behind many of the products I use daily, played in my life. While I’m not suggesting Apple or Jobs are the reason I am who I am today, I am certain that my life would be much different without Apple the company or Steve Jobs the visionary.

Image by Jonathan Mak

As I sit down to write this post on my MacBook Pro, I am surrounded by Apple products; I use my Mac laptop daily and my iPhone or iPad are almost always within arms reach. I find this to be the case for many Apple users; once an Apple product enters their life, they find it nearly impossible to remember what life was like before that product. This was the case with my first Apple computer, with the original iPhone, and most recently with the iPad. Most people who know me know I’ve been a diehard Mac user for nearly five years now; but I wasn’t always an Apple user or even much of a technology enthusiast.

There was a time when I was someone who simply tolerated computers. I worked on a Windows computer during the day and came home to a Dell laptop that I used begrudgingly to surf the Internet. One day, after growing tired of constant updates for Windows and anti-virus software, I decided to make the switch. Yes, Apple computers were more expensive, but oh so cool looking; and the promise of a virus-free world was simply too hard to ignore. I eventually settled on a white MacBook and haven’t looked back since. Five years later, I am typing this blog post from my second Mac, a 15″ MacBook Pro that is still going strong after 3+ use of near daily use.

Not only am I now a total Mac evangelist, but I’ve also managed to go from working as an environmental engineer to working on the product development team for a software company. Granted I use a Dell laptop begrudgingly during the day, but I’ve been able to go from a career I tolerate to one I truly enjoy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying switching to a Mac changed my life nor am I suggesting buying Apple products will change yours. But switching to a Mac did change my perspective on technology. Instead of fighting with my computer, I began to actually enjoy using one. I started using iPhoto to manage and edit pictures from my vacations and iTunes to download and listen to music and podcasts. The combination of these two applications (that come free with every Mac) changed the way I interacted with my computer and the activities I enjoyed away from it.

It wasn’t the products themselves that changed my perspective on technology, but the user experience that is central to every Apple product. Without that little detail that Jobs and Apple worked so hard to build into product, I may not have bought into the Apple experience. And without the Apple experience, I may very well be sitting in my living room somewhere not writing this blog post on a Dell laptop and not having found photography or any of the other creative endeavors that are so central to my life today.

I started my first photography blog in 2008 on WordPress.com; less than a year later, I moved to Squarespace. I was looking for more customization options and Squarespace provided that up until I took my blog down in 2010. So when I started Chasing Creativity last month, I naturally went back to what I knew, Squarespace. But as I thought more about what I wanted for this blog, I questioned my decision and revisited WordPress.

I began by importing my existing posts to WordPress and browsing for a theme. The more I looked into WordPress, the more I liked what I found. Not only did it make sense financially, ($12/year for domain mapping on WordPress versus $13/month for Squarespace) but WordPress just seemed a better choice for me; and here’s why.

Workflow

One of the most important things for me was to find something that suited my mobile workflow. Even though the Squarespace iOS App worked fine with the iPad, I just couldn’t find a way to create posts with images without having to make changes on a computer. The WordPress iOS App, however, just worked. After importing pictures onto the iPad and making edits with SnapSeed, I was able to upload images with the WordPress iOS App and create posts without fixing layout issues on a computer. Since I’m hoping to do more traveling in the near future, the ability to share the images I make on the road was key.

WordPress iOS App

Simplicity

While I initially left WordPress for the lack of customization options, this time around, I found the simplicity refreshing. Instead of spending days customizing every detail on Squarespace, I spent a few hours finding and tweaking a theme I liked on WordPress to get what you now see. The limited choice for theme options with most WordPress themes was actually a plus and I felt it would let me focus more on content and less on the look of my blog. Even though all the bells and whistles available with Squarespace were great, they just didn’t seem necessary for what I wanted now for my blog.

Adaptability

Another thing that sold me on WordPress, and the reason I wanted to focus on content, was the built-in support for mobile and iPad versions of my blog. Without any work on my part, I was able to provide a clean and simple experience for smartphones or an elegant and smooth interface for iPads. I’m sure I could have provide similar versions with a little work in Squarespace, but the fact that I didn’t have to do a thing on WordPress was just icing on the cake.

iPad Version by Onswipe

So those are the reasons I’m back on WordPress. I know it may be unfair to compare the free version of WordPress with a paid service like Squarespace because Squarespace provides hosting. But for someone like me that’s rebuilding my blog and my audience, WordPress.com is just a better choice.