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Dunrie Greiling Ph.D., Ann Arbor, MI 48105

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Transition Time

July 7, 2017 by Dunrie

I am excited to say that I am joining the great people of Court Innovations.

Court Innovations is an Ann Arbor software startup, the first startup out of the University of Michigan Law School. Our mission is to increase access to justice for citizens and make the daily work of court clerks, court managers and administrators, magistrates, judges, and law enforcement easier and more efficient. Read more about our online dispute resolution platform.

We recently closed our a Series A investment round. These funds allow us to invest in technology, grow the team (including hiring me), and to expand our reach nationwide from twenty-three courts in Michigan, Ohio, and Arkansas. I can’t wait to see what’s next for us as we grow.

Filed Under: Life

Simplify for Ease and Clarity

February 1, 2017 by Dunrie

On a whim, yesterday I changed the theme of this website. I did it for my own ease of use, but the simplified layout now makes fewer points more clearly. Everyone wins!

Reasons I Switched – Simplicity, Ease, and Cost

My Fancy Design Was Too Busy

complex homepage screenshot
Here’s the top half of the old homepage with a slider with a call-to-action button.

Previously, I had been using a theme that had lots of bells and whistles (sliders, images that changed size on mouseovers, featured pages, lots of color and typography settings). The front page was fancy…and because the theme had so many fun widgets and things to customize, I had an awful lot of stuff on the homepage. I had so much stuff on the homepage that I suppressed the sidebar that had my calls-to-action (newest book, newsletter signup).

I am embarrassed to admit that the visual clutter was not the motivating factor for my abrupt switch.

The theme got harder to use

I had been struggling with customizing the theme. Some of the things that I wanted to change were not available within the customization panel inside the WordPress dashboard. When I wanted to adjust how the buttons looked, I tried editing a child theme’s CSS, I tried inserting custom CSS in the panel…I had to surf the theme’s support boards and found out that I had to add that the change I wanted was “important!” in the CSS, and even then the change only “took” some of the time. The theme was as complex inside as it was on the outside.

Then, in the last few weeks, the customization panel would blink out. I noticed this when I went to fix an editing error on a page—yikes a typo!. The error was in the featured pages on the homepage, and the only way to edit it was to use the customization panel…and the panel wouldn’t stay on the screen!

To troubleshoot, I

  • turned off the other plugins in case there was a conflict.
  • changed browsers.
  • tried to click really fast before it blinked away (I tried this more times that I should admit).
  • searched for the featured page snippet in the theme files, including the database. Likely it was there, just poorly labeled.

None of this worked.

Through trial and error, I discovered that I could trick the customization panel to stay on screen when the theme was in “live preview” mode. So I had to change my site’s theme to a different one and then I could make changes. Ugh. I put up with this oddness, because for me customizing a new theme was enough of a pain that I could tolerate temporary workarounds. Then, yesterday, I had enough.

They asked for more money

I got a friendly letter from the theme vendor (I had started with the free theme and upgraded to a paid theme with an annual fee). They wanted me to know that my premium support would run out at the end of February. I should make sure to reup!

It really didn’t seem like they had been maintaining the theme enough to deserve another payment. When I had tried to monkey with the theme by customizing it, I realized that the theme was doing a whole bunch of fancy stuff in its files that made it really hard for me, a mostly non-coder, to make changes to a child theme. Worst of all, when I went into the admin panel, the theme customization panel still blinked out. I would not repay for defective software. Bad timing on the theme developer’s part.

Simplify to See

Here’s the new homepage (as of February 2017). Simpler layout, fewer things.

I gradually fell out of love with my old theme, and then I suddenly jumped to a new one. I made the commitment yesterday afternoon and republished the site last night. This new theme has way fewer things to customize in its WYSIWYG editor/customization panel. This new theme does not have featured pages, sliders, or resize-on-hover image fun.

After removing sliders and featured pages from the homepage, I realized that the homepage copy was….weak, and I rewrote it. I had not noticed that before.

Too much stuff cluttered the sidebar on interior pages, so I simplified the sidebar. The new layout and retouched copy, although less fancy and photo-filled, better emphasize what I am seeking now – new book projects.

Under the hood, I was able to deploy Google Tag Manager directly (the old theme resisted my efforts). So now analytics tagging will also be simplified. Hooray!

The more minimal layout fits my personal style better. It’s also better suited to visitors on mobile devices. I loved the photo of the snow monkeys in the hot spring, but as cute as they are they were irrelevant to the real message. The one thing that I miss is the orange line at the very top of the page. You might see the orange line return….

What do You Think?

How do you like the new look? Clean and tidy? Or too simple/generic? Anything seem missing?

Filed Under: Web Tagged With: marketing, Web

Book Signing in Ann Arbor December 6

December 3, 2016 by Dunrie

Please join us on Tuesday, December 6, 2016, for a Book Signing Party in Ann Arbor for

Self-Aware: A Guide for Success in Work and Life
Self-Aware: A Guide for Success in Work and Life

Self-Aware: A Guide for Success in Work and Life

We will

  • have books available for purchase,
  • sign books you bring,
  • share in a little wine, sparkling water, and cheese,
  • enjoy a little music, and
  • have fun in each others’ company.

Location: Pure Visibility, Inc., 415 N. Fifth Avenue, 2nd Floor, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (map).

Please RSVP via Eventbrite.

Filed Under: Ann Arbor Tagged With: Ann Arbor, Books, writing

Video Excerpt – Writing and Self-Publishing

November 15, 2016 by Dunrie

Last Friday morning, Robert Pasick, Ph.D., and I spoke at Leaders Connect, a networking event at Zingerman’s Roadhouse in Ann Arbor. Our topic was “Ten Steps to Meaningful Goals for 2017,” based on our recent book Self-Aware: A Guide for Success in Work and Life.

If you’re interested, you can watch the entire hour-plus of video on YouTube here.

I thought I’d share a quick video excerpt here, about three minutes of Rob and I chatting about how we collaborated on the book.

Filed Under: Ann Arbor, Web Tagged With: Events, writing

Announcements: New Book

October 4, 2016 by Dunrie

Over the summer, Robert Pasick and I collaborated on Self-Aware: A Guide for Success in Work and Life. The book grew out of Rob’s teaching at the University of Michigan and his experience as a psychologist and executive coach. I helped with the book editing, book project management, and publishing it to ebook and paperback.

Self-Aware – the Book

The book guides students through self-discovery assessments and reflection exercises. These activities help the reader explore their

  • strengths,
  • personality,
  • interests,
  • self-care requirements (mind and body),
  • mission and core values,
  • lifestyle values—balancing work, family, friends, health, self, and
  • sweet spot—the intersection of what you’re good at, what you can be paid for, what aligns with your values, and your passions.

The book coaches the student to write their own vision for success and a short and long term plan.

Self-Aware: A Guide for Success in Work and Life

Throughout, the book emphasizes that we don’t accomplish these things solo. We achieve things and learn through interacting with the world and through the support and guidance of friends, family, mentors, and good examples. Throughout the project, Rob and I kept each other on track, reminded each other of the larger vision and purpose, and had fun along the way.

We collaborated on the structure and the publishing of the book. We published it via Kindle Direct Publishing (ebook) and CreateSpace (softcover).
You can find Self-Aware: A Guide for Success in Work and Life on Amazon (affiliate link).

New Service – Book Editing and Publishing

I loved the project so much I am looking for other similar projects. If you have an idea for a book and need help with project management, editing, publishing to different formats, and then publicizing the book, get in touch! I want to be your book editor and publisher.

Edited 7/7/2017 as I no longer take book projects now that I work for Court Innovations.

Filed Under: Life

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