Tough Academy
December 30, 2008
South Coast Plumbing
December 30, 2008
South Beach Construction
December 30, 2008
FF&E
December 30, 2008
Sick Bastard Choppers
December 30, 2008
SBC is a local custom chopper builder in Miami. I created Logos, Websites, and more creative assets for them. They we’re recently featured on Discovery Channel.
Collaboration According to Me
December 30, 2008
To collaborate is defined: To work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort.
Web success will be hard to attain if we cannot share ideas across business silos. We need a way share not only ideas, but share about everything in the business. Ideas drive business and collaboration plays a role in discovering those ideas. As well, collaboration at times is a business meem often used but seldom understood. Collaboration means we share ideas.
Discover Ideas though Brainstorming
We’ve all been in brainstorming meetings. An example of a good brainstorming meeting is where ideas are shared and received. On the other hand, ideas are shared and sometimes immediately shot down or rejected. One part of brainstorming is to harvest as many good ideas as possible and that rewards ideas, even if those ideas are contrary to popular opinion. We should be able to receive each other’s ideas in good faith in a welcoming atmosphere.
Choose Ideas
We’ve taken the time to start the collaboration process by brainstorming ideas. We now have a bunch of great ideas to be analyzed. Now is the right time to be critical, weigh pros and cons, and thoughtfully consider the ideas. Does the idea line up with business strategy e.g. does it add value? Consider the ideas in the context of the technical strategy e.g. don’t adopt a .Net idea if you’re a JAVA shop. Are the ideas user centric? How these questions are answered will reveal the ideas that are best for your business.
Test your Ideas
I don’t believe we can afford to be myopic in collaborating for the web as to say that we shouldn’t take the time to brainstorm or analyze or have some type idea sharing process. Create comps or wireframes and put them in front of users. If you can’t afford usability testing, do it yourself with a handful of good candidates. You’ll be surprised at the results. Sometimes user reactions are contrary to designer’s expectations. Either way, usability or testing ideas with real users is an indispensable part of the collaboration process.
Collaborating in the context of web design means you share ideas in every step of finding those good ideas that make websites successful. Whether your just emailing, brainstorming in person, analyzing user data, collaborating is simply sharing ideas, but in the context of web design your sharing not only ideas but everything related there in.
Internet Strategy
December 30, 2008
Internet Strategy can be many things to many people and in the context of web design, a vague term becomes understandable. Here’s what I think it is.
So, you have a web site and spent thousands of dollars on that very expensive flash piece that’ll convert users? Or maybe an executive had a “brilliant” idea how to add value to your internet property? What ever the case may be, you need to know 2 things: where you are and where you want to be.
Where you are
Where is your business online? Is it on top? Do you have so much traffic that you can’t help but smile? I’ve seen different types of business conditions with different teams and I must say that honesty about where you are is the start of your success. Be honest. It’s not about being right for your sake, but be honest for the business’ sake.
Internet problems should be triaged and dealt with in an orderly basis. Everything isn’t critical. For example, with some business groups, their problems are the only problems they consider to be “critical”. Then we have folks over in IT that are running an old technology and can’t scale. During all this your users’ experience is degraded.
Look at the big picture. The business, technology, and user are all having issues. The issues may be different but there should be one goal. it’s not just one floor but an entire building. Be honest where ever you are, then design around your user in a balanced way.
Where do you want to be
Where want to be is pretty much easy when you know exactly where you are. Depending who ask though, “where do you want to be” differs every time. I want to be rich, says the business. I want better technology, says IT. Where is the customer service link, asks the user. Good design is user centered design and that’s where you want to be.
Getting past the politics of design is a big step to getting where you want to be. You want to have success online, yet there are obstacles (maybe even internally) in the business group you find yourself. Get user data to support ideas that are best for the business. Again, this shouldn’t be about who is right. Internet strategy should be about what’s best for the business in the long term and how to get there with-in a culture of usability and UCD as it’s direction.
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