So Irene and I are planning on giving this site a facelift and the theme we are going for is called Sakura Sumo Garden, which is a play off of CSS Zen Garden. This idea came to fruition (god I love this word) when we heard loud stomping noises coming from the ceiling above, which sounded like wrestlers giving each other suplexes / bodyslams / and the occassional "off the top rope" finishing moves. Wapow! Boom! Shizam! With a theme in mind, we were off to the image search engines.

Yesterday, we had compiled 20+ images (thanks mostly to Irene) that we wanted to use as inspiration for the site. All assets were placed into the G drive in a subfolder under New Media called Collaboration Nation (thanks again Irene!).

Today, we got together to rummage through the images to see what we wanted to use. After meeting up for about an hour or so, we had a very good idea as to where we wanted to take the site design. We also figured that we'd keep the structure of the site somewhat similar as to what it is now, but with some minor, yet innovative changes. Prior to breaking up the collaboration session, we assigned graphic elements to each other that needed preparation prior to our next meeting (tomorrow, Thursday morning).

Stay Tuned!

Labels: Collaboration, facelift, michael jackson, nose job, Redesign, Sakura Sumo Garden

Terry, Gene I am wondering if you guys used Lynda.com yet, and if so have you found it helpful?

If anyone knows of other cool online tutorial resources please share!

Recently, I've seen some sites with a 'recommend' button for each of their posts and was wondering what you guys think of 'recommend' vs 'most popular' (if you were forced to choose between the two).

The Good of using Recommend

1. Offers visitors an option to participate / interact with the site and its features.
2. Is not based on how many times an article has been viewed. This can be skewed due to people hitting a page via search engine.
3. The accumulation of 'recommends' from users allows for the generation of a well-thought out 'Most Popular' section.

The Good of using Most Popular

1. Does not require an extra button per post. For example, if we were to use a Recommend feature, there would be an extra web element that might crowd the design.
2. Automates an action that users don't have to be aware of.

Hmm, I'm interested to hear what you guys think.

So here's a snapshot of the 404 page that I mentioned in last Tuesday's designer meeting. This project is to remedy the potential 404 errors that the c-property sites might run into when converting to the WIP templates. If a person is redirected to the 404 after running a search from Google, the search field on the 404 page will be pre-populated with the search term with the help of some online magic. shizam! The page will also contain Recent News along with Most Popular, tada. Feel free to post any suggestions / concerns / etc. Thanks!


edit: mockup updated (thanks Jennie)

This is something that has been bugging me for a long time. The state of online design is very troubling for me because I see cookie cutter approaches and a general lack of originality in a lot of sites these days. What's even more unfortunate is that I think a correction in the form of the rebellion of splash pages is needed to turn around this disaster.

Those who know me well, know that I'm a lazy cook. I love to cook, but I hate experimenting. That's why when I found Recipezaar a couple of years ago, I was in love. It's so community based that the 300 people who made the spaghetti before me said 3 cloves of garlic is better than 1 so I knew to go with 3. I came to the site for reliability but never for design because frankly, it wasn't well designed but us loyal users didn't care.

This week, they redesigned. And I am not happy. What was once a very functional and comfortable site for me to visit, is now full of gradients and 2.0 buttons. Umm, 2006 called and they want their buttons back. That rotating 1, 2, 3, 4 feature that I've been trying to kill off on our sites surfaced on their new site. Headers as images? Tiny fonts? And all that beige? Beige is the color that you paint your house when you can't decide on a real color! What was once a charming little site that was a little eccentric in the way it was presented has now fallen in line with the thousands of sites out there that all want to look and behave the same. Did Mrs. DiTeresi lie when she told me it was ok to be myself in the 2nd grade and taught me to express my individuality?

I urge everyone who reads this to do their part to make sure another Recipezaar redesign disaster does not happen. Bring back the innovation and the originality. Don't copy. Invent!

Had a chance to go see Stefan Sagmeister talk last night and was inspired by some of his 20 things he's learned so far and here they are:

1. Helping other people helps me.
2. Having guts always works out for me.
3. Thinking that life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
4. Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy.
5. Being not truthful always works against me.
6. Everything I do always comes back to me.
7. Assuming is stifling.
8. Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
9. Over time I get used to everything and start taking for granted.
10. Money does not make me happy.
11. My dreams have no meaning.
12. Keeping a diary supports personal development.
13. Trying to look good limits my life.
14. Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
15. Worrying solves nothing.
16. Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
17. Everybody thinks they are right.
18. If I want to explore a new direction professionally, it is helpful to try it out for myself first.
19. Low expectations are a good strategy.
20. Everybody who is honest is interesting.

Here's a handy tool for helping to identify fonts used in images.

WhatTheFont?!

It's not perfect (in fact, sometimes it's not even very good), but it's pointed me in the right direction quite a few times...

Labels: fonts

Fresh off of having some work rejected I was reminded of some things I’ve learned about the design process over the years-or at least the part where genius is carelessly tossed into the corporate scrapheap.

Rejection isn't usually criticism of the design itself. More often than not, it is the result of a difference of viewpoint or interpretation of image between the designer and the client. This difference may have its basis in business rules, current visual branding, or personal taste. They may have even pulled their rationale out of thin air. Whatever the reason, or even if there is no real reason, the client’s rejection is usually about design they cannot use rather than poor design. It is helpful to find opportunity when designs are rejected so that we understand the perimeters we can operate in and how we can use our creativity within those perimeters.

Suggestions to help keep your sanity intact

1. Keep copies of the work - good design is good design. This client might not want this approach but the next one might, and you may even influence future clients with your rejected examples. Additionally, it’s good to have a collection of designs and ideas to look back on for inspiration. It’s also good to review how your design and approaches have evolved over time and from client to client. Reviewing a client’s previous design, your rejected attempts as well as the final design can help you understand their thought process and give you a historical accounting for the next time you work with them.

2. Don’t dwell on the fact that there are restrictions; consider instead what creative opportunities might exist within those restrictions.

3. Use diplomacy. It’s helpful to remind client’s that the design and approach are interpretations of their ideas. Reminding them of this, at times, can achieve positive feedback. It will at least give the both of you a greater sense of how communications are impacting visual decisions. This is especially helpful for those clients that want to “help” you design.

4. Support your choices to the client. Many design choices are conscious attempts to solve problems or take advantage of opportunities that exist in certain environments. The web is a good example of this. We design based in part on current visual branding, test results, user-feedback, trends and accepted standards. Sometimes the client isn’t as aware of this and can be convinced of our choices if the underlying rationale is of some benefit to them.

5. Know when you’ve exhausted your opportunities with a particular client. It is of little use to get discouraged over rejections and changes to your work. It is an inevitable part of this business. Finish the work at hand and change your focus to #6.

6. Always look forward to the next project, with regards to what you’ve learned from the previous project. This is when design is at its best – possibilities exist and even if they are ultimately rejected in whole or part, you are producing more work, learning more, refining your talent and potentially creating more opportunities for yourself with future projects.

Creativity in our business goes well beyond design. In each of the instances above creativity can be expressed and exercised. Creative approaches to design, creative approaches to the client and their needs, creative responses to specific environments and interpersonal situations are all a part of it. When we pay attention to all of these aspects, the design possibilities can expand –unless of course, the client is a complete moron, then refer back to #6.

OBJEKTIV
Build a 5-color Kuler palette by next Tuesday (Feb. 19) that fulfills the following guidelines:

1. Has to be 5 different hues (color) used
2. All colors used are required to have the same value (lightness / darkness)
3. Post your color palette either in the comments section OR reference to it on kuler.com (requires registration)

some tips:

1. To make things easier, register for a Kuler account. You can save your swatches so you can go back to 'em later on if your eyes decide to give out.
   
2. First select a color. Then select a second color. Now squint your eyes and see if the two colors tend to blend in with one another. If they do, then their values are probably very similar.
3. You can also test to see if the colors have the same value by grabbing a snapshot of the color palette and importing it into photoshop. After importing, desaturate the colors. If the grey tones of the colors match up, then you are money!

Once all submissions have been posted, we'll go thru each of the color palettes at our next design meeting on February 19th. Good Luck!

Go!

Here's a presentation on Designing for Today's Web (2008) by Luke W. at Functioning Form. I had a chance to quickly skim thru it and the contents look very promising.

Quick Description (As seen on site)
What does the growth of search, social applications, rich interactions, and participatory culture really mean for the design of Web applications? What behaviors do team building online experiences need to address that they didn't before? Luke Wroblewski addresses these questions and more with an overview of important online trends and their impact on the design of Web services and products.

Labels: Design, Interface, Usability

Adobe Creative Suite 3 includes significant enhancements in the integration between products, providing unprecedented ease of use. You may have used CS3 for a few months now without finding all the timesaving features that can help you work more creatively and efficiently.

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Why am I not surprised that for MySpace.com, "click-through rate plummeted from one in 100-a decent return by Web standards - in 2006 to one in 1,000 in 2007". Doesn't NewsCorp know that ads (especially non-targeted ones) aren't cutting it anymore? You have to also consider the fact that all this personal page customization (on MySpace.com) given up to users doesn't help the effectiveness of the ads either. It's a case of black on black.

Anyways, so I ask you: Is there any way of resolving the ad immunity issue (besides ad-targetting and getting rid of the ads because we know that's not going to happen any time soon)?

MySpace Users Build Up Ad Immunity as seen on BusinessWeek

This is an idea that Sandi Brown came up with. She's having her OADMs create "green" pages on our sites (e.g. - someone will collect all of Direct's green content and place it on a page like www.directmag.com/green). She came to me and asked for a landing page that would link back to all of these green pages and I thought about it for a week and didn't feel a landing page would give it much justice. I turned it into a microsite and the more I worked on it, the more excited I got. The thinking is to sell it to one sponsor (like GE) for an obscene amount of $$$$ instead of the usual ads that we do.

I'm still tweaking the design but along with "green" articles, I added in a list of our green newsletters and green blogs. I played around with the logo for a couple of days - we don't even have a name for the product yet so I was just calling it Penton's Green Network. I think I will dig up one of our old Industryclick logos and play around with that too.

First attempt at logo:
I had to give up on the concept after a day of playing around with it. Although I like the idea of a whimiscal logo for a green product, this just doesn't match up with the corporate vibe of the company.

This is the IndustryClick logo:
Any ideas of how to make it more "green"?

Overall, this has been a lot of fun. It was also strangely empowering because I had a chance to develop this product almost from infancy. Making it more than a landing page and then coming up with the sponsorship idea really made me feel like a part of this project. I highly recommend everyone take a step back from their "design" only roles and find a way to become more involved in your projects. In the end, it will only make you feel more involved and excited about the work.

Hello