The start of the 2009 award season is upon us, and Visual Activity LLC is proud to announce that their Web UX Design for CSOonline.com was named as a Finalist for the Jesse Neal award sponsored by American Business Media.
The site design, which was completed last year, was one of only three finalists.
Congratulations to Vermonster, LLC for their work on the back-end and Carl Lindberg for his stealthy UX coding skills.
I’m going to be a tad geeky and kill a pet peeve all in one. After heading over to Engadget this morning, I come away with the sense that people are thinking about the UX world and truly bringing function to form. Specifically, Jeff Carter, who has created a wonderful twist (literally) on the power strip.
Introducing: Movable Power
Have a link to buy it online? Comment and let us know immediately!
We’ve all been wondering when the axe will fall at our next large, box down the street or our huge insurance conglomerate buddy on the corner of downtown. But in the face of adversity we should be planning for the recovery.
Those lucky enough to be left in the daily fight to take on more responsibilities and keep their positions should be driving towards a better tomorrow. And the fight needs to be taken online.
By selecting specific traditional advertising and marketing initiatives and bringing them online first, rather than the sometimes much more costly process of doing them in print, you can create a better and more responsible budget that allows for you to stay nimble and keep the energy levels up.
How nimble you become is all about process and the understanding of how online media is supposed to take shape. A solid strategy that reaches a wider audience and the ability to reuse information are the most immediate benefits you get when you create the right online campaign.
Online retail circulars still have to be designed and published in PDF and then converted to a Flash-based preview. However, if you were to take the same media and design elements you use for the circular and place them into a reusable environment (database feeding to XML, CSS, xHTML, Flash), you have a much more efficient process and one that creates a better user experience.
Another way to increase revenue is to start a small mobile effort. For small businesses, it’s easier to capitalize on the mobile market since their product lines are usually smaller and can be changed easily to meet new needs.
For example: A small business offering ten products should think about slowly taking their product line online and allowing for mobile purchases. It’s not the most inexpensive idea on the road map, but it could turn out to have the most positive financial impact.
Rethinking our plans amidst a struggling economy is what separates the success from the failure. Prepare for the recovery, don’t wallow in the recession. Take the time and the measures you need to be successful and create the environment you want.
We’re pleased to announce the new online community for American Well!
American Well, a Boston-based online healthcare software company, needed to create an online identity and content management system to deliver important content and conversational pieces to its current and potential audiences.
We created a completely customized registration system and content management installation that allows the staff of AW to not only easily update their content, but also allows for blogging and members-only sections for the physicians or participants joining the community.
I have never worked on a project where the outcome is exactly what the user community needs without some sort of deviation or compromise. Now, this is not to say that all projects on which I’ve worked have been failures. In fact, quite the opposite. Every project is a collection of compromises and feedback that help direct the entire team from one decision to another that hopefully gets us to the goal of creating a better user experience.
But what has occurred to me on many occasions is that there are other ways to creatively design solutions that have more to do with reality.
PERSONAL LIFE EXPERIENCES
Each project is a melting pot of talent, personalities and personal life experiences. Think about that. Personal life experiences.
Let’s imagine a team that is charged with designing a Web application for iWidgets (original, I know).
Then let’s imagine an engineer team lead has had a bad experience with a similar tool set from a competitor, even though the competitor’s widget is extremely usable and should be used as a benchmark.
If the engineering lead deems that he really doesn’t want to build a similar piece of functionality, would his personal life experience actually impact the direction of the entity and subsequently impact the level of quality?
How about the designer? In a direct competitive landscape with a similar product, will they go out of their way to create something that is so different that they ignore the successful design cues?
COMPREHEND, DON’T COMPROMISE
Each project you work on takes a hell of a lot of dedication on each team member with the ultimate goal of meeting the users’ needs.
During important decisions on a project, take the time to comprehend each senior member’s personal life experiences. Ask questions such as:
Some would state that it’s just not their business to know someone’s personal life. To that I say, too late. The person next to you in the meeting may have a very important role on the team and if they feel a certain way heading into a decision, it might be good for you to know why.
REAL UX
Real user experience, from usability to engineering, should include every factor the user may use to decide whether or not they like your product. Additionally, real UX is about getting to the core of the problem and solving it based on what you know.
Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. In those cases, use your own experiences to drive a discussion on how to attack the problem and create a solution.
And, above all else, create a positive personal life experience.