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.

I had the opportunity today to get a hands-on feel for the new BlackBerry Storm.

To establish a baseline, I own a 3G iPhone (AT&T) and my primary device is a BlackBerry 8830 World Edition (Verizon).

My thoughts are such:

• The speed at which the device moves from application to home screen and back again is absolutely painfully slow. Boil water slow. Not good.
• Icons are almost “too” understated and you actually have to get used to which icon goes to which application. While this was a purposeful design element, it falls short of a true picture icon set.
• The device has just about as unusable a keyboard as I’ve ever seen / used. I was willing to get the phone today, thanks to a free device upgrade on our account, but I couldn’t get past the keyboard. I tried seventeen times to “press” the letter s. It wouldn’t do it. I had to position my finger in JUST the right place, and I was finally able to use one of our most popular letters.
• That “click” screen is actually more problematic than useful. Basically, under the hood is a single button depression mechanism that allows you to get “response” as you “click” or “type” as if you’re using a real keyboard. Nope. Not buying it. It’s actually a total and complete pain in the rear end to use it. It’s actually the opposite of easy.
• Web browsing has never been the BlackBerry’s strong point. However, this is actually a livable experience on the new OS (for Bold, Curve and Storm). It’s akin to the Opera Light version on any other device, or IE on a WinMo phone.
• Scrolling and sideways gyro functions are in competition with the iPhone, but it’s so clunky when you do it that you wonder if you did it right. Not only that, the real estate you’re given to scroll is so tight that you end up scraping your finger against another function or up in the text entry area. Not helpful if you’re in a rush or need to look something up while you’re writing a document or responding to e-mail.

Overall, the Storm is about 60% there. The screen is gorgeous, the colors are great and the feel of the device is no worse in form that an iPhone (in terms of weight, etc…).

I would, absolutely not, unfortunately recommend this thing for at least another generation.

Have a comment? Used a Storm? Work for Verizon and want to save your sales or represent? Leave a comment below.

In conjunction with our very talented partners at Seltzer Design of Boston, we’re very pleased to announce the launch of Oliverworks.com, the new interactive information experience for seasoned consultant Faith Oliver.

Seltzer worked with Faith to create the strategy, content and UI, then handed the heavy lifting to us, including building Flash-based tangram puzzles that give the user a different way of thinking about how pieces of every puzzle incorporate the strengths and talents of an energized workforce.

Have a look at Oliverworks.com and let us know how we can help you energize your online initiative!

It was a fantastic quarter for the company and I’m especially thankful for the word of mouth advertising network. In the past three months we’ve been working on:

• Auspice Corporation - defining the user experience and designing a browser-based application for both mobile and desktop delivery that will be used across the cable industry.
• Harvard University - delivering a top-level assessment of a large-scale query tool.
• Harvard University - defining the user experience and delivering a comprehensive top-level information architecture and content mapping strategy for the entire finance division.
• CSO (CSOonline.com) - designing the user experience and developing a standards-compliant set of front-end templates for the new CSOonline.com
• Vantel Pearls - delivering enhancements to the back-end order entry process and delivering a booking report for demonstrators.
• Apex Properties - continued the design and development of a new corporate Web strategy

The new quarter looks to continue with great success as we respond to RFPs for major learning institutions and corporate marketing divisions. We’d love to hear from you and look forward to helping you solve any user experience problems.

It’s funny when we get into a debate with a client about their own audience. We often find out in these situations how much both sides don’t know about the customer.

In these cases, we lean on both the statistical data and the experience we’ve collected and take a shot at running tests to see how close we can get. We usually get pretty darned close.

But what happens if the client isn’t willing to disclose certain information or the audience is not allowed to see the new interface design until it goes out to beta?

Design to the user.

It’s at the point where I say this in my sleep. I design user experience. It’s based on the user and their experience. End of story. I don’t design applications or Web sites or software UI to meet the specifications of a machine or a database. That’s left to the capable hands of the back-end development team.

What I expect them to return to me is the data the USER needs in order to make the EXPERIENCE as painless as possible.

Our lives are filled with applications that spit out millions of data points and while a user’s interaction is much more savvy on the Web than it was ten years ago, it’s not so savvy as to correctly guess at what they’re supposed to do without some sort of roadmap.

It’s still ok to hold hands and it’s still ok to give them a map.

Keep the user experience useful.