July 12th, 2011

I read an article recently about a guy named Joe.  The author was in a mall, attempting to test people’s familiarity with and usage of browser tabs.  There he met a guy named Joe — a guy who had never, ever used a computer before in his life.  Understanding the value of this rare opportunity, the author abandoned his previous mission and instead chose to observe Joe’s first computer interaction and test how user-friendly the three most popular browsers are for first time users.

His observations of Joe’s experience are entirely fascinating and thoroughly enlightening.  Having given Joe the seemingly simple task of using the browser to find a local restaurant, he found that Joe didn’t know where to begin on any of the browsers.  He was drawn to Internet Explorer’s “Suggest Sites” and Safari’s “Help” menu, but found no direction in either.  The author also observed that Joe’s only point of reference for browser use was text — something he was already familiar with.  He completely tuned out any graphic representations, like buttons and menu items, not even recognizing them as such.

The most fascinating part of this whole experience for me was the reminder of perspective.  It’s really easy for designers and programmers to assume that everyone has at least some familiarity with computers, and we design for that.  Even the most basic building block of internet use — the browser — assumes that you’ll know to type in the address bar and click the “Go” button.

You can read the full article here — it’s totally worth it.

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March 02nd, 2011

Whew!  Hi!  I feel like I haven’t looked up from work in days.  Things are busy, busy, busy over here and we are loving it!  Every day, it seems, we have new clients, new projects, new missions, new platforms, new techniques, new knowledge and new wisdom.

 

In the spirit of newness and ever-changing technology, today we offer you this:  Talking Heads.  No, not the band.  A talking head video is basically a small person who walks onto your website and tells your viewer something really important.  You know how important and popular videos on websites are right now, and a talking head video is even more interesting and even more engaging!

 

Aside from just being really cool, talking heads draw more attention than a basic video because they’re still fairly unique.  They also start playing immediately, gaining the audience of those visitors who might never press play on a standard website video.

 

Want to see one in action?  Visit America’s Business Management, one of our recent clients, and check it out!  Then, come back here and tell us what you think!

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November 19th, 2010

I read a recent blog from an art director/designer who asked the question whether his craft wasstill needed in our informational world.  Isn’t it just about getting information out there, not how it’s presented?  His point was, it’s not just about the availability of information, but also about its consumption, and we couldn’t agree more. In fact, we think the need for good design is integral in information consumption and even more important today as people sort through what to consume.  As he states in the blog, “good design is what connects.”

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