Back when I was in art school, (how long ago will remain a mystery) I worked in the wonderful world of customer service. Both as a front end manager at a grocery chain and at the front desk of a high end hotel.
I hated both jobs, at first. Read More
I haven’t read Lee Siegel’s anti-Internet book Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob yet, but the New York Times has reviewed it and the opening, at least, sounds like the kind of argument I’ve heard against computers and technology ever since I was calling electronic bulletin board systems in high school: computers separate us, turn us inward, make us anti-social. Read More
Eleven days ago, I was driving a completely full 24-foot moving truck from Pasadena, Maryland to Blacksburg, Virginia. Today I’m on a plane returning from New York City to Blacksburg after a new business presentation. There’ve been several adventures in between, not to mention learning experiences. For example, I learned that a completely full 24-foot moving truck towing a full-sized trailer loaded with a pick-up truck reaches a top speed of about 29 mph going uphill in the mountains.
Some people have asked me why I would leave a career of 11 years at traditional ad agencies to join an interactive development company, especially as a writer. The reason is actually very simple: The world of traditional advertising more or less made the decision for me. Simply put, change is afoot. You don’t have to be in advertising to know that the days of an ad campaign built around 30 second tv spots and supported with print ads are all but gone. Read More
Most people find it hard to hide their surprise the first time they see the new Kiawah Island Real Estate web site.
Kiawah Island Real Estate and New City Media joined together to design not only a real estate site, but also the premier source of information about beautiful Kiawah Island, SC. From planning to design to implementation, our goal was to put the natural beauty of the island at the forefront. With over 10 miles of pristine beach; thriving populations of 18 species of mammals, more than 30 species of reptiles and amphibians, and some 300 species of birds; and 123 acres of parks; the only difficulty was deciding where to start. Read More
This morning I went looking on the internet for the woman who designed New City Media’s logo, Jennifer Goodreau (if you’re out there Jen, give us a shout). I made several attempts to design it myself, but if you’ve ever tried designing for yourself you know how hard that can be. Read More
The Roanoke Valley SPCA site has won an Interactive Media Award ™ for outstanding achievement. Contestents are graded on design, content, feature functionality, usability, and standards compliance. This site was a lot of fun to put together, and we’re happy that we were able to help. Congrats RVSPCA.
SiteLogic Founder Matt Bailey uses the power of analytics — that is, statistical analysis — to determine how Star Trek’s famous Red Shirts can live long, happy lives instead of being messily killed on one of Captain Kirk’s adventures. A noble project. But Bailey’s analysis ignores both context and behavior, and this is the result:
We can reliably improve the survivability of the red-shirted crewmen by only exploring peaceful, female-only planets (android and alien females included).
Are you sure? Even if we implement this solution, don’t we do that at the cost of the larger goal? The Enterprise has a mission statement, and that mission statement is: Read More
One lesson jumps out from the dozens of interviews and usability tests we’ve conducted with universities like Virginia Tech and Imperial College London: You should blow up your admissions site. Read More
In an earlier post I wrote about how we have adapted the KJ Method for getting consensus on site architecture. We used this approach extensively when we worked with various administrative and academic departments at Virginia Tech, to revamp their parts of the overall vt.edu site. The people in the Financial Aid office did a great job rethinking their site during our session, and I wanted to share their story.
Site maps used to take us forever. Getting the product guy to agree with the marketing lady, not to mention the customer support team, was a matter of weeks and 10 or more revisions.
It’s still a very challenging process and the best site maps are developed with thorough user research. But we stumbled on a great way to get a whole group to agree on site architecture quickly, that also helps people start thinking like end users rather than insiders.