I bought a used lawnmower today and gained insight on my writing at the same time.
Here in Blacksburg, there’s a power equipment shop that’s exactly like the one you probably went to with your dad at some point during your childhood. For starters, it’s easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. When […]
April 29, 2008 – 12:40 pm
Thanks for stopping by today - glad to see there is encouragement in our public schools to interact with the community. We are always happy to share some insight into what we do, so here are some things to get you started:
Learning HTML, CSS, and Javascript:
HTML, CSS, and Javascript - http://w3schools.com/
Advanced Javascript - http://www.quirksmode.org/resources.html
Advanced […]
Jeannine Everhart and I traveled to London in early February to meet with Imperial College London for an end-of-project review. We met with the entire web team and went through all aspects of the project including feedback from students and staff, analytics, review of project objectives and a discussion of lessons learned.
February 29, 2008 – 4:23 pm
I have a confession to make… I am not, and probably never will be, a techie. It never bothered me before I began working at New City. I have a Blackberry, an iPod. When I came on board here they got me a swank, new MacBook with a separate, large-donkey flat panel monitor (bigger than […]
January 11, 2008 – 6:40 am
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.
October 12, 2007 – 3:03 pm
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.
October 5, 2007 – 9:33 am
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 […]
September 11, 2007 – 7:41 pm
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 […]
I’m watching one of the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ads and something strikes me. When we buy from a brand we love, we’re trying to take some quality of that brand into ourselves. Just like cannibals.
I just finished a remarkable book by Paul Rusesabagina, the man on whose life the movie Hotel Rwanda is based. In his autobiography An Ordinary Man he tells about growing up the son of a wise and respected banana farmer, almost becoming a preacher, and then finding his true calling as a hotel manager. If […]