Sep. 4th 2014
When someone mentions “good” web design, what comes to mind? Common answers likely would be creativity, aesthetics, and how easy a site is to use. While those are characteristics of good web design, what really makes a design good is understanding the people for whom you are designing. Web design is about solving problems for people. You could have the most engaging visual design, but if that design doesn’t serve a purpose or is frustrating to use, then all you’ve got is … Read more
May. 9th 2012
While wandering around the blogosphere recently, I came across the topic of emotionally intelligent signage. The concept, espoused by author Dan Pink, who describes himself as “sign obsessed,” is that often signs work best either when they convey empathy to the viewer or elicit empathy from the viewer. If ever you have seen a highway construction sign saying “Please Slow Down: My Daddy Works Here” then you have an idea what Dan means. This sign reminds you of the children … Read more
Nov. 13th 2010
I received a brief HTML email this week from an organization I belong to. And I cringed. Not only had they omitted their extremely recognizable logo, they also changed the colors of the email such that it shared nothing with the organizational color palette. That may be seen as poor judgement and bad marketing, but the final bit was misspelling the title of the note. Far better to have not sent that email at all.
There are a couple basic rules that … Read more