Monday January 4, 2010

The Content Strategist as Digital Curator →

Bravo! I’m overdue in sharing this link to Erin Scime’s great post on the importance of curating your content. We stress the idea over and over again with clients when the topic of governance comes up, but I’ve never explained it as eloquently as Erin did on A List Apart .

The Content Strategist as Digital Curator Link posted by Mark Kraemer in .

Thursday November 5, 2009

Creating Controversy for its own Sake (and How Humility is a Rare Bird Indeed These Days) →

A very convicting article by Joshua Blankenship on unsolicited redesigns and the arrogance that drives them. Convicting, because I personally wrestle with the same arrogance he’s calling out. Whether you work as a designer for a corporate giant or as a lonely freelancer, it’s definitely worth a read.

Creating Controversy for its own Sake (and How Humility is a Rare Bird Indeed These Days) Link posted by Matt Donovan in Business, Design, Graphic Design, Interface, User Experience, Visual Design .

Monday October 12, 2009

Below the Surface →

Our own EMC Consulting’s Rich Wand shares thoughts on successful Surface and NUI interactions based on his experience designing for the platform. He covers several great tips for NUI designers and developers. Well worth the read if you’re working with Surface or similar natural user interfaces.

Below the Surface Link posted by Mark Kraemer in Interface, Mobile, .Net, Usability, User Experience .

Tuesday July 7, 2009

Elegance as one way to describe "the quality without a name"? →

We talk often about Christopher Alexander’s “quality without a name” that makes a design feel natural and right. Alexander describes it as:

There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in [all things]. … The search which we all make for this quality, in our loves, is the central search of any person, … . It is the search for those moments and situations when we are most alive.

While the quality can be elusive to create, an attribute that certainly leads to it is elegance. Guy Kawasaki interviewed Matthew E. May on elegance as a business concept in his book In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing . Simply stated, May describes elegance as:

Something is elegant if it is two things at once: unusually simple and surprisingly powerful. One without the other leaves you short of elegant. And sometimes the “unusual simplicity” isn’t about what’s there, it’s about what isn’t. At first glance, elegant things seem to be missing something.

The interview is well worth a read, and will be a new consideration for me as I work on interim and final deliverables. How can I find and apply “the quality without a name” on this piece? Perhaps by seeking elegance.

First found via Dynamic Diagrams: Information Design Watch

Elegance as one way to describe "the quality without a name"? Link posted by Mark Kraemer in Business, Design .

Tuesday May 12, 2009

Nancy Duarte's Tips for Remote Presenters →

Members of the 404 team watched (and sketchnoted along) with the VizThinkU: Visual Note-taking 101 presentation today. We gathered around the big-screen LCD and watched Austin Kleon, Sunni Brown, and Mike Rohde share their experience and tips for taking better notes visually. It was a great presentation; I highly recommend viewing the archive when it becomes available.

A few times they mentioned the awkwardness of presenting on a wide-audience conference call. Many of us have been there. We’re personable people and feed on the non-verbal and verbal feedback we get when presenting. It can be disheartening to not hear the audience laugh at one of my dad-jokes, or see heads nodding when illustrating a key concept.

Mike (@rohdesign) tweeted about benefiting from Nancy Duarte’s 6 Tips on Webinars video, so I thought I would investigate to see how I could benefit as well. Through the magic of Google, I found Tips for Remote Presenters on the Duarte blog.

Nancy recommends:

1. standing up so that your mindset (and consequentially your tone) will be as natural as when you’re presenting in front of a live group
2. fighting audience multitasking by “bursting” content into engaging segments
3. presenting as a team to increase the audible interest
4. encourage and embrace means for interacting with the audience to keep them engaged and
5. practice and understand your presenting medium so that you can plan and adapt for its shortcomings

Check out the full post for her details and examples.

I’m feeling more confident about presenting my next webinar (I still hate that word) already.

Nancy Duarte's Tips for Remote Presenters Link posted by Mark Kraemer in .

Wednesday December 17, 2008

The year 2008 in photographs →

Boston.com’s The Big picture is one of my favorite news sources. How exhilarating and terrifying it must be to shoot images like these.

The year 2008 in photographs Link posted by Matt Donovan in Content/Copywriting .

Monday November 10, 2008

Buzzizone's alternative to soul-crushing cubicles →

If I ever feel the need for a little more privacy, these office dividers will be at the top of my list.

Buzzizone's alternative to soul-crushing cubicles Link posted by Matt Donovan in Culture .