How content and design play together…

• In the game of chess (kind of hard to shake this analogy when you’re trying to avoid “Content is queen/king.”), the strategies and the moves equate to content. They fascinate chess players and chess fans. The board with its squares keep the content on track.
• Apple’s product designs for its Macs and iPod garner much attention for their beauty (design), but their insides also do the job well in managing all of the documents, music, and other files (content).
• Few race cars look as cool as a Porsche, Corvette, T-bird, Mustang, Miata, or pick favorite car. Advertising overtakes the look of the race cars and they look weird on the inside after someone tricks them out for racing purposes (design). But the speed, control, tires, etc. (content) matter more than the car’s exterior (unless you’re the advertiser, of course).
• MySpace is ugly (design). It’s hard to use until you get the hang of its features. Other social networking sites look better, but MySpace leads the crowd (or is in the top three). Yet, people from many target markets (teen, musicians, businesses) flock the site for what it offers (content). Plenty of sites rely on simple designs with little color, and they succeed.
• A movie can have beautiful cinematography (design), but no one will see it if they hear the story (content) stinks.

Moral: Content and design need each other, but 99.9% of the time — without content, design can’t do much. Google’s home page practically has no content (or design), but people know what to do.

As a deaf person — I hardly watched TV while growing up (pre-closed-captioned times). The pictures weren’t enough to keep my interest — only in cartoons.

Posted inspired by Just Creative Design‘s big giveaway. So I’m a glutton for contests — only fun ones, though. Just try it with the text sucker on NetDisaster. Take out all the text and see what design tells you.

• Put an Office in Your Pocket: What portable applications to load on a USB drive for easy portability.
• Knowmore is an online database that uses color-coding — a great visual tool — to rate companies.
• Effective filing
• Search for people with Spock — no pointy ears or MD required for use.
• Cool business card designs [via Smashing Magazine]
• 10 awesome math tricks

Every new release of an application adds more features, but not always for the better. Get ten tips for getting feature frenzy under control. In writing an article about social network sites, I looked at over two dozen sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Sermo, TravBuddy, MyCreativeCommunity. Wikipedia provides a list of many social networking sites.

I noticed most specialty social network sites do one thing well — they provided the appropriate features that fit their site’s purpose and target market. They didn’t try to capture the features everyone else has.

The following is a shorthand version of Frank Spiller’s excellent post:

1. Get task-focused.

2. Map business requirements to user tasks.

3. Talk about user tasks not features.

4. Design for probability not possibility.

5. Validate features with user tasks.

6. Map features to tasks.

7. Create a feature-task matrix.

8. Think scenarios first, use cases next.

9. Use tasks to test features, and features to test tasks.

10. Use diary studies to evaluate feature adoption over time.

Remember that users won’t necessary use every feature in an application. It costs to add a feature — so make sure it’s worth the cost.

Norman opens the book with a discussion of three teapots he owns. He doesn’t use them, but he loves how each tells a story. One is impossible to use, one is a classy glassy Michael Graves design and one is unusual. Norman says when we like the look of an object; we’re more willing to overlook its design flaws as opposed to using something with no flaws and an ugly design.

I believe flickr.com is a good example of this from a web site perspective. It isn’t so much about flickr’s look-and-feel, but many of the non-designers, everyday Internet users understandably find the site difficult to use. flickr.com gained a reputation in the world of web design and IT — the kind of people who find their way around the more difficult to use sites — and many flocked to it because of word of mouth.

A friend of Norman’s enthusiastically showed off his recent purchase of old, heavy and shiny drawing instruments including compasses, dividers and extension arms. For the author, the instruments evoked negative memories of using the difficult and messy tools. Enough time had passed for his friend to overlook the negative experience he had with the tools. Thus, when he found them, he saw them as a collectible reminding him of the “good old days” rather than something he hated using. Had those negative experiences been more recent or memorable, would he have bought the set?

The focal point of Emotional Design is that “attractive things work better.” Norman explores how emotions affect purchase decisions based on three aspects of design: the visceral (appearance), behavioral (performance) and reflective (memories and experiences).

Understanding the three parts of design helps a business make the most of their product designs and marketing efforts. After all, an ad has images and those images can stir emotions. Service-based business can turn the intangible into the tangible and apply the concepts from the book.

Norman offers intriguing examples in the book to show how objects evoke emotions. The book loses its way in the last part when the author delves in the world of robots. While it talks about the possibility of robots having emotions, it tells nothing about “products” and human behavior. Except for this part, the book was a quick and fascinating read. Those who want to understand how design influences purchases will enjoy the book. Many of its concepts apply to business situations related to selling and designing products.

Title: Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
Author: Donald A. Norman
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465051367
Date: May 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 257
Cover Price: USD: $15.95 Amazon: $10.85

When I posted the entry about designing a logo, I didn’t expect to get the kind of emails I did about designing on specs. I didn’t think about the issue with such “contests” where a business posts its requirements and offers a set price. People would respond with their creations and then the business picks the winner. The winner gets a few bucks and the business a new logo, design, template and whatnot.

Since I’m not a designer and don’t participate in design discussions, I wasn’t aware of the controversy behind spec work. However, I do know that it is controversial in the writing world. Some businesses post a spec job where the writers create a direct marketing campaign. The selected piece gets paid and the others get nothing except wasted time or a potential addition to their portfolios depending on the quality of the work.

But those who think spec work is OK say that it’s a way for beginners to enter the field. There’s one major difference between design and writing specs — design requires software and the people designing the logo could be doing it on pirated software. Is that something a business wants to associate itself with? You might think “What you don’t know won’t hurt you…” But when you hire and work with a specific designer, you know you’re working with a professional. Software is just one of many issues with spec design.

A designer’s perspective — from an email

Places like Sitepoint Design and others like it are very frowned upon in the graphic design industry. They devalue design and treat it as a cheap commodity. These sites exploit designers, and often any skill level can participate. Usually these sites pull in young designers looking for a quick buck. The focus is more on how to get the most design looks for one low price rather then to find the right designer who’s working style, talent and experience will meet the company’s advertising and marketing needs.

The designs are often done quickly with no research. Some designs are not original and are stolen which can also can cause legal problems with copyright infringement. There is also no one-on-one interaction between the client and a designer to develop a custom solution.

The other problem is this site and others like it base the job on spec work. This means work done for free by designers in the hopes of “winning” a contest of some sorts. In the Sitepoint case the prize is often low amounts of money, way below industry standards for that type of work.

For example, if a client contacted you and asked you to put hours of your time into writing a technology article for the chance that you might get paid if your piece is better than all the other writers that submitted articles, would you waste your time? I doubt it. You want people to come to you because they like your work and value your talent and experience, not because they are trying to get something for nothing.

It is just not professional to invest time and resources into a project that you may not receive payment for in the end, unless you are offering your services pro-bono to a charity.

Resources

No!Spec provides a lot of information on the topic especially these:

* What is spec?

* 10 reasons to ponder

* Why speculation hurts

Other resources:

* The downside of spec work

* Show us three concepts…

* Comments responding to a post about a design contest.

* Designers Who Blog lists many other blog entries on the topic.

* Wikipedia discussion.

Congratulations to my dear friend, Shirley Kaiser, on the release of her book, Deliver First Class Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists. You can get a feel for the book by checking out The Ultimate Testing Checklist and The Ultimate SEO Checklist.

I’m eagerly waiting for my copy to arrive and I’ll, of course, let you know what I think of it. Knowing Shirley, her Web design knowledge, and her abilities — I’m confident this is going to be a valuable book especially since it contains many checklists. As someone who has worked in process management and values the RIGHT documentation to manage processes, the checklists should help save time and ensure the design team hasn’t missed any critical steps.

How to Ruin Web Design — The Design Curve is a simple and accurate view of what happens to a design when more people get involved in providing feedback and the time spent in changing the design. [Link from Web 2.0 Blog]

If you don’t read the rest of this entry — this picture tells all [Link from comment].

This concept also applies to meetings and projects. When I worked on a process team for a company, we started holding weekly meetings (or was it every other week?) to discuss process changes. The attendees included a handful of managers. The process worked great for over a year.

Then things changed. We took in another company and its software development team merged with ours. Now we had team members in three states. The process meeting slash teleconference attendees doubled and we accomplished less. Too many different ideas and opinions. It was tough to arrive to an agreement and we tabled many discussions for off-line discussions.

Not only did we have too many people involved, but also people who shouldn’t be attending the meetings. What’s more is that each process undergoing review had a sub-team. This worked well until we grew and the wrong people got assigned to those sub-teams. In the earlier days, it was easier to get the right people involved.

Part of the challenge to fix these problems is getting heard by the right people. Or they hear, but don’t consider the advice. Have you been able to convince decision-makers to change something? How did you make it happen? That was an area I struggled in when working in corporate USA.

The Creative Commons Moving Image Contest Winner is well-deserved despite the grammar blooper.

Art books are reaching new heights and Pictoplasma is one of the first I’ve seen. The others are Designer Shock’s DSOS1 : The User’s Manual and Anime. All three books are published by German publisher, Die Gestalten Verlag, and they’re onto something here.

The book is a showcase of contemporary art created by international graphic designers, animators, artists, and production companies. Thaler states in the book’s foreword, “Character design is the most universal of graphic languages. Characters work independent of cultural context and narrative structure. They are entirely self-referential, defined by clearly distinctive characteristics and have a life of their own.”

Thaler is absolutely correct when saying the characters have taken on a life of their own. Furthermore, the art attempts to convey the artist’s message emotionally while reaching out to its viewer in the hopes of bonding.

The entire book is pure eye candy in every free hand drawing, pixel, vector graphic, 3-D objects, and an encyclopedia of resurfacing motifs. Even non-Internet surfers will recognize many of the colorful and creative designs because they are found other media including television, books, and video games.

The index lists all the titles of the art, contributors’ names along with their email and Web addresses. As a confessed non-artist, I’m in awe as I flip through pages of expressive and colorfully rendered art. The book can be much more than just another art book, it can be an inspiration for those in the process of creating. This is the coffee table book for geeks and Web designers and it’ll go just fine with the books containing the Monets, Picassos, and Renoirs.

The book has a companion Web site and you can view pages at the publisher’s Web site.

VITAL STATISTICS:
TITLE: Pictoplasma
AUTHORS: Peter Thaler (Editor), Michael Mischler (Editor), Hendrik Hellige (Editor)
PUBLISHER: Die Gestalten Verlag
PUBLICATION DATE: November 2001
ISBN: 3931126587
FORMAT: Hardcover
PAGES: 224
PRICE: US$50

What do you get with a book cover that doubles for a mousepad, a user manual, and a CD-ROM that includes 80 fonts, 10 games, 25 screensavers, 55 wallpapers and 98 icons? This is not the start of a joke, but an introduction to Berlin-based Designershock design group’s DSOS1: The User’s Manual, a guide to their eccentric and abstract world where they’re known for their Internet experimental electronic experiences.

Not knowing where to begin except at the beginning, the beginning of the book sets the tone, “Unless you’re very strong, please resist the temptation to flick, browse, skip or skim. Start by going from page to page sequentially. Linear experiences are still the most satisfying, and this way you may remain calm and focused.”

Using a polyglot of colors, pages splashed with shades of reds, grays, and blacks guide you through three parts (from left to right on the screen):

Electronic Workmates (EWM) – an introduction to the accompanying software, which is the key to accessing DSOS1′s online world that is exclusive to owners of the CD-ROM tool.

Electronic Playmates (EPM) – fonts and typographical games to die for and each time you win, you get to download fonts and other tools.

Electronic Decomaters (EDM) – “is about creative control over your environment. Taking it; losing it. How to open the window on the sublime.” Create an ambience with screensavers, wallpapers, and icons.

At first glance, this book seems cryptic, threatening and confusing. But remember what the introduction says and take it one step at a time from the beginning. It becomes easier to follow along with the print after connecting online. Designershock successfully leaps into the innovative world of combining print, screen, and typography.

Load the DVD and let Ozzy , the DSOS1 avatar, take you where you need to go to register for the first time and get a four-digit pin number. The user manual also outlines the steps to get started. EWM is on the left column, EPM in the middle, and EDM on the right. Pick online or offline tools, the latter downloads an archived file for playing offline. Offline is the better choice since it takes time to load the online version.

DS MEEK (Modulated Esoteric E-Type Kreator), a Flash program and the first in the book, lets the user manipulate fonts based on grids. The first impression is overwhelming, but the HELP and the user guide clearly explain the background and how to complete the activity. Turn the dials, flip the switches, and press the buttons to transform, morph, and scale a letter and apply the changes to the entire alphabet to create your own fonts. The book shows creations from using the MEEK emulator. One word: awesome!

Saving and loading a previously created doesn’t work, at first. The save dialog box won’t open, but attempting it another time is successful. According to instructions, “The SAVE and LOAD buttons work a little differently, depending on whether you are using the on- or off-line versions of the tools. Online, every user can save up to 10 modulations and 10 layouts on the DSOS1 server, using a simple DSOS1 file dialog. Offline, users can save and load an unlimited number of MEEK files, using normal system file dialogs.” There two types of saved files in MEEK: layout and modulation. After printing a Meryl font creation, the program wouldn’t go back to the EDIT mode or any mode. Just stuck there in font space. Despite a few runtime flaws, one could get hooked on this stuff.

Next activity, the DS EWG, has a few added features not in MEEK to increase the complexity. Hence, the user guide’s wise suggestion of working through the book from beginning to end.

Expect nothing to come easy when playing the games, but that will make the rewards all the sweeter. This interactive print medium and accompanying Internet webzine slash software is not for the faint of heart or in this case, beginner designers. Like fine wine, give it time, let it age, and get a feel for it. It’s not something to be swallowed whole, but instead slowly sipped. Not only can you consider this as a coffetable masterpiece, but also as a designer’s interactive toy.

Surf to Designer Shock‘s Web site or see sample pages at the publisher’s Web site.

VITAL STATISTICS:
TITLE: DSOS1 : The User’s Manual
AUTHORS: Designer Shock (Editor)
PUBLISHER: Die Gestalten Verlag
PUBLICATION DATE: December 2001
ISBN: 3931126641
FORMAT: Hardcover
PAGES: 176
PRICE: US$55