Ever since the first web browsers were created in the mid 1990’s people have been endlessly debating on how to design a web site. Or more specifically their companies’ site. At first it was left to a small group of people to make the decisions, because it was probably a fad and why spend time […]
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SXSW – It’s About Your Brain
March 17, 2013 
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SXSW is not for cowards. You must do your homework before you go or you will wander around the halls of the Austin Convention Center and have little to show for it. Two talks I attended on Saturday at SXSW 2013 continued the theme of trying to make sense of all that has happened these […]
Continue readingThe Brydge iPad Keyboard – Product Review
December 11, 2012 3 Comments
I really wanted to love the Brydge from the moment I saw it on Kickstarter earlier this year. It’s another of those wireless keyboards you can use with you iPad via Bluetooth. I backed the project and took possession of my Brydge with speakers yesterday. There are lot good things. It looks terrific and feels […]
Continue readingOutside In: Forrester Customer Experience Forum 2012
July 1, 2012 0 Comments
Last week a steamy New York City hosted the Forrester Research Customer Experience Forum, Outside In: The Power Of Putting Customers At The Center Of Your Business. The forum content was carefully designed to support and provide real world examples connected to the upcoming book Outside In by Kerry Bodine and Harley Manning. I was stunned […]
Continue readingThe Role of the Persona is Shifting
April 10, 2012 1 Comment
I have been a proponent of using Personas to assist in the design of digital interfaces since 2003. I still believe in them, but I think their role has shifted and has perhaps become a bit diminished. Personas are user archetypes, models of groups of users that help define features, requirements and messaging choices. They are […]
Continue readingNavigation and the Power of Purity
March 5, 2012 0 Comments
In the early days of the web we were so excited. Hyper-links were sexy and we would spend the day blanketing our pages with them. Those wonderful blue symbols underlined (also in blue). Spectacular. The job was to find offline content and convert it into HTML and connect it to one of these little blue […]
Continue readingThe Printed Word: Why Books Will Survive the Digital Age
January 6, 2012 9 Comments
I’ve always been a book person. No, I mean a BOOK person. Collector, curator, lover of the dust jacket, size, shape and smell of the printed word on paper. I know how books are paginated, printed, bound, packed, shipped, and how to write a publishing contract. My first career was the general manager of an […]
Continue readingInside Out or Outside In?
November 10, 2011 0 Comments
Working teams sometimes get locked in difficult battles when it comes to settling on a creative direction or execution. I’ve noticed that many of these encounters are caused by how the two sides, usually in heated debate, are either looking from the inside out or the outside in. Both are adamant that they are right, […]
Continue readingMaking Space for Better Outcomes
October 11, 2011 1 Comment
Over the past week I’ve made visits to a number of interactive agency offices and noticed something significant. All of them have a major part of their space under construction.The reasons offered by the senior managers of these firms as to why they are making this investment are nearly identical. They want to more closely connect […]
Continue readingStart Small, Then Subtract
September 13, 2011 0 Comments
Addition or subtraction? It’s not a trick question (boxers or briefs?). It’s a legitimate question. Designing interfaces today is more challenging than ever. As servicing, marketing, branding, lines of businesses, channels and devices converge, it is more important to leverage data to make the right display choices. But there is so much data, and it’s […]
Continue readingApples will Continue to Fall from Trees
August 24, 2011 3 Comments
It’s not so much that Steve Jobs has stepped down as the head of Apple that saddens me, it’s the reason why he is stepping down. Cancer invades so many people’s bodies and it’s a ruthless scourge. Regardless of which side of the technology war you are on, no one should be happy about the […]
Continue readingFacebook is a Tough Place for Brands to Call Home
April 9, 2011 2 Comments
There’s no denying that Facebook is becoming a major channel for brands on the planet. I spend quite a bit of time there and likely you do as well. Brands are investing significant amounts of thought, human capital and money in hopes of garnering customer engagement and eventually revenue. But Facebook doesn’t make it easy. […]
Continue readingWorking in the New Digital Design Landscape
January 15, 2011 1 Comment
You can pretty much break the web down into three phases. The first was Read, the second saw the emergence of Distribution & Commerce, with the third being Communication. Phase is not really the right word, dissolves may be better choice. The Internet has taken everything it was from the prior phase and brought it […]
Continue readingPassion and the Digital Space: A Moment in Time
September 18, 2010 0 Comments
There are over 133,000,000 blogs actively indexed by Technorati. Each day 900,000 posts are published to those blogs and they are read by 346,000,000 people worldwide. Well, maybe not all of those 900 million posts are read. Those numbers stagger the mind (see source here). But serious blogging is about words, not numbers. Content, not […]
Continue readingSonos: Rockin’ Good Time
May 17, 2010 0 Comments
I have written about Sonos in this space from time to time. Sonos is a wireless music system that can connect with the digital files on your computer and broadcasts them wherever you want in your home. You can play different tracks in different locations and effortlessly shift from your collection to Internet radio. The […]
Continue readingMobile = Shift For Designers and Consumers
March 18, 2010 0 Comments
Humans have always been obsessed with what they need to “take along” whether it’s going to work or play. The advances of mobile phones and apps has led many of us to shift activities we once did exclusively on a desktop/laptop to our smartphone. This is naturally followed by an increase in the number of […]
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