tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64994537362228400562024-03-18T21:30:24.984-07:00Touchpoints in DesignThoughts and musings on user experience and design.Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-34472775185681006112015-08-22T01:38:00.001-07:002015-08-22T01:38:39.995-07:00Brand = Reputation<div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Microsoft YaHei', 'Hiragino Sans GB', 'Hiragino Sans GB W3', 微软雅黑, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28.7999992370605px; margin-bottom: 1.4em; padding: 0px;">
<h3>
Visual Identity at ThoughtWorks</h3>
I’ve always been sensitive to the look of things. It’s both a blessing and a curse to be constantly tuned in to the lopsided, accidental world around me. I’m always looking for evidence of design and underlying structure and marvelling at the mastery and the chaos of the built world. My eyes are a high-bandwidth channel. I can’t help but notice everything.</div>
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Four years ago when I joined ThoughtWorks, I was inspired by the opportunity to work for a company that was famous for agile, for reliable delivery and smart collaborative teamwork. However the lack of sophistication in the visual identity bothered me. The website had been designed by developers. It was not pretty, not responsive, hard to use. It was disorderly and wordy. That was back then. A lot has changed now, and this is a small part of the journey we took to capture the essence of ThoughtWorks in a visual and powerful brand identity.</div>
<h3>
Sowing the seeds</h3>
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When I joined, Experience Design was a fledgling capability that ThoughtWorks was nurturing. We had a small team of passionate, opinionated designers who cared about the same things as me. We ruminated on the parlous state of the website. Eventually, in a potentially mutinous act, we assembled examples of world-class digital brand experiences from the best in the business and presented them to our Chief Strategy Officer. Chris was an extremely supportive sponsor of the brand refresh, which contributed in great measure to its success.</div>
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Branding and marketing does tend to be viewed through a skeptical lens by highly technical and logical folks. I sensed among some of my colleagues, a suspicion of the artful manipulation of perceptions that marketing and design can achieve. So for all the left-brain people in the world, here's a formula to demystify things:</div>
<h3>
The Brand equation:</h3>
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[visual identity + messaging] x [word of mouth + relationships] = reputation</div>
</blockquote>
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For too long, ThoughtWorks had relied on word of mouth and relationships to build our reputation. Our brand had not been something that we controlled - we let our external markets decide our brand. Worse than that, because our disparate efforts at marketing ourselves were done with no consistency across regions, it was actually damaging our brand, and making us invisible to those who we most wanted to reach.</div>
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By creating powerful messaging and a consistently strong visual identity, we knew we could maximise our impact and reputation in the market. We spent the better part of a year on defining and then testing and refining our messaging both internally and with our clients. </div>
<h3>
The Visual Identity - Cohesion in Diversity</h3>
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We worked with both ThoughtWorkers and design agency Smith + Robot, to address the brief for our new visual identity. The key aspects of the brief that we considered important to achieve were:</div>
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<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Giving a human and authentic face to ThoughtWorks (our value is in our people).</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Projecting the diversity of our business and our people (not just an equal opportunity employer but actively engaging in the global south).</span></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;"><span style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Developing a flexible framework of visual design elements that could be adapted for different audiences and across different regions.</span></li>
</ul>
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There was a lot of unbridled creative thinking - a bunch of work was presented and refined and presented again. After the initial enthusiasm had abated, all we had were a bunch of rejected concepts, some with tantalising possibilities, others completely missing the mark. Following much soul-searching and u-turns, we realised that we had to knuckle down and make some hard decisions on the design approach.</div>
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So the core team of four designers decided to use an immersive guerilla-style approach. Laptops open, we worked in feverish time-boxed spurts of creativity, to finesse the key elements of our new visual identity. It felt like the mother of all design-jams.</div>
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At the end of the week, we had the following basics for the identity established and agreed:</div>
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#1 The Font: Open Sans</h3>
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We loved it for so many reasons. It was a free, open source font that anyone could download. It came in many font-weights, which gave us a lot of freedom to provide emphasis and structure to our words. </div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.thoughtworks.com/sites/default/files/assets/kate-brand1.png" style="border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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#2 The color palette</h3>
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6 warm tones + 6 cool tones + 6 neutrals = 18 colors of diversity</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.thoughtworks.com/sites/default/files/assets/kate-brand2.png" style="border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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The color palette is a broad one. ThoughtWorks is not one color. We’ve even liberated our word-mark in the colors of our new palette. We particularly liked the disruptive element of the neutral flesh-tones, which bring a warm humanity to the otherwise bright assembly of hues.</div>
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#3 No. Stock. Photography.</h3>
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We wanted to be honest in all our visual communications and present an accurate image of who we are and what we do. Our photography had to be authentic. It had to be our own.</div>
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In ruling out the convenient option of stock photography with all of its artificial studio lighting and perfectly focused imagery, we were left with a pretty tough constraint. We had thousands of photos taken by ThoughtWorkers over the years but they were distributed across various Flickr accounts and none of them were in a central spot where photographers were happy to share them for general use. So we ran a photography competition to generate thousands more photos that our people were happy to share.</div>
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Many of the photos were shot on smart-phones and weren’t always shining examples of the art of photography. The solution was to develop a consistent color treatment for the lower quality images that were not of SLR standard. The color treatments allowed us to de-emphasize the quality of the image. We could still tell our stories in a visual way and the photos could provide an engaging backdrop for our words. We also had lots of really beautiful photos taken with DSLRs and these photos of our people and our work have been used extensively in our client stories, printed collateral and on our website.</div>
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#4 Surprise! The Story of 11 Glyphs</h3>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.thoughtworks.com/sites/default/files/assets/kate-brand3.png" style="border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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Whilst fonts, colors and photos formed the core of our visual identity, there was still something missing. Where was the quirky, unique and unpredictable element that characterizes ThoughtWorks? That’s how the glyphs were conceived. They are asymmetrical, organic little characters that we use to express an emotion or illustrate an abstract concept. Chad hatched them out of nowhere; they were magically born during that feverish week of design. These little bundles of fun give voice to our ideas, and we like to sprinkle them liberally across our communications. When two of these little characters get together they can form new shapes, and endless possibilities.</div>
<h3>
Rollout</h3>
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So that is the short version of how we created a new visual identity.</div>
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But it's not the end of the story. The hard bit came after - the rollout.</div>
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Testing the new identity with our various external audiences gave us the confidence that it would work. But our toughest audience is our own people. Over three thousand ThoughtWorkers around the world - how would we induct them into their new visual identity? This is still a work in progress, part change management and part evangelizing to win the hearts of naturally skeptical people.</div>
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Analytical thinkers often look for the rationale for change and for evidence that it is the right thing. Rather than thinking of brand as a dirty word, a game of deception, we are asking people to think of our new visual identity as an agency to amplify our message and underline the truth behind our ambitious mission in the world. It’s a long-term goal, and we’re learning and improving each step of the way. </div>
Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-12745248072704887702012-03-11T22:13:00.001-07:002012-03-11T22:18:57.685-07:00SxSW 2012<div class="p1">On the first day at SxSW in Austin Texas, there are swarms of coffee-fueled digital punters, battling long registration queues and trying to decide between a long program of competing speakers and panels.</div><div class="p1">The keynote address delivered by Don Tapscott <b>"Rethinking Civilisation for the Social Age"</b> was inspiring and dealt with a range of social themes around networked intelligence and finished with an awesome video of 'a murmur of starlings' - his grand metaphor for collective action.</div><div class="p1">The image below captures the themes - there are some talented graphic artists taking notes in a visual way:<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFqW1eil8QYrRpLpIQsV3UxUOyMr0N__WNnmY8olx_lY5eJjD9kBYxCRNksBBn5zj3n3kVY_EXOhXbRNnGT_22X9p-BKjifqU2oBg07B-KufZgmNv6QVxzerENcM3A2JxeaNKcKhAwwSz/s1600/DonTapscottKeynoteSxSW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFqW1eil8QYrRpLpIQsV3UxUOyMr0N__WNnmY8olx_lY5eJjD9kBYxCRNksBBn5zj3n3kVY_EXOhXbRNnGT_22X9p-BKjifqU2oBg07B-KufZgmNv6QVxzerENcM3A2JxeaNKcKhAwwSz/s320/DonTapscottKeynoteSxSW.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="p1"><br />
</div><br />
<b><span style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amber Case</span></b><br />
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<div class="p1">Amber's keynote on <b>Ambient Location and the Future of the Interface</b> was a highlight of this year's SxSW.</div><div class="p1">Her area of expertise is <a href="http://cyborganthropology.com/Main_Page"><span class="s1">Cyborg Anthropology</span></a>, the study of man-made extensions of our physical and mental selves.</div><div class="p1">Her talk described her future vision of how technology would recede into a 'calm' background where we wouldn't really be aware of it.</div><div class="p1">Rather than physical or visible interfaces to technology, increasingly our actions and our location will act as triggers for technology through geo-mapping and geo-fencing we'll have access to opt-in data, notifications and prompts. Already the potential of these new technologies are being experienced through gaming. One example of this can be found at <a href="http://mapattack.org/"><span class="s1">mapattack.org</span></a>.</div><div class="p1">An emerging theme of SxSW is location based services. With the celebration of FourSquare's launch at SxSW three years ago, and the buyout of Gowalla by Facebook this week, location based social media and marketing is becoming a valuable channel for both users and brands.</div><div class="p1">The applications and relevance of location based technologies is not limited to social media or retail or gaming but has potentially far greater applications in all aspects of life but it does rely on access to the technology in the form of smart phones and other mobile devices. Amber's prediction is that these devices will become increasingly invisible and pervasive.</div>Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-11551569503198588332012-02-12T01:28:00.000-08:002012-02-12T01:28:20.853-08:00Continuous Design<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>808</o:Words> <o:Characters>4610</o:Characters> <o:Company>ThoughtWorks Australia</o:Company> <o:Lines>38</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>10</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>5408</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Continuous Delivery allows us to Build, Measure and Learn, but how do you know what to build? Whether you have established products in the market or you simply have an idea of a product to fit a gap that you’ve seen, how do you get started on that journey and how do you know that your customers will love what you make?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That's where Continuous Design practices can drive the evolution of your product. Jason Furnell and I recently presented the ThoughtWorks thinking on Continuous Design at the inaugural Australian ThoughtWorks Live Conference. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We began by painting the familiar picture of traditional design practices that date back hundreds of years through our history of print, architecture and manufacturing. This is a world of big upfront design that assumes that design must be thoroughly specified and tested prior to production. What this has meant for software delivery is large upfront research phases followed by extensive design activities aimed at delivering a high fidelity prototype or documented design specification.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Designers quite like this process, because they are in control of the deliverables, which generally look slick and fabulous. It also may appear a risk free process for businesses because they know the full scope and requirements, budget and timeframe upfront and this helps them secure funding and drives the procurement process.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But the traditional approach to design isn’t as risk free as it looks on a project plan. The problems are well understood by companies that have embraced a more agile approach:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Upfront design can take a very long time – ruling out speed to market<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Upfront design is not focused upon the minimal viable product, quite the opposite – all the activities are geared towards an exhaustively over-engineered product of which a large part of the functionality may be of little value to customers<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Big upfront design projects are more expensive than the comparable integrated design activities that can be run in parallel with the build<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Products designed with front-loaded design often miss the mark with customers once the product is finally launched.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What’s is surprising is that even with the uptake of agile methodologies, big up front design practices are still alive and well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At the conference we presented the Continuous Design approach as an alternative to traditional design practices. Core to this approach are the five thinking modes of:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Empathy</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"> - </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">really feeling customer needs, motivations, fears and goals. This requires </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">a continuous stream of activity focused on learning more about your customers.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Creativity</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"> – </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">a structured and facilitated</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"> process for inclusive group ideation </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">methods for rapidly harnessing the creative powers of multidisciplinary teams.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Rationality</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"> - </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Guiding the team on a design journey, focusing on prioritisation and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">creating a shared understanding of the objectives through breaking the problem down into parts and ensuring a rigorous and structured project approach to execution.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Agility</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"> – </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">being adaptive to new customer insights and iteratively crafting the envisioned product into customer-validated experiences.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Measurability</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"> - </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">fine-tuning</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"> and responding to real world data; </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">scanning for patterns</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"> and human footprints. Measurement allows us to drive continuous improvement and assess the success of new product features.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What do organisations need in order to adopt continuous design practices? Balanced teams and an ownership of the design of both their products and their customer experience. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: white;">Balanced teams </b></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Key to success of Continuous Design and Delivery is the notion of ‘balanced teams’. These teams need to comprise of product owners, researchers, designers, developers and testers. It is through the daily collaboration and feedback of this team, that design decisions can be made based upon up-to-date information from their customers, the business and the technologists. These teams function through their ability to measure and learn, not just build.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Building balanced "business teams", rather than single focus "delivery teams" is key to creating an environment where continuous design can take hold and thrive.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ownership of the design</span></b><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Increasingly businesses are realizing that they need to foster a practice of organization wide ‘design thinking’ in order to solve complex problems in new and innovative ways. Channeling the raw ideas within the business and the needs and requests of their customers into a pipeline of innovation can provide the raw fuel for continuous design. If businesses completely outsource the design of their products to external agencies then they are less likely to take full ownership of their customer experience. Because Continuous Design practices are evolutionary in nature, as opposed to a point in time project, they need to find a home within the business. Product teams must not divest themselves of the responsibility of design and continuous improvement if they want their products to evolve and continuously outperform in the market.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Core to the principles of Agile and Continuous Delivery is the idea of the minimal viable product. Continuous design and delivery practices ensure that this minimal viable product will continue to evolve and improve based upon the regular feedback and measurement of the customer experience.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment-->Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-74384239600811717382011-03-08T04:19:00.000-08:002011-03-08T04:22:12.445-08:00Designing for trustRecently I was briefed to develop an entirely new online brand and customer experience that would convey trust. It sounds like a reasonable requirement given that so many websites (particularly eCommerce and social networking sites) rely on the basic premise of trust to engage new users.<br />
However as soon as I started thinking about what trust 'looked like', I began to have a failure of imagination.<br />
I had to break down the concept of trust into what it really meant in the context of an online experience.<br />
Key drivers of trust online include:<br />
<br />
<ul><li><b>Privacy</b> - my personal details and identity are secure and will not be misused</li>
<li><b>Reliability</b> - the product/service will work the way I intend it, without error (including my own)</li>
<li><b>Honesty</b> - what I see is what I'll get, no hidden fees or nasty surprises </li>
</ul><br />
Sure, there are all types of design devices to reassure customers of the above three attributes. For example:<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Privacy - include a privacy statement, include security payment gateway badges, credit card icons</li>
<li>Reliability - ensure the site is usable, thoroughly tested (usability, ethical hacking, load & performance) and conforms to web standards and common browsers/platforms. More than this, provide good online customer support in case anything goes wrong or the customer has questions.</li>
<li>Honesty - transparent product/service descriptions, good photography, customer reviews and ratings, delivery times and return policies.</li>
</ul>But only some of these things, through user centred design practices, are in the control of the designer and I still had to create a new brand (including a name, a logo and a tagline) that would stand alone as a symbol that could be trusted. To add to the challenge I had to demonstrate that it was a trust-worthy brand experience through testing it with the various audience segments.<br />
After months of customer research, iterations of design and user testing, we finally had a new online brand and site design that audiences trusted slightly more than either the existing online brands that it was replacing or competing with or any of the alternative designs.<br />
It wasn't my favourite design and it probably won't win any design awards, but audiences felt that it was an honest and accessible brand. From a design perspective, I guess you'd say it was predictable, but that's not such a bad thing when trust is the most important goal.Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-26821933875501563982011-02-23T15:07:00.000-08:002011-02-23T15:08:57.746-08:003 Tips for design block<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Design block sometimes feels that you’ve painted yourself into a corner and there is no where left to go. I find it most typically happens after you’re confidently presented your first design concepts to the client, with a beautifully argued rationale for how you’ve delivered on their brief, and to your great consternation, the client just doesn’t like them. Puzzlement slowly gives way to a gradual erosion of confidence in your own abilities. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’ve found the following 3 tips help to get the creative juices flowing in the right direction.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>1 Start with the problem, not the solution</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Designers tend to be most comfortable operating on the visual plane and will often brush over the functional specifications, customer research and business requirement documents and go straight for the crayons. Another pitfall of designers is stalling the design process by spending too long looking at other designs in the market and pouring through design annuals – they are all solutions but not ones that perfectly match your client’s problem. It is a mistake to start visualising a solution before you have all the information. If you can’t answer the following questions, then you’re not ready to start design:</span><br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Why is my client doing this and what outcome are they looking for? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What does your client want to achieve from the initiative, what are their priorities and constraints, what are their competitors doing in this space and who is doing it best</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Who is this design for? Who will be using it, what do they want from it, why would they use it and what are their alternatives – don’t rely on your client to tell you this, get if from the horse’s mouth, whether that be interviews, contextual enquiry, focus groups or online surveys</span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Once you have a good understanding of the business requirements and customer context, the scope of your design will be well defined and I always find it easier to design within boundaries. Once you feel a constrictive design block, it helps to return to the problem.</span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2 It takes a lot of ideas to know that you’ve got the one idea</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It’s tempting with small budgets to reduce the design effort to one concept. Big mistake – you’ll end up doing the extra concepts anyway – after the first design misses the mark. A basic principle of innovation is that great ideas start with lots of not so great ideas. Here’s how to get the creative juices flowing:</span><br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Get more than one designer working on the problem, work in pairs </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Start on paper, whiteboards, post-its, make it easy to throw away if it doesn’t work</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Get peer review and brainstorm the problem before you narrow down your solutions. It’s also OK to involve the client sometimes in these ideation sessions, their perspective can help focus the solution on the problem and they’ll be more aware of your design rationale</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If possible, socialise the designs with real users of the product – this is quite confronting for designers but it almost always leads to some further refinement of the idea</span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then when you’ve got two or three winners, you can review them with your client.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>3 Refine and iterate</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Complex design problems often take you repeatedly back to the drawing board. When designing large scale interactive systems like transactional websites and online applications, often there will be many interconnected design problems to solve. Sometimes it’s hard to keep the creative mojo throughout the design and development of the product. The principles of iterative design will help ensure that you stick to good design practices:</span><br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Start with a master set of design principles for use across the project. This helps to ensure a consistent and efficient approach to solving the composite parts of the design and allows a design team to work in concert</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Break down the project into individual design problems and do just enough design to have something to test, review and refine</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Follow the same process of brainstorming and exploring multiple options and involve your client and their customers in the process </span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I’ve found that following these basic principles really help to keep the design team engaged and motivated by the problem. Design fatigue can be a problem on really large projects but an iterative approach helps to break things down into manageable and solvable challenges.</span>Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-61799561156258133502010-04-24T21:26:00.000-07:002010-04-25T21:33:43.753-07:00What's next with Mobile CRM?Remember that scene in <em>'The Devil Wears Prada" </em>where Andy rescues Miranda from a networking catastrophe by remembering the name of the wife of an important guest at Paris Fashion Week? Wouldn't it be useful if your CRM system was able to leverage customers' digital ID via mobile? Imagine a world where the opt-in options for your customers include allowing you to recognise their digital ID or URI via their mobile when they attend your event. The moment they walk in the door to the conference / art opening / product launch / auction, they are located by GPS and their customer details appear on the mobile device of the event hosts.<br />Does this represent an erosion of an individual's privacy? Not when your customer has agreed up front and understood the terms by which you can use their digital ID.<br />The potential extends beyond mobile ticketing and checkin as we use it today for paid events, to more diverse possibilities whereby customers can choose to be recognised when they visit the types of venues, stores or travel destinations where their VIP or loyalty status can be recognised immediately. How much more valuable would your customers feel when they are greeted by name when they enter the room and when you can remind them of the last time that you had the pleasure of their company. And if this customer courtesy is not enough value on its own to incentivise people to allow their digial ID to be read, then you probably need to rethink how you present the value and incentives for your loyalty program.<br />To date, most of the attention around mobile identification tracking seems to be polarised around two ends of the privacy spectrum - on surveillance and use by police at the 'big brother' end and purely social use for sharing your location with friends using mobile apps like FourSquare. Somewhere in the middle, is a valuable B2C opportunity that could deliver greater engagement between businesses and their customers.Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-32577821641343562922010-02-24T00:18:00.000-08:002010-02-24T01:01:39.218-08:00Adobe Refresh Sydney<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Having missed the keynote address, I wasn't really sure what Adobe had planned for this year's Refresh. </span><a href="http://www.mad.com.au/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Paul Burnett's</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> first session on </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Extending PDFs with Flash</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> was way more interesting than it sounded. Basically anything you can create in Flash can be embedded in a PDF assuming that you don't require a backend database for the flash to work. There are heaps of existing flash widgets including RSS feeds, calculators, date pickers and other goodies that can extend your PDF into something really useful, collaborative and interactive. Integration of video, google maps and external files present endless possibilities for what can be </span><a href="https://acrobat.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">shared online</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">.</span><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">However, the edge-of-the-seat goodness came with the CS5 sneak peaks. Due for release later this year (the actual date is still a hot topic of debate in the forums) the big ticket item is likely to be the Flash iPhone capability. With a flexible compiler that understands ActionScript 3 and can publish native iPhone applications and loads of iPhone plugins for FireWorks, creating apps looked pretty easy to this designer. Flash is shaping up to be the jewel in Adobe's crown, and with support from Device Central for testing all your multi device projects, the iPad will also be a logical channel. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">We finished up with a tantalising look at the mysterious Adobe Rome, written in Flex and delivering a strange mashup of photo editing, animation and web editing delivered via a beautiful and innovative user interface - the audience was left wondering whether the program would ever get commercial release. You won't find out a thing about it on Adobe's official site and we were warned to put away our phones and cameras before they unveiled it. Hopefully it won't end up on the R&D scrap heap.<br /></span><div><br /></div></div></div>Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-28735487907565283492009-04-04T18:57:00.000-07:002009-04-04T20:00:55.917-07:00SP'09Getting creative types to orate for an hour about their work must be hard given that the creative industries are largely visual and sensory and often defy our attempts at verbal explanation. So congratulations are due once again to the Design is Kinky crew for assembling yet another breathtaking array of talent who mostly spoke quite well, at this year's Semi Permanent conference. The success of previous years' line-ups has been patchy with speakers such as last year's wunderkind Anthony Lister, who after a dramatic entrance shootout, appeared to soon grow bored of his audience.<br />Part of the success of this year's assortment was perhaps due to the fact that most of these artists and creative professionals have been forced to verbally sell their own work from an early age and have maintained a single minded focus on defending their unique ideas to clients, agents and agencies.<br /><a href="http://www.danielafederici.com/">Daniela Federici</a>, who got her extraordinary break after graduating photography at RMIT, was invited to photograph the iconic Guess campaign by Paul Marciano, featuring another new discovery, Anna Nicole Smith. She was a hugely rewarding speaker whose funny insider celebrity anecdotes and generous advice and technical asides were both entertaining and valuable.<br />Vernon Wilbert from <a href="http://www.digitaldomain.com/">Digital Domain</a> told the absorbing story of the creation of the Gears of War campaign for xbox, the first campaign animation to use the actual games engine, resulting in an ad that was not only true to the game, but wildly successful with its intended audience. The larger than life enthusiasm of the Californian kept the entire auditorium on the edge of its seat.<br />Other speakers used different techniques to win their audience. Tim Kentley from <a href="http://www.xyzstudios.com/">XYZ Studios</a> turned the lights low and presented by candlelight whilst stretched out on the floor. <a href="http://kategibb.blogspot.com/">Kate Gibb</a> confided her white-knuckle terror at public speaking from the outset and proceeded to read from her tightly clutched A4 notes. Whilst this breaks all the rules, the audience loved her nevertheless and were able to focus on her images and her insider stories of the UK band scene.<br />Overall, this is possibly the best Semi Permanent yet. Watch out for the first SPMelbourne later this year.Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-84396020729706129272008-11-22T19:59:00.000-08:002008-11-22T20:14:12.736-08:00Are you tuned to your customers’ channel?Sometimes there are advantages to being late adopters of technology. Wait 6 months and you’ll get a new and improved model cheaper, faster and tinier/bigger/better and you’ll also have the benefit of those 6 months of research and user reviews to help you make your purchasing decision.<br />Applying this to the world of online retail in Australia, we are years behind the US, but we have the benefit of learning from the successes and failures of American online retail models. We also have access to a wealth of research and statistics relating to the American retail market which can help support our local business-cases and strategies for online retailing.<br />Unfortunately there is a dearth of research on Australian consumer habits, although we can draw on the findings of the 2007 census and ABS data to answer some questions.<br />Recently Deloitte decided to survey our own people across Australia to bring to light our online shopping habits. Two of the questions that we asked related to how our people research and purchase products. The tables below illustrate their preferences for using purely online versus other channels (word of mouth, print and in-store).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-uz-B0pwtFEq5F2FxmfXnTCcPcUB1uM3WJHxficwzcUjKFl9oW6dcLU3cf07scbfx7LVckk8kMWgQcCH69A1DnJ5V58r8kILHKnaA1ZX87J1xmOV992x9E349bJpmCSMkNCoe-dIro21Q/s1600-h/onlineResearch.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 389px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-uz-B0pwtFEq5F2FxmfXnTCcPcUB1uM3WJHxficwzcUjKFl9oW6dcLU3cf07scbfx7LVckk8kMWgQcCH69A1DnJ5V58r8kILHKnaA1ZX87J1xmOV992x9E349bJpmCSMkNCoe-dIro21Q/s400/onlineResearch.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271700732704711938" border="0" /></a><br />The survey results demonstrated a very strong preference for conducting research online, regardless of whether the purchase was made on-line or in-store. An average of 93% of respondents said they researched online across all categories. Whilst the typical Deloittian is not necessarily representative of the wider community (higher broadband access and income), there is a lesson here that can be applied to Australian retail models and that lesson is that Australians use more than one channel across the customer lifecycle. We may purchase instore but there is a high likelihood that the purchase was researched online or using a different channel to in-store. The inverse is also true, people regularly research in-store but then purchase online to get the best price or simply for the convenience. Retailers like IKEA have learnt this lesson and assist their customers across all channels with such tools as an online kitchen modelling application that allows you to print out your list of components to present in-store. They also provide an online assistant that will answer all your questions in real time using live chat.<br />The important thing to remember is that even if you don’t have an online shopping cart and payment gateway, you should still treat your online channel as an online store by providing:<br /><ul><li>Accurate and detailed product information and imagery</li><li>Helpful online assistance that doesn’t first require your customers to register their details</li><li>A consistent experience to your ‘bricks & mortar’ shop front.</li></ul>If your customers aren’t actually transacting with you online, they may still be doing their research online and so encouraging online membership in return to exclusive online offers that can be redeemed in-store is just one way to keep them engaged with your brand and product offering. Providing them with in-store product availability via your website is also extremely useful to customers. Pre-ordering and booking online can also support the sales pathway without the necessity of an online shop. And increasingly, we are seeing the online channel being the source of independent consumer ratings, with online retailers like Target, Amazon and Best Buy actively encouraging their customers to provide ratings of their products on their site.<br />Remember, no every ‘call-to-action’ is a transaction. Your online channel can be supporting your customers across the entire customer life-cycle.Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-83075635189769637122008-05-24T22:34:00.000-07:002008-05-24T23:17:18.977-07:00The public eye and Bill HensonBill Henson's dark dream-world images of adolescents do not stand up to the cold light of public scrutiny, it would appear. For years he has been capturing young people in strange and surreal tableaux. Chiaroscuro lighting and soft blurred images serve to make his subjects both ambiguous and fantastic.<br />I've always found his imagery both captivating and disturbing but there is no doubt in my mind that his intentions are to produce extraordinary artworks, not pornography.<br />But the hysterical public reaction to his current exhibition at Roslyn Oxley Gallery indicates that certain moral campaigners are a little behind the times when it comes to their knowledge of local art - there is nothing new in this exhibition, Bill Henson has been creating these images for years without causing undue offence.<br />So why has it only become a problem now? Is it because society's moral compass has narrowed with our outrage at internet child pornography as exposed in the media? Or is it simply that Bill Henson's fame has spread and he's suddenly been noticed and scrutinised by the mainstream? Whatever the reason, the recent censorship of his exhibition follows on the heals of other recent cases of art censorship in Melbourne - Hazel Dooney's sexually explicit works were covered up at last year's Melbourne Art Fair and Cherry Hood also had an exhibition closed down when she created naked images of young boys.<br />When it comes to the law, it will be very hard to prove that Henson has been creating pornography when this has clearly never been his intention.Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-24118022519485388222008-05-06T03:12:00.000-07:002008-05-06T03:52:49.359-07:00Alt text standards slideThe last week has seen much debate on whether images should require the alt text attribute in HTML 5. Currently in HTML 4, for code to be valid, all images must include alt text so that assistive technology such as screen readers or site users who are unable to view the images can instead use the alt text to derive meaning.<br />But with the advent of user generated content on sites such as Flickr, the requirement to have meaningful alt text on all images creates problems for the site because the onus is then upon the user to enter a meaningful label, or alternatively the site needs to auto-generate a meaningful alt tag such as "image uploaded by user" when no alt text has been entered.<br />It seems a massive concession for sites with user generated content. It would not be unreasonable to maintain the alt tag as a requirement for valid code because sites such as Flickr could simply make the alt text a mandatory requirement when uploading images - it doesn't seem like a difficult work-around when the alternative is such a backward step for accessibility.<br />The real problem in allowing no alt tags on images which are also links is that text to voice readers will read out the entire URL in the absence of a meaningful alt tag. This is really annoying for a visually impaired site user.<br />The important thing to remember here is that if the requirement for alt text on images is removed, then sites can still pass the AA accessibility test and yet fail the users that these standards are intended to protect - visually impaired users who rely on alt text to understand images on a site.<br /><a href="http://www.w3.org/html/wg/html5/#the-img">> More about HTML 5</a>Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-38629948506812872112007-10-20T00:32:00.001-07:002007-10-20T00:32:37.037-07:00Is social networking time-wasting?The frenzied reaction in the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/facebook-labelled-a-5b-waste-of-time/2007/08/19/1187462123708.html">media </a>this week to some spurious claims by <a href="http://www.surfcontrol.com/">SurfControl</a> in relation to the use of FaceBook in the office raises the question is online networking simply time wasting and a drain on business profitability?<br />It is clearly in the interest of SurfControl to inflate the negative impact of online social networking sites such as FaceBook. They sell software filters to businesses to block the access to inappropriate websites. Their estimate that business is losing up to $5 billion a year in wasted time is based upon the ridiculous and unsupportable premise that every worker spends an hour on a site such as FaceBook during working hours, every working day in every business across Australia.<br />Whilst this premise seems to be erring on the 'worst case scenario' end of the spectrum, the more interesting question is whether the use of social networking sites is all bad for business.<br />In the case of organisations such as Deloitte and other professional services firms, networking is considered an essential skill of successful consultants and a business advantage.<br />Within Deloitte we spend money on training our staff to network - using whatever methods are appropriate. In the case of LinkedIn and Plaxo, increasingly these social networking sites are being used to connect people within business - whether that be for introductions, or to collaborate online. In many ways they present a more efficient and effective avenue for social and business contact than the more traditional channels of face to face or phone.Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-48713602303475223102007-10-20T00:31:00.000-07:002007-10-20T00:32:07.522-07:00Swap MeatCoudal Partners <a href="http://coudal.com/swapmeat/">Swap Meat</a> is getting some beautifully designed ephemera sent in, utterly swapable, highly desirable, it's really all the inspiration you need to exercise the creative juices and produce something unique and well designed to send to this Chicago based design firm. At their discretion, they will send you back something of equivalent value produced by someone else.<br />It requires a leap of faith but your inspiration may return equally creative dividends.Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-77201600287213087172007-10-20T00:30:00.000-07:002007-10-20T00:31:26.711-07:00Building a cubist cathedral<a href="http://www.davidhockney.com/">David Hockney</a> eat your heart out!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzuSJ-Vsaiuyso55H4m7r9A1rzZ6xW7wUPWsoA4s266K1ng_BN5yA7zdR5CHTCcHv2NB6OLNF5cpqK68IS7QYskTpJvMiCvdkF5liAnl-mq1fRoieqOkUy5s_GPhgirxGsWYQ47AEBB_j/s1600-h/Photosynthwhatisgrapic_new.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075097159562626082" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="St Marks Cathedral - a 3D montage" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzuSJ-Vsaiuyso55H4m7r9A1rzZ6xW7wUPWsoA4s266K1ng_BN5yA7zdR5CHTCcHv2NB6OLNF5cpqK68IS7QYskTpJvMiCvdkF5liAnl-mq1fRoieqOkUy5s_GPhgirxGsWYQ47AEBB_j/s320/Photosynthwhatisgrapic_new.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://labs.live.com/photosynth/default.html">Photosynth </a>- whilst still a beta application produced by Microsoft Live Labs in collaboration with some <a href="http://labs.live.com/photosynth/aboutus.html">other brainy people</a>, this amazing software promises to provide a 3 dimensional photo album that you can zoom into and explore using a very intuitive interface.<br /><br />All you need is a bunch of photos that overlap - the David Hockney approach to photography. The software does the rest - once you've uploaded the images - the software stiches them together and recreates the 3 dimensions that the images were captured from (unlike VRML, this software will take you inside/out and upside/down). But even more amazing is the ability of the software to deliver high resolution through progressive loading of the visual data as the user zooms in to the images.<br /><br />Apart from the collaborative applications - imagine sharing shots in Flickr to rebuild entire cities - there have got to be some interesting commercial applications:<br /><ul><li>virtual retail showrooms that are constantly updated by a live webfeed</li><li>virtual travel - view Times Square in real time, or close to real time</li><li>events like concerts or sports matches - see the action from any angle<br /><br />Whilst still a preview product, I can see this changing conventional online media - the possibilities are endless!<br /></li></ul>Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-39109327288220815142007-10-20T00:29:00.000-07:002007-10-20T00:30:10.625-07:00Silverlight on the horizonEclipse had a visit this week from <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/mkordahi/">Michael Kordahi</a> - developer evangelist for Microsoft.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJjobh0O1eMIdDQ0M7BEgwNRy5qFsnC1x6RmEOoDH_NhfsWpLjE7fNDmORGgTJJohYoVtlcll9P8Ov-O4RFSysh03wR9LTrMaOs2Dh3Eqvb5bQBsp2vrpPX5poCqbCq98eIuDU4yvL7i23/s1600-h/foxSilverlight.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074304398794097634" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="Fox Movies Silverlight site" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJjobh0O1eMIdDQ0M7BEgwNRy5qFsnC1x6RmEOoDH_NhfsWpLjE7fNDmORGgTJJohYoVtlcll9P8Ov-O4RFSysh03wR9LTrMaOs2Dh3Eqvb5bQBsp2vrpPX5poCqbCq98eIuDU4yvL7i23/s320/foxSilverlight.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />We invited him because the hot topic around our office at the moment is <a href="http://silverlight.net/">Silverlight</a>. The ubiquitous hype has been hard to avoid - about how this plug-in could deliver fast rich media across browsers and platforms in a seamless, showy, full screen and totally interactive way. The tools you need to create these fabulous interfaces are MS Visual Studio for developers and MS Expression Studio - or specifically Expression Blend for designers.<br /><br />But it's still early days:<br /><ul><li>Silverlight 1.0 is still in Beta and is a little buggy, but 1.1 Alpha is also available now</li><li>No one really has the plug-in yet but it is only around 2mg to download and surprisingly, MS will not be packaging it with IE for anti-competitive reasons</li><li>So far there is only a small developer community but it will grow</li></ul><p>So how does Silverlight compare with Flash, AJAX and Flex for offering rich media and applications online?<br /></p><ul><li>AJAX doesn't require a plug in but it's complicated to code with lots of custom javascript</li><li>Flex requires the Flash plugin (which most users have), it's well supported by code libraries and a good development environment - it's easier to develop in than AJAX </li><li>And then, there is <a href="http://www.adobe.com/devnet/videos/apollo_demo07/index.html">Adobe's Apollo </a>for building rich desktop applications using flash, flex, HTML and AJAX - still in development but available now for download (check out the eBay demo)</li><li>Flash is dominant in delivering video over the web </li></ul><p>We're impatient to try it our for ourselves, either for the Eclipse site or Deloitte Digital. If Michael's promises about the product prove to be true - it will give both designers and developers an opportunity to work together in parallel, seamlessly developing on the one platform.<br /><br /></p>Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6499453736222840056.post-41040278292019492712007-10-20T00:24:00.000-07:002007-10-20T00:25:45.496-07:00Sydney Motorways goes live<a href="http://www.sydneymotorways.com.au/"><strong>Sydney Motorways</strong></a> site is now officially live!<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsnpZGPG6g3l_aHaiM_QjyCXeh6OSRIwD2UA4R34rmRYS77yjQn9urwbfRFPr_ehTwh_UaE0ct362LLIV-rR4PyXJbPEtDfi_v6Ng0cXCj1Frm2dvs2SuiDjjZUF3aiQ_Pwoy8eTD4VBdH/s1600-h/sydneyMotorways1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071375304987042978" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="choosing interchanges to calculate a toll" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsnpZGPG6g3l_aHaiM_QjyCXeh6OSRIwD2UA4R34rmRYS77yjQn9urwbfRFPr_ehTwh_UaE0ct362LLIV-rR4PyXJbPEtDfi_v6Ng0cXCj1Frm2dvs2SuiDjjZUF3aiQ_Pwoy8eTD4VBdH/s400/sydneyMotorways1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.eclipsegroup.com.au/">Eclipse </a>have been working on this for a few months now for our client the <a href="http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/">RTA</a>. It's a first for Australian Roads, an interactive map developed in flash that allows motorists to plan their trip using the Sydney orbital network. All you need to do is select the entry and exit interchanges and the application will automatically calculate the toll for that stretch of motorway.<br /><br />It features live traffic feeds also - just click on a camera icon to view the traffic conditions before you head off. There is also a full traffic incidents section and heaps of other features.<br /><br />This was an interesting project to work on, just the sheer complexity of the interchange options was enough to do our heads in at the design stage. You see, not all interchanges are the same - some can only be entered from a particular direction, so we had to provide users with all of the information they needed to select the correct interchange for the direction that they wanted to take. It sounds simple enough but it's hard to provide visual guidelines and onscreen instructions that are succinct and intuitive and don't require the user to read too much. In the end, we developed an animated red trip route line that helps inform the user of the direction that they can take from any interchange.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVlbzvN9GUXPPs54eJxZMBY86vLduXZa_v1QwvvRnYc3kEQqiz7mZ97JOQ7RlmzwrD7A-tLMQHqt2LGqCltvQnlzO-An8yyS6SAnagU3C3cYj1GnTjekxt6oh9kJL-5Qb8azjUcomy3qsL/s1600-h/live+traffic+feed.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5071378062356047026" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="live webcam feed" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVlbzvN9GUXPPs54eJxZMBY86vLduXZa_v1QwvvRnYc3kEQqiz7mZ97JOQ7RlmzwrD7A-tLMQHqt2LGqCltvQnlzO-An8yyS6SAnagU3C3cYj1GnTjekxt6oh9kJL-5Qb8azjUcomy3qsL/s320/live+traffic+feed.jpg" border="0" /></a>Kate Lintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00002702061242101383noreply@blogger.com1