Informational Geometry

Usability is the practice of making things easy to use Usability is the practice of making products, especially software, easy to use .  If you can think of some frustrating website that just didn't work, or even a bad customer service experience, you understand how important usability is. The whole world needs usability. Here we are just talking about the intersection where humans and computers meet - software. Since software is exploding, the industry needs user centered design more than ever. As consumers we need our smart phones and apps to be easy to use. But professionals probably need more usability than consumers... just so they can do their jobs. And sadly, way too many B to B applications and enterprise software are unwieldy and difficult to use. There is a way to fix software so it's easy to use. Incorporating usability techniques into your development process accomplishes two things. #1 it allows you to focus on the goal of making your product work as best i...

The funny thing about internet marketing is the people who would benefit from it the most probably are the same people with limited budgets - Artists, writers, and musicians.  Independent creative people and students usually don't have an annual marketing budget.  If you fall into the Artist category pay attention, this post is for you. I reveal how to simply use social media. If you DO have a marketing budget then contact me and let me show you how to ROCK your internet marketing. Writers have already blazed a trail on the internet and there are many websites dedicated to helping writers . Since I have a Fine Art background and I think like a designer, I'll focus on artists & other kinds of small businesses like restaurants. DO: Get yourself set-up with a website or blog First you need a "hub". A command center where you can connect to all sorts of social media and networking sites. In case you didn't know a blog is actually just another kind of websit...

There's been a ton of talk lately about how people can use social media to grow their business. Thanks to the web you don't have to have an expensive marketing budget, you just need to create a few accounts to services like Facebook and Twitter. Last week I wrote part one about social media,  a success story about my client Kevin O'Malley. Next week I'll reveal more details on how to do this stuff yourself. Now I want to explain WHY you should care about social media marketing and explain WHO really needs to use it... How social media marketing works Yesterday on my favorite NPR show, the MidDay show , they had an expert speak about Social Media and Viral Marketing. Jonah Berger did a great job at explaining the "viral effect" and demonstrated that social media does indeed work.  But Jonah forgot to explain HOW to USE social media which I will reveal in part 3! Here's how it works - Right now millions upon millions of people are doing this... jok...

Nobody promotes themselves more shamelessly than my client Kevin O'Malley.  Kevin is a children's book illustrator and he literally walks around with a pad of paper in his hand, he's constantly drawing, at the coffee shop, in the park, everywhere. After Kevin cranks out another instant masterpiece (just like Picasso)  - he gives it away! Seriously. He gives away the drawing . Kevin WAS ALREADY a  walking social network and he didn't even know it. I must have mumbled a couple of things to him over time about the internet. We friended on Facebook where Kevin posts a lot of his drawings and works in progress.  I told Kevin that he should blog and maybe get on Pinterest - since he's already posting drawings to Facebook he mine as well post to a couple more websites.  Kevin took these suggestions but still... his website was out of date.  Kevin still needed a "hub".  So he  turned to us, and we made him a new website . Thanks to Kevin's incredi...

So... I'm on Pinterest updating a 'board' for my portfolio and I discover that other people have pinned my Experience Design Process graphic from my website. Apparently this graphic comes right up in Google Searches if you search on on Experience Design Process. Since the image on my site is small I'm re-posting the graphic here! Can anybody guess what this image was originally create for? I don't know what I was thinking about these colors! So what is going on here? In the middle of the graphic is a series of linear main steps to take in order to design an interactive digital product. The process starts with identifying a project's goals and ends with meeting those goals. In order to meet those goals you need to do some careful work... Surrounding the steps are a set of tasks (or methodologies) to perform in order to complete each step of the process. Over-arching the entire process are guidelines like "vetting" and "informed iteratio...

The funny thing about working from home is that you rely on your co-workers and especially your managers even more than when you go to an office. I have worked in corporate offices, I have cranked out work on-site at start-ups, I've designed large scale websites in corporate environments, in agency environments, and at home. And you know what? It always comes down to management. Good Management Handles the Work Over the course of 2009 and 2010 I worked on a very successful project for Cengage Learning and - I never met my clients - ever.  However the project was managed very well by Cengage's internal team. My client/manager understood the entire scope of the project and was able to break down all the work into a very effective process. He communicated everything very clearly to the team, including a schedule, all the deliverables he expected, and when he wanted them . We always had two-way conversations about the work and we thoroughly reviewed my output on a regular basis...

We're proud to announce another logo, website and collateral materials for a local custom home builder, Bement & Sons Construction, INC . Marty, our client,  makes some of the most amazing custom homes I have ever seen. A beautiful fusion of Old World European design and modern construction.  Evey detail has been thought about, from the accents, the systems and the location of his homes. The end result is  a beautiful and luxurious home. If you're looking for dream home or considering having a custom home built in Maryland, you ought to check out Bementandsons.com today.