Great branding presentation

Branding is always a hot topic anytime you have strategic and creative people together thinking about how to provide a product or service. This presentation makes some good points including the fact that your customers, not you, often decide what your brand is. See slides 13-18. And principles that apply to retail packaging (slides 100-103) also apply in many other mediums...the Web for example.

User Experience...where's the delight?

Metro ticket vending machine | welcometoalville

I was in Washington, D.C. for a User Experience conference, so it's fitting that, while out with some fellow UXers there was a run-in with bad user experience. And as you might expect, we ruthlessly picked apart our victim, a Metro farecard vending machine.

The machine that took cash was actually easy to use. The machine pictured here was for credit/debit cards. It was a shining example of everything you would not want to experience while purchasing a farecard in a subway, particularly during rush hour or late at night, which was the case on two separate occasions.

It was so bad, one had to wonder...did the designers intentionally create a bad user experience? It's hard to imagine that it could be this bad UNintentionally. (Though, thinking of how bad UX happens to good designers -- from personal experience, I realize I should cut them some slack).

The problems: Not clear where the process starts or ends (in spite of the big numbers) or what to expect when it does, quirky affordances/buttons (and of every conceivable variety -- something for everyone), counterintuitive task-flow, miniscule type indicating the arcane fare structure...the list goes on (click on the photo to see a larger version...see if you can figure it out).

My advice if you find yourself visiting D.C. and staring blankly at the farecard machine? Buy the default $20.00 ticket and you'll probably never have to deal with the process again...you can relax and enjoy the Metro, which is quite nice once you get past this maddening gatekeeper.

Ever heard of punctuation?

brief fire sign | welcometoalville.

I was all ready to present this as the well-written counterpoint to the wordy fire exit sign (see adjacent blog entry), but then realized that, though it does get the point across in as few words as possible, it lacks punctuation that would make it truly stellar. Still, it IS just a fire exit sign. I suppose the lack of punctuation is forgivable.

Why we need editors

wordy fire sign | welcometoalville

Every day I walk by two fire doors on the way to work. I can't help but notice the extreme wordiness in contrast to the clear and efficient use of words in the sign on the other fire door a few feet away (see the adjacent blog entry). One has to wonder how this sign ever saw the light of day. Who wrote it? Who edited it? And how about that "instant use" terminology? Sounds like it was borrowed from a moist towelette package.

The Cell Phone is the new Polaroid

rrcrossing | welcometoalville.

I have film cameras, I have digital cameras, but the camera I find myself using most often and spontaneously is the one in my cell phone. The quality is finally good enough for snapshots. (See the image of the RR sign).

Just a few years ago, the only option if you wanted an immediately-available photo was the Polaroid and the trade-off on quality for instant gratification was acceptable. Now cell phones fill that role. I don't really care that the resolution is inferior to an 8-megapixel Nikon or Canon as long as I get the image in the moment.

And I did just hear that there is technology which will enable printing photos from cell phones...not sure if that means an actual little printer with the phone...that sounds way too cool, but I hope so.

Now, I don't mean to suggest that our treasured Polaroid cameras be discarded or shelved, never to be used again. I will always enjoy shooting Polaroid. I just see their value now as the unique feel of the image they produce and the somewhat nostalgic photographic experience.

Tares and Wheat

Tares and Wheat painting | welcometoalville.

I did this painting a few years ago. It's acrylic on canvas. I can't remember any of the details of painting it at this point, but I expect it went through a few changes in its development. I don't even remember what time of year I did it or if the season was any influence.

It looks like it was first just black shapes on white canvas, but I never like to leave things alone. I think I rinsed off the black ant then perhaps repainted it, then added layers of tans and browns and then finally the silver shapes.

I've just called it silverandtan for years -- I know, a pretty boring name, but today the title above came to me. I've always liked the parable of the tares and wheat and can definiely relate more often than I'd like. Its painted on two panels. They work ok separately, but they work better together. Like some people, they were meant to be together. At least in the same room, if not attached.

Bridge in St. Louis

St. Louis Bridge | welcometoalville.

I snapped this photo of a bridge over the Mississippi River in August 2006, going east on I-70. I like the way the shapes all work together although, at the time, I did not consciously think about it. It was just an intuitive thing. To me it is the perfect road trip photo. Spontaneous, a little blurry from the motion of the car and just a slice of what was going by at the moment. The original was a color, digital photo, but I felt black and white really captured the feeling better.

ThoughtPainting

This past weekend was the Annual Open Studios at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell, Massachusetts, where I have a studio. This is something I wrote to go on the wall of my studio as an answer the question, "What are your paintings about?" You can see examples of my paintings on my Web site. --------------------- I have always drawn in response to the world in which I live. First it was cars, stick figures and spaceships. In art class it was the requisite still lifes, landscapes, portraits and figure drawings. But drawing from the visual world is a conscious exercise – an exercise that, after a time, ceased to be a sufficient outlet for artistic exploration. Though I still do draw from life, I feel the “real” artistic experience is more intuitive and unconscious. It often begins in meetings during my “day job” as an interactive designer. I doodle -- sometimes to an extreme -- and to the questioning looks of co-workers and clients. More and more I have recognized these doodles not as mere mindless scribbles, but as visual representations of unconscious thoughts. Eventually, I felt the desire to explore these more deeply, intentionally and expansively with paint and canvas. What you see here is the ongoing experiment and experience of making the unconscious visible. They are essentially paintings of thoughts. To define what thoughts are represented would be limiting. It is up to the viewer to draw their own conclusions and experience them in their own way.

The code of life

So much of life involves decoding. This occurred to me as I was working on a Web project and having to look at the code, make little tweaks to it and then look at the result in a browser. And often, a small tweak would have a huge impact. Others times I'd make several changes and see no results. But gradually as I worked with the code it became clearer what effect certain changes would have. So...Isn't that really what we're doing all day -- deciphering experiences and verbal and non-verbal communications and making little adjustments based on the part we understand with the goal of improving our understanding of the "code" so what we see in the "browser" is more like what we imagined? We're usually doing it intuitively so we don't notice. This is not meant to trivialize life or take the art or love out of it...just an interesting way to look at it that, for me, is a good way to step back when things aren't quite going the way you'd like. Some people say "it's only a movie." I say "it's just code." The good thing is you can edit code...all you can do with a movie is watch.

What design really is

The key quality or function of design is to connect people with ideas and experiences that can transform their lives. To regard it simply as how things look is a limited view. It's impossible to design without understanding who the people are for whom you are designing and what outcome is desired. Without a handle on that, you're really just decorating. That's not to say there's anything wrong with decorating, but don't mistake it for design. Design needs to be thought of in greater terms than the visual. In many cases, especially on the Web, the visual is simply the medium through which the design is experienced. In other words, design is a whole system of which the visual is only a part.

Why I don't blog anymore

People ask me if I'm still blogging ( "yo, you still blogging?"). See the comment on the previous post if you don't believe me. OK, I admit, it's been a while. I AM still blogging if only in my mind as I'm in meetings, or driving to work or drifting off to sleep...you see, I'm very busy these days with my regular work and a couple "special projects" at work. That's when they say "can you carve out a little time?" and you of course can't pass up a cool project...like figuring out some CSS stuff (Cascading Style Sheets). Then they say, "can you carve out a little MORE time?" and it turns out to be MORE time than the first request, but again, so cool you can't pass it up...like a redesign of something. So, after the work is done, it often comes down to a choice of blogging or running; blogging or hiking; blogging or those silly things called household chores; blooging 0r time with family or friends. Most of the time I choose the latter options. Tonight (lucky for you, reader) I chose both (I just finished running around the Charles River because it finally stopped raining for the moment). What I really need is a way to dictate my blog-thoughts to a person or a machine who will then faithfully make them appear here. Too often, blogging seems like a self-indulgent, running-off-at-the-keyboard sort of thing. It's the 2006 equivalent of what I used to do in the 1990s -- I'd sit in cafes or coffeehouses and write endlessly about whatever was on my mind on these really nice notebooks called Rhino-something (spiral-bound, off white paper with a good feel to it and little flecks of something) with Uniball pens--usually black. Ah yes...it was so therapeutic...at least I thought so at the time...but then later I started thinking it was more self-hypnotic because I actually started to pay more attention to what I was writing than actually living. So I stopped along about 2002...no more writing...just living. The difference between blogging and writing in those journals is that a blog is visible to the entire world. Old journals are visible to nobody...not even to me. They're in boxes under other boxes. I think they're actually under a box of old license plates (that's another entry someday). And when I read them I think, wow, what was I thinking, and I can sort of pat myself on the back for being so much wiser and enlightened now. (A friend of mine had the opposite experience...she said upon reading a journal from twenty years before that she could have written the same thing the DAY before...talk about scary!) My greatest fear about blogging is that somebody will read this and say: hmm...another self-absorbed nincompoop (I swear I've never used that word before and probably never will again, but it seemed just the thing here). Or some prospective employer or client with an amazing project, will, after being thrilled with every other aspect of my credentials, take a look at my blog and say, "Wow, that was a close call...get those resumes out of the trash!" (Or more like, "Forward me those emails again" I mean really, who sends resumes anymore?!) OK, so I DO still blog, if sporadically. I think I've proven that.

emailed...

...by phone. A couple more examples referenced in "Communication Skills?" in the entry below.

This is a test...

...of the email posting capability. This is only a test. Had this been an actual posting, you would be reading something more meaningful by now. Please continue to another posting.

Communication Skills?

Every day I see a sign or two that's a spectacular, apalling, or amusing failure of communication. It seems to me that a sign, particularly a sign that alerts people to possible dangers, should communicate as clearly and as efficiently as possible. One of my favorites is a sign I saw in Portland, Maine that reads "ATTENTION PROPANE TANK." And I'm supposed to do what? Or two signs on a door, one reading "Close Door" and the other reading "Due to a wind pressure issue!" OK, I kind of see the connection. Maybe the second sign was covering up a big "Why?" scrawled on the door.

Other signs start out clear, but gradually, through the effects of weather, human intervention, or burned out bulbs, become less clear. Even with contextual clarity, you can't deny the humor of "Burlington oat Factory." Then there are the mispellings, usually in handwritten signs. It's a wonderful way to broadcast your lack of proofing skills, lack of education or lack of concern for precision and spelling conventions. I went to one of my favorite places for lunch the other day but was turned away by a handwritten sign declaring: "Temporaly Close Due to water Shortage." And there's the farm stand at the end of a dirt road in Temple, New Hampshire with a large sign that reads, "EGG's." Who knows, maybe the eggs DO actually own something. And finally, there are signs that are just plain funny in their subject matter, unusual wording, or chaotic arrangement of elements. A restaurant parking lot in Cambridge, Massachusetts proclaims "Customer parking only. Violators will be towed perfunctorily." Then there's the interesting juxtaposition of signs on two adjacent doors on the side of a building that I see every day on my coffee run. One sign says "Please keep the area in front of this door free of objects so that it can be used immediately." Huh? By the time I got to the end of the sentence I forgot the beginning. The sign next to it simply reads "Fire Door - Keep Clear." Ok, now I get it.

Spiritual Movies

Thinking about movies with a spiritual message at work for an upcoming meeting. It occurred to me that every movie (every story, every life) is essentially a search for truth and love. Since truth and love can only be attained by yielding to the law of a higher, spiritual power, every movie is really the telling of a spiritual journey. Either the characters are finding some spiritual transformation or we are seeing the conscequences of the lack of spiritual transformation. So which movies show this most poignantly? The first two that come to mind are "Closer" and "We Don't Live Here Anymore." Both were disturbing, even depressing. Why do people treat eachother so badly. How can they not see the errors of the choices they make? What we see in those movies is mainly the spiritual vacuum of searching for truth and love in the wrong places, the wrong ways, or in ways that ulitmately have no chance of success. OK, were there any movies with a more positive spiritual message? Why is it that the darker stories are more telling? Maybe because they seem more real, more believeable, and the stories which are too good, clean and pure don't have as much to say because the character has already achieved the spiritual transformation that would be so telling if we were to see the dark beginnings of the story.

The Ultimate Driving Machine

I bought this car about two years ago after owning a few newer, more "refined" and "comfortable" vehicles. So-called refinement is subjective -- somebody else's idea of refinement. And comfort is overrated and again, subjective. This car is a little wabi-sabi here and there. Worn leather seats and shifter knob. Faint smell of oil and gas -- none of that new car smell (which is really just a marketing term for plastic vapor). And I only get AM radio stations and it plays only cassette tapes. But you know what? This car delivers an authentic driving experience -- you feel the connection to the machine and to the road. Back in '86 when I was fresh out of college, this was the symbol that you had arrived. Sure it breaks down a little now and then, but I haven't loved a car this much since my parent's 1968 Dodge Dart which I drove in high school.

Start here

No don't. Go to another posting. This is just a test. OK. I guess it works.