Category Archives: Design
A Few Basic Pointers on Information Graphics
June 23, 2010
Reprinted with the authors’ permission from Web Analytics World.
The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics by Dona Wong is an essential read for anyone given the task of communicating information and data.
The book is straightforward and reads like a style guide, primarily using visual examples over text. Using side-by-side comparisons of what to do [...]
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Building Trust with Good Information Design
April 26, 2010
Abridged with the author’s permission from The Tendo View.
Design geeks across the Web were buzzing last month in response to the announcement that Edward Tufte, a statistician and professor emeritus at Yale University, was appointed by President Obama to the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel. The move was seen by many as a much-needed boost to [...]
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Put Interactive Elements in the Right Place
March 12, 2010
In his latest Alertbox, usability expert Jakob Nielson focuses on what he calls “one of the oldest principles of human-computer interaction,” namely, that users treat things grouped close together on the screen as related. The converse is also true: they treat things left far apart as unrelated, and can therefore easily miss a button or [...]
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Design Concepts for Copywriters
January 28, 2010
Abridged with the author’s permission from Pro Copy Tips.
A lot of copywriters think that “copy is king.” And that’s true. Sort of. It’s true if you mean that the message is what matters. And it’s true that, as a copywriter, you are the one primarily responsible for writing the words that deliver that message.
But you’re [...]
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What Can You Learn from a Comic Book? Part 2
January 18, 2010
This two-part post originally ran as one, in slightly longer form, on The Content Wrangler. For part 1, click here . Abridged with the author’s permission.
Comics can make you laugh, cry, gasp in wonder, or shake in terror, and they can also make great instruction manuals, training aids, white papers, or any other type of [...]
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What Can You Learn from a Comic Book?
January 15, 2010
This two-part post originally ran as one, in slightly longer form, on The Content Wrangler. Abridged with the author’s permission.
When I utter the word ‘comics’ most people immediately think of spandex-clad superheroes, talking animals or a gang of perennial teenagers who never seem to graduate high-school. There is a common misconception that comics are a [...]
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On Not Giving Clients Exactly What They Want
March 17, 2009
Photographer Brad Trent tells the story of shooting a medical manufacturing facility for a spread in Business Week at his Damn Ugly Photography blog. Going in, he knew he had to get a picture of the assembly line, but to his eye it was a pretty standard shot that didn’t do a lot to make [...]
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One Word, 15,000 Pictures
February 19, 2009
Our friends at junta42.com do more than match us up with prospective clients. In their recent webinar, they taught us a new parlor game with a useful business message.
To play, go to iStock, one of many online sources for royalty-free stock images, and type “bacon” into the search bar. Guess how many images you’ll pull [...]
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Make Every Page a Welcome Mat
August 14, 2008
Anyone creating Web sites should have long ago abandoned the idea that a home page is the only way visitors enter a site.
In this age of search engines, any page can give a visitor the all-important first impression and also do the work of selling, educating or entertaining.
Many sites, if they monitor traffic at all, [...]
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