I love minimalist designs. The “less is more” philosophy is an important idea in web user experience…so why not translate this onto a business card?
I recently ran into this business card concept on Guy Kawasaki’s (web startup guru) blog, and thought it was a brilliant example of great UI. Often, the first impression you make with a business card can lead you to a path to getting remembered…or forgotten. Much like websites, business cards must be clear, to the point, and usable…otherwise, it merely becomes pocket garbage. Props to the designer.
Our May meetup will be about HTML Emails and will be led by Jerry Archambeau, Internet Design Manager for CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business.
–HTML email best practices (how to, how not to, when to, and when to stop)
–How to set up, design and create files to ensure maximum deliverability to a wide-variety of email clients
When
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Where
AQUENT
500 W. Madison Suite 2600
Chicago , IL 60661
312-869-3000
Who should come
People who may benefit most by attending: Web / Email HTML designers Web editors / writers Direct Marketing Managers and professionals
Why
Because we’re fun, smart people who love to share knowledge
Expected Attendees
42 people — 42 Yes, 0 Maybe
There’s still room for 8 more.
How to find the organizer(s)
“Take the escalators (or elevator) to the 3rd floor. Once there you will need to show them a photo ID at the visitor desk to get up to the 26th floor Aquent office.”
–Judi
Ever wonder if you’re in the right career…designing user experiences and interface? Well, according to US News & World Report…you probably are! Careers in our industry was rated the top 31 careers for 2008.
Feels great to be validated! …but even if we weren’t rated…I can’t imagine a higher calling than making the web a better place. Here is the list of the top 31 careers for 2008 in alphabetical order (the last NOT being the least!):
“Getting Real” is a must read book for anyone building a web application. Although not specifically a usability book…it touches on development philosophies that UI/UX professionals need to be familiar with.
From the people who brought you Basecamp, Backpack, and Ruby on Rails…this book is a discourse on the right way to build great web apps. This is not a tech manual…it is a philosophy on how to get web software out into the world swiftly and successfully. And for the bootstrapping entrepreneur…you can read Getting Real…for FREE!
As a person who worked as PM for a company who insisted on doing it the “wrong” way…focusing on countless iterations of functional specs, drawing up useless flow diagrams, incessant planning…”Getting Real” is a breath of fresh air!
For web startups, it is crucial to put some resources into UI/UX (user interface/user experience) development. If you are just starting up, chances are…your website is not a household name (yet), people have no idea what your site is about, users are visiting your site for the first time, and they are one click away from leaving your site. It is essential for web startups to deliver a great user experience from the very beginning…otherwise you can risk joining the web deadpool.
This is the job of UI/UX professionals. In a nutshell, their mission is to make sure your web site is clear, intuitive, and easy to use for everyone. As important as it is to have great UI, the unfortunate fact is that companies still don’t pay enough attention to this area of design. It is usually an afterthought, saved for the latter stages of product development. Usually, the entrepreneurs and business analysts rush to give their development specs and flow diagrams to their back end programmers…and this crucial step of advocating what the end user wants, is neglected.
The bottom line is…if your web startup hasn’t gone through some type of UI development…it needs to start asap. The good news is that even if you can’t afford to hire a UI/UX professional, there is much you can do on your own which will have much better results for your launch than not doing anything. All it takes is a little logic, common sense, and patience. Take a look at our Recommended Reading section to get started!
“Don’t Make Me Think” is a great starting point in learning more about UI. It’s a great primer with ideas that any website can use to enhance its usability. It has great tips…ranging from best practices in using web conventions…to a step-by-step guide on administering your own usability test.
The only downside to this book (which is why I call it a primer) is that there is a wide range of different types of web sites (web apps, ecommerce, blogs, informational, etc) that would have different UI requirements. But that would be beyond the scope of this book. Also, it doesn’t really take into account how Web 2.0, AJAX, and other emerging technologies are changing some of the rules and conventions of UI. That said…it is an excellent starting point for usability issues that EVERY web developer should think about.
The only other negative comment is after reading the book, I visited the author’s own website about UI, www.sensible.com, and I can’t say it was as intuitive as I expected. But, it did remind me of Jakob Nielson’s website, another highly recognized UI expert.
Ok, I wouldn’t exactly call this required reading…how about a highly recommended healthy diversion from your hectic work week? This account of the early years of Pay Pal reads like a fiction, complete with plot twists, protagonists, antagonists…and perhaps even a motif here and there. But a fiction, it is not, since this actually recounts the real-life drama which the young company had to overcome to survive in a such a tumultuous market. Allegorically speaking, this book taught me two very important things:
Lesson 1: Rough Road To Success
Sometimes we see these big web companies like Pay Pal and tend to think that their path to success was paved with gold. This book, however, reminds us that even the best ideas with the best management teams have to fight tooth and nail to survive and become household names. Pay Pal Wars gives us a behind-the-curtains look at the pitfalls and challenges that probably plagues any startup with great market potential. Learning from Pay Pal’s mistakes, decisions, and strategy could potentially save any company time and money.
Lesson 2: A Bigger Purpose
I can only imagine Pay Pal’s elevator pitch: an auction payment platform allowing sellers to collect credit card payments from buyers. Business model: take a small percentage fee from the millions of auctions performed daily. Simple idea, simple business, easy money. This is probably the pitch that got them financed for many millions of dollars…but this is not what drove their passion to succeed.
The initial team was driven by a higher purpose: to create a universal currency…to make the world a better place. As an entrepreneur, it’s sometimes convenient to follow the money, but it would be foolish to lose sight of the bigger purpose for your company…the high idea that motivates the company and its employees towards success.
A common problem in the development cycle of any website…you don’t have enough programmers to finish the project and deadlines are coming up fast! What to do?! Well, one option is to hire more full-time programmers, but companies often face the problem of limited funds to pay such demanding salaries. Then, there’s the issue of attracting good talent to even come join your company.
Sometimes, the only way to get around this resource problem are freelancers. Enter oDesk.com. oDesk is a growing marketplace for technology freelancers. The good thing about oDesk is it tries to qualify their registered freelancers…rating their skill level and also featuring an ebay-like feedback system. It has a pretty thorough list of tech professionals you’d need, including programmers, information architects, project managers, designers, and even media professionals. It also comes with project management tools to help you manage your project and keep freelancers on track.
Need help in a hurry? I tried posting a request for a back-end programming job on oDesk (yes, it was free to post a job) and immediately got an inbox full of potential candidates. The downside though is that most respondents were overseas candidates (typically freelancers from India and Russia), but the upside is that they have pretty cheap hourly rates if you are willing to work sight unseen and on a different time zone.
I eventually decided not to go with oDesk in preference for finding local talent. Great system and resource though. I’ll definitely give it another look when more US freelancers start using the system.
OK…for the reading impaired (or lazy)…just found a great Cliff’s Notes version of the book, The Art of the Start, given by the author Guy Kawasaki. It’s a great video summary of the book, and pretty thorough too.
Get a pen and paper and start taking notes!…better yet, go out and buy the book and study it.
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