We humans are social creatures that thrive on face to face interaction and communication.   Tom Erickson, interaction designer and researcher in the Social Computing Group at IBM’s Watson Labs defines social computing as providing an online place, application or service that have some of that “life” to them. 
His new report provides a though-provoking analysis of what is “social computing,” how does it differ from “social media,” and what is its impact on the way we work, live and play.

Erickson’s report and interview discussions provide insight for digital designers and developers like Manning, but also important ideas for those in online marketing and communications.  He likens digital designers to architects and urban planners who are creating public spaces to encourage people to interact, communicate, and live together.  He suggests that we look at online spaces in terms of the interaction they support and promote.

It’s a compelling analysis well worth the investment of time.

There’s a pervasive “Mommy and me” vision of children’s technology – the idea that every time a child uses a device, someone lovingly guides them through each tap or click.

Researchers know this ideal approach is pretty rare. Here’s a more realistic scenario: The parent downloads an app and swipes through. If it looks kosher, they’ll “pass back” the smartphone or tablet to their child and return to their grown-up tasks. If you can’t depend on Mom and Dad’s web-savvy guidance, how do you make an app kid-friendly?

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Post-graduation.

Our professors and advisors warned us to think ahead and be prepared for it, but there was no time to. There were too many thumbnails to sketch, too many emails to read, too many content dummies to print out and bind, too much sleep to catch up on. It almost didn’t matter to us, sleep-deprived and over-caffeinated 3^rd year art students, what was going to be going on in our lives two years from now in the thing called the “real world.” Some of us knew what we would like to be doing after college, but most of us had yet to figure out what we liked to draw best. Besides, two years away was still too far away. If college so far taught us anything, it was that about 43 minutes is enough for everything to change anyway.

But now it’s happened. Suddenly, my student ID doesn’t let me into my home the studio building anymore, I must pay the full price for student-discount art supplies, and the only new email in my inbox is the automated ad from GradPhotos hassling me to purchase the overexposed photo of me holding my BFA degree.

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My beautiful infographic

From the day I stepped into the marketing world, one of my first lessons was in the great debate of usability versus design. The way of thinking was, and still is for many people, that you simply cannot have 100% of both.  Meaning, you MUST sacrifice one or the other; should your website be visually spectacular and lack common navigation and web standards or should it function well and just be… kinda good looking?

For a while, I had been trying to decide which side of the fence I stood. As a digital marketer and all around #websavvy gal, I started to subconsciously analyze the websites I came across with regards to the design and user friendlessness.  What I found is that many of the websites that balanced usability and design would fall into this cookie cutter mold – logo upper left hand corner, navigation near the top, big rotating banner messages, and if the user experience was really good (these are gems) a few calls to action sprinkled in.

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The following is an excerpt from an email between myself and a client. The client was experiencing type display issues while testing a site we provided design and front-end development for. The affected fonts were being served by TypeKit. We are huge supporters of TypeKit, but as with any new technologies, there are going to be kinks to work out. I thought this info may be of use to other TypeKit users.

The Symptom

Text on the site is rendering with very jagged edges and incorrect letter spacing. (The technical term for this is ‘aliasing’.) This makes certain text more difficult to read and/or affects alignment. You’ve observed this problem on multiple computers running Windows 7 and using the IE 8 browser.

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Recently, AIGA Chicago hosted a roundtable at Studio Blue with area interactive creative directors, and I was lucky enough to be asked to participate.

One of the main issues affecting area interactive creative directors is finding and hiring new talent. Because of the fast-paced, ever-changing nature of our industry, universities have not been able to adapt their programs in order to properly equip students for the real world. Currently AIGA Chicago boasts a mentor program that brings together designers from all levels of experience to share ideas, and offer advice. One suggestion that was thrown out was to expand and focus the mentorship program, as a way to guide young designers who have a passion for interactive design, but who haven’t necessarily been given the proper tools in order to be employable. Another suggestion put on the table was to create an ideal model for an interactive university curriculum, as a way to demonstrate to schools how to structure their programs in order to better prepare their students for the real world. Continue Reading →

Periodically, we like to challenge ourselves and test out an idea we’ve been kicking around. In this case, we asked ourselves, “What if we create a web app that uses the content of people’s tweets to determine what gifts they might like?” That’s the basic premise behind our Twitter gift idea generator: tweeSP.

We’ve just launched the site and so far we’ve been very pleased with the results of our little social media experiment. We’ve used tweeSP to find gifts ideas for friends and family, or just had fun seeing what presents are recommended for celebrity tweeters.

Many people question the value of Twitter, but here’s one example of how tweets can be used in an incredibly interesting and useful way. So take tweeSP for a spin and see if you get some interesting gift ideas for the last few people on your holiday shopping list.

PS – for those of you scratching your head over our name for this cool new toy, it’s a play on Twitter and ESP. Now aren’t we punny!

The challenge for any business is reaching people interested in your services and engaging them in a meaningful way. For the owners of a new niche brand that meant finding the right platform to showcase their work so customers understand what they do.

New Bronze Age Tile owners Denise Siegel and Dave Jaffe sought to expand their customer base by launching a hand-crafted bronze work business called deniseSiegelbronze. They needed an online presence to reach customers looking for the unique, beautifully crafted products the company offers, to establish Denise as a leader in her industry, and engender conversation with her clients and beyond. They also wanted something that was easy to update themselves and to showcase bronze pieces as Denise created them.

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Textured elements for a tactile site!

Recently, our good friends Dave and Denise came to us with a request to help them build a website for their new company. Denise was set to launch deniseSiegelbronze – a new spin of her existing company New Bronze Age Tile. Her new brand places a heavier emphasis on Denise’s custom, hand-crafted bronze work and they wanted to make sure that this came across in their new site. They also wanted the site to be a platform to help establish Denise as a leader in her industry and engender conversation with her clients and beyond. And finally, they wanted something that was easy to update themselves and would allow them to showcase bronze pieces as Denise created them.

Not being ones to shy away from tall orders, or abandon friends in need, we jumped at the chance.

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We have launched many websites in our time, but few were as eventful as the one we participated in for GlenviewMarines.com. Doug and I headed up to the old Glenview Naval Base for the official launch of the site dedicated to helping the servicemen and women who make up the Glenview Marines. Having donated our services, we wanted to introduce them to the ins and outs of their new site.

As part of the celebration, we were treated to the presentation of the flags by a full Color Guard and a spontaneous singing of the Marine Corps Hymn (Did you ever hear the last verse? Hilarious!). We were also joined by representatives from the Semper Fi Fund, the Wounded Warrior Regiment and Andrew Tibby, a local Iraqi vet who had received grants from the Semper Fi Fund. Continue Reading →