Derp rising
My fellow USAA designers will get this reference from Failblog. “Derp” has finally transcended the USAA universe and is quickly spreading to the interwebs…
Off the grid
Before we begin, let me express my love of intuitive, frictionless design as delivered via a visual grid. This approach promotes clear communication and usable sites. Now allow me to utter the blasphemy which is the catalyst for this post:
I’m sick and tired of every website looking the same! I’m sick of the way we’re using grids!
What’s next in web design? It seems so long since a major shift. We’re overdue. I dread opening up my NetVibes and looking through all the web design galleries - it’s just page after page of the same old “meh”.
Don’t get me wrong - in every design there’s an underlying structure. But today’s sites live so solidly in the grid, that the grid literally becomes the design. It’s like they’ve designed a grid and put some content in it that applies to some certain thing. They often feel cold and impersonal. It’s good, solid design but without soul or feeling. Much of the design I see (and create) reminds me of bad jazz - the kind played by technical masters who construct sophisticated, complex music that leaves you cold as a fish.
Even my own website has succumbed to the overly-visual grid paradigm. Maybe it’s time for a change. I want to create design that move heart as well as mind. I want something different. I want to create what’s next.
Copywriting is important.
Where did the design “dictators” go?
I took my first agency gig at a small firm in San Antonio at the tender age of 22. I had been working for a couple years in the creative department of a medical products corporation, and that was my only exposure to the design process. Here’s how I thought it worked:
- Marketing manager has idea
- Marketing manager shares idea with designer
- Designer comes up with 3 comps
- Comps are delivered to marketing
- Marketing manager places comps on table in conference room
- Anyone - I mean ANYONE - who enters the conference room (marketing people, receptionists, janitors) votes on their favorite and makes recommendations
- Marketing manager compiles comments, and delivers back to designer to perform this work.
This was my reality. Design was not directed by designers, but by literally anyone else.
I had a rude awakening at that first agency. It was owned and managed by three successful designers. Clients did not direct design here. Oh - they would try (as they always will). But with wide eyes, I’d watch my new bosses employ an array of skillful counter measures to protect the integrity of their designs. I was taught there that our clients’ role was to tell us their goals - the problems they were trying to solve and their definition of success. But designs belonged to the designer.
For those of us working at the agency, there was no question who was in charge. Once, I was working on an annual report design. As was my previous experience, I printed some early concepts and put them out at a morning staff meeting for others to comment on. The comps were quickly removed and I found myself sitting in my boss’ office being completely dressed down. I can’t share the exact words here, but let’s just say it was clearly explained to me who was designing this piece - and it wasn’t our receptionist or account executive.
Let me be frank. The inner workings of that design firm were not what most would consider “collaborative”. Those principles were opinionated, passionate and far more concerned with creating great design than fostering relationships. Frankly, they were jerks. And under their iron fists, we efficiently created solid work for clients like Dell, AMD, Harte-Hanks, Kaepa, and Frost Bank.
Fast forward to 2010. I’m working at a corporation again. Collaboration reigns supreme - especially where design is involved. Committees drive creative work and executives with little to no design acumen often hold the purse strings. Analytics and A/B testing replace passion and vision - relegating the emotional aspects of design a cell in an Excel spreadsheet. For the most part, design is safe and homogeneous - and designers have very little say about it.
Part of me longs for those days of design dictatorship - passionate artisans who are unyielding in pursuit of great communication. When a designer’s vision was allow to inhabit their designs. When non-designers were consulted and considered, but not driving the process. That’s not to say I don’t like it there - or that I think it’s impossible to do good work. But in general, it seems like we spend more time and money for more mediocre results.
I refuse to believe that collaboration and design voice are mutually exclusive. But I need a better metaphor. I can’t really tell my employer that we need “a few good dictators”. So how about maestros? We need people with great talent and vision who can get everyone playing from the same sheet - who keep things flowing together - but with the authority to be a little uncompromising. What if executives, project managers and IT staff were instructed to collaborate on defining the problem and outlining requirements, but to leave design to the designer?
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one… or maybe I am 
Ready to take my CUA exam
Today, I finished the last course with Human Factors International. I can now take my test to become a CUA - certified usability analyst.
Microsoft announced today that it’s killing the Kin only weeks after release. It really is amazing to me how inept they’ve been at putting together a mobile strategy. I guess that answers my previous question about why they weren’t marketing it with any conviction.
iPhone 4 - How Apple gets it right
Steve Jobs announces the iPhone 4
I’ve been stuck in bed for the last two days, so I’ve had some time on my hands. Today, I watched Steve Jobs announce the iPhone 4 at the WWDC. Notwithstanding an odd request for everyone to turn off their WI-FI hotspots and laptops, I was struck by how Apple has this down to a science. Google and Microsoft could really learn a thing or two from what I saw today:
- Exude confidence - Jobs said of this announcement “You won’t be disappointed”.
- Keep it simple, short and sweet - I don’t think any bullet point in any of the slides ran more than two lines
- Pictures are worth a thousand words - demos are worth a million. And if they don’t work, just blame whoever else is in the room with you
- Be positive - when Steve said “AT&T has been very generous”, I almost believed him for a second
- Let it all hang out - “This really will change the world…” “It took a long time for us to realize our dreams, but it’s finally here…”
- Sell emotionally - troops video chatting with their crawling babies, deaf people using a phone… that’s just powerful stuff. How much more RAM does the Droid have? Awww…. who cares!
But the most important thing: deliver a coordinated, unified message on all fronts! During the announcement, I was surfing the Apple website looking for iPad accessories. The SECOND Jobs finished, the site was updated with all the iPhone 4 content. I mean literally - the second he finished. This is amazing to me considering I searched for the Google Droid phone in Google the day it released and didn’t find anything.
It didn’t go perfectly, but today was an example of why they’re successful. Solid products with simple interfaces build to ambitiously solve problems that other companies wouldn’t dare tackle. Yes I’m sure the video chat will be a little choppy at first. I imagine that the multitasking will be a little buggy. But the fact is that Apple has the guts to take a swing - and so continue to move the industry forward.
Starbucks is destroying their brand
I just read this story over at CNN
Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks was lamenting their meager 10% market share and talking about how to “attack the competitors”. They don’t compete well against Maxwell House or McDonalds.
Note to Mr Schultz: Why do you think anyone WANTS you to compete with those brands? Back in the day, Starbucks was trendy, pretentious and elitist - in short, AWESOME! You’d go into a hip storefront location, order an overpriced cup of burned, bitter coffee with some ultra-high end name from a girl with 4 tattoos and a liberal arts degree.
The product wasn’t really the coffee. It was the murals, the hippie vibe, the Joni Mitchell CD playing there. You had the Apple thing going for you - style and a fanatical fan base that would pay $4 for a small cup of coffee (or a grande or mogabambo or whatever you call it).
Now it seems you’re just a coffee manufacturer. Let’s get into homes. Let’s compete against McDonalds. I’ve been hearing about the “$1 cup of coffee” for a while now. That would be a mistake. Your brand isn’t designed to be the cheapest - it’s designed to be the best experience. In your race to the bottom, you’re going to lose the essence of what makes your brand desirable!
My advice - close about half of your stores (it’s unsustainable and makes your experience too common). Remix your store design and appoint a team of cool people to choose more awesomer music to pipe in. Encourage store owners to do more community-based events like concerts, poetry, book clubs, etc. Then raise prices to $5 per cup and find ways to discourage un-cool people from ever darkening the door.
You’re welome
Absurd book titles - the sequel
Umm…..yes.
Umm.....yes.