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Marina Moser, as part of our regular <i>design our logo</i> feature
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Wednesday Jul 23, 2008

The Death of PodTech and the Importance of Good Design

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We are not in the business of passing judgment on people, but there is nothing to stop us from enjoying it from afar. Such is the case with this short post over on Airbag, which we were pointed to by way of Andy Rutledge. It's about the failing of PodTech, an internet startup who was given oodles of venture capital money, but spent hardly anything on design or branding, which their celebrity employee, one Mr. Robert Scobble, said wasn't a very important thing to care about at all. So the Airbag piece is something of a "oh really?!" sort of response to this lack of design understanding, which we enjoyed mightily and hope you will too.

Monday Jul 21, 2008

Illeana Douglas to Star in IKEA Web Series

ikea tv.jpgHaving infiltrated deepest Brooklyn with its low-priced homegoods and cafeteria meatballs, Swedish retail juggernaut IKEA is taking its show on the road, with the help of...Illeana Douglas? That's the word from our techie sibling blog, MobileContentToday. According to MCT, Douglas (who utterly charmed us with her Factory Girl turn as Diana Vreeland) will be starring in IKEA's new scripted web series entitled "Easy to Assemble." The first of the videos, which will be viewable on mobile phones as well as online, is slated to debut in September and will showcase IKEA's fall products. Be sure to tune in for celebrity cameos and valuable insight into how to pronounce the name of your dishes ("LJUVLIG" doesn't exactly roll of the tongue).

Friday Jun 20, 2008

Twitter Along with UnBeige

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Famed literary critic Lionel Trilling once described Henry James as a "social twitterer." Sure, he meant it as an insult, but it makes us feel better about having signed on to become twitterers ourselves. A couple of weeks ago, with the help of some Eadweard Muybridge photos (see above), we debuted our official UnBeige Twitter account—your source for terse and downright laconic breaking newsbites, event snippets, and links of interest—and today the mediabistro.com tech team has worked its magic to add to the sidebar at right a handful of our most recent word bursts (limited to 140 characters). Now to test our hypothesis that the longest day of the year will also be the most Twittered. Sign up to follow all of our twittering, and start twittering yourself at twitter.com.

Wednesday Jun 18, 2008

Critiquing Obama's 'Thanks to Hillary' Banners

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A great read sent in by Steven Heller: his latest piece for the NY Times' Campaign Stops blog, "The Hardest Words." In it, he's once again taking a look at the presidential race from a design perspective. This time around, he's looking at a banner the Obama camp put up after Hillary Clinton dropped out of the running, thanking her for all her work in, well, trying to beat them? But any direct and obvious politics should certainly be pushed aside, as Heller wants an interesting conversation about how to interpret the visual cues given off by the image, so he makes a few remarks, then asks a handful of designers for their opinions. Here's one from an old friend of ours:

David Barringer, a designer and a novelist, thinks the "ice-cold blue" is odd. As an alternative to this banner "I'd do an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in a Political Drama," he says.

Monday Jun 16, 2008

Brandweek Retools Website, Picks 'Superbrands'

brandweek superbrands.jpgWhen embarking on a rebrand of a site about branding, things can get confusing, but Brandweek has completed the task, today launching its expanded website (on the heels of relaunched versions of Adweek.com and Mediaweek.com). Why redesign now? "To more efficiently enhance the capability of our web-based platforms to connect with and facilitate interaction with our core audiences," of course, or such were the buzzphrases (what? no synergies?) assembled by Brandweek publisher Tom Woerner in response to the query of our brother blog, PRNewser. As for how the new site can efficiently enhance your capabilities, check out the newly published Superbrands issue, fronted by the Target-y cover pictured above. Among the Superbrands content available free online for the first time ever are the list of America's Top 2000 brands, ranked by full-year 2007 national media expenditures, and in-depth analysis by category.

In his letter introducing the issue, Brandweek editor Todd Wasserman emphasizes that, "people don't buy products for their utility and quality; they don't even really buy products at all. They buy stories." And he signs off on a rather chilling note. "It reminds me of the joke Woody Allen told in Annie Hall about the man who thought he was a chicken, but his brother didn't want to tell him he wasn't because he—the brother—needed the eggs. We will all be in a lot of trouble on the day when the consumer finds out he is not a chicken." On the bright side, the realization may do wonders for the ranking of the brand currently coming in at #1494, Tyson's frozen entrees.

Friday Jun 06, 2008

Newspapers Run Into Messy Design Trouble Online

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By way of Andy Rutledge (who, by the way, has a great personal piece up right now on his site about turning down clients), we were pointed to Publishing 2.0's interesting story "What Newspapers Still Don't Understand About the Web." It focuses on the issues some newspapers are still dealing with in design, or rather, information architecture. Scott Karp, the writer of the piece, decides to focus on a scenario he ran into when the power went out in his DC office. He eventually found a cornucopia of information on the Washington Post's site, but only after having to dig around and navigate blindly through miscellaneous pages. So while the information was all readily there and was more than he could ever want, the tasks involved in getting there were frustrating and poorly planned. It's a really great example of something sure to be super familiar to nearly everyone, and a problem that needs working out, should newspapers want to stop getting beaten up around the web.

Thursday May 29, 2008

UnBeige, Now in Tasty Bite-Sized Morsels

We may be averse to the likes of FaceBook and MySpace (and the Orwellian buzzword "social networking" for that matter), but our mediabistro.com blog brethren have convinced us to join the Twittering classes. That's right, just last night, we debuted our official UnBeige Twitter account, where we'll post up-to-the-minute newsbites, event snippets, links of interest, and free candy (OK, we're still working on the physics of that last one). That said, we do worry that the people of the future will one day unearth Twitter messages and wonder why 21st century types communicated in laconic mini-missives of 140 characters or less. Below, a sample of our recent Twitters, including some from last night's opening of the Sculptural Objects and Functional Art (SOFA) fair, which runs through Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory. Sign up to follow our twittering, and start twittering yourself at twitter.com.

UnBeige Twitter.jpg

Tuesday May 27, 2008

Focus Web Design on Quick and Easy, Says Jakob Nielsen's Usability Report

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Well, now that we've gotten to know you, we feel like we've got to start making these posts short, sweet and immediately to the point. At least that's the case if you go off Jakob Nielsen's latest web usability report. In it, he says that web users are getting "more ruthless and selfish," meaning that they want to get onto a site, get what they need, and get right out. No dilly-dallying, hunting for information on a site, or waiting for those super-exciting, animated pages to load. He also reports that people are getting more savvy with the web as well, no longer getting duped by ads or marketing tricks at the same rates they had before. What does this mean for you? Start living by a mantra of simplicity and substance and you should be fine. For the rest of you: maybe a new animated gif on your Geocities page might work. Here's a bit:

"The designs have become better but also users have become accustomed to that interactive environment," Dr Nielsen told BBC News.

Now, when people go online they know what they want and how to do it, he said.

This makes them very resistant to highlighted promotions or other editorial choices that try to distract them. "Web users have always been ruthless and now are even more so," said Dr Nielsen.

Thursday May 22, 2008

MB Circus: Designing for Speed, Simplicity Armed with 'Lots of Little Ideas'

mbcircus unbeige11.jpg

The first two speakers in yesterday's Mediabistro Circus session on User Experience Design came armed with formidable lists. For Google's Jon Wiley (pictured above, at left), it was "Ten principles that contribute to a Googley user experience," while Shiv Singh (at right), director of strategic initiatives at Avenue A | Razorfish, offered up a compact set of five trends that are now profoundly impacting how and for whom designers work. When overlaid, the enumerated ideas described an increasingly fragmented yet community-hungry global world of web users that crave simplicity, power, beauty, and that all-important human touch.

Wiley began with a lesson in the history of user design — the opposite placement of the propeller and throttle on two WW2 bomber planes, akin to varying by car model the position of the gas pedal and brake — and then discussed how Google's design team embodies the company's mantra: "focus on the user and all else will follow." While Google conducts oodles of field studies and user lab testing, Wiley also emphasized how "understanding the user experience can lend a lot of value early in the [development] process," when the possible design solutions are plentiful and the cost of changing one's mind is still blissfully low.

continued...

Sixth Grader Designs Today's Google Homepage Logo

Grace Moon google doodle.gifCalifornia sixth grader Grace Moon beat out 16,000 K-12 students from around the country to win Google's 2008 Doodle 4 Google competition, which this year called for doodles around the theme "What if...?" Featured today on Google's homepage (and pictured above), Moon's design depicts a rainbow-hued utopia she calls "Up in the Clouds."

"This new world is clean and fresh, and people are social and enlightened," said Moon of her design. "Every person here is treated as family no matter who they are. The bright sun heats this ideal place with warmth, love, and brightens everyone's day." Hmm. Add in some free gourmet food, rubber balls, and on-site oil changes, and Moon's world sounds a lot like Google headquarters. She got the opportunity to compare the two this morning, when she visited the Googleplex and chatted via satellite with Matt Lauer and the crew at TODAY:


Previously

Making a Case Against E-mail Meeting Web Design

Calligraphy Explored...

Made Plagiarized in Hong Kong

By Jouve, I Think They've Got It: Artnet Adds Design Marketplace

Ian Adelman Leaves nymag.com for Tina Brown's Online Venture

Dash Still Doesn't Dig April Fool's

Photoshop Express Launch Round-Up

In Scion Speak, Everyone's a Designer

Farewell, Be A Design Group

Jonathan Adler Loves a Doric Column!

BusinessWeek Thinks Hulu Has the Design to Succeed

Spitzer Lesson #1: Don't Trust a Prostitution Ring Using an Unsightly 'Web Design' Front

Designing A Replacement for E-Mail?

Introducing Chumby: Will People Surf the Internet on a Beanbag?

Playing Ball with Don Hamerman

Yahoo Pink Slips Entire 'Design Innovation' Team

Blueprint Subscribers Receive Little White Postcard of Death

Judging Obama and Hillary: Mac or PC?

New CRIT Blog Debuts and Steven Heller Exhibition Goes Online

David Airey Returns Full Force, Launches New Logo Blog

Layer Tennis Finals: Be There!

Meeting Adrian Holovaty, the Brains Behind EveryBlock

Finally! Emigre Becomes a Blog! Kinda. Not Really. No, Not at All.

American Craft Crafts a New Website

The Scoble-Facebook Ban, Maybe Not Such a Bad Idea?

Piers Fawkes and PSFK Fight Back After Anti-CES Post

Cooper-Hewitt Launches John Maeda-Designed Google Gadget

In Which We Blog About Lynn Yaeger's Imaginary Blogging About the Met's Blog-Driven Show

#1 on Our Year-End List of Most Interesting Year-End Lists: Album Visualization

David Airey Harnasses the Power of the Internet, Regains Hacked Site

When Harold Met Blogging: Museum Enters Blogosphere via Costume Institute Show

The Continuing Absurdity of Web 2.0 Naming

David Airey Gets Hacked, Loses Popular Design Site

Jonathan Harris Hunts Whales

Storey Turns His Blog Against 'The Blog Council'

Wallpaper Picks Their Favorites Grads

Can We Believe This Threadless Clone? Not Really, No.

T Magazine Site Chooses Style Over Substance

Wear a Blue Hat For Web Standards On Monday, November 26

Dezeen Celebrates Its First Birthday

Hillman Curtis, Monkeys Differ on Web Design Priorities

Alissa Keeps Her Eye on the Cursor as Commentator for Layer Tennis Match

Not Long for This Virtual World: Users Bored by Second Life

Apple Store Redesign...Um, And?

The Theft of smashLAB, Again and Again

If Google Were a Startup, Looking for Friends to Come Visit...

A List Apart's 33,000 Designer Strong Look at the Web

Vimeo Goes HD and Why That;'s a Very Cool Thing

Google Standards Across This Big Blue Marble

CBC Makes Use of Its Readership, Adds "Report Typo" Link

The Scary Visage of Font Face Rules

Second Life Parties, 'Why Bother?' Asks Ken Wheaton

Information Architects Rank the Web

Airey Gives Away Prizes for Links

LOL Cats Bring in Laugh Out Loud Money

Mark Cuban: The Internet is Dead! Long Live the Internet!

Architecture and Design Competition, the First Annual in the Second Life

Characters In Librarian Comic Strip Don't Respect Web Designer Skills

Blackle, Your Energy-Efficient Google

The Busy New Google Layout (Depending on Where You Live)

Sixteen Web Big Shots Look at the Future of Their Medium

All the Web In One Extremely Busy, Colorful Map

BLDGBLOG Goes Radio

Abandon Hope All Ye Who Log-In Here: The Advertising Fall-Out in Second Life

What You Don't Know About 'Viral' Could Fill an Entire Group of Interconnected Computers

CNN: Re-designing For Those Who Help Pay the Electric Bill

The Web, Broken Down In One Easy-to-Read Graph

Radar Fosters the Coming of Web 3.0

'Stay Away From My Sex Bed!' Product Design Copyright Violation Crosses Over Into Real Life

The Fall of YouTube and the Decline of Western Civilization

Will You Still Need It, Will You Still Feed It, When Facebook's Sixty-Four?

Creative Review Has Its Readers Look Into a Mirror For a Month

Making Viral Ads for Companies Who Don't Need (or Possibly Want) Them

Design Can Change Opens Up the Floor for Comments and Questions

"This Is Broken" Becomes "This Is Fixed"

Guy Kawasaki and the Trouble with Truemors

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Web in Review

Sam Potts Makes Funny With Jon Scieszka

Scott Heiferman Pits Google Vs. Meetup

RIP: Bud.TV, the Web's Dumont Television Network

Andy Fixes Sights (Sites?) on the NRA

Jakob Nielsen Says Web 2.0 Is Bad, Opens Floor for Comments

Webby Award Winners Announced

Roger Black Explains the Silverlight Buzz in Words We Understand

The Internet Power Structure, As Seen By Skilled Cartographers

Silverlight: People Love Microsoft, We Rub Eyes In Disbelief

Vince Flanders Promises 8 More Years of Web Design Mistakes

If You Can F**king Read This, Then You've F**king Been to Ironic Sans

Who's Doing What on the Web? Survey Says!

Learning the Ropes of Ranking: The Top 25 Architecture Sites

Women and Code

In New Mexico, But Trying to Keep Up...

The Payne of Twitter

Digging the Diggsters

The Abuse Hits A Wall: Stop Cyberbullying Day

Point Your Code In the Wrong Direction and You Could Find Yourself Changing Your Political Positions

Fawkes Chimes In, Chides Scoble

OKGo Crowned Most Creative By YouTube

Hamid Gives a Peek at the Inner Workings of AIGA

(Some of) What You Should Be Reading, If You Aren't Already

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