Christopher Butler Vice President Hi, I'm Chris. I've been working at Newfangled since September, 2004.
| Chris Butler's Blog |
 | Subscribe to this blog Click this link to view blog as XML. View a list of all Newfangled blogs >> Subscribe to all Newfangled blogs >> |  | Search Chris's blog |
Interview: Anaezi Modu, ReBrand
July 15, 2008 at 4:00 pm by Chris
Anaezi ModuFounder, ReBrand™ ReBrand™ is the global resource for visual examples and case studies on effective brand transformations: the repositioning, revitalizing and redesign of existing brand assets to meet strategic marketing objectives. As a Fast Company blogger, Anaezi explores the integration of seemingly disparate ideas and industries to achieve strategy-driven transformation. Through the lens of a designer, she shares learning from "pragmatic ingenuity," one of the terms she prefers over "innovation." She is inspired by those rarely credited for brilliant ideas: the world's poor that face dire challenges daily. Anaezi received her training in architecture and design at Princeton and Harvard. CB: What fascinates you about the web? AM: So many things! One I marvel at the most is the ability to run a global enterprise from a remote dashboard. All that’s required is a great idea, planning, perseverance, marketing strategy, and incredible hard work to make things happen. While some of these elements aren’t new, what the web provides that has appeared over the last decade is the ability to accomplish much with a fraction of funds investment the “off-line” world required in the past. CB: What would you change about it? AM: With the good often comes challenges. The low barriers to entry mean that there’s much erroneous or even harmful information that can just as quickly or easily get air time as does helpful information. From a technical perspective, I can’t wait for the day when putting up a site and maneuvering CSS would be as simple as using Microsoft Word for us technically-challenged creatives. CB: Do you have a blog? If so, what makes your blog unique? AM: I recently accepted an invitation to be an expert blogger with Fast Company magazine. My blog is called Cross Thinkers. Just in case anyone reading this might have some thoughts that I should consider for it, please feel free to share if you think it makes sense. Just visit the blog and leave a comment. I’ll be starting one for ReBrand, hopefully soon. What am I waiting for? Great question. No more excuses! You great folks at Newfangled have been incredibly helpful and supportive about getting one started. CB: What technology has had the greatest impact on how you do your job? AM: Easy answer: The web! Being able to have some semblance of autonomy in running an organization and using a content management system like Newfangled's to update our site has been incredible. CB: Who has influenced or helped you the most in your career? AM: A foundation of faith in God and practice of prayers and meditation have been key in guidance when things have been overwhelming. Love and support from my family has also been essential. There are countless others from friends to colleagues, past managers, teachers, consultants, and strangers along the way. CB: What makes you uniquely suited to your role with ReBrand? AM: I embody many aspects of my mission for ReBrand. I am a result of a multidisciplinary collection of professional interests and background, and I have first-hand experience in solutions that result from integrating seemingly disparate ideas from so many sources. I believe this is what makes the world go ‘round and how great ideas, products, services, and systems evolve. With our marquis program at ReBrand, the annual ReBrand 100 Global Awards, I insisted that no one discipline “owns” the effective “branded experience.” With that in mind, I stipulate that each year’s jury panel must consist of people from various professional, experiential, national, and ethnic backgrounds in assessing these effective transformations. I’m especially passionate in broadening the conversation on strong brands to include and respect perspectives from far and wide. I am also trained in and have worked professionally in architecture, interior design, urban design and planning for some years. In running ReBrand and through an executive education program I initiated at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, our teaching team is able to share how devising optimal experiences is key in every industry. In this case, the principles apply to all, even though this particular certificate program titled "Revealing the Brand Story: How to Create Meaning, Value, and ROI," is targeted to built environment professionals. It is also rare to have the combination of these two backgrounds – all that helps inform my approach to ReBrand. The passion is in helping guide and showcase ways to transform experiences for some strategic purpose. That purpose may or not be for direct financial benefits, but can certainly be in reach, influence, or to some other qualitative end. I’m stumbling over the words, so the actual description of the two-day program may be clearer. All are welcome to register and earn a certificate while learning from respected, renowned brand strategists and principles of the nation’s most prominent architectural firms. CB: What makes ReBrand worth paying attention to? AM: There is only one ReBrand.com. No other! ReBrand is the expert-led resource at which “before” and “after” case examples of brand transformations exist. These examples are from around the world and span over 40 industries. The range is from one-person entities to companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Virgin Airlines, Cisco Systems, and so much more. It’s all there for anyone to learn from, at no charge. We get great focused attention from channels many dream of reaching, and we’ve become a respected, go-to source for corporations and agencies alike. We are often approached for references and advice on branding consultants from small, non-profit, regional and global organizations. Fortunately, because the URL is the term used for brand transformations, we’re often interviewed by business publications such as the Wall Street Journals, Fast Company, CNN Money, and others, that find and approach us. I see all of these as opportunities to help further our collective goals as strategic, creative folks- that of getting across the fact that effective crafting of experiential branding is essential for the bottom line. I even recently learned that we are one of four sites noted in the book Branding for Dummies as a go-to resource. It’s worth discovering us and re-visiting as we continue to expand on a number of initiatives and as we showcase more work from the past 2008 winners showcase. CB: If you had one sentence to pitch your latest and greatest idea, what would it be? AM: Visit ReBrand.com, enter the annual ReBrand 100 Global Awards, learn, be recognized for, and share in how so many “Transform to Thrive.” That’s our latest tagline, by the way. Business, as in life is an ever-evolving process. See how other organizations are doing it, and model those ideas when it makes sense. You’ll be in great company; you’ll have your firms capabilities showcased, celebrated, and given prominent, potentially client-generating press, if you’re a winner. You can’t beat that! CB: I believe that everyone has a specific and unique talent that comes in handy at just the right time. It might be something most people know about you or something very few know. What is your super-power? AM: I’m a connector who’s pretty good at inspiring others to work together towards a common goal. This has been key to building ReBrand and getting it to the point where over 20 countries now participate, and prominent folks come to us requesting to serve on the jury panel. CB: If the world's technological and economic systems were to collapse and revert society to locally-focused, agrarian communities, what role would you assume? AM: After years spent living in a remote West-African village, this one is a no brainer. I would work with folks to design and make useful and creative items with natural materials so readily available in their environment. I would also help local builders in designing and building homes with local materials. This ties in a bit with my Fast Company blog. I believe, and have seen evidence of this, that ultimate geniuses, are those that must survive and thrive when much is stripped away and the “primitive way of life” is the given. Design ability is a great tool for solving a number of social, economic, and business challenges. The ways in which we can use our skills to help, with or without technology, are countless. > View Anaezi's LinkedIn profile. |
Tags: web-development interview design technology business blogging
 |  |  |  |  |  |
Drop in Stats from Urchin to Google Analytics?
July 14, 2008 at 10:35 am by Chris| Many of our clients wonder why their pageview statistics drop when they switch analytics platforms. Specifically, most of our clients move from Urchin or another tool to using Google Analytics. This blog post from Conversation Marketing explains why this occurs and suggests an Urchin to Google Analytics conversion factor of 20%. Hat tip to Eric for the link. |
Tags: web-development strategy software analytics
| | | | | |
No "Meat" to the Blogosphere?
July 11, 2008 at 1:40 pm by Chris| This post from David Appell is a rough and biting rant on the blogosphere, but he's got a point... |
Tags: blogging
| | | | | |
Doing More with Less
July 11, 2008 at 1:00 pm by ChrisI'll be traveling in the next couple of weeks to New England for vacation, and while there my wife and I are planning to attend Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. I can't wait.
I first learned about Bucky as a child from a great book that my Step-Father owned called Inventions: The Patented Works of R. Buckminster Fuller, which is apparently now out of print. At the time, I'm sure I didn't get what he was all about, but I was fascinated by the architecture. Later, while in college, I re-connected with Bucky along with my wife, Carolyn, who began reading Buckminster Fuller's Universe: His Life and Work, a fantastic biography which is currently on loan to the Mark O'Brien Library. If you're not familiar with him, read one of these books, go to the exhibit, or just find him online. His unique way of thinking and incredible contributions to the 20th century and beyond will inspire you! |
Tags: design art video technology
| | | | | |
Your Q&A
July 11, 2008 at 8:00 am by Chris| In previous posts about blogging, I've recommended being an active commenter on blogs and forums other than your own. Not only is this a good way to increase your visibility and reputation within your area of expertise, but it is also a great way to learn and be fed with information and material that will lead to better blogging. Another similar opportunity that I haven't mentioned before is participating in LinkedIn's Q&A. If you have a profile with LinkedIn, you submit questions or answers to other users' questions within particular categories. You can even set your profile to show you the latest questions within the categories most relevant to you. Once you have answered some questions, LinkedIn will begin to "learn" what other subjects you are interested in and suggest questions more appropriate to your subject profile. Additionally, the user that created the question has the ability to rank the answers as either "best" or "good," which furthers the reputation-building of this feature. Eric has answered 30 LinkedIn questions so far, 6 of which have been voted as best answer. You can see this right away on his profile, which is a helpful way for any visitor to get a quick overview of his expertise and a bit of a recommendation by virtue of other users voting his answers as "best." (You can click on the image below to read all of Eric's answers.)  I've answered 15 questions so far since I've started using this feature, and asked 1 question, for which I have yet to get any answers. I have a feeling that getting answers will be tougher than giving them! However, participating in this has generated a significant increase in profile views and visits to this blog, too.  |
Tags: social-media strategy blogging
| | | | | |
More Google Paranoia, but Good Times...
July 9, 2008 at 10:15 am by ChrisTags: video google
| | | | | |
Newfangled Blogging 2.0
July 8, 2008 at 4:30 pm by Chris| We've featured blogs on our site since October, 2006. Since that time, we've improved many aspects of our own blog tool, including adding new ways to share the content, better tag management, improved RSS feeds, friendly links and more bloggers! However, we are now hoping to turn a corner in terms of our strategy behind the blogs. Initially, we wanted the blogs to be a way to communicate with clients (and potential clients) in a new way, as well as a way to share our internal culture and personalities. Over time, those more inclined toward blogging have naturally stuck with it, while others have not. Readership has grown greatly, but participation (i.e. comments) has remained low. So where do we go from here? We know we need to take it to the next level. In fact, our knowledge of what makes for good blogging puts to shame what we actually do. That's why we've put our heads together and come up with some simple steps toward better blogging. As we are putting them to the test right now, we're confident that they will only improve our content and make our efforts more worthwhile. Step 1: Write a Mission Statement Until recently, my de-facto mission statement has probably been something like: "I will blog about whatever I feel like blogging about." Actually, it probably hasn't been that general, but moving forward, we feel that any of our blogs' value will be relative to how refined its position is. Just like any other business, specialization increases value. As we discussed this as a team, we realized that we all have particular interests that, when matched with our roles, would make for a uniquely positioned blog. Writing a mission statement is a simple way to articulate that unique point of view and purpose for your blog. It doesn't have to be published anywhere, but just serve as the idea to which you hold yourself accountable as you write. As an example, here is the mission statement I have settled on for my blog: To actively maintain a blog that, as a part of Newfangled's larger content strategy, deals with issues related to web strategy, project management, and new technologies while contributing to our reputation as an efficient, innovative, considerate and current technology company.Step 2: Plan a Schedule One of the toughest aspects of blogging is doing it consistently, as you can easily see from scanning through the archives of any of the Newfangled blogs. Because blogging is not the primary job function of anyone here, writing often get's put aside so that we can do what we do best. However, we do want to be committed to maintaining our blogs. This means finding a way to post regularly without compromising our main thing- web development. We decided that setting up a loose "editorial calendar" for each blog would be a simple way to plan ahead and add some structure to the way we post to our blogs. Doing this doesn't mean you have to get as rigid as planning to "write a blog post about blogging on Tuesday, July 8th." However it can mean identifying the formats of blog posts that you're most inclined to write and planning an overall schedule in which they recur. For example, you might find that you frequently post reviews of online tools specific to your industry. Scheduling a weekly "web app review" could be part of your calendar, or a monthly interview. Once you have this structure in place, you can fill in gaps with ideas for particular posts as they occur to you. Building your blog around a schedule will create consistency for you, as the author, and for your readers, who will learn to expect particular kinds of posts and content. An example of this is how Able has been creating monthly desktop calendars and placing them on his blog for download. They've become quite popular since they were picked up by I Love Typography, and readers likely expect them each month now. One recurring post format that I'll be exploring is a weekly (hopefully) interview, the first one of which I published on July 7. Another aspect of scheduling is finding a consistent time to actually write. If you can, block out a regular time each day or week to do this. If you are feeling particularly prolific, write several posts in advance and publish them over time. Step 3: Participate in Off-Site Conversations The first two steps should ensure that you have a well-conceived blog with ample content. Assuming that you title your posts well, you should also gain more readers by virtue of search alone. However, getting your readers to go from lurking to participating will require some additional effort. The most comments I ever received (aside from my "Farewell to Scott" blog post, which was full of internal comments) was 8 comments and 11 Diggs for a post I wrote in February, 2008 called Get Yourself Out There- not very impressive. The article was all about how your participation off-site by commenting on other blogs and establishing social media profiles that point back to your blog would eventually increase readership to your blog, so the peak in comments is appropriately convenient. As I said in that post, "I don't get a ton of comments, so this isn't going to be one of those "I did it and so can you!" posts," and neither is this one- comments are still low on my blog. However, the consistent readership of my blog has been primarily established by my participation in other blogs and forums. What I have to do now is just do it more! I'm looking forward to seeing positive results from taking these three steps accross all of our blogs, not just my own. I'll report back in a few months to see how we're doing. |
Tags: social-media strategy newfangled blogging
| | | | | |
Interview: Mark Shipley, Smith & Jones
July 7, 2008 at 8:00 am by Chris
Mark ShipleyPresident and Chief Creative Officer, Smith & Jones A co-founder and President at Smith & Jones, one of Newfangled's Agency Partners, Mark's chief thinking responsibilities include translating insight into strategic and creative direction, and ensuring that all brand communications reinforce their clients’ upmarket brand positions. CB: What fascinates you about the web? MS: In the olden days, when I wanted to know something new about anything, I would have to go find a reference source: the library, the phone book, the newspaper, magazines, look under a rock, etc. When I wanted access to some obscure piece of media, I usually couldn't find it - or if I could, not without significant effort. Now, I can look up just about anything with a simple search. I can cross-check multiple sources to assure validity. I can find people, places, contact info. I can watch film footage of Traffic performing Mr. Fantasy and Genesis performing Supper's Ready. But what fascinates me most is how small the world really is: when I do searches, I'm often bumping into colleagues, old friends and people I admire. In life, the connections are close but often invisible. On the web, the six degrees of separation is transparent. A great, recent example: I am in the process of recruiting an executive assistant. After the initial telephone screenings, I had narrowed it down to one candidate. There was another candidate that top-graded, but I ruled her out because her interests and level of experience didn't seem perfect for my needs. The day after I telephone screened her, I went out to grab a bite to eat and ended up at a restaurant that I wrote about in my blog. As I was standing there deciding what to order, I saw a familiar name on all of the hand written menus: The "Jane Doe" Special. Turns out a friend of hers reads my blog and told her that I wrote about the restaurant in a post. They went to the owner and convinced him to put her name on all of the menus, "to keep her top of mind" in my selection process. I ended up calling her in for in-depth interviews and it looks like she will get the offer. That would have been so much harder for her to pull off before the web, and I would not likely have been able to appreciate her ingenuity because it would have been harder to figure out how she connected the dots. This is a beautiful thing. CB: Do you have a blog? If so, what makes your blog unique? MS: Currently, I have two blogs - one business and one personal. Brand Spanking News, my business blog, is a free form stream of thought discussion about the little things that impact a brand's position, from the consumer's point of view. In many posts, I share my personal experiences and random thoughts and discuss how they form brand associations for me as a consumer. When I'm particularly busy and not "experiencing", I share what I am reading and my take on it. Paddle Me Here, my personal blog, is a work in progress. I'm an avid kayaker and I find it difficult to find good information on where to paddle. I'm sure I'm not alone, so I am in the process of documenting all of the places I have been and am going so that others can find them more easily. CB: What technology has had the greatest impact on how you do your job? MS: I'm not quite sure: either FedEx or the fax machine. Before both of these, there was much more time to think and craft. Today, thinking is a luxury that few have time for, and crafting is something most people do in their spare time or after they retire. I still do both, but it is far more of a challenge to find the time. CB: What makes you uniquely suited to your role at Smith and Jones? MS: For someone with as big of an ego as mine, I'm pretty humble (I know that statement contradicts itself, but it's true). I'm not afraid to learn, to admit my mistakes and to change. I look to the people that I work with for guidance and input, but I'm not afraid to make the final decision. I'm enthusiastic, but I'm also realistic. I'm creative, but I want to see the ROI. When a client trusts us with their brand, I take that trust very seriously. I may, on occasion, beat the proverbial dead horse, but then I move on. No one dies here and everyone is given a chance to make magic happen. CB: What makes your company a cut above its competitors? MS: That's a secret only paying clients are allowed to know about. CB: If you had one sentence to pitch a potential client, what would it be? MS: What makes you so sure Smith & Jones is the right fit for your company? CB: I believe that everyone has a specific and unique talent that comes in handy at just the right time. It might be something most people know about you or something very few know. What is your super-power? MS: I'm told by my clients and colleagues that I have an inherent ability to look at a sea of ideas and zero in on the one thing that's sure to work (idea, strategy, tactic, headline, layout, message, etc). CB: If the world's technological and economic systems were to collapse and revert society to locally-focused, agrarian communities, what role would you assume (i.e. I would become a mapmaker to help rebuild society's knowledge of geography)? MS: I would still do what I do now - help spread the fertilizer and look forward to the upcoming harvest. Only I would be using a pitch fork instead of a keyboard. > View Mark's LinkedIn profile. |
Tags: business blogging interview technology web-development design
| | | | | |
QA?
July 3, 2008 at 11:00 am by ChrisAccording to everyone's favorite Project Management glossary, QA, or Quality Assurance, is "A planned and systematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that the item or product conforms to established technical requirements." In other words, QA in the Newfangled project world is a plan to make sure that everything works as it was intended to work and looks as it was intended to look.
We recently revamped our Project Anatomy document, which specifies all the steps and roles involved in a typical web development project. We use it to properly plan all of our projects at the outset, making sure we've allocated the appropriate time and resources in order to meet everyone's expectations, as well as to track the progress of a project along the way. In fact, we've even set up an online version of the Project Anatomy that our Project Managers can use to verify that each necessary review, approval process, etc. has been completed before a project moves to a new phase. If you're looking at the document now, you'll notice that there are three specific steps dedicated to QA. The first two occur during the programming phase of the project, and the third occurs immediately after a site goes live. These QA steps are guided by involvement with almost everyone on the team, requiring a thorough review of every aspect of the site's design and functionality and producing a detailed report that we use to make any necessary corrections. However, there are two other QA steps in our Anatomy that aren't as immediately obvious, but are probably the most important.
Code Review After the second round of QA is complete, our engineering team performs a rigorous code review with the developer on the project. Often some element of functionality could be programmed several different ways, and it is critical that the best way is chosen to ensure that the functionality scales well as the site grows and is used. If this doesn't happen, a site could experience all sorts of bugs or unpredictable behavior as time goes on. The purpose of the code review is to ensure that our programming meets the standards of the Engineering department and will not become a liability later. This is also a great way for our CTO and Lead Systems Engineer to continue to mentor our developers. Integration is QA Once the programming has been completed and reviewed, the site is ready for content entry. This step can be found under the heading of "Integration." While there is no specific QA task listed under this phase, I believe that content entry is one of the most effective and important QA efforts for any project. Typically, this is the point in a project when a client is able to fully experience the reality of their site or application for the first time. While they have worked closely with our team on prototyping and designing the site, the process of using the content management system, creating, and entering content is when all the "dots" are connected and made real, and often the first point at which expectations are clarified. You see, no matter how thorough a prototype is, sometimes there are concepts or needs that cannot be communicated until you are immersed in an actual working and producing environment. This is similar to the "blank-slate-shopper" phenomenon: Have you ever seen a review of a book and thought that you'd like to purchase it, only to find that the next time you are actually in a bookstore you have no idea what you want or where to start? This is because we tend towards reactive rather than proactive thinking. We hear about something and react to it with, "Yes, I'd like to read that," yet when we get to the store and are surrounded by thousands of books, we react to them all by loosing focus. While we find the prototyping phase, being a proactive step, to be extremely effective and critical to our process, we use QA steps to catch any ramifications of reactive thinking during a project and know that the process of content entry will do the same. As I've written before, QA does not ensure that a project will be 100% bug free. While some bugs are due to sloppiness or haste and can be prevented by thorough QA steps, others are the result of unforeseen functionality conflicts that may not become evident until a site is being used, despite the best intentions and forsight of the programmers. As with any development project, bugs like these should be expected and encountered with patience (this goes for us just as much as our clients). While we hope that our many stages of QA will mitigate the frequency of any bugs occurring, we are definitely not surprised when they show up. Ultimately QA is a collaborative effort. We've got plenty of measures to confidently assure quality, but we also depend upon our clients to respond to each step along the way and make sure their expectations are clearly communicated. We work towards having a great working relationship with our clients so that we can foster an environment where that communication is the foundation of real quality assurance. |
Tags: web-development design project-management newfangled user-interface-design
| | | | | |
TimesPeople
June 25, 2008 at 10:00 am by Chris The New York Times just released a beta plugin for your browser that allows you to plug in to a Times-specific 'social network' that they have named TimesPeople. This is a great example of a newspaper doing the right things with technology in order to grow new and keep current readership. Here's a quote from their sign-up page: TimesPeople is a new way to discover what other readers find interesting on our site — and to make recommendations of your own. With TimesPeople, you can share articles, videos, slideshows, blog posts, comments on articles, and ratings and reviews of movies, restaurants and hotels.Below is a screen-shot of how the plugin looks under your browser's address bar:  Along with the other sharing options that New York Times articles already had, users with the TimesPeople plugin installed will see a 'recommend' option at the top:  Each user also has a profile view, which displays your info, any articles you've recommended, as well as your contacts recommendations:  So far, I think the Times has done a great job with keeping this interface as minimal and easy to use as possible. |
Tags: user-interface-design tagging social-media technology
| | | | | |
The Economist on Cloud Computing
June 23, 2008 at 4:00 pm by Chris| The Economist has a great article on the real-world implications of the rise of internet computing. |
Tags: software hardware computers the-future technology
| | | | | |
Fine Tune Your Google Searches
June 23, 2008 at 12:00 pm by Chris| By now, most people probably use Google for the majority of their online searches. According to Google's Zeitgeist, the top ten most popular search queries for 2007 were (1) iphone, (2) webkinz, (3) tmz, (4) transformers, (5) youtube, (6) club penguin, (7) myspace, (8) heroes, (9) facebook, and last but not least, (10) anna nicole smith. As you can see, entertainment and consumer technology rule this list. Of course, those aren't the only things on our minds; Google infers that, too, from tracking its who? what? and how? searches. But, did you know that Google can also answer basic day-to-day questions, ranging from calculations to tracking shipments? Here's a list of many of the reference functions that Google provides right from its search bar. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Weather Pretty obvious- type in your location and Google will return an up-to-date forecast.  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Stock Ticker If you know the shortened initials for the publicly traded company you want to check, you can simply enter it into the Google Search bar. I checked on Bank of America (BAC) below:  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Global Time Want to know what time it is in Malaysia? Just query "time Malaysia":  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Google Calculator Rather than using your operating system's calculator tool, you can enter any operation into the Google search field and get results. I added up the monthly post totals since I started my blog at Newfangled:  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Google Flight Tracking If you know the airline and flight number of any flight you'd like to check on, enter it into the search bar to get it's current status:  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Google Definitions Rather than going to dictionary.com, you can simply query "define blog" to find out what the definition of "blog" is:  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Track Shipments If you know the tracking number for a package you're expecting, you can track it by entering the number in to the Google search bar:  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Google Conversions You can also convert measurements using Google's search tool. This works for all kinds of conversions (cups to teaspoons, inches to yards, etc.):  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Area Code Lookup If you've ever wondered where that mysterious caller is located, you can simply enter the three digits of their area code into the Google search field:  *You can also enter a full phone number (i.e. <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=800-330-4435&btnG=Search" target="_blank">800-330-4435</a>) and find results for that lookup. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Google Books I search for books and/or authors often using Google. You can just enter the name of the author and see what books are listed:  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - You can try out any of these features by visiting Google's search features page. |
Tags: google search technology
| | | | | |
The First Concept of the World Wide Web
June 18, 2008 at 7:45 am by Chris
This fascinating article from the New York Times describes how "in 1934, [Paul] Otlet sketched out plans for a global network of computers (or 'electric telescopes,' as he called them) that would allow people to search and browse through millions of interlinked documents, images, audio and video files."The article includes the following clip from the documentary (see embedded below), "The Man Who Wanted to Classify the World," which describes Otlet's vision for " his 'réseau,' which might be translated as 'network' — or arguably, 'web.'" Here's a great passage that shows just how fine-tuned Otlet's prescience was, though he may not have realized how unwieldy his human approach would have been if utilized to the extent that the contemporary internet is today- thank goodness for the soft-AI of Google, huh? (Interestingly, the article goes on to describe how Otlet envisioned links between articles carrying more data than just the link; including participatory response data and indications of agreement or disagreement between the two linked articles. This idea was a hint of what was to come with the current movement towards a semantic web, though some critics see it as requiring too much labor to create and sustain, similar to the human-analysis-driven "web" of Otlet's vision...) Otlet and LaFontaine eventually persuaded the Belgian government to support their project, proposing to build a “city of knowledge” that would bolster the government’s bid to become host of the League of Nations. The government granted them space in a government building, where Otlet expanded the operation. He hired more staff, and established a fee-based research service that allowed anyone in the world to submit a query via mail or telegraph — a kind of analog search engine. Inquiries poured in from all over the world, more than 1,500 a year, on topics as diverse as boomerangs and Bulgarian finance. Here is a full-length documentary about Paul Otlet, provided by the internet archive: Lastly, here is an article about Paul Otlet from Boxes and Arrows, titled Forgotten Forefather (by the same author as the Times article). |
Tags: user-interface-design video technology the-future
| | | | | |
Is Google Making us Stupid?
June 10, 2008 at 7:00 am by Chris| Read Nicholas Carr's article in this month's Atlantic magazine about what the internet is doing to our brains. |
Tags: google search technology the-future
| | | | | |
The New City
June 9, 2008 at 10:30 am by Chris| This week's New York Times Magazine, titled The New City, has several articles discussing the future of city architecture, the growing urban population problem, and new civic models flourishing overseas. It's definitely worth checking out! |
Tags: technology environment the-future design
| | | | | |
What's on Your Shelf?
June 6, 2008 at 2:00 pm by Chris| In case you haven't noticed, literary social networks are proliferating faster than they can be adopted by the digerati (hat tip to Bettina for that term). As far as I can tell, Goodreads is the most popular, though I wouldn't be surprised if another application sweeps it (it's happened before- remember Friendster?). This article notes how egocasting contributes to literary social networks' growth and also wonders which of them will be the "facebook" of the group (i.e. dominate). I wrote a post in February comparing Goodreads and Google Books, and concluded that I preferred Google Books, but thought I should update the thought to include some other approaches. The Guardian article that I mentioned above introduced me to two new literary social networks, Library Thing and BookRabbit. Library Thing is a US-based social network that is definitely more data-oriented, as it gives users a large number of options for associating information with a book title. In the screenshot below, you'll see the default view for a book on Library Thing- note that the level of detail available is definitely for the librarian in all of us: 
This next image shows how Library Thing consolidates some of the data into an easy-to-use tabbed interface: 
Lastly, for visually-oriented users, Library Thing also has a "covers" view similar to Google Books (BookRabbit's "shelf" view takes the cake, though, as you'll see). 
BookRabbit, which is a newer UK-based social network, has some unique details that make it worth checking out. One neat approach is its "shelf" view, which allows you to submit a picture of your actual bookshelf and then map the image of each book to a record of it in your account. Then, you can just mouse-over the hot-spot you've created to show the book's details to the right of your shelf: 
BookRabbit also makes it easy for users to browse each other's libraries and purchase available books: 
As I wrote before, GoodReads definitely seems to be the most "social" of the literary social networks. I'm not sure what the numbers are in particular, but I would guess that it is the most popular, too. In my earlier assessment, I said that even though I like to use Google Books to catalog my library online, GoodReads definitely had them beat in social features. They still do. That said, if you're interested in information about a book, rather than connecting with other readers, Google Books is probably better- some books even allow you to search through the text (see screenshots below- Goodreads first, then Google Books)! 
For a more in-depth comparison with a feature-by-feature breakdown between Google Books and GoodReads, check out my earlier blog post. In the meantime, it's hard to know which platform will come out on top as so many of them offer unique and helpful features that will be more or less attractive to different kinds of users. |
Tags: social-media books web-development user-interface-design design
| | | | | |
Some Examples of Great User Interface Design for Travel Sites
June 5, 2008 at 1:00 pm by Chris| I have probably booked every single trip I have ever taken as an adult online (except for most of the trips I took within Asia while living in Penang, Malaysia), which leads me to wonder two things: 1) How do travel agencies stay in business and 2) Why has it taken so long to see smart improvements being made to online travel search and booking tools? In any case, here are a few examples of great design and thinking that I've come across lately: All Around Great Design: First, I was linked to the Cologne airport website this morning and think it's one of the best websites I've seen in a long time. They've thought everything through, including having current departures and arrivals, parking availability, and prices updating frequently. 
The homepage (above) shows the most recent schedule front and center and has its main navigation shown with clear and easy to understand text and icons.
You can even check on the availability of parking (above) on the site! 
You can access the most up-to-date flight timetable (above) on the site, too. 
The tourism page (above) uses nice, bright and clear icons to represent the information it provides. Smart, Helpful Details: Sidestep.com is another site that helps you search for available flights, hotels, rental cars, etc. I've been really impressed with it's simple design and some of the small details that become quite helpful once you start using the site. 
The screenshot above shows the search tool on the Sidestep homepage. I love how it auto-fills the city you are searching for and doesn't require you to click to another page to figure out its airport code. 
The search results shown above include a simple matrix view that shows the cheapest fares from among all its data. 
I love this little detail shown above. You can mouse over one of the return flight options in your search results and filter all the results based upon that time slot. Who wouldn't use this?? Not Necessarily Pretty, But Pretty Cool: This last site is a local one- the Triangle Transit Authority's website. It's not the most attractive in the world, but it has a great search tool that takes real life into account. 
Using the search tool, you can specify any address you want and even how much you want to walk, the speed with which you walk, and how much time you think you need between transfers in order to narrow your results. 
The detail above shows how simple the search results are. I love how they not only show the total time, including the total distance you'll have to walk, but it also shows the order in which you'll use various forms of transportation on your trip. Very Cool! Here's a link to CNN's Top 25 Travel Web Sites. |
Tags: web-development user-interface-design design
| | | | | |
A Few Unique User Interface Approaches for Ecommerce Sites
June 4, 2008 at 11:00 am by Chris| Making purchases online can be confusing, tedious, frustrating and unreliable. Most of these problems are a result of poorly planned and executed user interface design. Whether it is a badly placed 'checkout' button, a confusing multi-step checkout process, an un-editable shopping cart, or even a poorly organized catalog, many details have to be carefully considered and in sync in order for an online store to perform at its full potential. After all, if a person is trying to buy something on your site, you've already done the hard work- selling to them! Sealing the deal should be simple and painless. Below are a few examples of well considered and well executed details in some e-commerce sites I've run across lately: Simple, Quick and Visual Search Results This quick search results layer on apple.com is actually really helpful. It provides quick results as you type your query, with visual aids too. 
Personalized Product Recommendations Most larger e-commerce sites are catching on that satisfied customers will return and buy more items and gradually build trust with them, especially if the site "gets to know" the customer's preferences. amazon.com has been building this kind of rapport with its customers for a long time, and has plenty of customer-specific recommendations on its homepage and throughout the site, provided you are logged-in. One nice detail is the visual recommendations display shown below. By clicking the arrows, your recommendations spin in perspective before you. 
Another example of this can be found on the new borders.com site. Their homepage has a "bookshelf" display that can be personalized based upon specified preferences and your purchase history. Since I haven't purchased anything on this site, its recommendations to me aren't really based upon anything concrete- that's my careful way of saying, "I'm not a Jewel fan, really!" (see below): 
Simple Shopping Cart and Checkout Planning the checkout process is probably one of the biggest pitfalls in developing e-commerce sites. What seems really straightforward on paper or in a prototype can be completely problematic once customers actually want to use it. I recently bought something on gap.com and was surprised at how well-considered and simple the entire process was. Below is a screenshot I just took of how their "shopping bag" keeps track of your purchases, and how simple it is to edit as you go. I threw this t-shirt into my cart as an example, which, so you know, was easy to cancel. Over $30 for a t-shirt? No thanks! 
We took a very similar approach when building the shopping cart interface for our client, Cranston Print Works, at qtfabric.com. See the screenshot below (our brilliant Creative Director, Justin Kerr, came up with this almost two years before Gap did!):  Also, below is a screenshot of the checkout screen, which is really well done. Rather than having to click through multiple screens and lots of "are you sure?" confirmation steps, Gap has put all the steps into one flexible flash-driven application. You can edit any of your information without having to load a new page, or click back on your browser by using the simple "edit" buttons beneath each piece of information. Once you hit "edit" the area expands to show all the fields for each piece of data, which you can edit, save and then close.  I would love to see our own sites start to use some of these approaches and begin to be a bit more creative with how we approach search, catalog, and checkout interfaces. Especially checkout interfaces (the gap.com example above is my favorite- not flashy, just smart)! Let me know if there are any other great examples out there, too. |
Tags: user-interface-design web-development design
| | | | | |
An Oral History of the Internet
June 4, 2008 at 8:00 am by Chris| Vanity Fair has an in-depth article celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which led to the creation of the internet, without which this blog post wouldn't exist. How the Web Was Won is broken up into 8 chapters and includes several audio clips of anecdotes told by the internet pioneers it profiles. |
Tags: technology web-development design
| | | | | |
In case you weren't sure...
May 30, 2008 at 11:00 am by Chris| ...how to make the worst website ever |
Tags: web-development user-interface-design design
| | | | | |