360angles

We tell a lot of e-commerce clients that if you’re not going to A/B split test, at least copy Amazon… I have a similar stance on design. If you’re not going to hire an amazing web development and design agency (like us, amiright?) then there are roughly two things you should keep in mind:

• Keep it simple
• What is Apple doing? (I’m only half kidding; you’ll see why.)

So what is Apple doing? Let’s take a look at what I consider one of the best product pages online right now. The product page for the Macbook Air:

My favorite thing about this page is that the call to action (CTA). The little blue “Buy Now” button in the upper right sticks out like a sore thumb, but it doesn’t break the design language of the page in the process. They tastefully drew attention to it by making it the most extreme iteration of their design language.

The button is completely in line with the overall design language,  it’s just been turned up to eleven.

• It has the most drastic rounded corners.
• It’s the brightest and largest concentration of the page’s highlight color.
• It anchors the site navigation of this area on Apple.com by placing it last punctuating it with the bright blue button background gradient. (When you’re making a list and want something to stand out, always put it first or last.)
• It doesn’t look out of place, but there isn’t anything else on the page that looks like it, or more importantly, that competes with it. This is the big one – your CTA should be the most extreme example of your design language, but it shouldn’t look like it came from another site.

One great way to test your CTA’s visibility is the ten foot test. The literal version of this to step back from your monitor 10 feet and see what you can still deduce about the content of your page. Of course, the fake version is to just zoom out your browser a few steps:

You can still read the main title of the page, “The Macbook Air”. Great. You can’t make out much of the other text unless you’re eagle-eyed and even then the vast majority of it is still unintelligible, but that’s OK. One other thing above the fold (not that there’s a fold :) does still stick out, though. It’s that little bright blue button in the top right. You can’t tell what it says, but you still know it’s important.

And back to my earlier note about putting things at the front or back of lists when you think they’re the most important; you’ll notice the first item on that sub navigation list is Design. I’m shocked I tell you… just SHOCKED.

As usual, Apple’s page layouts are a master class in how to get the response you want from your audience. (Not that they never miss, they still can’t seem to make a mouse I care to use for more than about 20 minutes.)

The Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation has asked Voltage Creative to undertake the development of new identity and branded materials for two of its Branson Missouri properties, White Water and Showboat Branson Belle.

Herschend Family Entertainment owns and operates theme parks, attractions and resorts throughout the United States. From Ride the Ducks, to the Newport Aquarium and Branson’s famous Silver Dollar City, Herschend Family Entertainment is known for world-class family friendly destinations.

In 2010 and 2011 Herschend’s White Water and Showboat Branson Belle attractions are undergoing significant renovations and upgrades that will further position these properties as flagship Branson destinations – from the brand new $2 million Aloha River attraction at White Water, to all new interiors and world class performers aboard the Showboat.

To support these capital improvements, the management teams have asked Voltage Creative to assist in the development of new branded materials and a new identity for White Water.

Needless to say, the Voltage team is extremely excited about this opportunity and we are currently knee-deep in a slew of themed concepts. These kinds of projects are always fun!

Look for our new designs on a highway near you in 2011 and if you find yourself in Branson, do yourself a favor and don’t miss the excitement of White Water and the one-of-a-kind Showboat Branson Belle.

It can be when you’re 16 and working at a hometown sub-shop or in the prime of your professional career, but most people experience the dreaded firing process one way or another if they’re in the business of being in business. Whether your being the one let go or the person letting someone go, it’s NEVER an enjoyable experience.

It’s a scenario we’re all familiar with, but what about when the tables are turned? What about when the subordinate in the situation fires their boss, the company they work for, or their client? It’s an odd thing, it goes against everything most dedicated hard-working “give-it-your-all” people have been taught, but necessary.

We recently parted ways with a client and it was our choice as an agency to “let the client go.” So how does it come to this? Well, in this case the relationship was no longer productive for us or for our client. And I suspect this is the majority of instances where this situation should and does occur. As an agency owner, it’s a tough decision to essentially tell a client’ “we no longer desire to work with you and no longer want your money.” Yikes!

This decision did not come lightly, but after much consideration we decided it was the best decision for all parties involved. We believe in the end, this bittersweet parting will prove beneficial for both our agency and the client. The client will be free to pursue an agency who better fits their needs. And we the agency, will be free to pursue clients who’s needs are best served by our skill-set.

An utter and complete failure in the customer experience design department from his local ISP (screwing up everything from web from usability/security to phone support) led Douglas Mezzar to take things into his own hands. After 3 months, wasted hours and dollars, he exploits a weakness in their web form to do something he should have been able to do from the start.

Although Douglas Mezzer’s housemate had moved out many months ago, there was one recurring reminder of his prior residence: the monthly DSL bill from iiNet. Though Douglas had been paying on time every month, Douglas thought it’d be best if the bills came addressed to him instead of his former housemate. He figured it’d be a simple change that could all be accomplished through the self-service account management website.

After logging in, however, he ran into a bit of an issue. While he could change the address, phone number, email address, date of birth, and several other fields, the Firstname and Surname were disabled.

Not a big deal, Douglas figured, they have the customer service number listed right there.

An hour and a half of customer service calls later, he finally got a hold of someone who could help with the name change. After verifying his date of birth, mother’s maiden name, and inside leg measurements, the rep cheerfully informed him that they could change the name on the account.

“Of course,” the rep added, “there’s a small fee of $59, but we’ll just bill that to your account.”

“Wait wait,” Douglas interrupted, “$59 for a name change!?”

“Well yes,” the rep explained, “it’s a standard fee. There’s a whole process, you understand.”

Douglas begrudgingly agreed. After all, he did just tell iiNet that his housemate moved out; saying “thanks but no thanks, he’s actually moving back in now” didn’t seem so believable.

A couple weeks later, the bill duly arrived with an additional $59 “name change” fee attached. Its addressee, however, was still Douglas’s former housemate. No big deal, he figured, I’m sure the next one will come to me.

The next month’s bill came and it was still not addressed to him. Okay, fine, he thought, they’ll waste my time. They’ll take my money. But apparently, making the ten-second change is too hard!? He had no choice but to call back; it was now a matter of principle.

When Douglas logged back on to the customer portal to find the appropriate service number, a thought popped into his mind. What if, he thought to himself, hmmm… what if they were incredibly lazy in putting this web app together? Could I just edit the fields myself?

He loaded up his trusty Firebug plugin and Inspected the Firstname field. He clicked “Edit HTML”, replaced Joe’s name with his own, and removed the “disabled” tag.

He followed suit with the Surname field and clicked Save Changes. Surely this won’t work, he told himself, they’re an ISP; they wouldn’t be that stupid, right?

To his surprise, there were no errors and the fields now read “Douglas” and “Mezzer”. Figuring it was some goofy persistence thing, he logged out and logged back in. The account still said “Douglas Mezzer”. Could it have actually worked?

Yes, apparently. The following month’s bill was addressed to “Douglas Mezzer” and there wasn’t a “name change” fee to be found. Though, he did consider them sending them a bill for doing their job.

Get the full story, including screenshots, here: Connect Betterer – The Daily WTF

Over the last few weeks we’ve developed an in-house tool that we think is good enough to share with the design community. It’s called Design Aviary and it allows anyone, Twitter account or not, to listen in on the most recent conversations happening on Twitter in a targeted manner. It covers a variety of topics from design inspiration to jobs & gigs to the pain of utter design fail… And it does so in a beautiful way.

If you have a Twitter account, Design Aviary is a great way to find people you want to follow. If you don’t have an account it’s a great way to tap into Twitter, one of the most vocal communities of first-adopters in the world, and listen to what’s being said about design. It’s a good resource to keep up with the cutting edge design ideas and trends that have been appearing on Twitter hours, if not days, before the bloggers start reporting on it. (Not to mention mainstream media.)

There is still some noise mixed in with the signal, but it’s several orders of magnitude less than if you were just surfing Twitter looking for people talking design. Leave us some feedback in the comments. If this inspires anyone or helps someone find a job, let us know. (It’ll make all the work that went into this worth it.) Enjoy!

Design Aviary

This post is dedicated to my dear friend and design mentor… the gorgeous, Huma Wadood.

Her parents came to the United States from Pakistan to pursue the American Dream. They worked hard to become successful, had three beautiful daughters and the rest is history. Because I’m obsessed with travel and exploring the world, I constantly ask Huma to tell me all about this far away place called Pakistan. One of the most striking things I’ve learned is that virtually every vehicle is completely covered with a kaleidoscope of color and design.

This decoration of vehicles is actually a common practice in a number of countries. Similar techniques are used in the Philippines, Indonesia, Central America, South America, India and Bangladesh. What makes Pakistan so unique, is the pervasiveness of this art. Colorful designs are heavily utilized on practically all private and commercial vehicles, from trucks and buses, to vans, taxis and even vendor’s push carts. Discovering this gorgeous anomaly has totally inspired me to expirement with bright colors. I hope it stimulates creativity in you, too.

I am a huge fan of Designer Michael Beirut and a faithful reader of his blog posts on Design Observer. This archived excerpt, in particular, made me smile.

For over twenty years, I’ve been writing proposals for projects. And almost every one of them has a passage somewhere that begins something like this: “This project will be divided in four phases: Orientation and Analysis, Conceptual Design, Design Development, and Implementation.” All clients want this. Sometimes there are five phases, sometimes six. Sometimes they have different names. But it’s always an attempt to answer a potential client’s unavoidable question: can you describe the process you use to create a design solution that’s right for us?

The other day I was looking at a proposal for a project I finished a few months ago. The result, by my measure and by the client’s, was successful. But guess what? The process I so reassuringly put forward at the outset had almost nothing to do with the way the project actually went. What would happen, I wonder, if I actually told the truth about what happens in a design process?

It might go something like this:

When I do a design project, I begin by listening carefully to you as you talk about your problem and read whatever background material I can find that relates to the issues you face. If you’re lucky, I have also accidentally acquired some firsthand experience with your situation. Somewhere along the way an idea for the design pops into my head from out of the blue. I can’t really explain that part; it’s like magic. Sometimes it even happens before you have a chance to tell me that much about your problem! Now, if it’s a good idea, I try to figure out some strategic justification for the solution so I can explain it to you without relying on good taste you may or may not have. Along the way, I may add some other ideas, either because you made me agree to do so at the outset, or because I’m not sure of the first idea. At any rate, in the earlier phases hopefully I will have gained your trust so that by this point you’re inclined to take my advice. I don’t have any clue how you’d go about proving that my advice is any good except that other people — at least the ones I’ve told you about — have taken my advice in the past and prospered. In other words, could you just sort of, you know…trust me?

Most processes leave out the stuff no one wants to talk about: magic, intuition and leaps of faith. Like a lot of designers, I’ve considered my real process my little secret.

The next time you get the opportunity to design on an environmentally friendly project, consider Seeded Paper. It’s plantable recycled paper with seeds embedded into it. The idea is that after the recipient is through reading your message, they can plant your seeded paper in some soil and watch it grow. It can be used exactly like normal paper so you can print just about anything on it. You can even make your own for fun!

My best friend recently told me about a new must-have accessory for the font obsessed Graphic Designer. We all know that Veer offers great stock photography, but she pointed out that they also have a pretty nifty merch section we never noticed before. She spotlighted this super cool scarf in particular.

Sports lovers wear letter jackets – type lovers wear letter scarves. Everyone’s favorite Swiss typeface has been transformed into this lacy and literate accessory. Soft strokes block cool breezes, while counters form geometric shapes that peekaboo your companion tee. Who says Helvetica can’t be functional and fetching? Uppercase only, the letters are laser cut into black or white microfiber suede, 62″ x 4″.

In a world full of mass produced identical products, we’re always searching for new ways to express ourselves. It is common knowledge that Apple’s online store offers to engrave their products with a short text message. For an even cooler way to mark your turf, check out Engrave! This Portland based company customizes personal electronics in a much more creative way. They use laser engraving and the end result is AH-MAZING. They can even permanently etch in your own designs if you supply them with a vector drawing.

I happened to be flipping through an old yearbook the other night and noticed something … BAD layout. For those of us still in school, it has started up again. And although we’re months away from the handout of yearbooks, the process of brainstorming yearbook layout design ideas has begun. It’s not so much the actual picture pages, but the pages in between where the structure falls apart. In most yearbooks, the layout and design are done by the students themselves and I know when I was in high school I didn’t have the best ideas about yearbook layout.

Here you can find a quick 3-part tutorial for using grids for designing a layout.

And here’s a guide to designing to make sure your layout passes the C.R.A.P. test.

Even if you aren’t a budding designer, articles like these aren’t a bad refresher.