martyn reding - juggling with water

If you design or build anything for screens, I strongly recommend you see this presentation by @wilsonminer

2012-01-25T13:22:00.000Z

Wilson Miner - When We Build from Build on Vimeo.

As I said in my previous post on the Build Conference. This is the most emotive and powerful presentation on design I've ever seen. It's also the only design presentation I've ever seen get a standing ovation. If you design or build anything for screens, I strongly recommend you take 40 mins to watch this.

Jonathan Ive On Simplicity

2012-01-24T15:59:00.000Z

"Why do we assume that simple is good? Because with physical products, we have to feel we can dominate them. As you bring order to complexity, you find a way to make the product defer to you. Simplicity isn’t just a visual style. It’s not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. For example, to have no screws on something, you can end up having a product that is so convoluted and so complex. The better way is to go deeper with the simplicity, to understand everything about it and how it’s manufactured. You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential."

Jonathan Ive, from the book, Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
(via Aarrron Walter)

I'm looking for a junior digital designer (please RT)

2012-01-23T09:30:00.000Z

Do you dream in pixels?
Do you Dribbble?
Do you have a strong opinion about Helvetica?
Do you have a bookmark folder labelled "Awesome Stuff" or "Design Samples" or something?
If you do and you have an attention to detail which some think is bordering on obsession, then if so, then this may be the job for you.

The Job...
UI design is an important part of this role, so there’ll be a lot of that
You’ll work closely with the Lead Designer (me) and members of the design team, also Content Managers and Developers
You’ll work on front end pages aligned to our brand guidelines
You will have the chance develop your job around what makes you tick, as long as that isn’t bear wrestling or covering yourself in yogurt in public places.
There’ll be conferences, seminars and other social schmoozey-type events which you’ll have to clean your shoes for.
Not only will you help us deliver and develop the MORE TH>N brand, but you will also be working with the entire global portfolio of the RSA Group.
The job is based in our Horsham offices. You'll be paid in money. You'll get a pension, gym discounts, flex time, parking, expenses, annual bonuses etc etc

You'll need...
Ideally you’ll have a degree in Design
One to three years experience working in a full time design role
An impressive portfolio of lickable design work which you don’t mind us pawing
An innate understanding of user interfaces and user experience design

If you're interested or you know someone who you recommend, then email me the details.

Designing the perfect UX for a TV

2012-01-20T13:30:00.000Z

I've thought for a while that the progression of computers, phones and other touch screen or voice activated devices have left the trusty old TV behind. Sure you can buy "smart TVs" with in built apps, but they are still a long way from where technology has taken other screen based devices in our homes/lives. Even the sad old thermostat has moved forward.

I've often sat in front of the Sky+ and BT Vision interfaces and felt the 'design pain' that all designers feel when something just isn't up to standard. With all the talk around Google and Apple's TV projects in the pipelines my mind keeps turning over what the perfect UX would be for a TV. So here are my design ideas for how it could work. They are Apple bias, because they have the most robust ecosystem, but the devices are easily interchangeable.

1. The TV can act like today's standard digital TV by receiving scheduled channels
2. It can record content to schedule - as per Sky+, BT Vision, TiVo etc
3. It can stream content on demand (iPlayer, lovefilm, Spotify, 4oD etc)

Nothing radical so far, but here is where it gets better...
4. It allows me to buy (not just rent!) content - much like the iTunes store
5. It syncs with media content with my iPhone, so i can take my recorded and bought content out with me
6. My content can then be played out on other people's TVs from my iPhone - using Airplay perhaps

No more remotes
7. The set can be fully controlled via voice commands (ala Siri)
8. Alternatively it can be controlled via my iPad, whilst allowing me to access additional services (Twitter, Facebook, Getglue or even ZeeBox) as I watch

It calls
9. Lastly a front facing camera that works with Facetime or Skype (potentially also connects with my Wii or Kinect, but that seems a bit of a weird hardware mash for the camera & sensors)

That's my vision. That's where I think TVs could be heading. I'm putting my money down, before the big guns start rolling out their offerings. At the end of the year I'm going to look back and see how much has been fulfilled.

I've updated my site

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000Z

I've always had my own domain and built my own sites on it. I've got in to a habit of redesigning and rebuilding my site periodically, for no other reason than to test myself. I always set out to design something in a style that doesn't come naturally to me and build something beyond my understanding. This habit forces me out of my comfort zone and pushes me to learn new stuff.

This time round I decided that I would break from my own convention and use someone else's publishing platform. After trying out a few options I landed on Cargo, which is a beautifully built CMS, that allows a huge amount of flexibility. For the visual design I turned to a vintage, seaside style, as a hat tip to my hometown Brighton. I'm still not 100% comfortable with the style, but I'm making myself live with it for a while.

Feel free to take a look at my new site and if you have any comments send them to @martynreding

Designing For Emotion by Aarron Walter

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000Z

I just finished off Designing For Emotion by Aarron Walter. Usually books from the Book Apart stable arre practical 'how to' guides, but the subject matter of this title makes it more of a theoretical affair. I won't go in to a full on book review, but here are the top points I marked in the book.

1: embedding personality in to your UX leads to customer loyalty. "Personalities foster friendship and serve as the platform for emotional connections.

2: Flickr used a simple competition to save an unplanned outage. "Though the site was down and many more were inconvienced, Flickr users remember the fun they had participating in the colouring contest, and for some, how great it was to win a free year of Pro service"

3: emotional design can act as insurance to product problems. "Emotional engagement can help us look past even the most serious infractions, leaving the good more prominent in our mind than the bad."

The voice of @morethanfreeman

2011-12-23T08:30:00.000Z

Hey look. I done a video!

For the past couple of months I've been working with the teams at VCCP to create the next phase of MORE TH>N's latest digital campaign. This is the first fruits of our labour. Not an easy process by any measure, but I'm happy I got this piece through to the world.

Ever wondered about the voice of MORE TH>N Freeman? Ever asked "who asked is MORE TH>N Freeman?" - Well here is the man himself to explain...

I think 2011 was a vintage year for digital #design

2011-12-14T08:30:00.000Z

I believe every creative industry has it's golden age. Arguably advertising had a boom period through the early 60's and again in the UK during the 80s. Brand design really gained popularity in the early 70s (largely thanks to Unimark, Saul Bass and Wolff Olins). Although digital design has had a couple of false starts I believe this year it really has come of age and over time designers will look back at this period in awe. Perhaps it sounds like i'm getting nostalgic in my old age, but look at the work we've seen this year.

Apple
It's impossible to talk about design in 2011 without talking about Apple. Even though it's been a rough year with the loss of the titanic Steve Jobs. The team at Apple have released a new, refined desktop operating system in Lion. They have overhauled their mobile operating system with iOS5, adding in a bucket load of beautifully refined new feature. They have also introduced iCloud and quietly sneaked out a new version of iTunes for iPad. Not to mention the beautiful work that has been coming and going on their dotcom site. It hasn't all been wonderful though. The new Cards and Find Friends apps are clearly below Apple's standards. None the less they still continue to lead the world of digital design.

Facebook
It's no secret in our industry that Facebook has been on a massive design shopping spree. Snapping up designers and creative directors from around the world. For the first time in it's history Facebook has started putting design in to the heart of its product developments. The first sign of their design progression comes in the eagerly anticapted Timelines update.

Google
Even the mighty Google, once famous for it's non-design, has rolled out a new UI design standard. The first product to given the new Google design treatment was Google+, quickly followed by Gmail, Calendar, Blogger and most recently on to YouTube. Going from highly un-designed, tech driven products to adopting a subtle, highly reserved aesthetic was done in a matter months and shows no sign of slowing down.

Microsoft Windows Phone
Good design and Microsoft rarely go together, but after years in design hell Microsoft launched the Windows phone OS. A highly original, yet comfortable new experience for smartphones. Based on solid aesthetic principles the level of thinking that has gone in to the UI here is highly unexpected. Hopefully the team behind the design of Metro will act as a case dtudy within Microsoft and we will see elements of this work bleeding in to the next version of Windows.

Twitter
For me Twitter comes Top of the Class in 2011. Although they are not operating on the scale of Google or Apple they have put out some leading UI design work. In the past six months Twitter has doubled in size, redesigned it's site to work across handheld devices, redesigned and relaunched it's flagship app, integrated in to Apple's OS, released an iPad app and if that wasn't enough they have just started rolling a stunning looking redesigned version of their web app.

Foursquare
I have a soft spot in my heart for the design team at Foursquare. I love the UI design work that each of their products is wrapped in. At the start of the year they redesigned their app, which only offered minor improvements. But the biggest "wow" this year has been the redesign of foursquare.com. If you haven't checked it out recently go have a look now.

BBC
The beeb continue to advance it's design guidelines. This year saw further developments within GEL. But also a redesigned homepage and a new weather site, which adopted a "tablet first" approach.

Other honourable mentions
It's not just the big names who have been pushing the design envelope. I've noted some interesting design coming out of newcomers Path, Flipboard and Stamped. Also Gowalla has been pushing it's product in new and unexpected ways. BankSimple is on the verge of releasing its user centric take on personal banking, which by the looks of it, is going to be huge in 2012.

All together it makes a pretty good argument for dubbing 2011 a vintage year for digital design.
Don't you think?

UX is missing from your brand guidelines

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000Z

Standard graphic communication tools – the brand book, the style guide, the tone of voice document – are important for designers working with intangibles, but they are not enough. They are from an era of broadcast: they tell us how to present our products to a mass audience, but they fail to describe how to create an experience that engages a single customer in a dialogue. In short, we’ve defined the ‘look’ but not the ’feel’.

Extract by Justin Stach at Serenpartners.com

Nest - The learning thermostat

2011-12-02T10:30:00.000Z

This is Nest. It's a new thermostat being sold in the US.

You may very well ask 'why the billy bollocks a thermostat would be of any interest to me?'. Well my inquisitive friends this thermostat is not only a whole new approach to warming a home, but it's also the work of a group of former Apple designers, who have clearly brought a great deal of Apple's design attitude to this piece of work.

Everything from the product's inherently intelligent nature, to it's UI design has been created with love and attention. Looking at the site and the package shots, it's impossible to fault this work. It seems to be a perfect combination of product and digital design.

I'm very much looking forward to getting my hands on one of these when it becomes available in the UK. I predict Nest becoming very popular, in the near future.

Jeff Fong on designing Windows Phone UI

2011-11-30T09:30:00.000Z

Part one:

Part two:

Are you a learner or a knower?

2011-11-27T21:40:00.001Z

"At times of change, the learners are the ones who will inherit the world, while the knowers will be beautifully prepared for a world which no longer exists."
Alistair Smith

Opening the design process

2011-11-17T08:00:00.000Z

How did designers ever learn anything before the web? Each day I feel grateful that the web encourages designers all round the world to share the path they've taken through a particular project.

I've always been a big fan of opening up the design process. Demystifying it if you will. In my opinion the design profession has been guilty of creating an ivory tower for itself. Relying on the notion that our expertise and skill is beyond the understanding of mere mortal clients. I'm not saying we should dumb it down and allow any old punter to make key design decisions. By opening it up I'm not refering to handing over responsibility. As I see it designers are problem solvers and therefore employed to make decisions on the best solution to a problem (brief). I'm just saying that it's possible to show the inner workings of a design project as a means to getting greater support from stakeholders. To my previous point it also helps this wonderful, messy, expansive design community we inhabit to learn and get better.

So to that end, in the spirit of sharing, here are my favourite (recent) examples of designers sharing their work and processes.

The Windows mobile design team creating "Metro"

Marco Arment on Designing Instapaper 4.0

Berg on designing the Michel Thomas iPhone app

Martin Belam on designing The Guardian's iPad app

The BBC's Global Visual Language

Build Conference, Belfast 2011 #buildconf

2011-11-14T07:30:00.000Z

Last week I flew to Belfast for Build Conference. It was my first time in Belfast and despite the lovely people I met I can't see myself going back, unless Build creates another stellar speaker line up. It was also my first Build conference. The venue and general scale of event was much smaller than I had anticipated, but the thought and care that had gone in to it was no let down. I haven't been able to get to many design conferences this year, but this was certainly the most memorable event in a very long time. Each of the speakers delivered something quite different from the next.

The Standardistas
First speakers of the morning The Standardistas gave a messy presentation on "The Journey" of designers and how the ancient ritual of apprentice > journeyman > master can be of value. Sharing the stage (and slides) can be a tricky way to deliver one coherent message and I'm not sure these guys got it right. Often tripping over one anothers thoughts, offering different attempts at humour and engagement. Although they did make a very good point about the value of Virtual masters (those designers whose work and methods we admire from a far) and Real masters (whom we work with and learn from on a daily, collaborative basis).

Josh Brewer
Seeing Josh Brewer present was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Build this year and he did not disappoint at all. Josh talked about relationships in design (the connection between one element and another), but more importantly he talked about making sure the 'human' element in Human Computer Interaction design is not lost. He used a range of practical and abstract examples of human relationships and the emotive connections that can be made through UX design. As well as recommending some interesting books (which are on my wishlist thanks) he also left me with a notebook of quotes, which may very well become my design manifesto. If you get a chance to see Josh present I recommend you take it.

Craig Mod
Much like his recent presentation at dConstruct Craig Mod talked about the future of books and publishing. Brilliantly delivered, but not a subject that captivated me. Full marks for the suit though.

Wilson Miner
Get ready for the fanboy. Wilson Miner started his presentation by noting that he doesn't usually give presentation like this. He had decided to take a different approach to this talk. I don't think anyone in that room was expecting the sheer scale of what Wilson delivered. His talk titled When We Should Build, covered an epic landscape of 20th century social change to personal childhood memories. From intuitive interfaces to the predictions of Marshall McLuhan. Ultimately Wilson made the point that the work we do may seem insignificant at times, but is in fact incredibly important and will ultimately be what shapes our society. His was the most moving, brave, sincere and inspirational talk on design I've ever seen. Wilson's careful delivery was pitched perfectly along with homemade clips. It's the only talk on design or creativity that I've ever seen get a standing ovation. I'm already itching for the video of his speech to appear online, so I can see it again. His talk was worth the ticket price alone.

Lunch was a hateful brown paper bag full of petrol station snacks.

Jason Santa Maria
Jason's talk on web typography was both funny and informative. Brilliantly delivered and perfectly poised. However it was word for word the exact same speech I saw him deliver at Ampersand Conference.

Jeremy Keith
Brighton's own Jeremey Keith gave a good (if not somewhat abstract) meditation on the importance of saving the work we produce and the media we create. Jeremy did a sterling job of standing in for Ethan Marcotte who sadly withdrew from the conference.

Simon Collison
To my mind Simon Collison was not the obvious choice of speaker to round up this range of speakers. He gave a good, understated talk which covered heritage, building, learning, exploring and simply letting things go. Whilst humorous and warm, for a final talk it sometimes lacked vibrancy. His decision to reduce all slides and images to black and white with a dark, muddy filter did not help.

After party was great. Getting to travel and talk with MORE TH>N team members, as well as the distinguished fellows of Clearleft was a real treat. I can honestly say I got more out of Build than any event in a long time.

Some nice conference shots on Flickr from Kitty Crawford

Best made better by Andrew Kim

2011-11-05T16:36:00.001Z

From Minimally Minimal

Phone UI and product concept

2011-10-31T11:00:00.000Z

What is being creative? from Kristian Ulrich Larsen on Vimeo.

Brilliant phone concept by Kristian Ulrich Larsen. The VO is a bit cheesy, but the UI and product design in here is worth taking the time to watch.

Blogging about blogging

2011-10-28T08:00:00.000+01:00

Blogs are dead right? Wrong my friend, blogs are double awesome. I couldn't even begin to count the amount I've learnt from blogs in the past 5 years. And whilst I can see that blog reading and writing has taken a different steer since the boom of microblogging, I'm finding it's still very much alive and that there is some great stuff out there.

Here is a small nugget of what blogs have been tickling my design senses lately

Antrop.Se - in particular there ideas on redesigning the browser window
Pleasure & Pain - a brilliant idea to collate good and bad UX by Claire Sutcliffe
Alan Colville - Bristol based UX designer
What Katie Does - Curating beautiful interiors, products, photos and cats
Little Big Details - those tiny UI details that raise a smile
Mobile Inc - Industrious mobile designer
Mari Sheilbley - Foursquare's design mama
Maxvoltar - Tim Van Damme pixel fucker at Gowalla
Visuelle - bookmark this sucker. I hope that one day I'll design something beautiful enough to be included on this blog

Rolling out the new BBC homepage design

2011-10-11T09:00:00.000+01:00

Last month the design team at the BBC rolled out a new homepage in Beta. As per usual with any changes to the BBC site, there has been a whole heap of moaning from disgruntled members of the public, who it seems wish for the BBC to never make any changes of any kind. I'm not interested in wading in to the 'why did you change in the first place' criticisms, but instead I wanted to take a moment to look at the strategy behind the work and its rollout.

Over the past few years the UX team at the BBC have slowly been applying and developing its much lauded Global Experience Language (GEL). These standards have dictated some structural updates to the BBC's online stable, which in turn has meant some updates to the visual design of keys areas. However the GEL goes further than that and lays out an approach to creating a refined experience for users, regardless of how they choose to consume the BBC's output.

Whilst I don't agree with the principle of designing a homepage in isolation, I think the fact that the new page was designed around tablet browsers is fantastic. It hints at a forward thinking strategy, based around an evolving audience.

Moreover how the BBC has chosen to roll out the page is impressive. They started with a Beta launch and an accompanying launch page. They monitored the reaction on site and on twitter, then have released a formal response and progression plan. They have moved rapidly and publicly demonstrated that their team is listening. For an organisation of the BBC's scale, this is flippin' impressive.

What I learned from Steve Jobs

2011-10-10T21:10:00.001+01:00

What I learned from Steve Jobs by Guy Kawasaki

I'm not sure about the timing of this article and why it has taken this long to write, seems a little opportunistic. However the information contained here is worth your time.

The part that particularly resonates with me is how Guy describes Jobs' aversion to market research and how customers cannot tell you what they need, as they "can only can only describe their desires in terms of what they are already using".

If you don't know about Guy, he worked at Apple through the 80s/90s and was on part of the launch team for the original Mac.

I frickin love Innocent

2011-10-05T17:00:00.000+01:00

It's true. I love em.

Not only do they have brilliant packaging...

and a beautifully crafted brand, (the inner workings of which, I recommend you read about). And not only because they really get digital and understand the importance of listening and responding (as demonstrated in this blog post)

...but also because they have created a strong in-house creative team. A team which uses ad agencies, but only to execute their ideas. Instead of turning to external supplier to articulate their brand. They rely on their own creative strengths for concept creation and bring in specialists to execute their ads. It shows a great deal of confidence in themselves and challenges the notion that someone working in a different organisation can know your brand better than you.

There's is not a model you see very often, which is probably why it's so successful. It's no secret that Innocent have had trouble finding the right set up with ad agencies, in the past. But i'm glad to see they have found a comfortable mix.

A closer look at Dolphin's gestural browser

2011-09-29T08:30:00.000+01:00

We've got browsers coming out of out trousers these days. However Chrome, Safari, Mozilla or even (shudder) Explorer don't provide a very different UX from one another. Ultimately they are all comprised of the same elements. Since the introduction of tabbed browsing nothing has shifted dramatically.

This week Amazon have announced their take on the browser (via a very dull video). Apparently they have "redesigned the browser from the ground up". Supposedly the software is noticably more responsive and it's driven by their cloud hosting solution. But looking at the screenshot on CNet the interface it's pretty much a brown Safari

Some designers (including Mr Joe Leech and Henrik Eneroth) have even taken apon themselves to redesign the fundamentals of the browser UX.

With all of this in mind I was very keen to get my hands on the new gestural driven, tablet web browser Dolphin from Mobotap. It comes with a small selection of pre-defined gestural shortcuts.

But it's very simple to create new ones. Just swipe away at the canvas and save it to your list. The only thing that feels a little clunky is having to tell the browser you are about to make a gesture. I had imagined this would be automatic, in order to create a more fluid experience. Perhaps they were concerned about mistaken gestures.

Beyond the ability to create your own gestures, the browser is well designed and has good blend between utilising the OS functions...

...and creating bespoke UI elements. Their take on tabs is very graceful indeed.

The default homepage design a owes a debt to Flipboard, but also includes your favourites. It's a brilliantly well thought out start point for the browsing experience.

All in all Dolphin is highly successful piece of work. At the moment it only exsists in iOS and I guess any forward thinking product team would be keeping focus on handheld devices for now. Hopefully the team at Mobotap will be able to develop what they have without getting consumed by the big guns.

Google's design crime

2011-09-26T11:31:00.000+01:00

Here is how I imagine this happened. There is Google's design team rolling out their beautifully subtle new design langueage when a group of execs start to panic about how many people are using their highly derivative social network. "Perhaps it's just not obvious enough" says one exec. "Yes let's really shout about it" says another, then somehow we land with this. So the logic follows; 'don't make it better, just make it more obvious'.

Google you will be held back after class and we will talk about this with your parents!

Is Timeline a hint of FB's new design direction?

2011-09-25T11:22:00.001+01:00

Last week Facebook announced it's new timeline feature (along with a number of other updates to the service). The whole timeline UX has already been tried out, talked over and chewed up by designers and commentators alike. Instead of adding my pennies worth to the noise I decided to look at the campaign around the new timeline. More specifically the design of the timeline 'about' page.

I think this is the first time we've seen Facebook's approach to visual design move on from it's usual pared back approach (perhaps a reaction to Google following them in to this area?!). There are definite signs of FB's recent splurge on new designers beginning to bare fruit. Particularly when you can spot UI techniques similar to Spotify (hand drawn arrows, stars, title wraps. see below) following the hiring of Spotify's Creative Director.

The whole page has more texture and depth than anything FB has released before. So far nothing else has been so richly layered with subtle use of shadows and patterns. The page composition as a whole relies on a large fixed footer navigation, which is unusual for the classicly left nav'd site

Further on through the new timeline's walk through we get a glimpse of how the mighty Nike+ has been integrated in to user's data. This beautiful use of quantative data shows signs of Feltron at work.

As far as I can find, there is no talk of a formal change in Facebook's design standards. But following Google's recent UI overhaul it appears to be another area in which FB are starting to fight back. Evidently they are able to pull some of the world's best talent in to their team, so I'm looking forward to it gaining even more momentum and creating richer visual experiences.

Beautiful type experiences in seven cities

2011-09-23T09:30:00.000+01:00

I'm utterly in love with this piece of work. This is everything advertising should be; carefully observed, beautifully crafted, rich in visual stimulus, emotive and dare i say it; sincere.

There are seven films, each centred on a different city, each one as good as the last. You can read more about the project on Design Taxi

Gowalla changes direction

2011-09-21T12:30:00.000+01:00

Over the past year Foursquare has undoubtedly won out in the race for location based microblogging supremacy. Facebook places and Gowalla have all but fallen away, as the team at Foursquare continue to develop and deploy at a dizzying rate.

Instead of pluggin away at the same product and continuing to fall behind Gowalla has taken a bold move and switched direction. Last week at a TechCrunch event. Josh Williams (Gowalla's founder) unveiled a demo of the new app. By all accounts they are moving away from the simple check-in and share model and in to something new.

"Several months ago, the team sat down to dream it all up again. They thought about what kind of location-based app they would build today if they were starting from scratch. Then they went out and did just that."

I love that quote. My hat goes off to the gang at Gowalla. After all the success they are clearly not afraid to keep questioning everything and go in different directions. I really hope this works for them and they keep the innovative spirit up.

You can read more about the new version over at TechCrunch

Designing to music

2011-09-20T11:00:00.000+01:00

Photo by bburky

Take a look around your average design studio and you'll find either a stereo pumping out tunes or a room full of headphone wearing designers.

Recently I was working on a visual design brief whilst listening to the guitar jangling, floppy fringeness of Bombay Bicycle Club. The next day the brief change (bloody typical) and I started again, this time I happened to be listening to the warm bleeps and twitchy bloops of Mount Kimbie. What struck me at the end of day 2 was how different the tone of my work was. The use of colour particularly struck me as more restrained on day two, as was the level of depth I had applied to the graphic elements (shadows, gradients, effects etc). I started to wonder if the music I was listening to had impacted on my visual sense and the outcome could have been persuaded by my choice of music that day. This in turn led me to wonder if there are better types of music for designing with each brand. For example listening to Noah and the Whale might lead to more successful and 'on brand' design for Innocent. Whilst it might prove more fruitful to design for Uniqlo whilst listening to Yeasayer.

Maybe it's a case of wider influences and music, just playing a small part. Or perhaps music affects my mood and it's the general mood that influences the design decisions. Either way I'm going to experiment over the coming months with different music types to find the perfect sound for me to work with.

Timex retro packaging

2011-09-16T08:30:00.000+01:00

I don't know why I'm noticing (and posting) a bunch of packaging design work. Perhaps it's a subconscious reaction to the non-physical design work that consumes my brain these days. Either way this watch box from Timex is beautiful. The watch itself is an eighties style digital design, so the box is a perfect match. The sliding lid reminds me of the wooden pencil boxes we used at school (in the 80s). The diagonal lines and LED typeface are straight out of tron. But the aspect of the packaging that makes me spidey senses tingle is the dayglo trim on black against the black panels. I doubt it's the most environmentally friendly piece of packaging work, but it's certainly one of the most stylistically rewarding.

Every detail is important...

2011-09-13T09:53:00.001+01:00

"Every detail is important because the end result is the sum of all the details involved in the creative process."
Massimo Vignelli

Mozilla throws some weird UI design out in to the world

2011-09-12T21:00:00.000+01:00

Check out Mozilla's UI experiments

I was shown this by me old mucker Mike. It's a somewhat strange collection of disconnected UI design work from the team at Mozilla. Under the guise of getting feedback from users, it's just appeared online recently.

Don't get me wrong there is some lovely visual design work going on here, but without a prototype or some kind of beta product, it all feels like rather a hollow gesture. Take a look and see what you think.

New Diet Coke design work

2011-09-09T12:00:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd cured my Coke Obsession, but this might be enough to kickstart it back to life.Quite rightly Coke are asserting enough brand confidence, that they don't have to worry about showing the logo in it's entirety.

More Diet Coke can designs by Turner Duckworth on Creative Review

Google rolls out new design standards to Blogger

2011-09-07T18:24:00.000+01:00

This here blog is running on Google's Blogger platform (but you knew that from the URL right). The backend of the Blogger platform has only had minor changes over the past four years. Blogger has always sat uncomfortably within Google's product portfolio, largely because it was not built by Google. However it seems that in the recent wave of design updates across Google, it has been brought firmly in line. Unlike Gmail and Google Calendar this is not a refresh of the front end, it's an entirely new UX. The service architecture has been redesigned from the ground up.

Overview page

The new design has some lovely UI features, although surprisingly they haven't replicated the composition functions from Google Docs. Also the blog title seems to be the the only way to navigate out of the post composition feature, which doesn't feel particularly graceful.

Post compose page

By comparison to the previous iteration the colour palette is very restrained, with Blogger's orange being used for any necessary emphasis.

The previous Posts page

Posts page

Sensibly the new interface is on a limited trial with a fail safe switch back for those regular users who are scared off by the new interface. They are also inviting feedback and bug reporting throughout the new version.

I would say the new version is massive improvement, I've already switched it as my default. However i expect it to remain in Beta for a while, as Blogger's users become accustomed to the new structure and UI.

Amazon's perfect packaging

2011-09-06T09:30:00.000+01:00

Hat's off to Amazon's packaging team. Amazon's own brand packages are a triumph of simplicity and functionality. No excessive padding. No hassle unboxing. Strong branding. Low cost.

It's a perfect solution for the Amazon brand, who have made themselves the number one online retailer, by taking the hassle away from customers. The brand's low entry points allows for quick, simple transactions that you can rely on. Just like the boxing. No thought, just one perforation and your goods are in your hands. The final step in Amazon's UX is befitting of their online experience.

Poor UX is losing you money

2011-08-30T10:09:00.001+01:00

According to econsultany's paper on Reducing Customer Struggle poor online user experience is costing UK businesses billions of pounds.

"Companies able to quantify site abandonment estimate they are losing the equivalent of 24% of their annual online revenue due to a bad online experience. This equates to more than $50 billion lost in the US and around £14 billion lost in the UK in the last year."

Current TV rebrand finally emerges

2011-08-26T10:48:00.000+01:00

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in April 2009 Current TV's then Creative Director Jordan Kretchmer set about selecting a global brand agency using Twitter. The brief (outlined in 140 characters) sought a forward thinking, social media savvy brand agency to redesign Current TV's visual identity. The process was played out on Twitter over the following months, but then it all went very quiet.

Fast forward to 2011 and the new visual identity has been launched by Wolff Olins. It seems that for what ever reason the Twitter agency selection plan fell apart and a more traditional selection method was employed. Regardless of what the new identiy has turned out like I think it's a shame the Twitter selection method was dropped. I still think it's a good solution to the way in which agencies are selected. I'd like to see more Brand Teams open up their internal workings to attract like minds.

I'm judging Brainyhacks Brighton

2011-08-22T10:52:00.001+01:00

Got a brain? In or near Brighton? Then put it to good use and join Brainyhacks on Tuesday 6th September.

As part of the Brighton Digital Festival the good folks at Pixelgroup are putting on a hack event, aimed at putting creative minds to good use for a local charity. All you have to do is gather up five creative mates, register your team and show up on the night. Food and drink are provided and the team with the best response goes home with a prize.

I'm going to be there as a judge. Offering bad advice and giving terribly misguided feedback to the teams. I hope you're there too.

Flash

2011-08-10T13:53:00.000+01:00

Illustration by Lauro Fonte

Do you care about your work?

2011-07-23T11:32:00.001+01:00

"There is such a total sense of demoralisation if you say you 'don't care'. From start to finish of a film, the only limitations I observe are those imposed on me by the amount of money I have to spend and the amount of sleep I need. You either care or you don't. I simply don't know where to draw the line between those points."

Stanley Kubrick

MORE TH>N's new Beta site goes live

2011-07-12T13:39:00.000+01:00

Look mum I made some Internet!

Me and my friends at MORE TH>N have been busily redesigning morethan.com and you can see the first fruits of our labour on the Beta site. It's still got a couple of kinks that needs ironing out, but hey, that's why it's a Beta right.

There are lot's more additions to the site going live over the coming weeks and months, but if you'd like to take a look around I'd love to hear what you think.

An idea...

2011-07-08T20:54:00.000+01:00

"An idea isn't a good idea, unless it's ruthlessly executed"
Ian Jindal

Moneysupermarket launches the least integrated campagin ever

2011-07-05T10:23:00.002+01:00

Earlier this year Moneysupermarket switched ad agencies from MCBD (now part of Dare) to Mother. When I heard I was excited to see what Mother could bring to the insurance/price comparison brand world. Well here is the answer. The TV campaign breaks today

Here is what Moneysupermarket.com looks like today...

And here is their Facebook page...

Hmmmmm.
Product in one hand. ATL campaign in the other. Anything connecting the two?
Nope.
9 out of ten for the funny TV ad. 0 out of ten for the campaign.

A closer look at the Google+ UI

2011-07-04T12:42:00.000+01:00

So Google+ is here, albeit on a beta trial. The launch of Google+ has been nicely timed to tie directly in with the rollout of Google's new design language.Creative Director Chris Wiggins has described the new design language as "elastic, focussed and effortless". At first glance the word "clarity" came to my mind. All extraneous details and any sense of depth has been stripped away. An interesting decision when you consider Apple's increasingly rich approach to UI design and also that the design lead on Google+ was former Apple designer Andy Hertzfeld.

Over the course of the launch week product teams at Google have been swiftly applying the new visual design to each webapp in their portfolio. Whatever you think of the new design approach you have to admit that the speed of the rollout is impressive, for an organisation of Google's size.

Google+
When mentioning Google+ it would be daft not to bring up Facebook comparisons. When looking at the page architecture, they seem almost identical. Facebook's vertical devices used to divide up content and their approach to function highlighting have been duplicated entirely. Column width ratios are a only very slightly different, but the location of search and navigation points are all the same. The only place Google has deviated from Facebook's design formula is in the space each page element is allowed, which has given Google+ a more spacious layout.

The UI details are so stripped back they have become microscopic. When a post is highlighted the only visual feedback is a 1 pixel blue line on the left side.

Perhaps as features are added and Google moves to introduce advertising (you know its coming) the pages will fill out a little more and details will be added. I'll be interested to see how the increased functions and content will affect Google's approach to multiple CTA styles.

Google+ Circles
Without doubt the real crowd pleasers in Google+ are Cirlces (the contact grouping service) and Hangouts (video chat programme). At this point I've no real interest in Hangouts because it requires a plugin installation and there seems to be nothing particularly different beyond Skype or Facetime. Circles on the other hand presents a whole new proposition.

On the surface it's a novel tool for organising friends and contacts, but beyond that it's a sophisticated way of taking all of the shared content and filtering it to your preferences. Notionally Circles could change the way in which all our social network activity is viewed. I'm not aware of anything out there in the mainstream that offers a new way of digesting content like this. Visually Circles is the only part of the new Google+ design palette that has any interface details. Interactions are drenched in silly rollovers and animations, which could get annoying, but as an introduction to Google's playful new environment work quite well. They have applied the "useless, but fun" theory of interaction design that makes people fall in love with a product.

WDYL
What Do You Love is everything good about Google in one product. With the new design language in full flow, this cheeky little project shows Google taking what it does well (that's search in case you forgot) and offering something new. The interface is detailed enough to appear rich, but simple enough not to intimdate new comers. It's not easy to see how this fits in with Google's other products, but I hope it's around for some time to come.

Overall Google's design strategy works very well for them and has been applied faultlessly across each of the products.Whilst I think the direct references to Facebook show blatant signs of Google's intention it's a relief to see Google finally giving some attention to its design approach.

Ampersand Conference Brighton

2011-06-22T09:41:00.006+01:00

Look there's me, left of the centre, red shirt, looking daft. Photo by Adactio

Last week I went along to the first Ampersand Conference in Brighton. Not the first typography conference, but the first type conference focussed on the web. Speakers from round the world presented their thoughts on the current state of type design and the web. The event was put together by the good folks at Clearleft and lovely it was too. Some of the presentation went a little too techie for me, but when you get to spend the entire day talking fonts, it's hard to complain.

Highlights for me included Jonathan Hoefler describing how his foundry has been painstakingly redrawing ever single font for the web, Jason Santa Maria discussing how a little typographic understanding can be as dangerous as the Deathstar and Mark Boulton evangelising responsive design and embracing chaos (strange move at a conference celebrating greater control over type!).

There is a good write up over at Eye Magazine. Go forth, read and kick thy self for not attending.

Nokia launches the N9 - WANT

2011-06-21T11:21:00.000+01:00

Good for Nokia. After years in the wilderness and PR hell, they have finally released a product worthy of their status. The new N9 looks like a beautiful marriage of hardware and software. It's not breaking any new ground and largely building on Apple's success, but you can't deny how well finished this product appears.

Check out the release vid. Looking forward to getting my hands on one of these.

D&AD asks 'what does the future hold'

2011-06-18T21:07:00.000+01:00

Photo by Research Studios

I love the D&AD annual. Yeah i know it's a ludacrisly self indulgent piece of print work and I know it probably amounts to twenty thousand dead trees for each one, but they are a wonder to behold. Every year the designer how is charged with creating it comes up with something even more beautiful than the last. However this time round it seems the D&AD are looking at alternative publishing methods. I would say it's been hard for the D&AD to catch up with the digital world, but this looks like they are starting to move in the right direction. I'm excited to see what they come up.

D&AD asks 'what does the future hold'

The difference between being an in-house and agency designer

2011-06-17T11:36:00.000+01:00

I've been working as an in-house designer for over a year now and I still consider myself new to it. Over the past year I've listened to people talk about how in-house teams can improve by being more like agencies. I'm sure there is some truth in that, but it's also true in reverse. Agencies can learn a lot from in-house teams.

I was trying to explain to an (agency) friend of mine why projects seem to take longer with in-house design teams and it struck me that in some cases the imperative, time pressured nature of agency work simply doesn't exsist for in-house teams. I came to the conclusion this doesn't exsist because in-house designers are faced with inevitable truth that the client will never leave. The brand you work on today, will still be there tomorrow. Don't mistake this for complacency. In simple terms in-house designers play a longer game.

For a designer working in an agency, each new project is chance to create a good impression on the client. It's an opportunity to 'show off' your skills and hopefully impress enough to get another project. Much like a date, it's about knitting together the best impression possible through brief encounters. In-house designers, on the other hand, don't have the same pressure of winning the desired client over, that part is already done. Instead they are challenged with sustaining interest and continually invigorating the relationship, like a marriage.

So here's my theory:
Designing for an agency is like dating and being an in-house designer is like being married.

Right now. I'm happily married.

D&AD Branding 2.0

2011-06-14T20:51:00.001+01:00

I'm double gutted I missed this event, but there is a tiny snippet online you can enjoy. I can only hope that the whole event was as caustic as this part.

watch it here

There is also a write up on the JohnsonBanks blog

Have UX Designers replaced Brand Designers?

2011-05-23T09:40:00.000+01:00

I wrote this piece last week called "Have UX Designers replaced Brand Designers".

It's a question that I've been going over for the past year. It's a really a spin off thought from my aborted book project. It's not supposed to be an attack on designers and it's not supposed to be any great revelation. Just some ideas born from my experiences as a designer.

After I wrote it I wasn't sure what to do with it. I didn't know if it was going to turn in to a blog post, book, open letter, presentation or something else. So I thought I would just drop it on my site and see if there was any reaction.

Have a read and drop me your thoughts on twitter.

MORE TH>N's freeman

2011-05-16T21:16:00.000+01:00

A project of mine launched recently. It's the latest development in our MORE TH>N Freeman campaign. It's built around the newest TV spot, which highlights MORE TH>N's Personal Customer Managers. The notion is that everyone needs someone to lean on. Someone to be there in times of need. So I thought it would be nice to celebrate those people who have gone the extra mile. Users can nominate a freeman (a person of distinction), nominations are then voted on by the general public. The person with the most vote at the end of the month gets a huge party thrown in their honour (pretty good prize really).

It was a really short production schedule and there are some improvements coming. But I'm pleased with the design and concept work.

Take a look, nominate a friend and tell me what you think.

The race for the perfect music cloud UX

2011-05-09T11:16:00.004+01:00

In recent months we've seen Spotify, Amazon, Apple and newcomers Rdio all ramp up thier offerings to take advantage of cloud based systems and streaming subscriptions. Each of them appear to be in a service design race to get all platforms and levels of distribution just right, so they are the first to unlock the world's desire to discover and manage their music, in a way that fits seemlessly around their lifestyle.

Spotify obviously have the streaming library sewn up, but seem to be angering devoted users by changing their free services. Apple obviously has its devices and the iTunes music store (which I maintain is a terrible UX) with all major labels signed up, but no streaming capabilities to speak of. Amazon has the access and infrastructure to deliver cloud based services, as well as distribution of music, but no devices or music management tools. At this time only the US and Canada can access Rdio - so it's unknown brand in Europe.

I'm excited to see which one solves all the service issues first and delivers a UX that allows versatility, access with a pricing structure that isn't prohibitive. I'm also excited where the UI design goes in these developments. To date everyone has followed the creaky format laid down by iTunes. Even Spotify, with all of it's fine detailing and simplistic interaction design, is based largely on the list and column approach.

Perhaps it will be an in-browser function like ex.fm or perhaps Last.fm will come back to life? I don't know which way it will fall, but I am sure that this is a defining time for digital music and UX design will play a major part in it.

#### Update 10/05/2011 ####
Google appears to be entering the fray with the launch of its own music service, creatively named Google Music.

Advice for agencies (from a client)

2011-05-08T21:25:00.000+01:00

Going from agency to in-house has given me a whole new perspective on the client/agency relationship. I'd like to think it has helped me empathise agencies. It has certainly shown me how wrong some creative groups can get it though. All the way from an initial approach to the handling ongoing partnerships.

No names or malice, just some sincere advice for anyone in an agency hoping to form a mutually beneficial working relationship:

1. Don't skip the heirachies
If a manager makes a decision, don't undermine it by going to that manager's boss.

2. Don't be afriad to say "i don't know"
Blagging insight or experience is only ever going to lead to an embarrassing unveiling of the truth.

3. Don't pretend to be experts in everything
Focus on what you do best and don't grab at everything going past the window.

4. Do proactively pitch ideas
If you've got a truelly great idea, then it's a client's obligation to listen and make it happen. Don't always wait for the brief.

5. Do meet as many people in the business as possible
By getting to know all of the teams you can build up a better picture of what life is like for the client, therefore what influences their decisions and ultimately making your job easier. It also helps maintain the relationship if your contact moves on.

6. Do maintain contact if there is interest
Sometimes you need to do the chasing. I know that's not very nice, but if a client states an interest you have the right to hassle the hell out of them. It's not an annoyance, if they are keen, but disorganised.

7. Never, ever make up spurious charges
It's no secret that if you start at reduced rates you have to make up profits later down the line - that's fine, but don't try to drop in charges for random nonsense. From my experience Marketing Managers have no problem paying for expertise, so make the charges up in time, not "DVD burning project management" or "checking the flux capacitor"

8. Don't be afraid to turn a bad brief on it's head
Everyone who has worked in an agency has had a bad brief. More often than not it's because it was born from a confused business decision. Sometimes it's easier to see a more graceful or effective solution from the outside, so stand up and show the client how it can be done better.

9. Know when to back off
Regardless of how long a client has worked with an agency or well the agency knows the business, it will never be privvy to the whole picture. Although it's good for agencies to challenge and push clients, there is also a point at which an internal team must resolve it's problems on it's own. Learn to detect when internal ranglings are happening and back away.

My new holding page

2011-05-02T21:18:00.000+01:00

Nothing special, just a new holding page on my martynreding.net domain. It's just an excuse to experiment with CSS dropshadows, Typekit and media queries.

I recently watched a talk by Wilson Milner about the merger between designers and developers and I also heard Jeffery Zeldman, on his 5by5 show, talking about designing straight in to the browser. So I thought I'd give it a spin. I have to be honest, it didn't go very well. After a while I arrived at a design that I was happy with technically, but visually was a bit of a mess. I tried for some time to resolve the visual design problems straight in to the HTML, but gave up in frustration. Within a minute of opening the page in PShop I had it sorted in to a composition I was happy with. It seems I can't get away from being a visual thinker.

I've still got to polish off a media query to serve up a mobile CSS - you know, for shits n' giggles.

Simple & Usable by Giles Colborne

2011-05-01T20:18:00.000+01:00

I measure a design book's impact on me by the amount of sticky notes I leave in the pages. When I was done with Simple & Usable (web, mobile and interaction design) by Giles Colborne the volume was strewn with marked out passages to refer to. Following the book's guiding principle, it's a simple and straightforward walk through methods to adopt when designing interactions. Methods which help to strip away superfluous elements, creating a more successful design.

Sample passage:

Simplicity is about control.

Unraveling your users' emotional needs can be tricky, and made worse by the fact that many people are uncomfortable sitting in a design meeting talking about feelings.

Fortunately, when it comes to designing for simplicity, the key emotional need is for users to feel that they're in control. Firstly they want to feel in control of the technology they're using. Secondly, they want to feel in control of their lives.

I recommend it to anyone who has Design, IA or UX work and wants to create better products, services or brands.

Stop The Press! KFC in good advert shocker

2011-04-26T08:33:00.000+01:00

It's not very often that a TV ad makes me stop what I'm doing, so imagine my surprise/horror/dismay/joy/confusion/depression when it turned out to for KFC.

PS: I realise I should be nicer to KFC considering I did some design work for them a while back, but let's face it the food is gruesome.

BankSimple - UI Design to change banking

2011-04-25T20:42:00.002+01:00

BankSimple is a US based startup who are hoping to shake up the personal banking world by applying User Centre Design to the classic banking model. The project is not live at this point, but the whole venture is gaining a great deal of attention already. You can follow the startup's progress on their blogs and twitter feeds. I know that I'll be watching very closely to see what I can learn from them about the Financial Sector.

When I first read about this I applauded the idea. After a little time I realised the huge audacity of the project. Imagine taking on one of the world's mightiest economic services and doing it from a UX standpoint. I'm sure most people in US banks are expecting/hoping this fails. Because it could ultimately change customers' expectations and force a sea change.

There is not a huge amount of detail on the offering, but the screengrabs of the UI look lush. I have my fingers crossed for them.

Native App design at #iOSLondon

2011-04-20T11:12:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I took a (rare) day out of work to attend an iOS design workshop. I haven't been on any kind of training for a some years. Partly due to expense, partly due to work pressures and partly because when designers (myself included) reach Creative Director/Design Lead level there is a tendency to not bother with training at all. However I'm keen to not be constrained by any of these and take opportunities to learn from experts in the field.

Design for mobile is becoming a bigger part of my work by the day. Although I've been involved in mobile projects in the past and I've read a huge amount on the subject I don't feel like I've got to grips with some of basics. Basically I skipped the first two chapters and went straight to strategy section. So this workshop was about ensuring I had exposure to all aspects of the mobile design process.

Photo by Sarah Parmenter

The day covered an iOS design project from writing the initial ADS all the way through to preparing your polished files for publishing. It not only gave me a comprehensive grip on the the finer points of app design, but it also helped me build an understanding of when apps can and should be used. The whole day made me more confident in my mantra that 'mobile is at it's best when it saves time or wastes time'.

Photo by Sarah Parmenter

As an addded bonus I got to meet and work with some very interesting people who are at different stages of the journey in to design for mobile.

Apple are seeking a UI Designer

2011-04-18T14:54:00.000+01:00

Apple is advertising for a "User Interface Designer / Prototyper". Essentially this role aims to invent Apple's next software/hardware combinations and dictate their visual design. How fucking cool is that? The designer who lands this job will live two steps ahead of the UI design world in one of the world's most notable design groups.

Throw in some kind of beer tasting responsibilities and that's just about my perfect job.

Check out the full job description:

The Human Interface Device Prototyping group at Apple is looking for a User Interface Designer / Prototyper. We’re a small, unique group at Apple composed of hybrid designers / engineers. We work on the long-term vision for human interface technologies and user experience across all of Apple’s products.

Responsibilities
Invent - We come up with novel ideas for how new hardware technologies can improve the user experience. You should have a passion for building new things and running with ideas.
Design - You should have a proficiency in illustration, an understanding of user interface principles, a sensitivity to typography and color, a general awareness of materials / textures, and a practical grasp of physics and animation.
Prototype - We build working, interactive prototypes to test, explain, and explore ideas. Our process includes sketching, pixel-perfect mockups, animations, code, electronics, and models. You should be able to explore ideas at many different levels of fidelity, and in the end, produce real software we can interact with.
Collaborate - We work with people all over Apple: UI designers, industrial designers, engineers, marketing, and executives. You should be comfortable working in a studio environment and participating in individual and group critiques.
Present - A big part of what we do is demonstrate our prototypes and explain our designs. You should be comfortable speaking to your work in front of small and large groups.

Qualifications
A portfolio of innovative designs, with working prototypes or implementations.
Possible degrees / backgrounds: Human Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Art, Computer Science, or Electrical Engineering
Required skills: - sketching / storyboarding of UIs - visual design using Photoshop, Illustrator, or similar tools - coding interactive user interfaces using Objective-C, Action Script, Processing, C/C++, OpenGL, OpenFrameworks, or other environments
Nice to have experience with: - designing multi-touch interfaces - electronics (Arduino, Make Controller, Phidgets, microcontrollers, sensors, etc.) - rapid prototyping (hand tools, plastic, cardboard, 3D printing, laser cutter, etc.) - 3D graphics, motion graphics, traditional or special effects animation - signal processing (simple filters, thresholds, basic heuristics, etc.)

Where does #brand design end & #UX design begin?

2011-04-07T20:38:00.001+01:00

Where does brand design end and UX design begin?

This question has challenged me (and I've been challenged with it) a number of times in the past year.

If we can broadly agree that the definition of a brand design is to design customer touch points for an organisation and the definition of UX design is to design digital customer experiences for an organisation. Then we can ask if a brand only exists in digital

Consider brands like Skype, Spotify and Facebook. They provide no physical service or tangible product, so there brands only ever reach the customer on screen. So should their design be left to brand designers or UX designers?

I don't yet have an answer to these questions, perhaps there isn't one and it simply comes down to semantics. If you have any views on it, I'd love to hear them, on the usual channels.

TWITTER UPDATE
@WilliamBloor ux is brand
@WolffOlins ux is a component of brand experience, says @nathanawilliams
@WolffOlins ux is part of 'brand'
@WilliamBloor To me it's how users interact with a brand in a functional and behavioural way. So @WolffOlins is a UX company, or should be.

10 Spartan Rules - by Dentsu

2011-04-04T22:11:00.000+01:00

In 1951 The president of one's of the world's largest advertising networks Dentsu wrote "10 Spartan Rules" to inspire his employees. To this day they can be found on the wall of every Dentsu building around the world.

1. Create work for yourself; don’t wait for work to be assigned to you.

2. Take an active role in all your endeavours, not a passive one.

3. Seek out large and complex jobs. Trivial tasks debase you.

4. Welcome difficult assignments. Choose them. Progress lies in accomplishing difficult work.

5. Once you begin a task, complete it. Never give up.

6. Lead your fellow workers. Be an example for them to follow.

7. Set goals for yourself to ensure a constant sense of purpose.
This will give you perseverance and hope for the future.

8. Move with confidence. Confidence gives your work force, focus and substance.

9. Find new solutions. This is the way we ensure satisfactory service.

10. When conflict is necessary don’t shy away from it or be afraid. Conflict is the mother of progress and the source of aggressive enterprise. If you fear conflict, you will become timid and servile.

I like these. Although it's somewhat pious to be speaking of fear and conflict, when you're really just talking about making ads that flog cars, but it still says something relevant about collective problem solving. Right now I'd say the first five are my favourite.

Inside Windows 7 phone design

2011-03-29T13:38:00.000+01:00

Well I never thought I'd say this but; I've been really inspired by the Windows design team.

Yeah I said it. Windows, as in Microsoft Windows has taken a huge leap forward in it's design language. This article, on their blog, gives a good overview of the philosophy that drove the design of the new Windows 7 phone. If you've ever designed a UI or you've been tasked with creating a design guides, then I recommend you take 5 minutes to read it.

Hopefully this uncharacteristically intelligent approach to design finally marks a change in Microsoft product development.

Waitrose website redesign - a lesson for us all

2011-03-24T09:48:00.005Z

Without warning or fanfare UK supermarket Waitrose launched their new website. Waitrose has always gone for the higher end of the food retail market and their previous site was a demonstration of that.The entire UX has to rival, if not beat the experience of shopping the store to justify it's exsistence. It's customers (not dissimilar to MORE TH>N's) are discerning and demanding. This means any slippage in the shopping experience can be costly for the brand.

It seems that on this occasion the online experience has let the side down. As per usual Twitter is one of the most visible places people have shown their discontent. I've personally never used the site to shop so my shallow browsing experience didn't flag up any issues. From a visual design point of view it seems to fit the brand, it's nothing mind blowing, but that wouldn't be befitting of Waitrose. The IA has had a really good sorting out and the front end build seems solid enough. So it's fair to say the majoriy of bugs lie in the commerce engine. If anyone should be shouldering the blame on this one, it's Waitrose technology partner.

In almost every complaint someone has mentioned the £10million price tag. I don't believe Waitrose have confirmed this price, but having worked inside a large organisation on e-commerce projects it doesn't blow me away. If it's true I'm quite sure the ten million isn't just the design work from Grand Union. It most likely covered research, IA, visual, build, setting up hosting environments, load balancing, backend integration and possibly build or development of a CMS. Customers and designer behave like this is an outrageous amount of money, but when you consider how many millions runs through the site and how much it saves in shop operation costs, it really isn't that much.

I hadn't intended this to be a defensive of the new Waitrose site, but it looks like they are doing all the right things. They have set up a forum for customers, they are being proactive on Twitter and they are responding to negative Facebook posts.

What can we learn from this?

Lead up to major overhauls to avoid the 'shock' factor
Keep the public informed of improvement plans and hope they come back
Share the process, let people see the work done
Don't let budgets get out and blur the issues
Make sure your online brand is in line with offline brand.

Article on Webologist | Article on EConsultancy

Coke won't tell you!

2011-03-22T21:20:00.000Z

I'm a big fan of the Coke brand, but frankly I find this disturbing. What could the brand strategists possibly have been thinking?! Coke being consumed by people all over the world and now we are being told it contains something secret. Well that is not exactly comforting.

Starbucks brand rolls out

2011-03-21T14:00:00.000Z

When the design community started to rabbit on about the updates being made to Starbucks' logo. I thought, like many people, who cares?! The change seemed so minor that it was hardly worth registering. The icon had a small amount of tidying up, nothing to write home about. The name has been dropped, which is a bold move. But hardly ground breaking for a brand of it's scale.

As with most brand design projects it seems that the logo is just a piece of the whole puzzle. Now we are starting to see the new design language being rolled out, it's clear the Starbucks brand team has a bigger plan at work.

More details and opinion on the mighty Under Consideration
Official launch clip on the Starbucks site

Is your campaign integrated?

2011-03-20T19:17:00.000Z

Having trouble creating an integrated campaign? Here is a guide I made to get you started.

It really is that simple.

Print that looks like web pt1

2011-03-14T08:02:00.000Z

This double page ad was in Metro a few weeks back. It's a fairly simple travel & tourism proposition, but strangely the creative has been made to look like a web page.

At the risk of showing my advertising ignorance, I find it hard to see the logic in this. Is the Canadian tourist board trying to make us think it's 'web savvy'? Is it attempting to attract the 'Facebook generation'? - bit patronising if that's the case.

The ad is complete with mock embedded video

Media carosels

It even has share links to Twitter and Facebook. Very odd.

Redesigning iTunes

2011-03-07T08:25:00.001Z

When Apple bought SoundJam in 1999 and it turned it into iTunes, it was a small but innovative piece of software for converting, sorting and playing a mind blowing one thousand songs. Today it's not so small, not so innovative and 1,000 songs is but a sniff of the average digital music collection. It's fair to say that with Apple's current focus on development for handheld devices iTunes has become the gateway to its product experience, a real cornerstone in it's business.

With all this in mind it amazes me that Apple has never taken on the task of redesigning the iTunes UX from scratch. It's continually adding new features and little improvements, but all of it is on a very old structure. So one night I was feeling a bit bored (and supremely arrogant) and I started to wonder how I would redesign iTunes.

1. Cloud Based Service
I guess it's no secret Apple has been sniffing around this change for a while. Looking at Spotify it seems a no brainer to move away from files clogging up your hard drive and allow users to access their music from anywhere.

2. iOS Design Lead
It's clear the software lead is now coming from Apple's devices, so I've used the iPhone and iPad version as a lead for the visual design

3. Tabs for Media
The current UI tries to swtich between music, films, books, tv shows and apps whilst applying the same approach. I've segregated the different media with tabs to allow each one it's own space and navigation.

4. Tabs for Devices
Instead of dropping devices in to the left hand list with Media types and Playlists. I've created a flexible space for them to be added and removed more gracefully.

5. Playback Controls Grouped
All of the playback tools are now together at the top of the application, instead of being scattered around the edges.

6. Cleaner Filters
In it's current version (10.1.2) there is no less than 39 different ways to sort music. I've stripped this back, leaving only the neccessary. But giving the option for adding a couple more if the user specifies.

7. Proper Sharing, No More Ping
Sorry Apple but Ping is Poo. There is no need to try and build a singular social network when you can utilise Facebook and Twitter. My design allows you to share songs, albums or playlists with comments.

8. Better Exploring/Recommendations
Within every track you can access Genius to serve up recommendations for similar material.

Overall I've removed, what I felt was, all the superfluous features including visualiser, sidebar, coverflow and a few others. I've tried to design within what I understand of Apple's philosophy. I'm sure I've overlooked something in there, but it shows what can be achieved in one night.

You can take a closer look at my design on my Flickr stream.

I am MORE TH>N Freeman

2011-03-01T10:46:00.002Z

This new little project has gone live this week.

It's a simple idea; for every tweet MORE TH>N will donate £2 to the Have A Heart Appeal. Each person who hits the tweet button will have there Twitter avatar added to the giant mosaic.

The idea was born out of watching the twitter responses to the TV ads. The thing that got played back to us over and over again was the pay off line from the scripts "I'm MORE TH>N Freeman", so I thought any Twitter activity should reflect that. It's not perfect, but the whole thing was turned around in just over a week, so please forgive any roughness around the edges.

The aim is raise £20,000 just using Twitter. All it costs you is a tweet and all the money goes towards a fantastically worthy cause. So go ahead and HIT THAT TWEET BUTTON.

A closer look at Apple's Lion UI

2011-02-26T19:15:00.000Z

This week I had my first glance the new OS from Apple (Lion? seriously? how long will the cat names last?).

At first I was happy that the GUI has had an update. The last few iterations of the OS have not really moved the visual layer of OS X on in any significant way, so it's good to see it finally shift. But is it a shift in the right direction?

Initially I noticed how icon driven the new is. Both large glossy icons on the desktop/home screen and within the Finder functions. Having recently come out the other side of a big old icon design project I can tell you that the Finder icons are head and shoulders above anything that has been deployed in the Mac environment to date.

The software design lead is now clearly from the mobile team. Bringing the same folder metaphors from the iPhone to desk/lap top devices.

So far, so good.

The next aspect of the visual design that I noticed was less pleasing. Apple has never been shy of a texture (brush metal, white gloss, aqua) and it's fair to say they are common in web design right now (hey check my background texture). In fact you could argue that the wide spread use of textures has been lead by Apple's design work. But I'm starting to see it slapped on way too much of the interface. Take this straightforward folder image.

Across the board Apple has exercised restrained design ethics and sense of cool reserve. So when flourishes creep in it can be somewhat jarring. The cheesy red bookmark in the address book as an example.

Overall it's good to see the visual design moving forward, but ultimately it has a long way to go before it can be considered on a par with it's hardware design.

Let's hope the new iTunes has been given some attention too.

There are more screengrabs over at Macstories , also on Usability Post and of course on the Apple site itself.

Aston Martin ditches in-house for agency

2011-02-25T12:34:00.000Z

When I first saw this article in Campaign I thought "ooh that's a juicy account, really nice brand to work on, I wonder who will grab it", then when I got to the third paragraph I realised Aston Martin is going out to pitch instead of continuing with their in-house team.

I have to admit I can't recall any recent Aston Martin ads and their website is looking ropey, but I'm still sad to see a brand moving against the trend for in-house :(

Foursquare - a hat tip

2011-02-24T09:42:00.000Z

I have to hand it to the design team at Foursquare, they have really done some amazing work over the past year. In the time since I first started using the service until now they have been quietly, but rapidly adding layers of visual delight to every aspect of the UX.

From the main dot com site, to the mobile app, TShirts, infographics, icon designs and much more. Even the copywriting has subtly been getting better (see below).

Foursquare is clearly not a brand standing still. As well as rolling out to a selection of different langueages they are also engaging brands in the service. Offering special badges and discounts to followers of signed up brands. It's working well enough to get Facebook's attention.

I believe foursquare's design work is handled purely by an in-house team lead by Mari Sheibley. So my hat is tipped to you and your team.

Recent work at MORE TH>N

2011-02-23T10:50:00.002Z

It's hard to describe my role right now. I currently fall somewhere between UX designer, brand designer, campaign manager, social media consultant, art director, mobile advocate and pixel monkey.

Initially I started by tidying up some of the key purchasing pages and now I'm leading full blown redesigns. I get to work closely with a range of talented product managers and everyone is always up for trying something new to improve our customer experience.

So far being in-house has offered me much more diversity than i ever expected and there is tonnes more on the horizon. I'm trying to post more work in progress to Dribbble, but when a project goes live I'll make sure i post here too. Promise.

Raw Magazine - contextual advertising

2011-02-22T18:02:00.003Z

Lovely bit of thinking behind this promotional insert piece. Inserted in a range of weekend newspapers, it's broadsheet newspaper promoting Raw. What could be easier?!

You can imagine that people reading weekend newspapers are doing it in a leisurely manner, taking time to read various supplements, so dropping this in to that context seemlessly moves readers from news to branding. Nicely done.

On being a Creative Lead

2011-02-20T19:38:00.001Z

Creative Director's must share the credit, but shoulder the blame.

When you're a Creative Director the buck stops with you. There are no excuses. You can't hide from any backlash as it's your job to face the full force of the blast. When a piece of creative work is very well received, it's the honourable thing to ensure everyone involved gets credit. But when it goes wrong, you stand alone.

During this year's Super Bowl ad frenzy, Groupon aired their new ad. Unsurprisingly the public were offended by a cheap gag made about Tibet's social plight (you knew?!). Of course the CD was strung up, but did everyone who worked on the ad never stop to think it might blow up in their faces? It takes a lot of people to make an ad and I'm quite sure the script went through a number of reviews before it was signed off.

Sorry the ad is gone, so you'll have to make do with this crappy report from the US

This, it seems, is the lot of a Creative Director. You gamble your reputation with each piece of work. The only exception to this rule is when you become an Executive Creative Director. Then silly matters like campaign backlash are simple beneath you.

My Book Project - Reboot

2011-02-19T10:36:00.000Z

I recently came to a difficult decision on my book project. After more than a year of going back and forth with my publisher I realise two things that made me question the fundamental idea

Book publishing is in a similarly broken state to music publishing. However the music industry is now reforming in new models, where as book publishing has not adapted as quickly. I feel that following the traditional printing/publishing route is no longer the right means to deliver my initial idea.
In trying to make the book more "commercially appealing" I moved it away from it's original concept. I no longer felt excited by the theme of the book and whole exercise became a chore

Having decided not to keep working with a publisher has been a difficult point to reach, but it's made me feel much better about the prospect of writing and I'm starting to get excited about it again. I'm still pulling the book content together and I'm looking at different publishing methods.

Perhaps it can still be printed and self funded through Kickstarter?
Maybe it should be an iPad app, rich with interactivity?
Should it simply be a blog and grow over time?

I don't know yet. But I do know I'm enjoying writing and reading again.

New start

2011-02-16T09:48:00.007Z

If you've been here before you'll see I've had a bit of a tidy up. Having spent a year focusing my efforts on another project, I've come back to this blog with a renewed interest. I've been writing here for a number of years and frankly it got a bit shabby.

I've stripped away a lot of the unnecessary links and chuff on the right hand side. I've also made the page wider and of course given the whole thing a new visual design.

Hope you like it.

2010 - My Year in Review

2010-12-20T09:01:00.000Z

Hello

It's been a while. As you can tell from my previous post I've been elsewhere. All my blogging efforts have been on my book site. But I thought it would be fun to make my annual 'year in review' post here.

This year feels like a lot has changed and time has rushed past. On the work front I've been getting stuck in to my new job. In the relatively short time I've been at MORE TH>N my role has developed in new and exciting ways. I started by working solely with the web team, making small cosmetic changes to morethan.com's transactional pages. Once we saw sales and conversion uplifts from those changes I was given more scope, then more and more. Now my work stack looks like a designer's wishlist. So far I have...

Created a new icon suite
Worked with Michael Johnson on the new brand guidelines
Rebranded and redesigned more4me, our customer site
Created a social media campaign concept for RSA's new brand
Worked with VCCP on the 2011 brand campaign (goes live Jan 1st)
Designed the UX and IA for the new morethan.com site (launching early 2011)

Next year my work is going to take me deep in to...

Leading the visual design for the new morethan.com site
Developing the new 2011 brand campaign
Designing a better UX for mobile users
Implementing our User Testing policy
Tackling the design and IA our morethanbusiness.com

and who knows what else. It's fair to say I've enjoyed going in-house much more than i expected.

Out of my day job I've been trying to push on with my book project. Although I'll admit progress has not been anywhere near as good as I had hoped. In truth I underestimated how slowly the print publishing world moves. My naive notions of having the content of the book wrapped up this year have faded away. Right now I'm questioning my approach and considering options for shoving the whole project back in to motion.

Enough waffle here's the lists...
My best bits from 2010
- work completed at morethan
- meeting a new batch of highly talented designers and writers
- completing the Brighton half marathon and Brooks 10k runs
- running guerilla user testing sessions
- scott pilgrim
- shows, albums, artwork and downloads from Gorillaz
- Inception

Worst bits from 2010
- endless train journeys
- tories in charge
- red bull winning the f1 crown
- illness and injuries

Inspiring things from 2010
- travels through Italy
- Mari Sheibley for Foursquare
- Rasmus Andersson for Spotify
- Pete Usbourne for Skyp e
- Tom Coates at dConstruct
- Rory Sutherland at UX Brighton
- That digital by Old Spice
- BBC GEL Project
- Baked in by Alex Bogusky & John Windsor

There was a lot more that I've either forgotten or decided not to share, but you might agree that it's been busy. For the first time in a few years I'm really looking forward to next year already.

Call for entries / Book Project

2010-07-19T09:19:00.000+01:00

Call for entries, book project.

Ok here we go. As promised - my book project is open for submissions and I want to hear from you. Yes i really mean you. If you've arrived at this blog, you'll have an opinion on how the web has changed the way designers (brand, print, packaging, advertising) operate and create.

The book is tentatively called 'Connected Branding - Designing Brands in the Digital Age'. It's all about interaction, so please jump in with comments and suggestions. All ideas will be considered and the best comments will be printed in the book, along with your name.

I will documenting the entire writing, design and production process on this blog and i'm running a dedicated twitter feed, so you can get updates and send over @replies.

Thanks.

Radio Silence / My Book Project

2010-06-20T19:56:00.002+01:00

Lately this blog has been a little neglected.

Firstly a combination of work getting busier, a trip to Italy and work being done around my house has meant I've been otherwise engaged.

Secondly and more interestingly I have started pouring my writing in to another source. At the end of last year I was presented with an opportunity to work on a design book. After some back and forth with a publisher I've finally kicked the project off. In conjunction with the book I will be documenting the process on a blog. It's not quite ready for the world to see yet, but I will soon be posting the details here.

Once the book is further a long I will come back to this blog, but for now it's going to sleep.

Thanks

Two new editions to my collection

2010-06-13T09:21:00.000+01:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Best job ad ever

2010-05-24T13:35:00.003+01:00

They say 'a certain type of ad attracts a certain type of person'. Well it would seem that London based agency Work Club are looking are looking for a hilariously creative person.

I'm currently going through a round of recruiting and struggling to get our HR team to move away from the standardised job ads. Just imagine the fantastic response you'd get from an ad like this...

________________________________

Master of the WINiverse

Designer/Art Director
1-2 year experience
solid skills in taking care o' business
♥'s interwebs

will get company car*
will be thrown at the deepend
will be great

*this bit is a barefaced lie

http://work-club.com

win@work-club.com

________________________________

genius.

Why Powerpoint is to blame for bad things

2010-05-20T17:23:00.000+01:00

I hate Powerpoint.

No I mean I really HATE Powerpoint.

It's a terrible piece of software that encourages bad presentations. I would go so far as to say it's evil. You want proof of how evil it is? Well you can here it is being used to map out the complexity of American strategy in Afghanistan. Yes I know Powerpoint is not responsible for the gruesome warfare in Afghanistan, but I'm pretty sure it is not helping.

From NY Times

Orange + TMobile = everything everywhere

2010-05-18T13:20:00.003+01:00

For a while we've been hearing about a merger between UK mobile networks Orange and TMobile. Initially there were questions over how they would combine the brands or if the TMobile brand (the smaller of the two) would disappear in to Orange.

It would now seem that an entirely new brand has been created to house the two networks. Everything Everywhere is the new name for the combined venture. The Guardian has a report on the new organisation, however there seems to be very little in the way of an identity yet. So far the above typographic treatment has been circulated, but it's hard to imagine this will remain, even if it is a business to business brand. Apparently ad agencies representing the mobile networks have been involved in the new brand (bloody ad agencies?!) but neither of them have released any work yet.

Anyone know anything more?

AT&T - a moving brand

2010-05-18T08:24:00.000+01:00

It looks like AT&T have taken a leaf out of AOL's branding book. The new work is not a complete overhaul like AOL, but it is a new direction that seems to invite creative interpretation and variation on the shape.

More over at Brand New

How trustworthy is that beard?

2010-05-17T13:14:00.000+01:00

Marlboro & Ferrari - Hidden branding

2010-05-13T08:16:00.000+01:00

In the past the Ferrari F1 team had a big sponsorship deal with Marlboro. However when there was a clamp down on advertising tobacco products the highly lucrative sponsorship deal seemed to be over. This year's Ferrari car replaces the Marlboro marque with supposedly anonymous barcode, the meaning of which was never questioned or explained.

It didn't take too long for people to notice the similarity between the Marlboro logo and the ambigious barcode. Could this be the sneakiest piece of branding ever conceived?

More here.

Coke Chair

2010-05-12T10:21:00.000+01:00

Once again Coke has demonstrated it's ability to put design thinking in to practice for its brand. The 111 Navy chair is made up of 111 recycled Coke bottles. It's been produced by the much lauded furniture design company Emeco. For the launch WK London froze one of the chairs in ice, which makes an interesting hook, but i felt as though it distracted too much from the quality of design and build in the chair itself.

(via Creative Review Blog)

Designer Vacancy

2010-05-11T17:54:00.007+01:00

We've got a new position in my team at MORE TH>N. I'm looking for a midweight designer to work on web, digital ads, social, mobile and email designs.

It's a new, but growing in- house team and the perks are excellent. The salary range is aprox 20-35k. If you're interested or if you know of anyone who is suitable then please take a look at the ad on Wired Sussex.

Ithankyou.

Square Eco Bottle Design

2010-04-26T14:47:00.002+01:00

Here is a packaging design concept by Andrew Kim that is so complete and well though through I find it impossible to believe any argument against it. When design is this well formed it becomes inevitable. If I worked for Coke I would hire this designer straight away and give him all the tools necessary for continuing to do work of this standard.

Plan B, Project 10

2010-04-26T09:20:00.000+01:00

These days I get sent loads of stuff. Goodies just find their way on to my desk. I must confess that a large percentage ends up in the recycling bin. But every now and then something arrives that is so well crafted it earns a place in my sacred Mebox of design.

One such recent addition is Plan B's Project 10 papers. For those who haven't seen Plan-B before, it is the brain child of Mr Steve Price. His work spans web, brand, print and broadcast. Not only is Steve running Plan B, he is also regularly blogging, avidly tweeting, sometimes lecturing and generally being one of the most prolific designers around.

His level of commitment is apparent in the pages in each edition of Project 10. Although i don't agree the paper is a better option to email newsletter, strictly from an environmental perspective, I do see that the depth in each issue is impressive. Interviews, collaborations, explorations and things to make you go "hmmm" or just "shit me that's clever!"

A Social Media Lesson from Bugsy Malone

2010-04-21T17:08:00.001+01:00

We've all heard the social media schtick by now. "social media presents all manner of opportunities for brands" and then on to "it's a tricky balancing act and it's very difficult to get right" - surely you are as sick of hearing this as I am. Blah blah blah we all know the stats about Facebook being bigger than Brazil, so why is it that so many brands are gripped with fear when it comes to social media?

The behavioural patterns displayed in online social networks are really not much different from other real world social gatherings. For example: if you arrived at a party and started giving the other guests your sales pitch or if you continually broadcast reasons why 'you are great' without listening to what people are saying - you would no doubt receive the same backlash as those brands who treat twitter as a broadcast channel.

So when you put it in that context, it's really not hard to form the basis of a social media strategy is it? if you want people to interact favourably towards your brand you need to speak to them, you need to be interesting, engaging, perhaps useful, perhaps funny, but always be sociable. It's a simple principle, it's been around for years and it was beautifully summed by none other than Bugsy Malone:

"you're gonna be remembered for the things that you say and do..."
and further more
"...if you give a little love, then it all comes back to you"

Take it away Bugs...

Stella Artois for Xmas

2010-04-20T09:54:00.001+01:00

Am I missing something here? How come this is running in April? Too clever for me.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

CS5: An evolution of the designer’s toolbox

2010-04-19T10:28:00.000+01:00

CS5: An evolution of the designer’s toolbox: (via idsgn)

UK's (Digital) election campaign

2010-04-14T18:18:00.000+01:00

I've been watching the election campaigns closely so far. Occasionally i slip in to work mode and review the each of the campaigns for their media choices and how willing they are to leverage the power of the web. Clearly Obama proved the webs value in campaigning, but how will the UK's politicians learn from the success in the US?

Looking at the purely at the websites (not the policies) of the three leading parties you can quickly tell how highly the Tories are rating their social media connections. Massive call to actions and a well thought out hierachy. The site creates a strong UX until you reach the policies section and the attention to layout and typographic detail seems to go out the window.

The Labour site is making good use of landing pages (via PPC), as well as embedded media. The social media connections are not as showcased as on the Tory site, instead they are integrated with the rest of the content. Whilst the graphic details are very nicely executed the layout of the lower level pages is often poor (read in to that how you will!).

I'm not quite sure what to say about the Lib Dem's site. There is nothing to inspire or engage. All of the content blurs in to one mass of information. Clearly they have not got a central theme to hang the site around and instead they have simply produced the most inoffensive and forgettable site you could imagine. Piss poor photography and dull ass copy throughout.

All in all it seems our political parties still are showing a lack of bravery in the digital world. As each of the campaigns move on, i will be watching how they use social media to gain votes.

DM from the PM

2010-04-13T13:40:00.000+01:00

Last week i got a letter from Gordon Brown. As soon as i clocked the line 'from the office of Gordon Brown' i felt disappointed. Firstly because the letter looked so shoddy, secondly because personally i'm looking for a leader who knows how to reach the population and isn't going to shit on the environment to win a second term.

On the up side the contents of the dreary looking letter was not as terrible as the presentation. In fact there was some sign of a real person behind the mass produced mailer. But you had to look pretty hard. No personalisation, nothing to connect me with the sender.

Come on Gordon. Surely you can learn from your mate Barack.

Waitrose Weekend Magazine

2010-04-13T08:09:00.001+01:00

Here is a good bit of audience profiling at work. It looks like the brand team at Waitrose have looked at their customers and thought 'hmm most them are Guardian readers'. Then they simply published their own weekend broadsheet. It covers a range of lifestyle topics and leans on the visual style of the Guardian, just enough to make readers feel comfortable. Brilliant.

iCade - the only reason to get an iPad

2010-04-09T14:58:00.003+01:00

Take the most cutting edge piece of technology and turn it in to retro technology. I'm sure the iCade was not what Apple had in mind, but it's still beautiful.
(found via rubbishcorp)

Design Council's Industry Insights 2010

2010-04-09T09:43:00.000+01:00

The Design Council recently released a paper called Industry Insights (via Design Week). There are tonnes of easily digestible facts and figures on design in here and it's well worth picking up a copy if you can.

The amount of coverage given over to in-house design teams was pleasantly surprising. As per my previous musings I've been watching with great interest how the profile of in-house design teams is rising and I'm glad to see the team at The Design Council giving it some attention. I was also quietly please to see the average age of a designer in the UK is 38 - glad to be considered young again.

Moving Brands - Living Identity

2010-04-08T12:36:00.000+01:00

Like many people in the design world I became a big fan of the approach of Moving Brands when they launched their pitch for a brand for london.

More than any other brand agency working in the world right now, these guys have a fantastic approach to creating brands. One which embraces the fluidity and open source nature of the digital world. Their work spans logo design, interactive tables, brand guides, mood films, packaging, mobile and beyond.

Last week they kindly sent me a copy of their Living Identity paper. Part brochure, part AR project. Beautifully designed and crafted, with a completely original twist on the usual agency self promotion fluff. I'll be giving a demo of the paper around my work soon and trying to convert our entire marketing team to the Moving Brands way of thinking.

Grazia's 3D issue (or not)

2010-04-07T08:01:00.001+01:00

My wife is a big fan of Grazia magazine. I have to confess i quite like some of the design work they've done in the past. However when i read that they were realising a 3D Augmented Reality issue, i decided to check it out for myself.

The concept sounds great. Within the magazine's pages are codes printed which 'unlock extra content'. Which is a brilliant fusion of online and offline. However the technology is just not up to scratch. I tried a copy out on a new Macbook Pro and it really struggled. The first let down is that there is no AR, the codes simply trigger a flash toy or video clip. Nothing more.

I applaude Grazia for attempting to bring their printed material forward in a new way, but it felt like a bit let down when i finally unlocked the so called content. Perhaps next time they can experiment with an iPad only issue and design some REAL interactions.

My friends at Moving Brands also had some thoughts on the issue

Skype Crits

2010-04-06T20:46:00.000+01:00

Despite the name Skype Crits is not connected to working for Skype. Instead it's the work of a London based agency called Brave.

The team at Brave are seeking a couple of junior creatives and using Skype to run through applicants. When I first saw this concept I thought it was a decent way of getting through a lot of interviews in a short space of time and I also thought that in order to find really special people you sometimes have to look in a special way. However there is a side of me that feels as though getting a break in the creative industry is hard enough without being made in to a circus act. If agencies like Brave aren't careful they will end up with a 'Big Brother scenario' where applicants severely lacking any social skills will rise out of the masses on pure novelty and not intelligence or insight.

UXPeople London

2010-04-01T08:36:00.001+01:00

Last week a couple of us from the More Th>n web team, took time out of our increasingly busy schedules and went to the inaugural UX People event. I don't usually go for this type of event, but this one seemed a little more accessible than others around UX.

The venue was Kings Place London, which is also home to The Guardian's superplush offices. Right on the waterfront and close to the train station. I can't imagine a better venue. The whole event was organised by new media recruitment specialists Zebra People. Who did a fantastic job of pulling it all together and running things smoothly on the day.

The speakers came from a mix of backgrounds. Some agencies, some consultancies, some freelancers. The combination of presenting styles was a little jarring at times, but it meant there was something in there for everyone.

Throughout the day the organisers used their Twitter feed to gain exposure and feedback from the attendees. I even got in on the twitter action, it was quite addictive.

The afternoon split attendees in to groups for workshops. I went for the 'selling ux' workshop, which was not exactly what i had imagined, but still really great fun and thoroughly useful.

Each of the speaches were photographed (to death) and filmed. You can check out the slides and the vids (i'm told) will follow shortly.