marginally subversive

"just build me a website!"

via www.usability.gov

i am a proponent of structured thinking and strategic planning. even quick-decision-making scenarios (QDMSs) arising from, say competitive moves or supply problems or below-expectations results, should be - in my opinion - well thought-out.

my mantra: always go back to the strategy which lays down the raison d'etre of the campaign in the first place.

so it follows that when someone tells me "just build a website!", i cringe.

building a website - particularly for big brands and brands that wish to compete for audiences' attention in a highly fragmented, attention-contested medium like that internet - is a major undertaking.

TV ads follow a certain process - so do print ads. but i believe that the process of building a website is far more complex.

when one builds a website, one does not simply build for one's self: the website's users' satisfaction is what's key.

usability and usefulness. relevance and timeliness. loyalty and repeat-visits.

these are just some of the variables that are in play.

and websites - like TV or print ads - need to be responsive to changes in consumers' mindsets. but the expectations of audiences from websites are far greater: you need to change quickly, lest you lose them.

why? because they are in control.

i found this map from Usability.Gov that talks about building a usable, useful, and relevant site.

it looks complicated - because it is complicated.

(visualizers will probably cringe at the site of this flowchart - but it is the reality. there is a better way of visualizing this, I am sure, but for now, just bear with the visual.)

so what do you do?

1. Plan.
2. Analyze.
3. Design.
4. Test.
5. Refine
6. Repeat.

(I added the last one.)

and no, this can't be done overnight.

Data visualization and the Burger Wars in the US

In a follow up to his McDonald's map, Stephen Von Worley of Weather Sealed maps the dominating burger chains across the United States. McDonald's obviously has a stronghold in a lot of areas but not all of them. Most noticeable is Sonic Drive-in with over 900 restaurants in Texas alone. Personally, I'm rooting for Carl's Jr. and In-n-Out.

[via We Love Datavis]

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via flowingdata.com

I would like to be a more visual communicator. I believe that that is something I need to work on. I sometimes become very reliant on numbers and words to say what I want to say - too reliant.

So I'd like to develop this as my next step: Be able to tell a thousand stories using a great visualization.

Posted via web from experimentalist

smashing wallpapers for february 2009

I discovered SMASHING MAGAZINE last month and downloaded one of their user-collated calendar designs for January 2009.  I came back for February - and got more designs and more selections!  I am awed.  And guess what, the submissions are still open.

Here's a sampling of the designs I liked in their latest issue:

I particularly liked this one because it's Chinese-inspired. Very clean - and serene even. This is something that's probably going to get into my Mac background.

Somebody told me that red is my lucky color. I am not sure if I agree - but it does look good on this. And oh, if you're romantic, I guess you'd realize that February is the month of, hmmm, Valentine's Day...

The above made me smile. And it is true - no, I don't use Comic Sans when I am alone: I use it when I want to annoy people with my long, serious emails written in 12pt Comic Sans! (And no, no one has yet annoyed me that much to get a Comic Sans fonted email from me... YET - indeed - is the operative word.)

This one also made me smile: It took the "month of hearts" literally. And it succeeded. Hey - indeed it is the month of hearts! And hearts are not as 'sexy' and 'romantic' as you think it to be if you're a cardiologist - or a former pre-med student.

This one, however, takes the "simple, clean, won't-get-tired-looking-at-it-for-a-month" prize for me. And this one goes into my Mac.

All I can say is: "To SMASHING MAGAZINE, great stuff! To the contributors, great, great work!"