Why interact? Ask me how!

It disturbs me to know there are large corporations with very little respect for their clients. See the below error message:

Erick Schonfeld

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There is nothing that screams “frugal startup” more than cardboard furniture. Aza Raskin, the founder of Songza and Humanized who was recently hired by Mozilla, designed his own system of cardboard building blocks that can be assembled into desks, wall dividers, and cubicles for his own Chicago offices. Today, he is turning the side project into a business and launching it as Bloxes. What are they exactly? He explains:

They are called Bloxes — essentially 3D cardboard legos that ship flat, and fold up in modular building blocks that are strong enough to stand on. While they aren’t tech per se, we use them for building tables, walls, cubicles, and desks. Both Google and Mozilla have expressed interest in using them in their offices. So, this may well be the new thing in terms of agile office-space deployment. Don’t like where a wall is? Just move it! Don’t like the way it looks? Just rebuild it! They are cheaper than cubicles, and much more fun.

It’s interface design applied to cardboard. See more pictures here and below:

Apple unrolled its roadmap for the iPhone this morning, and it charts a route to the heart of the business district, with some side trips to the amusement park. On the business end, Apple answered the needs of corporate IT departments and sent a shiver through BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion by announcing that it had licensed the protocols to let the iPhone connect with Microsoft’s Exchange, allowing for push-mail and coordination of calendars and contacts, as well as the ability for companies to remotely delete data if necessary. The other headline news is the much anticipated release of the software development kit that will let third parties create iPhone applications using the same tools Apple does. Developers will need to submit their creations to Apple for approval (so no porn, malicious software or iPhone jailbreak cracks). The developers can set their own prices (including free) and distribute their apps directly to the iPhone or via the iTunes store. On any application that carries a price, Apple will take a 30 percent cut. And just to prime the pump a bit, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers have set up a $100 million fund exclusively to help finance start-ups in the iPhone application niche. Some sample programs were shown at the press event, including sales tools from Salesforce.com and medical software from Epocrates, but there were also revelations of a more playful side of the iPhone, including Sega’s plans for a version of “Super Monkey Ball” and Electronic Arts’ porting of the as-yet-unreleased “Spore.”

When determining a type of navigation system for a website there are a number of factors to take into consideration (in order of priority):

1. Political interests within the organization
2. Features and functionality approved by client
3. Concept boards already created and viewed by client
4. Personas
5. Other sites with similar content

Starting the process, there are usually only two ways to organize the content:

1. Top down – Broad to specific
2. Bottom up – Specific to broad

Perhaps a card-sorting exercise might be beneficial to determine where users organically associate content. Let’s say there are four buckets for information to live:

• Contact Information
• Main Content
• News
• Help

Let’s breakdown each bucket a bit further:

CONTACT INFORMATION

1. How is the contact information organized?
2. Is there an immediate need by the user?
3. How will users use the content? (bookmark, send to friend)

Can it be organized by:

• Location
• Name
• Specialty
• Department
• Popularity
• Path to end-result

MAIN CONTENT

1. What does the main content consist of? (i.e. information, definitions, promotional text, guides, images, videos, web-based tools, etc)
2. Is the main content temporal-based?
3. How will users use the content? (bookmark, send to friend, fill out form)

Can it be organized by:

• Time
• Popularity
• Topic
• Path to end-result

NEWS

1. What types of news is there? (i.e. news from outside sources, news from within like newsletters, articles, promotional, etc)
2. Can users subscribe to get the latest news?
3. How will users use the content? (bookmark, send to friend, fill out form)

Can it be organized by:

• Time
• Popularity
• Topic
• Importance (promotional needs)
• Type
• Author

HELP

1. What do users need help with?
2. Is there an immediate need?
3. How will users use the content? (bookmark, send to friend, fill out form)

Can it be organized by:

• Popularity
• Time
• Topic
• Path to end-result

Of all the ways to organize the content, the one that is common to all sections is popularity. Of course, this is looking at the content from a very general level. If we prioritize the organization principles based on commonality it would look like this:

1. Popularity
2. Time
3. Topic
4. Path to end-result

Can we use these organizing principles to tackle the content? Could this be a new way of looking at the content other than just the typical Top-down, Bottom-up approaches? Is there a way to get access to the data at this level?

I’m always fascinated by the unending plethora of new services, sites, and software I excavate from the internet on a daily basis. Here are a few good ones:

• For usability tracking: http://crazyegg.com/
• Social Networking Hot Topics: http://sphinn.com/
• Is everybody Green crazy, Oraganic SEO? http://www.organic-seo-blog.com/

Challenge: Seminar participation relied heavily on the dynamic of a group structure. The seminar leader was responsible for 50 group leaders. The seminar body of 300 participants needed to be better supported and managed.

Solution: Researched group dynamics of powerful teams like S.W.A.T teams, football teams, and bombs squads. Developed communication strategy using already established group dynamics and reallocating tasks to the group leaders. Created a new leader body of head coaches to support smaller numbers of group leaders. Established recommended guidelines for managing group meetings and information dissemination.

• View Wireframes (448k pdf)

Challenge: Genworth corporate partners needed a more user-friendly online application for their group sales site to increase. Simplify content for easier consumption, but also provide type “A” personalities with an educational component to satisfy their need for specific details. Make the registration process simple and intuitive.

Solution: Using Flash and DHTML relevant information is associated with the linear process of learning/applying. Integrating a dual pane navigation provides a tutorial-like learning section while also enabling users to be guided confidently through the application process. User persona’s, paper prototypes, and competitive analysis findings continually aided in architecture decisions.

• View Wireframes (615k pdf)

Challenge: Playstation is launching a new features of their network and needed to up-level the Playstation Network content, which is currently buried within the console sections, to create it’s own dedicated section on the same tier as the consoles.

Solution: Pull relevant content from console sections and create promotional elements within those sections to draw attention to the new features of the Playstation Network.

• View Wireframes  (373k pdf)

Challenge: High-end commercial photographer was expanding, looking to land bigger clients and needed to update his static-page portfolio to web 2.0 standards.

Solution: Redesign layout to simplify navigation. Integrate and customize third party flash gallery software.

• View Wireframes (102k pdf)
• View Website (new window)

Challenge: Optimize and redesign e-commerce website to increase conversion rate of visitors to sales.

Solution: Translate business/user needs into simple sales experience. Create user personas to determine site architecture. Develop site map and wireframes, and integrate CMS for easier client updates and future product launches. Organize content development, user-testing of product with video testimonials, competitive product data, and graphics. Assist with marketing strategy.

• View Wireframes (102k pdf)
  
• View Website (new window)