HUGE

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Pixels and Paragraphs.

Let’s be honest: copywriters and designers don’t always see eye to eye.

From a design perspective, anything that adds visual clutter is superfluous. Yet, even the most elegant digital interface is going to leave some users scratching their heads without some instructional text.

It’s crucial that copywriters and designers work together, but different types of projects are going to require one discipline taking the lead over the other. However, many professionals don’t always have the right background and context to know how they can support each other. What’s needed is a mutual understanding of each other’s work and, most importantly, the product goals.  Continue to article.

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When In Doubt, Buy A Book.

I’m often asked about my process in creating taxonomies where no taxonomy has gone before— or they have and no one's talking. All taxonomists have little tricks they use to make the magic happen and this is one of mine: books.  Continue to article.

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Always On: Holiday Retail Best Practices.

Holiday shopping has evolved and brands need to work harder to win the consumer's attention.  Continue to article.

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Beyond Gift Cards: The Future of Passbook .

Apple's Passbook could be fertile soil for the future of the mobile wallet.  Continue to article.

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Evolving Your SEO Toward A Content Marketing Approach.

The search industry is booming. Competition for keywords – organic or paid – has never been higher. All forms of digital content multiply and prosper. Underneath it all, however, tectonic plates are shifting. Slowly but surely, almost everything that used to constitute search engine optimization (SEO) has become ineffective or risky.  Continue to article.

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Mobile Is for Serving Your Users.

Mobile is the hot new shopping device. But, many retailers still think of it as just another communications tool, or an element of a multichannel marketing campaign. Really, it’s where people go to accomplish everyday tasks with more ease and choice. By virtue of living in the pockets and purses of consumers, mobile has become the always-on concierge of the modern day retail environment. The difference between a mobile strategy that sells and one that stumbles is simply how well it serves users.  Continue to article.

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Look Past Your Industry to Innovate Within.

In today's rapidly changing digital landscape, it can be difficult for brands to keep an eye on what industry competitors are doing. Between monitoring competitive search keywords, keeping track of social conversations, and multi-channel marketing messages, marketers risk developing a myopic view of their digital presence.

This can result in a slippery slope towards little differentiation. Take a look at the auto industry. If you look at the home pages for some of the leading auto insurance providers, most tend to follow similar design patterns. Progressive and Farmers take similar approaches to presenting content on their home pages, featuring a spokesperson and savings followed by supporting content underneath. This has the potential to leave users frustrated and brands vulnerable if a competitor successfully meets user needs with a disruptive design approach for the industry.  Continue to article.

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Government SEO Is Broken .

The federal government, under the leadership of President Obama and Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel, has launched a wide-ranging rethinking and consolidation of federal websites, domains, and databases. The goal: to broaden access to government information and services; incorporate mobile access; and reduce waste and overlap in websites and domains. This is a pretty big initiative. One major problem: where's the SEO?  Continue to article.

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Practices Startups Should Borrow from Big Businesses.

The failure of household-name businesses due to a lack of entrepreneurialism tends to spur a lot of talk about what big companies can learn from startups. While there's a lot to be said for shunning silos and management tiers that inhibit innovation, there's also plenty that even the most cutting-edge startup founders can learn from the acumen of old-school Fortune 500 CEOs.  Continue to article.

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Understanding Content Strategy: A Product Worth Paying For.

Why content is like a bottle of ketchup— and how to treat it properly once you've got that down.  Continue to article.

Article.

What the Rise of Depeche Mode Can Teach You About the Rise of Digital Design.

Just as synth pop faced an uphill battle in the 1980s, digital design went through precise phases of neglect, acceptance, and dominance  Continue to article.

Article.

Stop Blabbing About Innovation and Start Actually Doing It.

Companies appear to devote a lot of time to talking about the importance of innovation; but the truth is more complicated than that.  Continue to article.

Article.

Making the Most of Your Company's Software Layer.

The past 15 years have created a business environment that has empowered consumers, commoditized many products and services, and dramatically compressed margins. Not surprisingly, these changes have forced businesses to operate differently. Exactly what kinds of companies have successfully transitioned to the digital age? How have they regained and retained competitive advantage at a time when location is no longer a barrier to transactions, brands alone aren’t a proxy for quality, and pricing is increasingly transparent?  Continue to article.

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Time to Face the Music on Disintermediation .

In spite of all the regulation that helps prop up legacy business models and protect established companies, much of banking is ripe for digital disintermediation— and it's starting to happen already.  Continue to article.

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Users Are the New Growth Engine.

Your customer is no longer king.  Continue to article.

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Your Company is Now in the Software Business .

Like it or not, your company is in the software business. Embrace this new reality and thrive, or ignore it and risk extinction.  Continue to article.

Article.

Listen to the Voice of the Brand.

Good UX designers already know how important it is to evaluate a brand’s call center at the start of every engagement, especially for direct response and e-commerce companies. It’s often the only brand touchpoint where consumers can talk to a live human being. As designers, we identify their pain points, and look for ways to prevent them.  Continue to article.

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Design Focus: If You Build It, They Will Learn to Use it.

Innovative technologies are introduced to us almost daily and the majority of the population is becoming quicker to adapt and adopt. Time to get even more daring.  Continue to article.

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Invest in Mobile Apps for the Right Reasons .

The success of your mobile app depends on why you made it in the first place.  Continue to article.

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The Line Between Process and Creativity .

The clash between creativity and factory-like predictability has long lived in the design industry. How can the two come together to create better work?  Continue to article.

Article.

Billions of Dollars Built On Message Boards?.

How the ugly stepchild of the internet paved the way for the future of digital communities.  Continue to article.