Fan of Chatroulette? Me neither but many excitable teenage boys enjoy nothing more than the thrill of searching through the hordes of other young men, to find an elusive pair of women’s breasts.
The viral campaign for “The Last Exorcism” takes advantage of these helpless souls. Enticing them in with the prospect of a young lady undressing and then scaring the living hell out of them, as she transforms into a demon possessed by the devil.
With already over 200,000 YouTube views, The Last Exorcism is receiving global recognition on a shoestring media budget.
There is seemingly a “technological revolution” released every second day in the digital industry, however every now and again something pops up which really makes people take note.
With the release of Facebook Places last night, it seems we are really entering the next phase of social media, a more diverse level of real-world interaction, as well as a completely new level of targeted marketing.
Places takes the existing concept of applications such as FourSquare and takes it to where people already are, Facebook.
While primarily aimed at iPhone users for now (Android and Blackberry versions are planned), Places introduces location-based services to the world’s most popular social network.
Places enables users to share their current location with friends, find out where their friends are, and discover new places of interest. Users can also add their own places of interest to the platform, whether it be a business or a residential address.
With the current “keep up or fall behind” state of digital design it is more important than ever to be seen as a leader in the industry.
There is so much amazing technology at our disposal that what seemed impossible 12 months ago is now totally achievable with a touch of creative thinking.
We have to strive to continue pushing the possibilities of what current technologies can achieve. It is about taking the standard information available to us and using it, or presenting it in a new manner.
While Facebook Open Graph Plugins are relatively new to the scene, there has already been some really top examples of putting them to use in a manner that benefits the user (as opposed to using them for the sake of using them).
I love digital. Its what makes me tick. The ability to extend a brand online through interaction and engaging content. The ability to touch your audience in ways which were unthought of just 10 years ago.
And lets face it it is still the early years for digital. We are still stumbling around in the dark making sense of technology and behaviours that are entirely new to us complex and unique bipeds.
However, there is one thing that humans have being doing for a long long time… and that is story telling. We love a good yarn, be it to pass down life’s learnings to our offspring or to just entertain. So to celebrate here are some brands that ‘do story telling’ really very well.
No matter what company you work for, there is no doubt that they’re not the favourite part of anyone’s job. In fact, it’s safe to say in most cases; they’re considered a hassle – and can even be seen by some individuals as a lack of trust within their role.
But once you look past a timesheet being a way for Management to ‘keep tabs’ on staff, you start to appreciate their true value.
If you are a company who estimates work based on hourly/day rates, then timesheets quickly become the most valuable tool you have; both from your own perspective and your clients.
Timesheets:
Allow you to see how many hours were spent on a particular project and evaluate it based on this measure. Has it been profitable? If no, where was the time burned? What can be done to mitigate this going forward?
Allow you to quickly produce accurate project KPIs, based on actual time logged.
Help you to validate contingency hours to clients, by providing an accurate breakdown of time spent on the project.
Allow you to monitor company billability across projects, departments and individuals.
Allow you to evaluate where time is being un-necessarily burned on a company and personal level. Would there be value in outsourcing certain tasks?
Help you to manage planning more efficiently; knowing that the time booked in for one person is achievable within the timeframe based on previous experience.
Evaluate current staffing levels, based on the level of hours being logged.
Ensure that new work is being quoted realistically, based on previous developments.
We have already established communication, problem solving, understanding code, attention to detail, time management and human behaviours as core attributes of a designer (see Part 1 and Part 2) and in this article we continue to delve into what makes a successful designer.
Look at websites and analyse WHY the designer has utilised certain elements
It is one thing to look at a design and like it, however it is only when you make the effort to understand the reasons why you like it, that you can actually learn from the design.
When analysing a successful, or just as importantly, an unsuccessful design, it is important to consider why the designer has placed particular elements in certain positions, what they are aiming to achieve through their design, and what message they are trying to get across to the viewer. It is often an interesting exercise to consider how the message of the design could be totally changed by altering a particular aspect of the design.
Another point to consider is that you should always look at other designs subjectively. Whether you like the design or not is almost irrelevant. The more important question is whether or not the design is successful in meeting its objectives by effectively communicating to the target audience. As an aside, an unsuccessful design is not always a reflection of the designer’s ability but is quite often a product of the restrictions, or requirements imposed by the client.
Make the user happy
Some of the most successful web and mobile designs in the past twelve months can credit their success not to their innovative services or offerings, but simply to their execution. As designers we should aim to be making the users’ experience as simple and as enjoyable as possible, regardless of how menial or basic the task may seem to be.
As designers, we should always strive to deliver an “experience”. Users want to be able to connect to the designs in their day-to-day lives, and we should respond to this by offering design in which they not only feel comfortable using, but also actually enjoy using. We should appeal to people’s emotions. Make them smile, make them laugh, make them happy but most importantly make them forget that they are actually having to complete the task at hand. A user may not always recognise a “good” user experience, however you can guarantee that they will notice, and be turned off, by a bad user experience.
In the previous article, I highlighted communication and problem solving as some key attributes a designer should be constantly striving to improve. In this continuation I will continue to explore the often overlooked skills which form the foundations for a solid and successful designer.
Understand what is, and what isn’t, possible
Developing a close working relationship with a developer (yes, I know how hard that can be!) is one of the most beneficial strengths a designer can have. I disagree with the statement that all web designers should be able to code, but I do agree with the sentiment behind it. It is not necessarily the code we have to understand; it is the capabilities and limitations of code that we must be aware of.
Not everyone needs to know how to code, but it is important to understand how code works and understand if what you are asking the developer to achieve is actually possible. Asking a developer to do a fully animated website in HTML and CSSis comparable to a client asking you to design and build their website using only paper and crayons.
It is important for anybody designing for the web, to read and learn as much as possible about the restrictions that are in place. It is imperative to bear this in mind right from the outset of a design. Yes, you might have seen examples of this JQuery technique and that JQuery technique, but you need to understand why applying 87 JQuery animations on one page is not a good idea.
If you don’t have a developer who you can bug with your questions, search the web, join discussion forums and read tutorials to discover what is possible. Then it is up to you to take that technique and make it work in the best manner to solve your problem.
A great example of social media and how it can bring people together.
Orange have teamed up with Poke London, to try and set a Guinness World Record for the most tagged photo ever on Facebook with GlastoTag. The site features a massive photo of this year’s crowd at Glastonbury, shot from The Pyramid Stage during half time of the World Cup match between England and Slovenia. People who were there can connect to the photo through Facebook, zoom in and tag themselves and their friends in the 70,000 crowd.
You can even filter the tags to show just your tagged Facebook friends and feel a sense of pride that you were all involved in the event. You might even see friends that you didn’t know were there.
How was it done? The 1,300-megapixel panoramic image was taken in just under a minute using a whopping two Hasselblad H4D-50 cameras mounted one on top of the other and rotated at 10 degree increments, going back 350 metres – to take in the whole crowd. The 36 images were then stitched together – making a pixel perfect memory of Glastonbury.
There are currently 4,200 tags on the photo and over 4,870 Facebook ‘likes’ for the page. With over 180,000 people at Glastonbury, and an estimated 70,000 people in this image, this can only keep increasing, making a huge impact across people’s home pages and conversations of memories on Facebook… as well as creating an association of the event with Orange.
After attending The Future of Web Design conference in London recently I can safely say it is a pretty exciting time to be involved in the digital industry.
As was to be expected there was a lot of discussion about the capabilities (and limitations imposed by particular browser/s) of HTML5 and CSS3. Admittedly, it is very exciting to be able to utilise these tools when designing for the web, however a few of the speakers touched on some points which I think are of much greater importance when it comes to the real future of web design.
Paul Boag mentioned that we should forget about the new technologies for the time being and focus on improving our Marketing, Copywriting, Contextual Understanding, Strategy, and Psychology skills. This is very much in line with what I believe makes a good designer, so I thought I would use this as a basis for what I, personally, would like to see for the future of web designers.
Over the coming weeks I am going to discuss in detail the often overlooked attributes which I feel make a successful designer in the creative industry.
What I hope to achieve is an increased awareness of the design industry outside the specific “digital space” and a more considered approach to the use of the new technologies which are available to us. Ultimately I would like us all (as creatives) to work towards avoiding an era of over-used CSS3 effects and being faced with a repeat of the original Photoshop filter overload.
So, while it is easy to get excited and spend all of our time learning the new technologies, I urge you to hold back and concentrate on improving your foundations skills before anything else, and only utilise the new technologies when the right project comes along.
Last Friday, I, along with several other Kent agency representatives, went to a Creative Strategy meeting organised by MediaTree and The Kent County Council. The objective: How best to strengthen Kent’s creative proposition in the short, mid and long term.
It was a good session that dealt with the issues of being ‘outside of London’, the diverse cultural variations of a large county, defining what makes working in Kent attractive (and what doesn’t), adopting European mindsets – where the focus of an industry isn’t so centered around a single locale, getting creative at a grass routes level, Kent’s Brand (or lack of), identifying and retaining the talent and support from our local government to grow what is an already important industry to the county and country.
After years of working in London, as well as all over the world for top tier agencies, I walked away with even more conviction of what I already believe to be true – knowing that creative Kent has a growing and relatively untapped creative potential. And, as potential is core to success, that this should be explored via inter-agency thinking with council support to help activate and encourage ideas. That there are companies in Kent that are making a difference to our industry, that push boundaries without the blinkered and repetitive approach of many London based agencies. That here is a place that allows exploration of idea and space to grow. An alternative, and a good one at that.
That people who fail to understand what Kent has to offer, that beat the London drum far too loudly, are in fact intimidated by the challenge. Who wish to be just another number, rather than a valued player. Someone who hides behind others decisions and doesn’t really want to think for themselves. There is ample opportunity to work for the ‘Big Brands’ in Kent… and to ‘own the project’ with it. They just have to open their eyes.
I look forward to continuing these conversations with MediaTree, the KCC and likeminded agencies. Expect more. The Future is Digital Kent…
