David Plunkert 7 | Think Of Your Life As A Game. This Strategy Guide Tells You How To Win It At times, maybe in our darker moments, some of us have probably entertained the thought that our earthly existence is just a game. And others among us may have "gamified" certain parts of our life--fitness, let's say. But what if you actually did view your whole life as a game--a video game--and used gaming strategy to make every decision? Oliver Emberton is the founder of Silktide, a company whose software improves website functionality and efficiency. Now the blogger and programmer has turned life coach, and his goal is to improve the functionality and efficiency of your daily existence. He's done so with a "Strategy Guide to Life": a faux RPG instruction sheet on how to navigate the real world. "In a way I'm writing for myself 10 years ago," Emberton tells us. At first read, the advice is all very obvious. The strategy guide includes insight on getting stuff done: "Your willpower level is especially important. Emberton says the Sims was a major inspiration for the strategy guide.
First Time User Experiences 200 Portfolio Sites for Web Design Inspiration Designers and developers are growing in numbers and plenty of these folks have outstanding portfolios. The common advantage of the Internet is that anybody from anywhere in the world can check out your projects during any time of the day! If you wish to land more freelance work then I would recommend taking a peek at your current portfolio to see if anything could be updated. And to help with building ideas for your own website, I have collected 200 various portfolios of graphics designers, developers, writers, and other digital creatives. If you like this post you might also like our post 35 mobile responsive portfolio layouts Mathew Helme Mat has one of the nicest portfolio sites I’ve seen. Aaron C-T Clean and lightweight is a great way to get started. Becky Murphy Becky is a writer and illustrator who has created some great pieces and her own book. Nidhi Chanani One of my favorite illustrators is Nidhi because of her style and context. Vitor Kirk Wallace Mary Fran Wiley Lilondra Ospina D.
María Hergueta Frog Chief Creative Officer Leaves To Start His Own UX Company After 19 years at Frog--eight of which he was the chief creative officer-- Mark Rolston has left the illustrious design firm to start a new, self-funded firm of his own called argodesign. The new company will focus on groundbreaking UX. “I want to offer perspective on design that’s not all about the visible artifact,” Rolston tells Co.Design. “It’s moving into behavior, the interaction between a human and a machine when the machine isn’t immediately evident, but is instead more of an entity like HAL. Rolston notably transitioned Frog from a pure industrial design firm to one that could also specialize in software--his work designing the beloved Windows XP and Media Center experience may be his most recognizable, and along the way he designed early touch-screen interfaces for Microsoft and Citibank, while standardizing GE's global UX. Argodesign will, at its most basic layer, be a design consultancy. The difference with argodesign? See more here.
FREE onboarding course for online products Good question. And truthfully ... talking about "concierge" onboarding is kind of weird. For the last 60 years technology companies sold products by implementing solutions through dedicated sales and support teams. (Picture a small army of IBM employees dressed like Dilbert...) Nobody talked about "concierge" onboarding because all B2B selling was done in a partnership with customers. In the last 10 years that has started to change as online products began winning the market. "Growth hacking", analytics, conversions, funnel, and UI have suddenly become the rage. As you've no doubt discovered ... your product won't sell itself. (a little louder now ... in case you're skimming this) In the real world, customers don't know what they want. These barriers have little to do with your product - and yet you're losing customers because of them. It's actually easier to overcome them by getting your (qualified) trial customers on a phone call. But ... but ... how do you ... ?
Experimental Typography Grundini Peter Grundy and Tilly Northedge met at the Royal College of Art in the late 70s where they became interested in a visual communication that explained rather than sold things. In 1980 they started a studio to do information design in a new and creative way which they called Grundy & Northedge Hugh Aldersey-Williams writing in Graphis in 1995 said of them; The humble basic communication of information has never had the glamour of other areas of design. The creation of a poster casts the designer as an artist. Peter Grundy and Tilly Northedge worked together for twenty-five years.
Move Over Product Design, UX Is The Future For decades, the most successful businesses thrived on product innovation as the natural strategy to increase revenues, market share, and loyalty. Fast forward to 2014: today’s product innovations, and the growth they create, are often incremental, narrow, and fleeting. Take TVs or PCs--every competitor quickly matches the latest features, speed, brightness. Enter: the experience. Today’s enlightened leaders are achieving success by crafting the entire customer experience--shaping, innovating, branding, and measuring it. We believe that experience innovation will be a crucial component for companies seeking to remain relevant and retain customer loyalty in 2014. Look beyond the product Experience innovation isn’t driven by specific product features or design, but by reimagining the broader experience of how customers might use the product or service. Take Uber, the car service. Be customer focused, but not customer led That’s fairly obvious. Build long-term vision Engage all of the senses
Mission Control - Always With Honor Always With Honor is the collective work of Tyler & Elsa Lang. Their mission is to create work that reflects their curiosity and pursuit of clarity. Client List Audubon Boke Bowl Bon Appetit Businessweek Cascadia Ciderworkers United Chronicle Books Esquire Facebook Fortune GOOD GQ Harper Collins Kiplinger Metropolis Microsoft Money Monocle MTV New York Times Nike Ogilvy & Mather Path Real Simple TED The Atlantic The Manual Threadless Toyota UBS VSA Wired Xbox AWH Press Room A roundup of frequently asked questions. What is your logo? Our logo is the planet Jupiter, with its all seeing, all knowing eye watching over us. Where did you go to school, how did you meet and what did you do before AWH? We met in college at Ringling College of Art & Design. How did you get into the field of information/icon design? We both love icon design and illustration so we would incorporate them into our work as much as possible. What is your process, do you always work together or individually? Pie or cake?