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 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 ... ?
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?
Why Flow, Amazon's Magical Search Tech, Won't Kill Off Retail Yesterday, Amazon quietly updated its official iPhone app with Flow, an augmented-reality search function that allows you to compare prices of items you see in retail shops just by waving your smartphone at them--and then buy those items from Amazon instead. Like the invention of some mad scientist hell bent on conquering the world, Flow feels as magical as it does, well, slightly evil: cannibalizing retail sales from brick-and-mortar stores shouldn't be this easy. But it might be too easy, even for Amazon's sake. Amazon first unveiled Flow as a standalone augmented reality app back in 2011, so it's not new, but this is the first time that the online retailer has opted to make it one of two default search mechanisms of its main mobile app, replacing the Snapshot Search feature that preceded it. Instead of taking a manual snapshot of an item at a store you're interested in, Amazon Flow analyzes everything your iPhone camera can see in real time.
John Devolle / Clear as Mud Illustration regular Illustration for Frank Strack's 'Rules' column in Cyclist magazine. This one's about the art of designing your team kit.Illustration2015 Cover illustration for Professional Engineering Magazine, exploring the pros and cons of fracking.Illustration2015 I realised the other day that I have been skateboarding for 26 years!Illustration2015 a little news illustration for Waitrose magazine about a new service buy 'Bistro @ the station'. You can text your food order whilst on the train so it is ready for you when you arrive at the station.Illustration2015 Large Male Chicken, or Moody Rooster? Notice the deliberately crude printing, no trapping, misalignment etc. personal project, 'Sometimes its good to Lie'Illustration2011