Stop us if you’ve heard this before — an investment in a well-designed website is money well spent.
We know, we know. We do web design. So, of course, it’s in our self-interest to say this to our clients. But, what if we told you that a website we designed five years ago just received an industry top honor for best in website design?
Yes, really ...
#CollisionConf, @CollisionHQ
The fifth annual Collision conference was held April 30 - May 3, in New Orleans, LA., The event is one of the fastest growing tech conferences in North America, including more than 25,000 attendees and 500 global media. I was in attendance this year and I thought I’d share my trip report for those of you who are curious about the event and were not able to attend.
About The ConferenceCollision is an interesting conference and the word “Collision” is an apt description of the structure of the show. Disparate industries, innovators, and investors all bouncing off one another for four days. If they had named the conference “Chaos”, I doubt any first-time attendees would argue. “Collision”, of course, sounds more disruptive and impactful.
There are numerous open-air stages around the perimeter of the trade show floor. Multiple concurrent tracks with back to back presentations on each stage (see adjacent illustration for a complete list of tracks). Ironically, all the sessions seem to have staggered starts and variable durations which makes it a little tricky to plan your itinerary. If you attempt to jump tracks, you find yourself zig-zagging back and forth across the exhibit floor often arriving mid-session to join a standing-room-only crowd.
Startup VillagesThe majority of exhibitors are early-stage startups, lined-up cheek-to-jowl, row upon row all hoping to meet investors and strategic partners, of which there were many many walking the aisles.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking at Craft Content Nashville 2018. The talk I presented was an update and elaboration an article I posted in 2015, "Nurturing the Freelance Ecosystem". This new presentation touches on the mega-trend of the Gig Economy and shares some interesting statistics.
Watch the video and access the slides...
Before tablets were commonplace there was the original iPad. Before there were smartphones in the hands of hundreds of millions of men, women, and children around the globe, there was the iPhone. Remember the comments? "A glass phone? Are you kidding?"
Both the iPhone and iPad were game changers, quickly mimicked by their competition. But long before either of these products saw the light of day, there a was a vision. And that vision was given form through a vision-video...
When it comes to web and mobile application development, it seems to me that many entrepreneurs and product teams are often too anxious to develop (coding implied) a proof of concept (POC) and much less interested in understanding the problem space or seeking user validation of a product’s viability.
Jumping into a coded solution prematurely is not only expensive but far less flexible and for these reasons, less likely to be considered disposable.
Disposable is a key tenet of rapid prototyping. The other tenets are Fast, Efficient and Enough...
In this article, I briefly share my experience and philosophy about supporting freelance communities and some practical advice for nurturing their ecosystems.
I am no stranger to either freelancing or hiring freelancers. In fact, throughout my career, the companies I have founded and the projects I have managed have largely been staffed by freelance contractors. Recently, I calculated their number to be in excess of 1250 individuals.
Freelance is not for everyone, but for those who can make it work...
When I say, "Presentation matters", you might scoff, believing this to be so obvious, it doesn't bear mentioning. But, in fact, it does.
As design professionals we grow accustomed to developing ideas and reviewing work in progress. We “see” the comp or the rough idea in our mind’s eye for the finished work it will become. And at times we mistakenly project our comfort level onto others, assuming they can also see through the reality of work in progress to envision the finished product as we “see” it.
The truth is, no matter how carefully you position the work as “not finished”, “in-progress”, etc., people form opinions based on what you show them; not what you tell them it will be...
