2008
Happy Holidays!
We hope to be the first to wish you the best holidays, and cheers to a Happy New Year!
Nick, Ed, Sonia, and Josh.
Welcome, Blackman Kallick
We are pleased to be working with Larger Pond Marketing to redesign the Blackman Kallick website. Operating since 1962, Blackman Kallick is the ninth largest accounting firm in Chicago. As a single office firm, they offer personalized services to clients based in the Midwest and operate in national and international markets. Welcome!
Welcome, University of Chicago, Open Practice Committee
The University of Chicago has long been at the forefront of research in many disciplines. Working with a talented team at the Department of Visual Arts, the UC Web and IT teams, and our friends at jnl design, we're happy to have launched the Open Practice Committee's new website.
The OPC seeks to explore "the atmospheres and attitudes that make art contemporary." To help fulfill its mission, the site provides event calendaring, video archiving, and blogging on contemporary art events and lectures. The website content is managed with WordPress, using specially-designed templates. The calendaring system is a highly customized implementation of Trumba, a campus-wide sharable calendaring system.
Congratulations to everyone at the Open Practice Committee!
Welcome aboard Clark Street SSA
We are looking forward to redesigning the website for Clark Street Special Services Area (SSA). Established by the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce, the Clark Street SSA serves to finance and manage the revitalization of of the neighborhood in a fair and transparent way for the community. Welcome!
Urban Gateways website redesign launched
We recently launched the redesign of Urban Gateways, Chicago's center for arts education.
The mission of Urban Gateways is to ignite the full creative potential of all young people, and it prides itself on being the largest multidisciplinary arts organization in Chicago. Our redesign goals included highlighting the importance of the children impacted by the program, displaying the diversity of the arts that Urban Gateways employs, as well as showcasing the professional artists themselves.
Working with the talented people at Urban Gateways has been a joy, and we celebrate the launch of their redesigned web site with them! Congratulations.
threewalls website redesign launched
What a pleasure working with the fine folks at threewalls. We've launched their redesigned website (in record time!) this week.
threewalls -- an arts organization dedicated to contemporary art practice and discourse -- brought us in to rethink how their website worked and what kinds of messages it conveyed. We wanted to highlight artists' work, the organization's programs and event calendars, and open a space for blog-style discussions. And of course, implement an easy-to-use content management system that was flexible enough to cover a variety of current content, yet grow with the organization over the years.
We used Movable Type. The site highlights their residency programs, projects, exhibitions and for-sale publications; their blog will cover news, events, and reviews. And I love the home page image switcher, currently highlighting Patrick Lundeen's work.
Congratulations, threewalls!
Study of Exteriors of the Smart Home
The Neoteric team ventured out on a "Design Friday" to visit the Museum of Science and Industry to check out the Smart Home exhibit. The modular house is coined the "greenest home in Chicago" and contains all kinds of unique "green" technology used to help increase energy efficiency and cut down on energy costs. From recycled building materials to innovative heating and cooling techniques, the house provides a plethora of new and useful building techniques.
While many of the green features of the house were interesting, I found myself more impressed by the design of the place itself. The designer - Michelle Kaufmann of MKD - made great use of materials available for green building to come up with a beautiful modular home. While the house was situated rather oddly in the middle of the museum's outdoor compound, one could easily imagine its location being any number of places from an urban setting to the rural countryside. I chose to create a PDF that pulls some excerpts from the exterior of the building and showcase the overall aesthetic of the home.
Ed
Dedicated server power outage.
Update: as of 12:00PM CST, the server has been restored. Thanks for your patience.
Unfortunately, the data center where two of three of our dedicated servers live has experienced a power outage at around 4.15 CDT today. The data center reports that the "entire power grid in that area is down," and that the local Power company does not yet have an ETA for resolution.
The data center has a UPS system and generator for its own power source. However, they write that "the transfer switch that cuts the data center over to the generator power source failed. We have our Electrical contractor on site now trying to resolve the issue. They have not provided an ETA for resolution at this time."
Usually these things resolve within a few hours. Apologies for the disruptions.
Ed attends "Presenting Data and Information," A One-Day Edward Tufte Course
"What's your story? And do they believe?" These are Edward Tufte's two main points of emphasis behind information design and presentation. Whether these questions are asked by a user visiting a Web site or by an audience experiencing a presentation pitch, Tufte helps to explain a number of sound methods that assist in answering these key questions.
Allow the audience to absorb information on their own
Tufte argues that designers and presenters generally don't give enough credit to our audience. We often feel compelled to guide people step-by-step along a path, when designers should allow for people to guide themselves. We shouldn't have to explain the information we display - people are smart enough to figure out for themselves what they're looking at and what it represents.
Tufte states that a designer/presenter can never provide too much information. It is merely a design flaw if that information appears disjointed or verbose. This argument certainly has a solid footing in web design but I found myself questioning how this would apply in regards to site navigation. According to Tufte's approach, secondary navigation should be done away with and all available site links should be present and accessible on the home page. While this approach has worked successfully for some of our previous projects with fairly a straightforward navigation, what happens when the site contains thousands of links such as TVWeek.com?
Design so effectively that it's invisible
"Less optical activity" has become my new catch phrase since attending the Tufte course. All too often when talking about site design I'll hear "we're looking for a 'clean' feel". What does "clean" really mean? I could cite Webster's dictionary here but I'll spare you the cliché. What "clean" represents to me is the idea of "less optical activity" and an aesthetic design approach that allows for the content to provide the core visual approach.
Oftentimes web designers employ graphical treatments that become more significant to site than the content itself - what Tufte would not hesitate to call a grievous error. A great designer and a great Web site should be "endlessly self-effacing". A site (or presentation) should be no less than 90% content and for one to lower this percentage would be a disservice to the end user.
Edward Tufte is a noted American statistician and Professor Emeritus of statistics, information design, interface design and political economy at Yale University. His course "Presenting Data and Information" travels all around the US and is soon making its way overseas. To find out more about the class and his books visit www.edwardtufte.com.
Welcome aboard, Josh!
Josh Davey has accepted a position with Neoteric Design, bringing his skills in web development and content management systems to our team.
In addition to coding, he'll be extending our client training and usability testing services. Josh received his MA in Religious Studies from the Chicago Theological Seminary and his BA in Religious Studies from Anderson University in Indiana. With all that Greek and Hebrew, one might think his coding skills were just divine inspiration! But programming and user-centered design are just some of Josh's many interests, which span from bass and acoustic guitar to literature and game design. Congratulations Josh! Welcome!
Railsconf 2008 keynote: Joel Spolsky on product design
At the RailsConf 2008 kickoff keynote, Joel Spolsky of Fog Creek Software asks: what makes one product massively more successful than another? Why Brad Pitt but not Ian Somerhalder; Herman Miller's Aeron Chair and not the dozen cheap knockoffs; why the Apple iPod and not Microsoft's Zune? Joel suggests -- at least when it comes to product and software design -- that "blue chip" products make people happy, obsess over aesthetics, and observe the culture code.
Make People Happy
In a series of slides that had the crowd howling, Joel walks us through the typical morning of a Windows user trying to upload some digital photos from his new camera to the web. Hilarity ensues: the great majority of Rails developers work on Macs but know well Microsoft alert and warning messages. It starts at the startup cycle, with auto-update screens that run past the 100% mark a half dozen times. ("In order to serve you better, you must now reboot your computer. Now, please.") By the time the camera is hooked up, the morning's fun has become not merely a drag ("Please insert your original Windows CD-ROM. Now, please.") but a real unhappiness. ("DO NOT remove devices from Windows without TELLING US FIRST! EVER!") It's rooted in the lack of agency our morning user has -- there's no control over the process, steps, and cycles on this Windows ride.
Solutions? Put the user in control. Joel contrasts the checkout process at Amazon -- where, at any moment, the user can modify addresses, check shipping rates, change the cart contents as she sees fit -- with the usual step 1 through 4 checkout process that one must walk through without options or variations in the stages. Solution two? Provide timely feedback. Joel contrasts the instant feedback of an Ajaxed shopping cart that tells the user "got it!" from a slow-moving, squishy-buttoned remote control that lacks ambient physical click or key press feedback. Cheap remotes typically have a lagging visual interface that then cause users to over-compensate when channel selecting. Anyone who's moved from the original Tivo to the new HD Tivo has probably experienced this: a real transition and physical retraining is required to adjust to the Tivo's lag and lack of sprightliness.
Obsess over Aesthetics
As a side note, I haven't seen as many iPhones in Chicago's flagship Apple store than I have this weekend. To this crowd of seriously technically advanced developers, Joel points out what we all know -- the phone's very slow EDGE data connections, hard to use keyboard, poor interconnectivity and lack of changeable batteries. And yet, it seems it couldn't be more ubiquitous at this conference. "You get the feeling that, if you swallowed one, it would just go down." Joel claims fashion in part, here, in that the iPhone's design specifically and regularly chooses style and looks over functionality. To add to the pile on: the iPhone's non-standard jack prevents me from using a standard cable to play from it in my car. Reasoning? Apparently the jack had to be recessed past standard headphone jack lengths to retain the clean top line. In the same vein, Joel notes the lack of a changeable battery is probably because to change the battery, we'd need a battery compartment, and such a compartment would imply a visual line along the back of the phone, a latch, and so forth. All that, for what gain? Honestly, the only thing I've seen phone batteries do is part wildly from the phone, cover, and other sundry in a fantastic oh-god-I-broke-my-phone display anytime they get dropped.
Observe the Culture Code.
RailsConf 2008 -- the last place I would have expected a deep dive into French Jungian archetypes and the psychology of action. The Culture Code, by Clotaire Rapaille, attempts an analysis of pre-conscious motivations and influences that is distinctly oh-so-French. Cloatire, apparently, was hired by the auto industry to aid in the marketing and design of the then-fledgling SUV. He tied specific physical attributes to desired emotional responses: being "up high" provides confidence, dominance; being surrounded in soft, plush and heated leather takes us back to the security of the womb; and "lots of hot-drink holders" (oh, this is so French now) pre-consciously remind us of the happiness and security we had, as babies, nursing.
Whatever you make of all that specifically, Coltaire's understanding of emotional desires and needs are still clearly on target. Reflecting on descriptions of the the Rails development community and its unique motivations, we see the roots of culture code (and emotive) terminology: beauty, happiness, motivation, passion, enthusiasm.
Reflections.
Well, my flight has come to an end; I think I'll write up my reflections in a separate post.
(Nick)
RailsConf, Ho!
Once a year, the brightest stars of the Ruby on Rails world convene to talk, brainstorm, code, teach and learn. This year's schedule offers more technical sessions then ever before. I'm looking forward to four days of design, tips, coding, and testing techniques. I hope to post updates here, so stay tuned for highlights. Thanks!
We're hiring: Web Developer
Update: This position has been filled. Thanks.
You'll be working in a fast-moving, three-person design shop in the heart of Chicago's design district, River North. Expect to handle multiple projects throughout the day, and interact directly with designers and clients. We use an agile, iterative style of design and development; expect rapid revisions and design and implementation rounds.
Requirements
- Expert knowledge in xHTML/CSS. You'll be working with layered Photoshop mockups; all markup is hand-crafted.
- This position is not primarily a design position; however, you should be able to manage CSS design iterations.
- Working understanding of hosting environments, SQL, MySQL database management. We are a Unix shop; Microsoft skills noted but not required. PHP skills required; JavaScript desired; Rails a plus.
- Experience with CMS systems: WordPress, or eZ Publish; Movable Type especially. You should be comfortable with MT's tag-based template language and archive build outs.
We're primarily a Macintosh shop; you should be comfortable on either platform. You must provide three examples of your own development work, two references, pay history, and a link to your portfolio site. Interested? Email us at jobs@neotericdesign.com.
Note this position is on location only: contractors, recruiters, hold your fire.
Neoteric Design attacked by spam through forged headers.
We are currently experiencing an attack in which an email spammer is sending out spam through a forged header that points to "info@" our domain name. We see about 10-15 bounced emails a minute, which means quite a lot of quantity is being sent. If you've received a spammy email from info@ our domain name, it's not from us.
I'll be monitoring the situation, and eventually write up my experiences with this latest form of identity theft.
Avoid Marketing Mishaps!
Presented by DePaul's Coleman Entrepreneurship Center and the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce, the panel "Marketing Mishaps: The Most Common Mistakes to Avoid" will be kicking off this Thursday. Drop by to learn about the worst mistakes I've ever made... as well as the mistakes I've watched clients make, over and over. My fellow panelists bring expert marketing, messaging, and entrepreneurial experience to the table as well.
New year, new home! We've moved offices.
4 years seem to have rushed on by down in suite 316 at 400 N Wells St. A fine office: we grew from two to four there. And while we still love the neighborhood--restaurants, business services, picnic sites along the river abound--we outgrew the space.
And as many of our current clients know, it was a little noisy at 316, what with the train right outside the window. We used to joke that if things got bad, we'd drop a ladder over to the platform and charge just $1 a ride.
Fortunately that never happened. Our new office is roomier, brighter, and directly above where we used to be! And while we still hear our beloved train, it's not quite so overpowering anymore. Give us a call and come visit sometime! Our new address is:
Neoteric Design Inc.
400 N. Wells St. Suite 416
Chicago, IL 60610
