I have a visceral reaction to the use of "click here" in interface design. I feel like a rubber band should be snapped on the wrist of the content author every time it happens. I've never seen a great reference that sums up why it's a bad idea and what the better alternatives are.
Read MoreThis is an old favorite of mine: a slide I put together for a presentation describing the role of the content strategist in major website redesigns. Of course, the sentiment in this slide is true at any stage of a website's lifecycle. Please make sure you're not just churning out sausages that no one wants.
The marketplace is flooded with books and articles that emphasize the importance of personal brand management. Now that the means of mass communication are in everyone’s direct control, we’re all expected to show our skills in action, not simply through a static CV or résumé, but through an ongoing stream of social media and blog posts. Prove that you know what you say you know...continually.
Read MoreThe Internet demands to be fed. Your career likely demands that you feed it. You are what your Internet record says about you which is why we're all personal brand managers now. We have to prove that we're active, that we go to interesting places and do interesting things. We're competing against the next fellow who's aggressively marketing himself. We redouble our efforts to catch up. On one hand, this is a boon to those who are looking to stand out. On the other, it's a new infringement on personal time as we're leashed to a data vortex that demands constant intake.
Read MorePrivate citizens are using the power of their mobile devices to influence the programming decisions made by commercial news and entertainment outlets. They’re using it to record and break the news themselves, augmenting -- or even circumventing -- the established media.
Read MoreYouTube opened a new conduit through which marketers could reach consumers but what they created wasn't just a new video distribution channel like some alternate form of television. They've gone beyond simply offering a different technology for message transmission. YouTube allows marketers to harness the consumer base itself as part of a modern strategy. The once passive receivers of television and radio advertisements have, through YouTube, become part of the salesforce.
Read MoreWe spend a good part of our days filling out screen-based forms. Some forms are easy to fill out because a thoughtful designer has taken best practices into account. Some forms are painful because they create confusion over what's expected. They're ambiguous or they require too much typing. Here's a snippet of wisdom that I wanted to save for later use: ditch the placeholder text.
Read MoreGovernment agencies need to explain and promote the value of their efforts to taxpayers. They’re in a constant fight for government tax dollars as surely as corporations are in competition for consumer dollars. An all-star social media user within the U.S. government is NASA. Let’s take a look at how they use social to their best advantage and contrast their efforts with two of their closest counterparts: the European Space Agency (ESA) and Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX.
Read MoreI created the web animations in this demo reel as an example of what can be done with Adobe Edge Animate. I used the Creative Cloud 2015 version and picked one of my favorite subjects.
In his book The Social Code, author Patrick Hanlon argues that social media communities can be characterized by seven distinct elements: a creation story, a creed, icons, rituals, sacred words or lexicons, non-believers, and a leader. In this post, I'm going to test his thesis by comparing his criteria to a Facebook interest group called “Space Hipsters.”
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