Webdesigninformer.com

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Microsoft Calling. Anyone There? : Ashlee Vance, reporting for The New York Times: Stylish designs, an emphasis on flashy social-networking features and an all-out marketing blitz were meant to prove that Microsoft could build the right product at the right time for the finickiest customers — gossiping youngsters with gadget skills. But last week, less than two months after the Kins arrived in stores, Microsoft said it would kill the products. Explicitly marketing something as “hip” to the hipster crowd rarely works, even less so coming from a company with a string of failures in that area (Xbox being the one exception). But it’s more than just marketing. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Android and the 22 Immutable Laws : Scott Sykora: When people talk about Andoid’s fragmentation problem they’re usually thinking of issues developers face. The much bigger issue is Android’s and its many sub-brand’s marketing fragmentation. Most people don’t read gadget blogs and don’t care about clock speeds. They want a simple choice of Coke vs Pepsi when they’re thinking about a new phone. Android vs iPhone is not Coke vs Pepsi… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Why I Dislike “Freelance” : Brian Hoff: Make no mistake about it; running an independent business, no matter what field you are in, is extremely time consuming, exhausting and requires a lot of motivation and dedication. It’s not for everyone…. If you are an in-house designer, responding to emails, answering phone calls, and marketing, among other things, are payable because you are on the clock. You get paid for the time you are under the roof of your office. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

What You Can Learn From Panic’s Approach to Email Marketing : One more link from Campaign Monitor. Several design and markup examples included. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

The concept of ‘Pull Marketing’ is all the rage at the moment. In the age of the Mad Men, selling a new product was easy. You’d be handed a commodity product like toothpaste or washing powder and set about building a brand to set it apart from the competition. You would then buy advertising space on a small number of influential marketing channels and wait for the sales to roll in. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

After trying to convince us that we’re funding terrorism , equating us to petty thieves and calling us cheapskates , the UK film and TV industry have decided to take a more positive response . I’m surprised it’s taken them so long to realise people see the weakness in their arguments and that their actions may actually be having the reverse affect . While the UK film and TV industry tries to convince us that every download equates to a lost sale, simple logic shows this not to be the case. People who download music and movies still buy CDs, they still rent DVD s and they still go to the cinema. Sometimes even more so. Downloading is just another content channel and one that is used for sampling new artists or consuming media that we probably wouldn’t have paid for anyway… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

If there’s one thing I enjoy most about running Authentic Jobs , it’s hearing positive feedback from customers. Not every employer finds the right candidate, mind you — that’s why the money-back guarantee in place. But many do. Here are a few recent testimonials. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

A few weeks ago I received the following remarks from Jeff Lin, an Authentic Jobs customer and founder of Bust Out Solutions : Just wanted to let you know that I posted a job probably two years ago for a designer, got several responses, and ultimately found one guy who I tried to hire. It didn’t work out at the time, but we kept in touch, and I finally hired him a few months ago. It’s worked out great, and we recently launched Best Buy Idea X . I’m happy with the design, and in part thanks to Authentic Jobs for helping me find great talent! Employers continue to find talented web and creative professionals through Authentic Jobs , which has been filling full-time and freelance positions throughout the globe since 2005. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

Today, Opera launched it’s jewel in the Opera 10 crown: Unite . Around 3 years in the making, this service and it’s API s allow you to easily share content from your computer to the world at large or just a select group of friends. It’s an ad-hoc personal webserver where you just choose a service (Photos, Media, Files. etc) and tell it where that content is – Unite does the rest. Lawrence Eng’s post on labs.opera.com does a great job of explaining Unite further. I was a little nervous that the marketing talk (“Reinvent the web”, “servers belonging to strangers”) would distract from what is a great fun service and idea. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

Today, Opera launched it’s jewel in the Opera 10 crown: Unite . Around 3 years in the making, this service and it’s API s allow you to easily share content from your computer to the world at large or just a select group of friends. It’s an ad-hoc personal webserver where you just choose a service (Photos, Media, Files. etc) and tell it where that content is – Unite does the rest. Lawrence Eng’s post on labs.opera.com does a great job of explaining Unite further. I was a little nervous that the marketing talk (“Reinvent the web”, “servers belonging to strangers”) would distract from what is a great fun service and idea. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

If you’ve not yet signed up for next month’s HOW Design Conference in Austin, Texas, now is the time to do so. The conference organizers have been gracious enough to allow me to publicly post the handout that will be provided in my session, “Good vs. Great Design”. This 10-page summary of my presentation is something I’ve been hoping to compile for quite some time now, and HOW has finally provided the impetus for making it happen. Download good-vs-great.pdf (PDF, 588 KB) Highlights from other sessions and speakers include: Print to Web Breakthrough The Secret of Project Management for In-House Designers Keeping Creative Control with Difficult Clients Communicating Up, Down and All Around the Organization 10 Things You Didn’t Know Fonts Could Do Craft + Activism = Craftivism Studio tours (frog design, Olive Interactive Design & Marketing, others) for pre-conference attendees DJ Stout (Pentagram), Thomas Phinney (Adobe), Cynthia Rapp (Cartoon Network), Lia Braaten Hager (Proctor & Gamble), and nearly 50 other speakers Hope to see you there. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

The redesign for Authentic Jobs , which is coming along swimmingly thanks to your feedback, will include a blog to allow myself and others to post articles on the topic of employment, freelancing, and the like. The following is one such article. I’ve been bookmarking the links below over the past few months in anticipation of the new blog. However, because the redesign is taking longer than I had hoped, I’ve decided to post the article now given the timeliness of the subject. The last 6 months or so have been rocky for just about everyone and every business, and with layoffs and budget cutbacks, job search is certainly no exception. Many more applicants, but far fewer job openings… Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

As you’re no doubts aware I’m an unabashed conference junky, so it will come as no surprise to you that I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in the States attending three such events. First up was ETech, the emerging technology conference from O’R eily. Moved from it’s spiritual home in San Diego, this year it was help in the Chino wearing capitol of Silicon Valley, San Jose. The event was much smaller than last year and the tone was somewhat downbeat. However I don’t think this was necessarily down to the economy as a lot of people were speculating. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Hi there, respected Twitterer. Follow me at @ cameronmoll . Twitter , the social ______ application for which no one can accurately describe its purpose (except this video ), became a runaway success last year. The San Francisco-based startup added 70% of its subscriber base in 2008 and is steadily growing in 2009, with an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 new accounts opened every day ( source ). Actually, I think we enjoy claiming we can’t describe what Twitter is, yet a closer inspection of it yields not only a better understanding of it but also why it’s become so prevalent in the media lately. And when that kind of inspection occurs, it’s not surprising to the inspector why Twitter is where it’s at today. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

I was reviewing analytics data for Authentic Jobs this morning, and some figures emerged that are remarkable, but also somewhat unsurprising: For the same monthly period one year ago, visits to the site have increased by 45.9% and average time on the site has increased by 22.9% . For the same annual period one year ago (technically two years ago), visits to the site have increased by 76.0% and average time on the site has decreased by 5.1% . I say somewhat unsurprising because given the current economic climate, one can assume traffic to online job boards has increased in the last 6-12 months. Indeed, a recent report from comScore confirms this assumption: Job search ranked as the fastest growing U.S. online category in 2008 . Had comScore’s study included other countries, the same trend would likely have emerged. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

I’ve been reading HOW magazine on and off almost since I began my career as a designer 11 years ago. Every issue seems chock full of inspiring design, interviews with other designers I admire, and the like. Most issues land a permanent spot on my bookshelf. For almost as long as I’ve associated myself with the magazine, I’ve had two wishes. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

A lot of companies make money by driving traffic to their sites through marketing or SEO campaigns in the hope that some of their visitors will turn into customers. This makes sense when attention is plentiful and online marketing is cheap. However as marketing costs rise and attention becomes increasingly scarce, companies need to look outside of the traditional marketing funnel. Rather than simply increasing traffic, companies need to start focussing on conversions. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

A lot of companies make money by driving traffic to their sites through marketing or SEO campaigns in the hope that some of their visitors will turn into customers. This makes sense when attention is plentiful and online marketing is cheap. However as marketing costs rise and attention becomes increasingly scarce, companies need to look outside of the traditional marketing funnel. Rather than simply increasing traffic, companies need to start focussing on conversions. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

The traditional approach to product development involves coming up with new idea and then driving as many people towards that product as possible, in the hope that some of them will want it. As such we adopt the language of marketing, and talk about marketing funnels and conversion rates. If our marketing department has done a good job they will have created a campaign that not only generates traffic, but creates a previously unrecognised need. Tired? Need a break? Why not have a KitKat? … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

The logic goes like this. The traditional marketing funnel is broken. You can’t just throw a bunch of money at an advertising campaign and have that turn into customers. At least not to the levels you could when there were just three channels or four channels of communication. The web and social media has changed all that. So rather than waiting for customers to come to you, you have to go to them and engage with them in the same way they engage with each other. … Read the rest here