Our Geek Life

Designing for Small Business Clients

Posted by shegeek at August 11th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

So you need a teapot

 

You hear on the news that a new gourmet tea shop has opened. Your mother-in-law loves tea and is coming for a visit.  Your rush out to purchase this highly coveted tea but realize you don’t have a teapot.  It doesn’t need to be a fancy teapot; just an ordinary, every day teapot.  The color and material are not all that important. But you need a teapot and you need it now. 

You run into the closest store, ignore the recommendations of the trained salesperson, and pick up a teapot from the clearance rack.  After rushing home you add the tea to the pot, pour in the boiling water and wait 3 minutes.  You present the tea along with delicious cookies to your mother-in-law and wait for the accolades.

Based on the picture above it seems rather unlikely that you will receive much in the way of accolades, don’t you think?
 

I want it now!

 

As an indy web team that develops sites for small businesses and ministries, we are often faced with the challenge of explaining the importance of sound design and usability.  A high percentage of our clients are less than tech-savvy.  They do not understand geek-speak. They don’t understand what goes into designing a website.  They just know they want a website. (more…)

Categories: Usability
Tags: Design, Small Business, Usability, Web Design

Discerning and Deciphering

Posted by shegeek at July 31st, 2009 | No Comments »

A quoi ça sert? (What’s it for?)

Asked by President Jacques Chirac of Prime Minister Tony Blair upon being shown the Millennium Dome – which has no discernible function.

Born to question

That I am an analyst is a predisposition, being both genetically imprinted with some random mutated analysis gene and further etched by the environments in which I have always existed.  My mother says I was always asking who, what, how and why so it started quite young.  My choice of careers (I’m on number 4 at this point) has also continued my grooming and maturing as an analyst.  I was encouraged to ask questions and to delve into the inner workings of things which suited me just fine.  It probably annoyed a lot of my family, but that curiosity and need to understand has served me well.

• Why is it done that way?
• Who decided it needed to be that way?
• How is this supposed to work?
• What are they trying to do?

Questions are good things in my line of work.  They are meant to spark discussions, to inspire, to energize and excite.  They are used to dig and probe and uncover.  Answers are meaningless without understanding the questions that lead up to the revelations.  When you’re designing things like products and websites, those questions and answers are the foundation for your work product and eventually, the realization of someone’s visions and dreams.

So I often ask myself – am I asking the right questions? (more…)

Categories: Design & Development
Tags: Answers, Attachment, Design, Emotion, Questions, Usability, User Experience

Form and Function: Creativity and Usability Unite

Posted by shegeek at April 8th, 2009 | No Comments »

What is the foot without the little toe?

Or the head without a heart?

 
Could you walk without your little toes?  Can you imagine thoughts without emotions?  That’s exactly what you experience when you visit websites created without design and usability as complementary components – emotionless thoughts, thoughtless emotions, footless toes and toeless feet!   

In “Form or Function: When Creativity and Usability Collide“, I discussed the often oppositionary principles of creativity and usability.  This is a subject near and dear to my heart because nothing irks me more than beautiful design that is not functional and functional design that is flat out ugly.  While it can be challenging to blend form and function, it is not only possible, it is necessary.

Did you hear what that crazy guy Sullivan said?

 
In 1896, architect Louis Henri Sullivan said, “Form ever follows function.”  Unfortunately, the simple elegance and beauty of this statement is lost and bastardized into meanings that Sullivan never intended.  Regardless of what you may have heard or been taught, this chunky little nugget of wisdom was never uttered to imply that function was more important than form.   It is also important to acknowledge that contrary to pop-culture “wisdom”, dying for one’s art is highly overrated, particularly when the art becomes the means to the end. 

Sullivan’s statement started the debate about form and function.  However, Frank Lloyd Wright made it perfectly clear by stating, “Form and function are one.” 

All ego aside, the naked truth is simply this:  Form and function are inseparably intertwinable. Good sites render an understanding of this ideal.  Great sites exemplify it.
(more…)

Categories: Design & Development
Tags: Creativity, Design & Development, Usability