I don't know how many companies today have a policy around what you can or can't say through social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and or Blogs. I don't even know what my companies policy is on it, as it doesn't seem to be in the handbook. But some things are clear be polite and respectful and be TRANSPARENT!

I love blogging and tweeting about the cool things my company works on because we have created a great culture that allows people to be themselves and be proud of what they do. This in my mind is how social media is suppose to work. People socializing with other people, not companies pushing their crap down our throats.

Other companies that have embraced this corporate culture and allowed their people to talk on their behalf is Digg, Zappos and Amazon. All three have become fan favorites in this new social dynamic that all companies are desperately looking to connect on.

Digg encourages everyone from the CEO to the receptionist to contribute on their corporate blog and be the companies voice. Through this approach Digg has really connected with its customers so much it has been able to create Diggnation a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories. It's hard to believe a bunch of nerds actually became rock stars in this approach. But, by keeping it real and not just having the CEO talk Digg and other companies are able to build up their people and create engagement beyond any paid social media marketing plan.

I heard a CEO once say he didn't want his employees contributing to their corporate blog because he didn't want headhunters taking his people. Really? Recruiters are smart and have so many tools today they will find whomever they want. I thought to my self why doesn't this CEO focus more on making his business a place people would not want to leave no matter what they are offered because they love the culture and embrace it.

Zappos is another great example that has done a wonderful job building up its employees and allowing them to speak on the companies behalf, so if the CEO Tony Hsieh steps away the company brand presence doesn't fall over. Jeff Bezos at Amazon is another great example.

Social media succeeds when real people connect and share real experiences whether good or bad about your brand. Corporations should learn that pushing content to consumers through social media will likely fail but creating virility in the culture will organically grow as people can't wait to talk about it.

One thing I've learned in my career is a team has to be emotionally invested to succeed. Imagine if every team in that company is; then it is headed down the right path for exponential brand loyalty. Think about the stories in sports where all the seniors come back to play and win that year. That stuff really works!

Alex Hunter from Virgin.com spoke at F.O.W.A. in Miami on corporate culture and branding and highlighted all this very well. He said marketing alone was the cancer on the nut sack of creativity and if companies focused inside to create a great creative corporate culture people would connect with their company in so many priceless ways.

So I say go tweet, retweet and update your status with the great emotions and connections you have with your company and you'll soon have friends asking you if you get a cut of the company or how can they come work there.

One way to think about designing a successful app regardless of the platform is to make the app almost invisible and design the experience. The experience is successful if the relationship ties the customer back to the company and therefore makes the brand useful. A useful app that gives the user a sense of enjoyment, information or a check mark on the todo list can do wonders for the longevity of the brand and its success.
 
At Rockfish Interactive I’ve had the opportunity to work on apps for great brands such as ESPN, Walmart, Listerine, Tyson, Silver Joe’s Coffee and Arvest Bank across many platforms such as iPhone, Facebook and online web apps. In all of these I always worked towards the experience the user should have while interacting with the app and defined the interface around that.
 
Applications should not be cumbersome they should use natural elements that enhance the experience instead of introducing a lot of new stuff. Don’t assume users will look for stuff because they won’t the application needs to be an extension of what I am already doing. Many great apps out there today already do just that and now we’re seeing a huge explosion in the mobile space that can provide a great extension of any brand if done correctly.
 
One piece of advice I received while designing an online banking application was to design the app the way that I would use it then get feedback and refine. This seemed to go well as the client was very pleased and the feedback was very minimal to the overall design. The client said the experience seemed spot on we just had to tweak a few colors and icons.
 
A great contributor to the success of your app is to have users provide feedback. I firmly believe unlike a website site an app design is never done and the more you listen to your users and refine the happier they will be. We hosted a user group of about 15 people the other night and the feedback was outstanding. We followed up the next day and ran through the list and discussed and itemized the crucial steps we needed to take before its launch in a few weeks.
 
Application design can be very rewarding for designers especially if it’s an app that you would get to use regularly. I’m pretty excited to debut a new app we’ve been working on at RFI in a few days to attendees at the F.O.W.A. (Future of Web Apps) conference in Miami and get more user feedback.

In a recent interview/conversation with a young aspiring web designer I noticed he stated on his resume that he was proficient in web design. I asked him to describe to me what web design was and what made him proficient.

“I know how to make mouse rollovers and I know programs...” he said.

Now maybe I was expecting an answer that used phrases like “digital storytelling” or “user interaction” or even something along the lines of “a website usually contains certain elements that guide the user to the brands messaging or action” but, it wasn’t any of that.

There was no synergy between problem and solution. There was no theory behind any of it. I was compelled to question how he was taught what design really was or if he was taught at all.

Programs in my mind are the ends to the means and the most basic program of them all is the paper and pencil. But what I was searching for regardless of the end product was how he got there. What doors did he open, what tile in the floor of the supermarket did he lift up to find the secret chamber to a cool place to be creative in...This came from a dream I had last night that I can describe later. Where did the inspiration come from for the solution he presented?

I remember sitting next to a programmer once that just had installed Photoshop on his machine and had read the manual from front to back and then turned to me and said what do I do next? Hesitantly, I laughed then I said what problem are you trying to solve? He didn’t have any or at least he didn’t know he had any and only if he would have just realized he wanted to create something cool that he had recently seen would he have then had a starting point. A problem.

Everyone always seems to say we’re all born creative or I remember playing with crayons as a kid but, is this really what design is or is it a complex problem that we’re faced with that requires a deeper connection and understanding that we’re trying to solve? And then we seek out the means to solve that regardless of the medium. All tools can be taught but it is the understanding that there is a problem that first must be addressed.

Thinking back on a desktop publishing class I once had in college the assignment was to create business cards, letterhead and the like from a sheet of paper that had all the content already outlined for you. It required no thinking, no conceptualizing; it was bare bones, here is how the program works. And it sucked. I knew the programs already through happenstance and I spent 15 minutes knocking it out and then left the classroom. I remember another class that was four hours long and I stayed sometimes six maybe even seven hours because I was compelled to find my own solution to the problem. The teacher stated he would help refine your skill set with the tools but it was up to us to discover the problem and the solution. This was design I thought. I had to look at the world around me and find a problem that compelled me and then seek out a solution to it. This was the journey.

I mentioned to this young aspiring designer that programs were at that point almost irrelevant and that one of the best approaches to solving any solution was first deciphering the problem. I have seen many rough sketches jotted down to solve a problem that the next step in creating the look and feel could have come from any one of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash or other programs or maybe just from the back of a napkin.  

Fortunately for me I have had the ability to be inspired and learn from other great designers around me and that each have their own means to the solution but one thing I think we all share is the ability to recognize that there is a problem at hand and that design is the foundation for finding the solution. When I followed up with the recruiter about how the interview went her initial response was all Creative Directors that she has worked with say that same thing that you must first be creative and that is something that is not taught.

But is it that it is not taught or is it that it is not taught correctly?

At Rockfish Interactive this year we have a lot of website redesign projects coming up. It always seems a harder more daunting task to do a redesign than to do a new site. So, this had me wondering why? And after many long hours of reading great articles, especially one by Cameron Moll called "Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign" which can be found here on A List Apart's site, I figured I would compile a list of questions from my notes and see if I could help the next designer facing this task.

In 2009 at Rockfish I had the opportunity to go through a thorough review of two of our sites by the Nielsen Norman Group. These reviews opened my eyes to taking a different approach once a site is dubbed "Finished". Recently I saw a quote that read "The ink on a website is never dry." I find this too true as websites and applications can benefit so much by listening to the feedback users can give you and the insight analytics can provide. So, this is where I started with my redesign questions. When your faced with a redesign see if you can get site analytics, do some guerilla user testing and figure out the source of the question "Why?". So in no particular order is a list of questions I will approach every redesign with so that I can make sure the purpose is not just to keep up with the latest trends:

Questions to ask:
1. What is going on with the current site? If possible reference site analytics or conduct your own guerilla user testing.

2. What is the motivating factor for the site redesign?
Good reasons include:
  a. Company or product re-brand
  b. Desire for marketplace repositioning
  c. Implementation of much needed new functionality

3. How can the company or product become more successful with the redesign?

4. What is the Goal of the redesign?

5. What do you hope to accomplish?

6. What aspects of the current design are most effective?

7. What aspects of the current design are least effective?

8. Does the logo/branding need changed/updated/remain the same?

9. What is the company’s position?

10. Does the color scheme remain the same?

11. What are the focal points of the design?

12. How can the navigation be made more effective?

13. Clearly define desired audience, visual design style, message, tone, and technical requirements.

14. Start with what they want the site to accomplish.

15. Ask about CMS, updates, and maintenance.

16. How has the company changed since last site was launched?

17. How does the new look reflect who the company is and the experience they want people to have when they interact with.

18. Who is coming to the site?

19. What action do you want visitors to take when on the new site?

Good things to think about:
  1. Websites need to grab attention.
  2. Pay attention to details
  3. Carefully consider the messaging.
  4. Without content the redesign becomes a book without words. A business plan without a business.

So recently Lauren and I got engaged in Seattle for New Years and I hired one of the best proposal photographers I have ever seen. Her name was Laurel Mcconnell and she can be found at her website at http://www.mcconnellphoto.com/ We will be hiring her for our wedding I'm almost certain. Enjoy the pics i posted more of them on our facebook gallery.

So I've started back up designing fliers for Bucklup Entertainment in Austin, TX. The upcoming show by A Grain of Universe features Hip Hop artist Busdriver with some other DJ's such as DJ Bomber, DJ Aspekt and special guest DJ: The Giant Hornets from Japan. The event is June 14th at Mohawk Austin. Check out the fliers leave me a comment about the designs and see you at the concert.

Google says: "did you mean: trucking." So what exactly is Truking? Anyone?