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It's a cube--no wait, it's a filter
Posted on March 30, 2006 by Sarah Eaton.
So this looks pretty neat, based on the article I read in the NY Times. Hardware as spam guard dog rather than software.
However, here are the last two sentences of the article, which doesn't bode well for opt-in marketers:
In one week, 579 pieces of spam flowed into my e-mail accounts and the Spam Cube correctly identified all but 16 as spam.
Unfortunately, it also flagged 90 legitimate messages as spam or phishing messages.
tags: Spam Cube | spam filter | opt-in email marketing |
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March 30, 2006 in audio publication, award winning blog, Blogging Tools, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, business credibility, Business editorial, business magazine, Business publications, Business relationships, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Point, Counterpoint: Designers Face Off
Posted on March 16, 2006 by Kat.
What makes good design good, and bad design bad? As with anything creative, there is a certain element of “I know it when I see it,” but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to analyze, strategize and critique design. When people scan a page looking for pertinent information, they are led by visual cues to which bits are most important. It is up to us, as marketers and designers, to provide those cues.
Electronic—Bad
Kat O’Connor: A portal and search engine site, this one makes multiple glaring errors from the get-go. The page looks cluttered because there is lots of text, very little white space and no images to speak of.
The only image is the rotating advertisement in the upper right corner, and most of the ads are simply text, with or without blobs of color. (The good ads are the only saving grace of this page, and there are only a few of them, rotated amongst the ugly ones.)
The color scheme is bland, and nothing in particular draws the eye to one part of the page over another. The eye tends to wander over the page, not resting on any place in particular, as there’s nothing to make any part of the content stand out as important.
Headers and text are the same size. Text mainly consists of blue links, which don’t differentiate themselves from each other. Black, gray and blue are so similar in hue and/or value, that one doesn’t know where to start looking to find the important information.
The only distinct colors are the bright red and royal blue of the InternetBiz logo, which as a combination is garish and lacks subtlety. As a whole, it looks like a design from a kid putting together his very first Web page.
Dave Borra: It’s really basic. It uses primary colors, such as red and blue, as well as the default styles for links. It does function as a site, but lacks any sort of style.
The main job of this site is to locate other websites, so its main focus is information. But, I’d like to see a little more thought put into the design of it and use of color.
Overall, this piece is functional, but better design could improve the click-throughs.
Electronic—Good
Kat O’Connor: The first thing you see on the page is the photo of the shoes, which imparts at a half-second glance what the website is about. The color palate is warm, and the images have a softness to them which makes for a very comfortable feel.
The image of the smiling woman at the top gives a sense of the company being personal and friendly. The information is organized into logical categories, which are then designated by clear visual cues: “Women’s” and “Men’s” are in larger text, a slightly different but complementary font, and underlined all the way across to create distinct sections.
Dave Borra: This website has a really good color palette. I love the earth tones and the imagery. The navigation works, even though there doesn’t appear to be a main navigation bar located at the top.
The stitching is a nice subtle element, and the zipper draws attention to the branding as well as points to the products. This Web site functions not only as a commerce site, but it has good design as well.
Sarah's Note: I completely fell in to this Web site and immediately started surfing for shoes. Good design works!
Print—Bad
Kat O’Connor: Its worst crime is that it just isn’t really outstanding in any way. The most visually attention-getting element is the stoplight red color, paired with the dark blue in the pie chart, which simply comes off as disconcertingly obnoxious.
The only image in the ad is not visually interesting, and only displays statistics without expanding on them: Why are they number one? What kind of real-world benefit do I get with Oracle? It doesn’t tell any kind of story. The text treatment—large, bold and black or grey—is also uninspired.
Dave Borra: While not too appealing and overly creative, this ad works for what it is intending to convey to the audience.
The copy in bold black type points out that Oracle Database is the world’s number one database. The pie chart below uses the red to stand out, and it reiterates what was said in the copy above it.
And, the logo at the bottom with the bold red strip going through it ties it all together and gives some weight to the bottom part of the ad. It’s up front, to the point and less conceptual.
Print—Good
Kat O’Connor: The idea behind this ad is simple but compelling. Associating puzzle-solving with information management is intriguing on its own, but it also allows for the creation of an unusual, very visually interesting design.
Mixing up the pieces of the photo makes it memorable because it is unexpected. Associating their services with the success of a hospital promotes the idea that it’s more than just number-crunching, but a vital function for human lives.
The background color is bright enough to be attention-getting without being overbearing, and the light, shadow and texture add further visual interest.
Dave Borra: I like the use of green and blue. Generally, green is used in hospital uniforms by doctors and nurses. This color has a soothing effect on people.
The copy “when information comes together, everybody feels much better” clearly ties in with the image of the puzzle. The piece has some structure to it, and that helps convey what the company does, which is information infrastructure.
This piece is successful in conveying the image of the company in a creative way.
tags: good design | bad design | design strategy
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March 16, 2006 in audio publication, award winning design, award winning magazine, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, Blogging Tools, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, Business newsletter, Business publications, company blog, company newsletter, Corporate newsletter, Corporate publications | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
From One to Many
Posted on March 06, 2006 by Sarah Eaton.
As you may have noticed, my posting has decreased to the point of...there not being very many posts any more. It's not because I don't like you anymore--I do! It's because my job description at BeTuitive has been morphing, and I don't have as much time as I used to have to write.
The solution to this seemed obvious to me: Group blog! I invited some of my team members to join me in posting. You've already gotten to know Kat a little bit. Kevin and Dave will also be jumping on board to add their perspectives. I dig the group blog; I think it's ripe with possibility. All of those different ideas flying around. I can't wait to see the direction in which my little blog moves once everything's set and everyone's active.
So, a hearty welcome to the newcomers!
tags: group blog | Kevin Grant | Dave Borra
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March 6, 2006 in award winning design, award winning magazine, Building Customer Intuition | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Out of Ideas
Posted on March 03, 2006 by Sarah Eaton.
The title does not refer to me. I am, in fact, positively brimming (yes, brimming) with ideas. Well, actually, sometimes I run a little low.
When I talk to people on the phone about why they want to use BeTuitive's services, a lot of the time, one of their concerns is that they're going to run out of ideas for content. We help you with a steady stream of ideas, but we also advocate the repurposing of other content: press releases, an article your SVP of marketing wrote for another publication and so on.
Repurposing only takes you so far--if your entire newsletter is filled up with pieces that your subscribers have seen in other places, no one's going to get excited about receiving your newsletter. But it does have its place.
Here's an article to put you on the road to repurposing.
tags: newsletter content | repurposing
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March 3, 2006 in audio publication, award winning design, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, Blogging Tools, Blogs, Building B2B Relationships, bulk email marketing, business credibility, company newsletter, Company publication, corporate magazine, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
An Interesting Thought Experiment
Posted on March 02, 2006 by Kat.
So I finally got around to reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (reviewed earlier by Sarah). It was a strange stroke of providence, I think, that I ended up reading it back-to-back with A Whole New Mind. I would highly recommend you do so, because it struck me how much cross-over there was between the two books. Both dealt extensively with the way our brains really work (as opposed to the way many people expect our brains to work, with humans being the only Rational Animal and all).
For example: recognizing faces, and understanding facial expressions, is a right-brain activity. So is grasping context. Gladwell illustrates several examples where the context of a product, including package design, influence our perception of a product — not just its quality. He shows us how the Story of a product — our unconscious associations with it, our memories of it within the context of our lives — influence our first reaction to the product, and very often our purchasing decisions.
Both books are fascinating on their own, if you like reading about data-stories on how our mind works. (I do, of course — it's one of the things I geek on.) There is a lot more of this kind of mind-food — the two are great complements to each other.
tags: Blink | A Whole New Mind | right brain | design | perception
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March 2, 2006 in award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, build credibility, Building Customer Community, Business editorial, Business newsletter, Business relationships, company blog, corporate magazine, Corporate newsletter, Corporate publications, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack