On Cloud One With Dropbox
by Jens Ode on december 11, 2009
Today I got myself a new Netbook. In the old days, a new computer meant a lot of hassle getting files transferred back and forth. Luckily, these are the new days. No more USB sticks, burnt CD’s, floppy discs or magnetic tapes. To get all my important files in place I did only one thing. I installed Dropbox.
Presto, my Netbook is now filled with all those ever-so important documents, files and other stuff that otherwise would be stuck in some other computer. And this is not the best part. The best part is that whenever I change anything in any of those files it is automatically syndicated to my four other computers that I use on daily basis. If one hard disc fails, the files are available on-the-fly from another computer. And when I move from one computer to the other the files are in place and updated.
This cloud service grabs the spot as number one this year. If you haven’t done it yet – get a Dropbox account! As they say, they best things in life are free. And this one will save you a lot of time and headache.
The Kids Are Alright
by Jens Ode on december 1, 2009
Designing with your heart is often required to achieve a good result. There is especially one type of projects where you really need to put your heart and emotions into the project and that is designing for kids. The great reward is also there – that is the only time when you can really bring out those vivid colors and funny ideas. But it is not all technicolor-fantasies-with-oompa-loompas, there are a lot of things to keep in mind. I’ve done my fair share of kids projects, ranging from 3D animated movies, DVD games, web sites, micro sites, digital magazines and cartoon movies. The hardest projects have been those where the target audience is both the kid and the parent. How do you successfully make a movie/game that makes a three-year-old happy and keeps the parent (who buys and reviews the product) satisfied. The kid loves to watch the movie fifty-five times in a row, the parent gets bored the second time. You may bewilder your target audience (the kid) but you push away your buyer (the parent).
A while back ago I was involved in a project based on one of the worlds greatest storytellers and children book authors – Astrid Lindgren. In a project like that you really try to push yourself to create something that honors her beliefs and world of stories – not something that appeals to a market segment. It’s more important to find the heart of the stories than to find the best call to action, if you get what I mean.
This actually applies to most kids design, because kids are very good at spotting what’s ”constructed” and what’s ”created”. If you put your heart into the project, use your humor and intuition, odds are that you will end up with something that kids will enjoy. You will also probably have a lot of fun doing it. However, there are also a lot of things you need to keep in mind.
- First off – the legal stuff. Marketing for kids is, thank god, very restricted and you need to know what to do and what not to do.
- Secondly – kids need the same level of good navigation as grown-ups. Kids will not be able to use a crappy navigation system just because the buttons are bright red and blinking – they need a good system.
- Thirdly - click areas should be large and call to actions easy to spot (as always).
- Fourthly – combine text and icons. Younger kids can’t read (duh).
- Fifth – bright lights – big city. Think vivid colors and large and easily spotted shapes.
- Sixth – follow your heart, Luke.
One of the greatest compilations of kid sites available today with a lot of good pointers has been compiled by Smashing Magazine. Check it out for inspiration and ideas!
You think you know, but you (should) have no idea
by Jens Ode on november 25, 2009
Are you up for a quick experiment? Good! Do you remember the oh-so-great song Zombie from 1994 by The Cranberries? If not, or if you just want to enjoy it again, listen to it here. Run along now and listen to it, I’ll be waiting here for you. No no, don’t cheat, off you go!
Good. Now, replay the song in your head. Do you have the chorus in your head (yes, pun intended)? Repeat it to yourself a few times:
In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What’s in your head
Good, you are getting the rythm. Now, start tapping the song with your fingers while you play it over and over again in your head. Dum-dum-dum-dumdumdidum-dum. You may look a bit stupid, but hey, you’re grooving.
Now stop playing the song in your head, but keep hitting that desk with your fingers. Does the rythm you hear while tapping actually make any sense to you now? Or is it just a random thumping sound with no meaning whatsoever? If the answer is ”random thumping sound” – then excellent, lesson learned! (If not, keep on reading, you’ll need it.) You have been struck by the curse of knowledge. While you played the song in your head the tapping sound made perfect sense, you had the knowledge and expertise on what those sounds actually meant. When you ”remove” the song from your head, it’s just a stream of jibberish and actually quite annoying to hear. Don’t look, but your neighbour colleague is probably thinking about smacking you on the head right now.
Whenever you write copy, design a web site, make a presentation, create a user flow or actually do anything where you need to get a message across and your target audience is not experts on your level, be very aware of the curse of knowledge. As an expert, you have a wealth of references, jargons, ideas and cases that makes perfect sense to you and you are so used to communicate using the perfect terms and the correct acrynoms. To your web site visitor or audience, this may actually mean nothing at all. Your e-commerce stock system is internally probably very well defined and easy for you to understand, but to your customer it probably makes no sense why you keep a certain item in that very strangely named category. What will happen is that your customer won’t be able to to find the item or understand your shop and thus won’t buy anything.
Look at your communication, not as an expert, but as a customer. Try to step out of your world of knowledge and look at what you are presenting without your goggles. Does it make any sense anymore? If not, redesign, rewrite, rethink. It will pay off.
Next lesson is to think of another song, fire it up in your head and visit your colleague. Thump away on his/her desk, ask what song your playing and see for yourself what the curse of knowledge does to your message.