Publication On Digital Davids and Goliaths by Christopher Butler on December 11, 2012 Here's a familiar story: Back in 1996, when the web was about the size of a postage stamp, five different search engines struck a very expensive deal with Netscape, the most popular browser at the time. For $5 million per year, Yahoo!, Magellan, Lycos, Infoseek, and Excite would each have a turn as the browser’s featured search tool. Meanwhile, two unknown students were putting the finishing touches on a completely novel approach to search, one that would render the others obsolete. Just one year later, they registered their whimsical domain name and invited web users to start searching with their tech. The following year, their company was incorporated. I think you know the rest... Read Now About
Publication Future Daydream by Christopher Butler on December 11, 2012 So where are the designers who dream as Bradbury does? We seem to be content to let corporations do the dreaming for us. On the internet, we can be routinely entertained by their visions—videos depicting possible futures that are far more controlled, sterile, and expensive than is likely... Read Now About
Publication Smarter, Better Cyborgs by Christopher Butler on December 11, 2012 In the future, you will design the unseen.You will design with sounds, textures, vibrations, smells, and temperature, along with the media you already know so well—text, color, and light. You will design environments and interactions that are immersive. You will once again create things that do more than match eyeballs with ads. I promise... Read Now About
Publication How Should We Contain the Cloud? by Christopher Butler on December 11, 2012 What is a book, really? For that matter, what is an article, a record, or a movie? For each of these, I have a very clear picture in my mind that says more about when I came of age than about the content itself. When I think of books, my mind retrieves an image of my grandparents' bookshelves, which I used to browse after school as a child. Records? I see the CD stacks of my teenage years, collected from local music shops and trading with friends. And somehow, thinking about movies still produces images of VHS tapes and memories of frustratedly fixing the tracking on my VCR. No doubt, future generations will have very different associations... Read Now About
Article Content Strategy Why You Should Optimize Your Site for Retina Displays by Justin Kerr on December 10, 2012 You may have heard of Apple's Retina display, featured in several of their most recent products such as the iPhone 5 (and 4s), 3rd generation iPad and the latest MacBook Pro laptops. And you may be thinking, "Yeah, that's great. But I don't even use a Mac so what does this have to do with me?" Glad you asked. Retina, Apple's branded term for high density displays, will become the norm within a few years and those of us who develop for the web would be wise to address this change now rather than play catch-up later. Read Now About
Publication The Folly of the Flock by Christopher Butler on December 7, 2012 Sometimes I'll just stare at a website for minutes on end, trying to figure out why it's so confusing. You know websites like this; you probably look at them every day and identify plenty of ways that they could have been better designed than they are. So, why weren't they? Read Now About
Article Prospect Experience Design Finding Things, and Making Things Findable published on December 7, 2012 SEO is the first step to making things easy to find on your site. Organize your information architecture well, and your site's navigation can be as useful as the content. Read Now About
Article The Mobile Book by Christopher Butler on December 5, 2012 Our friends at Smashing Magazine have a new book coming your way! I got my hands on an advanced copy, which I devoured this week. Here's my review... Read Now About
Article Learning From Dinosaurs: Content Lessons from the World of Print by Tema Flanagan on December 3, 2012 You rarely see content marketers and new media experts looking to print publishers for professional guidance--unless it’s in the form of cautionary tales. But that’s a mistake. While technological and economic shifts have forced print publishers to evolve or die, the accumulated wisdom of traditional publishing still has a lot to teach those of us who create content online. Here are five lessons from the venerable halls of traditional publishing that deserve a place in all modern content strategies. Read Now About
Article Content and the Buying Cycle by Christopher Butler on November 30, 2012 Here at Newfangled, we've been talking about the importance of web personas to the success of conversion-driven marketing websites for a long time. But it's no secret that many businesses lack the time or expertise needed to craft solidly researched and tested personas. At the same time, even the most detailed personas are lacking until they're placed in the context of the buying cycle. The good news? The buying cycle itself can be a source of meaningful personas. This month, Chris Butler looks at the four stages of the buying cycle and explains how they correspond with personas that everyone doing marketing on the web can benefit from... Read Now About