Note: This was an entry I wrote two years ago so some of the items mentioned no longer apply. I really don’t do any of the designs anymore for our company (Rundle handles that), but I felt that this applied today as much as it did two years ago. There is some new stuff added and some stuff taken out.
When I started to become serious about design a couple of years ago I always wanted to create the coolest websites out there. I wanted a site that would get listed at all of those “coolest website of the day” type sites. I tried for months and years to reach that level of design that I could show everyone and have them say “WOW!”. Usually these attempts merely ended in frustration (now I am extremely lucky to have a design team that can do all the WOW stuff).
As a designer nothing is more frustating than being frustrated. It is very easy on the web to see a site that you could only dream of creating. That is part of the problem with web design. There is always envy because someone is doing something better than you. I figured I might as well give up on this whole web design thing because I just couldn’t cut it.
There was one small problem. Actually two. One I love creating websites. I love taking an idea and putting it on the screen. I also have the world’s biggest ego that does not allow me to walk away from anything. Well put those two together and I had to figure a solution to my problems.
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Things are starting to build up in the land of 9rules and Business Logs. We have finally brought Colin Devroe (9rules CTO) on with us for the consulting biz and “merging” with his company Chancecube. So now we have the talent to not only design killer sites, but also the development talent to expand towards better online solutions.
With all that is happening I have recently got back into using Linkedin to expand my contact network. I was highly skeptical of the service when it launched a couple of years ago, but I am starting to see some positives from using it. If you would like to get assimilated into my network you can find me at scrivs(AT)9rules.com.
Also there have been people throwing great ideas around at me and wanting to chat further about the 9rules Network. Feel free to contact me online:
- AIM: webscrivs
- Skype: webscrivs
That is all. My apologies for such a dull Monday entry, but it was needed and I am in the middle of moving to a new residence.
I had part 2 of the Being the Hype series all prepared, but then I ran across something that made me stop in my tracks. I laughed. Then I showed Rundle and laughed some more. Here is the screenshot (click on it to go to the page):
You must show greasergrill@hotmaill.com your love. It’s Friday, be proud of the fact you don’t create stuff like this. Hell let’s have fun with this. Funniest comment by Monday wins a $50 gift certificate from Amazon.com.
- Something genuine
- Design is communication
- Design is a language that people know, although they don’t know they know it until they start speaking it.
- Design is letting down our biases and opening our minds to new ideas.
- The ability to take a vision and bring it into focus as clearly as possible.
- Good design glues all the pieces together: the concept, the message, the product (website)
I think of these things as I redesign this atrocious looking site. Rundle usually comes in and says “I shit out better designs”.
What does design mean to you?
MySpace is a community site that allows you to setup a profile and blog and connect with friends and strangers. It’s also a designer’s and lover of design’s worst nightmare because the UI of the site is atrocious yet it boasts 17 million visitors a month (and rising) and was recently purchased for over $580 million by News Corp.
From a design perspective we have to look at it as a failure, but obviously it’s not. Why is that? Why hype ugliness? I will try my best to analyze (if you could call it that) what makes MySpace so popular and how we all could learn to follow in its footsteps.
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Today I was going to start my Being the Hype Series, but seeing how the web’s most important design site was redesigned from the dead I figured there was no way anyone would pay attention to me. So I figured I would see if we could have a honest discussion on the new redesign and you could share your thoughts.
I am not looking for praise and I am not looking for people to bash it, but maybe we can approach it from a design point of view that is constructive. What works? What doesn’t? Did they reach their audience? Does the branding make sense?
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Two weeks ago I started a series that I knew would ruffle some feathers. I knew there would be people that would agree with me and I knew there would be people who vehemently disagreed with me. I knew there would be people telling me that I was simply writing this series to get traffic (ummm, I like people reading my stuff, do you?) and others that would simply resort to calling me names. In the end though I am glad it worked.
We are a very emotional community. It is easy to get us excited and even easier to piss us off. Tell us you have a new redesign coming out and we get excited and the anticipation starts to kill us. Attack one of our peers and we will quickly form an attack right back. With this in mind you can understand how easy the hype machine can be built up amongst ourselves.
Some companies like to start hype on purpose. For instance, Blinksale had arguably the best hype campaign in the community this year. It was tough going a day without seeing it linked from some designer’s site singing praise for the invoicing web application even before it launched! The problem with all of this hype? Many will argue that they didn’t deliver due to a large amount of downtime. In this sense, the hype worked against them (I don’t use Blinksale so I cannot speak on the quality of the application or its uptime).
Many of us seem to frown on the hype machine, but I enjoy it. I love studying it. If you have a company I am sure the people who run it are interested in it as well. That’s why you see many companies today wrongly jump on the blog bandwagon because they believe they can create buzz with a blog. Creating buzz is not hard if you already have an audience. However, many times you will find that companies work more on creating buzz than creating a quality product.
And that’s where the hype starts to get annoying.
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I speak in 30 minutes, meaning I will pass out in about 15 minutes and my sweat stains under my arms will appear in about 5 minutes. No doubt this will be podcasted and video will be on the web some time after my talk so don’t worry, you can all share in the laughter.
I am speaking with Shawn Gold from the mighty Weblogs, Inc and Stowe Boyd from the incomparable Corante. Weblogs, Inc…Corante…9rules…all on the same stage. Well at least we have a better design ;-).
So I will be leaving for San Francisco tomorrow and while everyone else worries about what they will do business wise I need to find out what are the fun things to do in town? I have never been so I know nothing of the place. If you know of any good restaraunts, bars, clubs, landmarks or other places that I should visit let me know.
Klondike Mike will be there as well, but if I can stay away from him that should up my chances of having fun.
Also I should have a followup to the Ignoring the Hype series along with some other entries this week.
Today I turn 25. In the past when anybody I knew turned 25 I would laugh at them simply because they were now a quarter of century in age. That’s ridiculous in my mind because I am still a kid and I just have this association that 25 means no more kid stuff. Well we all know that isn’t true. The problem with getting older is that I get a bit more anxious when I find myself not accomplishing my goals in life.
This will come off as bragging, but I am trying to list the major events that have happened in my life:
- 3 - First crush
- 11 - First C in conduct of all things
- 11 - First girlfriend
- 12 - First kiss on lips and french kiss
- 15 - First real steady girlfriend
- 17 - Graduated with IB Diploma
- 17 - Accepted into Harvard, Brown, Georgetown and Vanderbilt. Chose University of South Florida to stay close to my brother.
- 18 - Start college with 60 credits (Junior)
- 19 - Offered pro soccer contract that I turned down because all those stay in school commercials were starting to kick in.
- 20 - Named captain of soccer team
- 21 - Graduated with Bachelors in MIS
- 23 - Graduated with Masters in MIS
- 23 - Fired from job
- 24 - CEO (just a title but still cool as hell) of 9rules, Inc.
- 25 - Nothing.
Things I have yet to accomplish that I know most of the people my age have already:
- Steady girlfriend, fiancee, or wife
- Car they want to drive
- House
- Family
And if your mom is anything like my mom you know how it gets when she contstantly asks how your love life is…
So today I will celebrate and tomorrow will become just another day to achieve world dominance. Oh and to work on the presentation for the Blog Business Summit.
