Kneejerk Design

Designers love to change things. And that’s not always a good thing. The latest trend in website and app typography is Arial Light, all mashed together. (See left, below.) Many websites have adopted the mashed-together type. Google (right) has not. The very simple moral of the story is that if something works well, don’t change […]

The Details Matter

Google sends me emails once a day. Their Offers program is a lot like Groupon. But sadly, they must hire interns to create Offers email ads. Or maybe businesses have the ability to create those ads. Several details were missed: a bad photo of a stack of blank DVD cases – and a click through […]

Hit Your Target

Do you want your messages to hit the target? Read on… The “bad” email shown at right came to me unsubscribed. I quickly clicked the unsubscribe link – since I didn’t ask for it, since I had never heard of the company, and since their message didn’t seem different from the sea of messages already […]

Watering Down Your Brand

Perrier teamed up with Andy Warhol for a series of limited edition bottles. The problem is that the bottles are a long way from Andy Warhol’s original art. (The top photo shows Perrier’s plastic rendition. The bottom photo shows Mr. Warhol’s art.) Since Andy Warhol died in 1987, he cannot speak up for maintaining the […]

Bad Social Media

There are a few easy things to do that will keep your social media presence looking and working right. 1. Carefully watch how your auto-posting applications work. This screenshot shows a content creator who was not watching… their post appeared twice in a row on their social media page. When someone sees that, they know […]

Two Quick Tips for improving Your Blog

Here are two very quick tips for improving your blog: 1. Do not require comments to be approved before they go live. By insisting on comment approval, you take away instant gratification from your readers. People love to see their blog posts go live right away! By allowing comments to go live instantly, you have […]