“The word website
is becoming a misnomer.”

-Ed Illig, Brainstorm

The Importance of a User-friendly Website

Brainstorm’s Ed Illig spoke on the importance of a user-friendly website at a recent Linking Indiana winter event.

He cited three very different market sector website case studies: Anderson University, a higher education site; Lumina Foundation, a non-profit; and RCA, a commerce site.

Using these examples, he described what user-friendly means in different spaces and where he sees things heading in terms of usability, user engagement, brand, metrics, and more.

You can view the talk on Blip.tv in full here:
The Importance of a User-friendly Website [32:21]

Or in three bite-size, lunch-ready segments here:
(Part 1 of 3) The Importance of a User-friendly Website [12:40]
(Part 2 of 3) The Importance of a User-friendly Website [11:45]
(Part 3 of 3) The Importance of a User-friendly Website [8:47]

“…a showcase of the best in sustainability,
technology and design.”

Living Wright

WIRED and LivingHomes magazine produced the WIRED Home, what they call “…a showcase of the best in sustainability, technology and design.”

Constructed in-factory and erected in an upscale area of Los Angeles in just two and a half days, the home represents a convergence of aesthetic and eco-awareness.

WIRED’s Smart Home harkens back to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian concepts and organic design principles – with added technological advancements. One hundred years later, as oil prices and conservation become a global focus, we’re sure Wright would approve.

For details on the home here’s a link to the original WIRED article entitled WIRED Home by LivingHomes.

[image: klaxon]

Drawing Warmth
from the Cold of Concrete

Envisioneers

Transparent House, a San Francisco-based 3D design and visualization studio, allows clients to visually model end products long before committing them to finished processes.

Often, clients know what they want but can’t really envision it, much less articulate that vision to a vendor. The real value-add of Transparent House is not in delivering finished goods but in delivering that articulated vision.

And so it is with their variation on the concrete slab, transforming a cold commodity into warmth and art.

Inventive Allusion

Transparent House didn’t invent nor do they provide concrete etching. Their end product—three-dimensional modeling—allows them to package such concepts as something new and valuable. It helps customers envision new possibilities and unexpected applications through the illusion of reality.

Now that’s resourceful and inventive use of available marketing resources. A core benefit lesson for any brand marketer.

[via: Designspotter]

Virtual Starry Night – Vincent’s Second Life landing point

Virtual Starry Night – Vincent’s Second Life museum is fashioned after Van Gogh’s painting, “Cafe Terrace at Night”

Virtual Van Gogh

The Virtual Starry Night – Vincent’s Second Life museum offers much of what you’d expect in a real life museum—with a touch of Second Life (SL) surrealism.

The museum exhibits 70 virtual works by Vincent Van Gogh with descriptions and historical facts about the Dutch Post-Impressionist. Befittingly, each of the 20 rooms housing the exhibit is set in perpetual twilight and the outer grounds of the museum feature overlook balconies, fountains, and garden terraces abutting a reflective and restful sea.

Unlike real life museums, this SL version includes teleportation, 3-D tours and experiential paintings that visitors can virtually “step into” to peruse selected works.

Worth the Teleport

If you like something you see, reproductions are for sale at the museum store, including virtual floral arrangements. You can even take home a reproduction of Van Gogh’s famed Starry Night for a reasonable L$35 (35 Linden dollars) the equivalent of about 12 US cents.

Appreciating Culture Clash

A confluence of culture, The Virtual Starry Night – Vincent’s Second Life museum is a metaphor for today’s brand marketer—an emergent culture where old and new collide in ever-changing venues of communication.

Visit the museum.

[ via: malburns ]

(Click on the image above for another view)

A Light Wind from Across the Pond

We bring you wind-powered street lamps from (where else?) the Netherlands. Light Wind, designed by Dutch design house, Demakersvan, borrows heavily from its cousin, the windmill. Made from high-end sail fabric, stainless steel, and wood—what a whirring, witty and windy idea. Renewable, sustainable, ingenious.

From the Demakersvan site:

Dutch windmills were actually perfect generators of their own. With that in mind, we made this lamp. With every breeze it stores energy, enough to enjoy every summer evening until forever. Contemporary vs traditional, art vs functionality. Shaped by its function, the big prop spans over one meter on each side. It is a self-supporting light source that marks the landscape.

produced by: ID PRODUCTIONS
photo: Ingmar Cramers