ZenBox
Simplified Business Productivity and Lifestyle Design
GTD Computer Desktop Organization
I was very proud of myself today for finally seeing the obvious solution to my Mac desktop clutter. Simply apply the GTD / Inbox Zero concepts to my desktop! Behold, my neat and tidy Mac desktop:
No more do I have random files strewn about adding to my stress. I simply dump downloads and incoming files into my “Inbox” folder and then process it just like my email inbox and my real-world inbox. Longer-than-two-minute actions go in the “Action Required” folder and long-term questionable things go into “Someday Maybe”. My stress level just dropped by 25%. Try it!
Marketing Spending is Shifting to Search
Hopefully we all know that marketing spending is moving more and more online but it was nice to see Douglas Karr’s entry on this issue in the Marketing Technology Blog:
Marketing Spending is Shifting to Search
I’ve been telling my clients for years that the Yellow Pages is dead and that marketing budgets should be spent online. These stats are interesting validation.
Creating a Minimalist Workspace
I very much enjoyed this post from Unclutterer.com today:
Creating a minimalist workspace
I am a huge advocate of going as paperless as possible so I really enjoyed this post. Enjoy!
Enough With The “My Email Address Has Changed” Messages
I’m sure all of us have gotten those messages from friends that say “My email address has changed… please update your address books. My new email address is blah@blah.com.” Sometimes it’s for a legitimate reason, but other times it’s because the person has changed Internet Service Providers (ISP). This bothers me because in this day and age, no one should have to be held hostage his/her ISP.
If you are using an email address like “bob@comcast.net”, “fred@att.net”, or “mary@sbcglobal.net”, stop it! You may decide to change ISPs someday or move to an area where your cable provider is Insight, rather than Comcast. If this happens, your email address will go away. For this reason, you really should be using a web-based mail service from one of the big (free) providers. I personally recommend Gmail. By using Gmail (or Hotmail, Yahoo!, etc.) you ensure that you will not have to change email addresses even if you move or change ISPs.
Now, all this is meant to address personal email addresses, of course. If you are using a personal email account for business use: shame on you! That’s also bad, but for different reasons that I won’t go into right now 
Don’t let your ISP control your email. Go get a Gmail account and free yourself!
Great Design Creates Revenue
I enjoyed Douglas Karr’s recently blog entry titled “What’s in it? Where is it? How? Web Marketing Strategies“. In it, one particular point rang very true for me:
Aesthetics of the site. The layout and theming of your site needs to reflect the professionalism and attitude that you wish to portray. I used to say not to worry about this - it was all about the content. I was wrong, though. Larger sites are seeing a gain in traffic with a new design. Want to open a Web 2.0 site? Make sure it looks like a Web 2.0 site!
Very true! This is one of those concepts that is sometimes difficult to explain to businesses or convince them that it’s important. I see so much effort being placed on getting traffic to a web site but often times not as much effort is placed on how the site looks once the user arrives.
Great design matters. The better your site looks, the easier it is to convince your customers to buy from you.
Earth Class Mail
For those who hate paper as much as I do, you may be interested in this service:
Looks very cool!
Say “No” To RFP Hell
I came across an RFP today for a web site project which made me sigh with puzzlement and frustration, which is generally what happens every time I see an RFP. We’ve all seen them - they are usually full of draconian rules and stipulations that make it practically impossible for the company requesting work to actually learn anything useful about the vendors it is considering. One thing that I found particularly offensive in the RFP that I received:
“Proposals shall not be submitted electronically or by FAX.”
In the 21st century, I would think that email would be a reasonable method of delivery.
Some other things that I see in many RFPs include restrictions on the type of paper that must be used, the size of the margins, whether the text is double-spaced, etc. Is this really necessary? Later on in the RFP, a greal deal of space is spent explaining exactly how the sections are to be structured, effectively boxing the proposal into a format that may or may not be useful at all and serves only as an annoyance.
In some cases, I can understand how a structured RFP is useful, but when it comes to a creative project like a web site, here is what a restrictive RFP does:
It deters serious agencies from even answering your RFP. The really good creative agencies who can truly do great things for your brand are most likely going to be disgusted with all the restrictions and stipulations in the RFP and will (rightly) see it as a representation of the requesting company’s lack of creative vision. This automatically lowers the quality of the end product.
It assumes that you (the requesting company) have all the answers. A web site is a creative asset to your company. You should be open to new ideas and paradigms and hungry for process improvements and marketing ideas. Draconian RFPs basically say “Despite the fact that you are a team of experienced, creative professionals, we don’t care what you think. We have determined what our paradigm is and you will fit your service into our box.”
It makes the whole thing take longer and cost more. Somebody had to write that huge RFP. This takes time and money. Next, people have to read through all the boring proposals based on the RFP. How about actually interviewing agencies first, rather than after all the time is spent doing RFPs. How about asking probing questions of the actual people that you may be working with? How about taking a good look at what they have done for other companies in the past to get some fresh new ideas? If you actually listen to recommendations from experienced agencies with a good track record, you may be surprised at how much you can learn.
Don’t lower the quality of your new web site - say no to RFP hell and instead start by actually talking to qualified agencies before going to great lengths to push them away.
A Response to “Logo Misapplication”
Rob Alan recently sent me a link to an article titled “Logo Misapplication” by Andy Rutledge. I enjoyed the meat of the article and agreed with much of it but I felt compelled to reject some of it. For starters, what I agreed with:
“No, this new logo will not fix your crappy company.”
Right on. While I do feel that a great logo can do great things for a company (which I will get to shortly), I do agree that it takes real work to fix, improve, or grow a great company. It takes more than a fancy logo. It takes time, effort, cleverness, wisdom, vision, and many other things to truly support a strong logo.
Next:
“Your logo is not your brand.”
Agreed. A logo is a pivotal visual representation of your brand, but a strong brand is made up of much more. A strong brand is supported by a clear vision from company management, sincere buy-in and execution by the team, and a commitment to excellence. A company’s brand is made up of its logo, marketing message, print collateral, web site, color palette, customer service, verbal cues, language, culture, personalities, philosophies, reputation, customer experience, and much more.
So where do I disagree?
“It is hard to look across the table at these business owners and explain to them that building an identity that supports an ideal counter to their practice or ability is the wrong move.”
“Of course the best course of action for most of these clients would be to build a healthy, honest, formidable company. Having done that, their current logo will likely work just fine.”
I feel that the spirit of this message is incorrect and does a disservice to a company’s efforts to reach greatness. I have seen numerous examples of logos and identities that actually help propel companies toward greatness when they otherwise might be stuck. While a logo can’t “fix” a broken company, it can be part of an impetus that sparks a rebirth or refresh in the organization.
Oftentimes during a consultation I will encourage my clients to allow us to create a logo that represents where they want to be in 5 years. Creating a logo for today is short-sighted and, in my opinion, a waste of time and money. Instead, a great logo should exude optimism and professionalism that transcends the current situation. It should be a beacon of inspiration that keeps the company pointed in the right direction. When this happens, team morale improves, executives find new inspiration and passion for their companies, and customers take notice. Though sometimes difficult to measure, these effects should not be discounted when creating and executing strategies for company growth and success.
In conclusion, you certainly should not hang on to unrealistic expectations for your logo. However, don’t underestimate the influence a great logo can have when building your brand for the future.
It’s The Experience, Stupid!
This week, Matt forwarded a great article to me from SiteProNews. The article is titled “Websites: It’s the Experience Stupid“. The article had a great point to make about the experience that you provide to your audience. However, the point that spoke to me most of all was this one:
“Today every business has a website but so many are sterile, impersonal and lack any kind of meaningful experience for the visitor. Businesses spend so much time worrying about driving traffic to their websites that they forget what happens when people arrive.”
I’ve gone on similar rants before about this and it is one of my biggest pet peeves. So many businesses are indeed obsessed with search engine traffic, rather than a great design and a great user experience on their web sites. Step one is to create a beautiful and pleasent user experience on your web site and ensure that your message is compelling. After that, you can start driving visitors to your site. Reversing those priorities is a waste of money.
Thoughts? Your comments are welcome.
Make My Logo Bigger!
Tara from SpinWeb sent out a hilarious link today. Do yourself a favor and take a break to watch this video:
http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com/
While this gave us all a good laugh, it is also sad commentary about the challenges we face as creative professionals. Do the things in this video spoof really happen? Yes, sometimes we do get requests to “make the logo bigger”, “get rid of the whitespace”, or otherwise simply ruin the design based on the short-sighted whims of the CEO or Director of Something-Or-Other. Do we love our clients? Yes. Do we want our clients to at least listen to our recommendations? Yes. As creatives, we certainly don’t want to slip into a the trap of arrogant complacency. However, we were hired based on our expertise and track record. Keeping that in perspective will make for a happier team and a more successful project.