Archive for Hoverblog: April 2006 | Main >
@@@@@@@@@@issue:
| 4.23.2006
I've been steadily teaching @ Boston University these days. I'm currently teaching a graduate level Web Design class, CFA AR 581 and will be teaching the course throughout both summer sessions. The question I get asked the most from my students is where I get my inspirational "inputs" from and what types of publications I read. I subscribe to all the basics including CA, How, Print, eye, etc. By far, my favorite and most inspirational is a FREE quarterly publication called @issue: The Journal of Business and Design. This free publication is produced by CDF (Corporate Design Foundation), a Boston-based non-profit education and research organization, founded on the belief that design can make a major contribution both to an individual's quality of life and to a corporation's success through the effective use of the design disciplines. Net-net, Good design can positivly effects the bottom line. Anyone and everyone in the biz should sign up to receive this publication. Also, in May, they are putting on the first-ever @issue conference in NYC at Rockefeller University. I'm excited to be attending. They have a great line up of keynote speakers and events. Obviously, I'll be reporting back post conference with all the goodies. If you can't attend the conference, sign up for the publication NOW!
posted at 7:53 PM
|
0 comments
5 Golden Rules When Contracting
| 4.20.2006
I currently have a full time gig but occasionally, I do a little moonlighting when the right project comes along. It helps me pay for "toys", software and travel. These days, I'm pretty flat out at work which means a potential side job has to pass a few tests if I'm going to take it on. First, it has to pay well. No longer do I give up my free time for a $500 project. $2k is my starting rate for any project. If it doesn't have the right budget, I'd rather rest, work on my own stuff or even paint a wall. Second, it has to be visually interesting. It won't be long enough if I have to do another boring startup site again. Third, it has to have an aggressive schedule. I hate projects that drag on because of no driving deadline or too much consensus. It's sort of like a covert mission - get in, get out, no one gets hurt and you're home in time to kiss your kids goodnight.
If you follow the 5 golden rules of contracting, you'll stay clear of some major pitfalls.
1. Get money up front - No matter how tempting a project or budget sounds, don't start without a deposit up front (at least 1/3). I was just discussing this same point with my friend Michele the other day. If someone can't or won't give you some money up front to get started, then that can only mean one of 3 things.
1. They don't have the money
2. They don't want to really pay you in the first place
3. They don't trust you for some reason
In any case, you don't want to work for them, so just move on. Time is money so learn when to cut bait and go for the next gig.
2. Get a good budget - They're is nothing wrong with coming in at a lower price to get the job but don't undercut yourself. You might be happy that you got the first gig but you've just "branded" yourself as a low cost solution to the client and they're going to expect the same low prices for future projects. Also, it's the same amount of work to do a $500 one page e-newsletter as it is a $2,000 small website, so determine the right price and either go for it or move on. One of my first contract clients years ago said "We have several of these projects coming up so give us a really good deal on the first one and the rest of the projects are all yours." Even in my naive years, I had enough foresight to say "Pay me full price for the first 5 projects and I'll do the sixth and seventh for free!" Needless to say that I never heard from them again. They didn't have any money and all it took was a little talking to expose their true intentions.
3. Get a signed contract - Don't forget to outline the terms of what you're going to be delivering and the payment schedule. Scope creep is the number one reason for having this in place. I actually turned down a big $$ job the other day because the person kept "forgetting" to sign my contract and make agree to give a deposit. My personal opinion is that they intended to "judge" the work and then decide how much they wanted to pay for it...I but bait and ran ran ran as fast as I could.
4. Don't do anything for free - Never do any work for free. It's not that I want you to be a bad person...it just clouds communications all around. Nothing motivates good communication, initiative and schedule like money. I remember doing some wedding invites for a friend. The lucky couple liked it enough but their parents just didn't get it. So they would drag their heals, make stupid changes and just bitch about everything. Now if they were paying money to have these done, you can bet they would be much more articulate with their feedback and wouldn't want to miss any deadlines for fear or being charged extra.
5. Don't do anything for family or close friends - I break this rule every once in a while. Sometimes it pays off and other times it's a train wreck. I had (emphasis on "HAD") a friend who recovered from this sickness and wrote a book about the journey to recovery. He wanted to market the book through an online channel in a grassroots fashion. A blog was the obvious brand-on solution. Would have felt more like a discussion group with a great forum for people with the same disease to share stories and ideas. This would have been in contrast to some slick site that looks like it's just trying to make money off the book. Also, they wanted this ASAP and a blog is much easier to set up. The thing that killed the project for me was that they wanted a full site in a Dr. Phil look and feel. Needless to say, I cut bait pretty quickly.
Happy contracting!
posted at 11:45 PM
|
4 comments
Social Computing 1.0
| 4.16.2006
I've really been interested in Social Computing and how it interacts with design. By the way, Social Computing refers to the use of software, and technology that supports social interaction and communication. Social computing is based on existing social models or related to specific social contexts. Examples of social computing include email, IM, Blogs, Wikis, del.icio.us, Gather, craigslist...you get the idea...community building tools and technology. So all these tools and technology are great, but putting a brand and user interface design on top of them is another story. No longer are most companies interested in a marketing site that looks pretty. The new trend is to create and support social interactions between and among a corporation and their clients - yet another extension of brand. For example, blogs are great at enabling and extending a two-way dialog among customers instead of company to customer communication only. The trick is to wrap a brand around these tools to help create a cohesive user experience that's trustworthy and compelling. All this new technology and methodologies are great but social interactions and forums have been around for thousands of years. Town meetings, soap boxes, even public executions were a way for the community to come together and share news...oy!
One of the more interesting social interactions that's been going on for hundreds of years and still exists to this day, takes place in a little wooden barrel on an island at the ass end of the Galapagos six hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador. This barrel has served many of ships acting as a virtual post office. Sailors stopping on the island would pick up mail destined for their ships' port of call. Today, it's mostly used by travelers and tourists. The idea is that you pick up a letter that's either addressed to where you live or where you would like to travel. The concept is the same as social computing, meeting other people via mutual interests and context. I remember reading a story in a great travel book called "The Kindness of Strangers" about a lady who was from chicago but wanted to travel to Italy. She picked a letter from the barrel addressed to someone in Florence and takes the trip 6 months later. So when she arrived at this stranger's house in Italy, they practically adopted her and showed her all around the region for a solid week.
So I decided to test this whole barrel thing...My friend, Jeanne, told me she was traveling to the Galapagos and I enlisted as my proxy to procure a letter for somewhere interesting as well as to put one into the barrel addressed to me to see if it would ever make it back. Jeanne said the barrel is pretty touristy these days and is less of a barrel and more of a wooden box. The selection wasn't that great but she did manage to get my a postcard destined for non other than Brookline, MA. I think this postcard made it back to the states before the people who sent it. I purposely held off delivering it for more effect. I attempted a few weeks later but no one was home. I may try again this weekend. I'm thinking it could go two different ways when they answer the door. They're either going to invite me in, offer me drinks and after hours of getting to know each other, ask me to be their child's legal guardian should anything happen to them. The alternative is that they'll tip me and wonder where my delivery attire is. I also did receive the letter that Jeanne addressed to me from a couple in Florida. They missed the whole social context and mailed it from their home in Cape Coral. The killer was that they just put a stamp on it with a line of copy on the outside of the original envelope that said "found it on Galapagos." So no note or "story" behind this one. I'm hoping to make up for the lack of "social experience" when I deliver the postcard to the family in Brookline. Stay tuned!
posted at 3:35 AM
|
0 comments
|
Hoverblog Archives August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 September 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 Latest Links Myallo - Uses an “interest profile” to find the most interesting Web pages on the Internet, and can actually learn over time. Acquisition - Probably the slickest P2P file sharing application on the web. Beautiful and intuitive OSX-like interface. iPod Music Liberator-Great little shareware for copying music directly from your ipod into ITunes and your finder...No Stealing Bad Music! MusicPublisher - For those of us who are not content just sharing the songs within ITunes, this little app lets you also share any iPod you have docked to your computer as well.
Some Favorite Sites Stuff I Want Contact Hoverblog is |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
