Branding and Marketing – Page 5 – graphpaper.com (under repair)

User vs. You

Aug 2, 2007

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in Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, Information Architecture, Interface Design, Language, Personal, Reviews, Storytelling, User Experience Design, Web

There’s a huge debate going on in the UX community about the use of the word “user”. Some argue that the word demeans the people we are trying to help, that it distances us from them, and that it makes us unable to truly empathize with their wants and needs. Words like “people” and “humans”…

I’ll Never Read Harry Potter

Jul 29, 2007

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Christopher Fahey

in Books, Branding and Marketing, Personal, Social Interaction, Storytelling, TV & Movies

I suppose it’s as good a time as any to admit that I’m never going to read any Harry Potter books. I’ve got nothing against the series, actually. I’m sure they’re fine books and I’m glad so many kids, and many adults, enjoy reading them. It’s just that I can’t imagine actually sitting down to…

Would Starbucks tell Dunkin’?

Jul 17, 2007

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Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, Personal, Reviews, User Experience Design

We recently stopped for coffee at an urban intersection where a Starbucks and a Dunkin’ Donuts sat on opposite corners, facing off in a classic retail rivalry like Macy’s & Gimbels. Deciding to avoid Starbuckian yuppiness (okay, we drink there all the time), we walked into the Dunkin’ Donuts. But something seemed wrong… the DD…

My First Podcast

Jul 11, 2007

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Christopher Fahey

in Behavior, Branding and Marketing, Business, Information Architecture, Personal, Storytelling, User Experience Design, Web, Work

A few months ago during an intermission at the 2007 IA Summit, Christina Wodtke and Bill Wetherell accosted me in the hallway of the Las Vegas Flamingo hotel. The next thing I knew, Christina was interviewing me for a new series of Boxes and Arrows podcasts. The 16-minute interview has just been published, and I’ve…

Should Bloggers Assume that Their Readers are Dumber than They Are?

Jul 10, 2007

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Christopher Fahey

in Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, graphpaper.com, Information Architecture, Information Design, Personal, Reviews, Social Interaction, Storytelling, User Experience Design, Web

Several bloggers I know have confessed to me that occasionally they’ll compose and publish articles or posts that they don’t feel especially passionate about, writing things that they aren’t particularly proud of or inspired by, simply because they know that certain topics, ideas, or opinions will give them an easy and predictable traffic boost. For…

Simple is Best

Jun 27, 2007

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Christopher Fahey

in Branding and Marketing, Cycling & Running, Design, Reviews, User Experience Design

“Simple is Best” is the motto of Jinbei Yamada, founder of Japanese bicycle maker Arrow Bicycles. I love this motto for its elegant phrasing, completely devoid of pretention and utterly consistent with its own meaning. There is no false dichotomy of “form versus function” to drive a pointless wedge between functional and decorative simplicity and…

Muddling Through eBay

Jun 24, 2007

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Christopher Fahey

in Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, Information Architecture, Information Design, Interface Design, Reviews, User Experience Design, Web

The online auction site eBay recently redesigned their site, and (as it usually has in the past) the new design is being subjected to some pretty harsh critique. When critics bash eBay’s design, they usually focus on the site’s general visual design, or on the information design of individual pages. Even I have in the…

Grace, not just Efficiency, in Queue Management

Jun 23, 2007

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Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Branding and Marketing, Business, NYC, Reviews, Social Interaction, User Experience Design

Large retail stores and fast-food restaurants have a simple choice when designing their checkout customer experience: Multiple registers, multiple lines, one line per register Multiple registers, single line This problem is known in the retail industry as “queue management”. The New York Times today features an article comparing the checkout experiences of several New York…

In Defense of PowerPointism

Apr 29, 2007

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Christopher Fahey

in Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, graphpaper.com, Information Design, Language, Personal, Social Interaction, Storytelling, User Experience Design

Will Wright‘s cryptic, clip-art crazy PowerPoint slides make sense when he’s right there talking about them. Microsoft’s PowerPoint is frequently blamed for the poor quality of many presentations and for a supposedly- disastrous state of communication in both the private and the public spheres. Public speakers are lambasted for their wooden stage presence, crippled by…

Predicting User Experience Success

Apr 20, 2007

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Christopher Fahey

in Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, Interface Design, Science, Social Interaction, TV & Movies, User Experience Design

A fascinating article in last Sunday’s New York Times documents a recent study in which it is shown that predicting the success of cultural products (such as movies or music) is impossible, and that a phenomenon called “cumultive advantage” — where people prefer something largely because other people already prefer it — will usually overcome…

Category: Branding and Marketing