From the category archives:

Misc

The Making of a New Online Museum

November 11, 2011

When the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore Maryland approached Fastspot to help solve one of its core challenges, allowing online visitors to browse its collection of works, we jumped at the opportunity. Here is a recap of some of the hurdles, surprises, successes, and failures that we encountered during the course of the project, with [...]

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RIP Steve. Thanks for Everything.

October 6, 2011

It is with a heavy heart I write this post, and I’m sure with a heavy heart that you read it. I was overcome by sadness when I learned of Steve Jobs’ passing last night, and it made me stop and think about why my emotions were so strong for a person I’d never met.
I [...]

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What Makes a Good Main Navigation?

August 30, 2011

Your website’s main navigation, the primary navigation presented to users who first arrive on your website, should do several things, and do them well.
The main nav should be simple. The language, the organization, the placement, the size of the font—everything—should be simple. This is the most useful element of your site, and much like a [...]

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Fun Stuff at Fastspot

April 22, 2011

Every now and then we get so busy, we need a blog post to help us all reconnect on the important things in life – like what we think is funny, or what app we are using to improve our quality of life, or what we are listening to behind the walls of our headphone [...]

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The 10/90 Flaw in CMS Design

March 15, 2011

There is a fatal flaw in many of the content management systems (CMS) out on the market today. I refer to it as the 10/90 failure. The CMS has naturally evolved to provide complex functionalities that are desirable to about 10% of its eventual users, often created in response to the request of developers and [...]

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Lorem Ipsum vs. Research and Strategy

December 7, 2010

There is an ongoing and never ending argument about the validity of using greek or “lorem ipsum” in design comps, along with photos deemed FPO (For Placement Only). Today on Twitter, Jason Fried of 37Signals argues that placeholder copy should never be used, stating “You can’t evaluate a design properly when you’re looking at fake [...]

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Storytelling is the Catalyst: From Technique to Experience

October 13, 2010

When it comes down to it great storytelling wins. Every time. A great story will trump great effects, great technique, great design, great production, anything else. Really good storytelling gets the viewer or reader emotionally invested, and once you have someone emotionally invested, you have them hooked.
Great storytelling should be the goal with everything we [...]

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Tell Me Why, Not How.

September 27, 2010

If you go see a medical specialist, you don’t tell her what to prescribe (ok well some of you might try), or what kind of physical therapy you want. You tell her what is wrong, what feels bad and you answer her questions. You give her the information and let her use her expertise to [...]

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Your First Clients Matter the Most

September 8, 2010

If you watch Derek Siver’s TED talk entitled “How to start a movement”, it becomes clear that the catalyst for a movement is the first fan.

This same theory applies to your clients. Your first clients take a big risk by being your first clients. They are willing to stick their neck out there and trust [...]

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The Junkformation Age: The Internet Is Making Us Lazy

August 13, 2010

Is the abundance of information available to us thanks to the internet a valuable addition to our lives or is it making us lazy? Are we entering an era where laziness and “buzz worthy” data rules the day, versus critical thinking and scholarly debate? For example, I can sit at my desk, and rather than [...]

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