Knockout Designs

The Future of Entertainment & Media

Damir — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 04:58:13 +0000

Image courtesy www.flickr.com/photos/kozumel/2349758304/

Something is still missing in today's modern Internet enabled world. Entertainment still sucks. I'm not talking about concerts or theater. I'm talking movies, music and games. No I'm not talking about the content either (although that is debatable too). I'm talking about the content delivery.

The Current State of Media Delivery

We have made so many advances with the Web and cloud computing but we still rely on old school methods of delivering our entertainment. DVDs, BluRays, Pay-per-view TV etc. What's wrong with these content delivery methods you ask?

Well it's not that there is something horribly wrong with these methods. The point is that the Internet will open up so many more opportunities and advantages than ever thought possible. Content owners will be able to make more money than ever before. Content viewers will be offered more value for money than ever before. The entire system will be more efficient. Let me show you how.

The Benefits of Streaming Entertainment Via the Internet

World-wide access: You will have access to all your movies, music, games etc. from anywhere with a reasonably good Internet connection
Security: If your house burns down you will not lose any of your media
Television becomes social: Most people like Facebook. Most people like TV. Throw these two ingredients in a blender and ta-da! Social television. I'm not a big fan of this idea. I think Facebook is already taking up too much time in my life, but I can see other people using this feature. Friends commenting on movies or shows that they decided to share with each other. Ahh who am I kidding? I would probably use it too.
More effective advertising: Imagine you are watching an ad on your TV and you are interested in the product that is being advertised. Currently you need to stop watching TV, open up your web browser and search for the product that is being advertised. Sure you can still find that product with little effort but it is not effortless meaning some people cannot be bothered getting off their couch to look it up. This leads to less effective advertising. Now imagine being able to click on the ad and receive instant information about the product on your TV. That's a huge selling point for corporations and businesses!
Less advertising: Hopefully more effective advertising will lead to less ads on TV. That's hopeful but I'm not betting on it. What I am betting on though, is that advertisements will not be forced on us the same way they are now. Instead of showing them during movies or shows, they could be shown in more subtle ways. This may take time to catch on but you cannot expect Internet users to suddenly accept an influx of forced ads. We are exposed to ads on the Internet, but most sites now understand that if you annoy your users with ads (e.g. splash screens, huge banners etc.) they will leave.

The Drawbacks

You no longer own your content. You trust an organisation to stream the media that they own. You simply pay for the access to that content. If they go bankrupt you may lose everything.
Privacy. Whoever positions themselves as the market leader in this field will no doubt use the data that they collect about customers to their advantage. This may be to show more catered advertisements or other potentially unethical actions.

What is Holding Us Back?

It's not really the infrastructure. Most of us in the developed world have access to broadband speeds fast enough to stream SD quality movies at the very least. Those living in the U.S.A, Korea, Japan and most of western Europe can stream HD quality movies without problems.

What is holding us back is corporate greed. Those corporations controlling the access to this content. They are taking forever to catch up with the ways of the Internet. Why? Because they still make a lot of money doing the same things they always did. These companies are in no rush to change. They fail to understand that they would make way more money than they currently do if they opened their eyes. Or they understand but are afraid of the risks involved with change.

The technology is there but how is it going to work? Who will solve the problem? Is it going to be Google in corporation with Sony taking over the market with their Google TV? Maybe it is going to be Apple, Hulu or Netflix? At this point I don't think that it is going to be any single one of these companies. They will all contribute in some way. Actually they already are contributing. Steve Jobs talked about this on the D8 conference claiming that the problem is the "go-to-market strategy".

What surprises me is that there is little talk about the biggest issue at hand, one I touched on earlier.

Content Ownership

I'm super excited about the day that I can get rid of all the different boxes in my house and just have one thing that does everything. Goodbye set-top boxes, gaming consoles, DVD & Blu Ray players and all the remote controls that come with you. Goodbye to all the discs taking up entire cupboards in my house. Hello to minimalism and the future. It's going to be so awesome!

Except there's this one tiny, little problem: With all those discs gone, how do I know if I own the movies that I purchased? The answer is: I don't of course.

Not only that but what if I use one company's system and then decide that I don't really like that company anymore and I want to switch to a new one. Surely I can "transfer" my media library, right? Maybe.

Those are some serious issues and question that still need to be answered. One possible way to circumvent the whole issue by using a completely different model to users acquiring a media library over time by buying media. If the purchasing model was ditched in favour of an ad-based or subscription based model then users wouldn't lose anything because they weren't tricked into thinking that they own it in the first place. Then again these business models may not suit content owners. Maybe they see more revenue potential in a model where users are required to purchase rights to view their content.

Summary

There are a lot of issues at stake here. It is a complicated situation and that is probably why we haven't seen a solution yet. We are definitely moving in the right direction though. In the meantime stop watching so much TV and go outside for a walk.

Why Flash is Bad

Damir — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:45:08 +0000

What Flash websites look like on the iPad & iPhone.

All the time I hear clients ask for a Flash website or a website that has Flash interaction on it. Flash is a technology which lets you create fancy, interactive interfaces and websites. The following are some examples that clients will point to and say "this is what I want":

"These are great works of creativity, you're out of your mind saying that these are bad websites", I can hear you screaming.

Well I would agree with you on the first point. They are great works of creativity. Call it art even. I admire the people who create such imaginative work and I could learn lots from them. However, I will stand completely firm in calling them bad websites. They are bad websites. Actually, they are not websites at all.

Flash Sites Are Not Websites

Firstly let me explain that these sites are not really websites. Yes, they may look and feel like websites but they are not. They are programs that happen to run in your web browser. Apps if you like. They don't play well with the Web and this means that they are often:

Less usable. Most Flash sites completely re-invent their interface from scratch. This is not the case with traditional websites, which use common input fields, link behaviour, navigation patterns etc.
Inaccessible. Web browsers who have eye-sight problems can use screen readers to consume content online. Screen readers are programs which, as the name suggests, read the contents of the page aloud. Screen readers cannot "see" any text on Flash sites. Hence you will never see a government website that uses Flash exclusively.
Bad for SEO. Even though Google has recently claimed that they are better at indexing Flash sites than in the past, it does not compare to regular websites. Flash sites appear lower in Google results than normal websites. Period.
Harder to maintain and update. Traditional websites separate content from design making it easy to update one without affecting the other.
Don't work at all on iPhone and iPad. Apple has rejected Flash as a technology on their mobile devices. The reason? They drain the battery and often suffer from bad usability.
A lot more expensive to make. It takes more development time to re-invent the wheel every time than it does to use existing frameworks. Flash does have a framework (i.e. Flex) but even then you are left needing to re-invent most of the wheel. This extra development time equates to higher budget requirements for such projects.
Doomed for a risky future. Another worry with Flash is that it is a proprietary standard owned by Adobe corporation. But then why should you care about this legal stuff? You care about the end product. This isn't really an important factor for you. Well sorry to brake it to you but yes it is, for the following reasons:
- Proprietary products mean that us website designers need to pay Adobe for the software that is required to create Flash sites. Initially web designers fork out the money for the software, but ultimately it is the client that pays for it in higher design fees. Open source technologies don't suffer from this drawback.
- It slows down progress and innovation of the Web in general. If we rely on one company to innovate our only web design tool then what's to stop that company from becoming lazy? What if the company goes bankrupt?

The Alternative

So how can you create engaging, aesthetically beautiful websites that work and don't suffer from the problems above?

Enter HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Yes, three different technologies. Each one specialising in a different aspect of the website.

HTML deals with the accessibility and SEO side of things, CSS with the design and visuals, and JavaScript with interaction. These technologies are used to build normal websites that integrate perfectly as part of the Web.

Some examples of HTML / CSS / JS websites:

Google
YouTube (uses Flash for video delivery but is working on alternatives)
FaceBook
Twitter

Ok these are popular websites but not exactly an example of beautiful, creative design. Take a look at Creattica and CSS Gallery for examples of those.

In (Slight) Defence of Flash

I have given Flash a bit of a beating in this post. Obviously it is not all bad. At a time when the regular way of building websites (HTML / CSS / JS) was very primitive, pale and boring, Flash stepped right up and offered something completely different.

At a time when most websites were just boring text and a few images, Flash gave us an alternative to create really immersive experiences. It has helped push the web forward as the standard technologies needed to catch up, and they did.

These days we have HTML 5, CSS 3 and JavaScript Canvas. It is possible to create really cool websites without Flash, and thereby without the drawbacks that I have listed above. Flash still has a few advantages over regular websites (3D support, access to microphone and webcam, nice font rendering), but the advantages are far outnumbered by disadvantages in my opinion.

Flash is not the future of web design, but immersive and creative user experiences using open source technologies are.

Grand Theft Auto: Geelong

Damir — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 02:57:56 +0000

If you love, or are aware of, the video game Grand Theft Auto and the city Geelong, then you'll love this. It's my little parody of both. Official release date yet to be announced.

Feel free to share this poster design and build upon it. I would appreciate a link back or mention though.

User Experiences That Make My Blood Boil

Damir — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:46:02 +0000

Image courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/

Bad user experiences. Moments when you just want to shake the electricity out of your monitor, throw your controller at your console or just plain go overboard.

Ok time to calm down if you do any of those things listed above. Here are some bad user experiences.

1. DVD & Blu Ray Loading Screens

For an industry suffering from software piracy you would think that the film industry's main goal would be to make the home viewing experience as pleasant as possible. Wrong!

Not only are you exposed to legal warnings and a Nazi propaganda-like clip telling you how pirating a movie is as bad as breaking into and stealing a car. No, that is only the start.

To follow are another half a dozen of intro animations for every company involved with the movie's production. Oh, and don't forget to press the Play button at the main menu screen. No wonder people choose to pirate movies.

2. Video Game Splash Screen

Video games aren't quite as bad but they certainly deserve a mention. At least they make everyone sit through their annoying intro, pirates and genuine customers alike.

I can understand the marketing team's assumption that forcing the user to watch a 5-10 second animation of their logo every time they want to just relax and play the game. Really, I'm sure users are totally delighted and left with a great impression about the company.

Here's what I don't get: The "Press Start to Play" screen. Why? Just give me the main menu, or even better load the game from the last checkpoint.

3. Playstation 3's Method of Re-charging Controllers

Other than the PS3 not being able to play half the video formats that I have acquired over the years, I really have no major complaints. It's a fine piece of machinery.

It does have one flaw which degrades its user experience though. In order to recharge your wireless controller, you need to connect it to the console via a USB cable. All good so far. Glad I don't have to buy batteries for it like with some other consoles. Here's the problem: The console has to be turned on while the controller is charging.

I can't just turn the console off, connect the controller and have it fully charged the next time I choose to play. The system doesn't adjust to suit my needs. I have to adjust to suit the console's needs.

I have to leave the system on and remember to come back later to switch the system off once the controller is fully charged. What a lovely chore!

4. Wrist-cut Pro

I like to place my laptop (which happens to be a Macbook Pro) on my lap when I use it. It's really comfy to just sit down on the couch and surf the web, although for guys this is apparently a health risk.

What definitely isn't comfy is the razor sharp aluminium case that pretty much cuts into my arms as I use the keyboard. Ouch!

5. Drupal's CKEditor

Wordpress was the first CMS I worked with. Actually it is not really a CMS, though it is very popular and gets the job done for most small-medium websites. Since I have moved on to Drupal, which I must say is very powerful. You can make some pretty sweet websites with Drupal! Unfortunately, it is still a CMS made by geeks for geeks and this reflects on the overall user experience.

In Drupal's defence, CKEditor is not part of its core system. It is a third-party rich text editor making up for the CMS's lack of a default rich text editor. In my experience it is the best one available for Drupal. It is better than tinyMCE and FCKeditor, but it still sucks.

Here's what is wrong with it:

It fails to insert links properly. Selecting some text and making it a link will result in the link being placed next to the text, in about 70% of cases, for no apparent reason (see screenshot above). Sometimes you will click the "insert link" button and start typing the URL only to realise that your URL was entered as plain text in the content area. The "insert link" pop-up box failed to gain focus properly.
It makes highlighting text difficult. Often it will select the text around the part that I try to select.
Every now and then hitting backspace takes you back to the previous page instead of deleting text. Very, very annoying. I have to save regularly (no auto-save feature in Drupal) or face the risk of losing the blog post that I was typing up. Feels like Word '98 all over again.
When editing content, you must firstly click the textarea that you want to add text to, then scroll down. If you do it the other way, CKEditor will take you back to the start of the content forcing you to scroll all the way to the end, again. This gets me every time.

Oh and CKEditor crashed on me while I was typing this very section.

Summary

Phew! Feels good to get all this out of my system. There are so many more bad user experiences I could talk about. I might leave that for some other time.

Interestingly, most of these annoyances are really quite small in nature and are probably easy to fix.

Instead of scaring your loyal viewers, praise them for choosing to support your industry. Perhaps after they have watched the movie? I bet the people in charge of making those videos would lol at this proposal.
Skip that silly "press start to play" screen. It is cute when you see it in Super Mario Bros. on a NES. It is not cute on a PS3 or Xbox 360.
Video game consoles don't need to be switched on to charge controllers.
I haven't used the newest range of Macbook Pros. I hope they still look good without cutting into your flesh.
CKEditor, fix your bugs.

So You Need a Website?

Damir — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 11:26:19 +0000

It's time to get a website. Great!

In this article you will find out what's involved in a website & graphic design project so that you are better informed about the process. Note that I mostly talk about websites in this article but a lot of the things I talk about apply to Knockout Designs' other services as well.

Knockout Designs ain't no sucker!

Before I go on to talk about a regular website design process, let me first explain to you how Knockout Designs differs from other web "design" places.

Knockout Designs is all about quality. Quality website design. Websites that actually work for businesses. Websites that appear prominently in Google search results. Websites that convert visits into sales.

This is no "cheap $400 websites" type of company. If that's what you're after, just Google "cheap websites" and you will find plenty of results. Then if you find that this doesn't work for you, give me a call and I'll be happy to make you a proper website.

Prerequisites

The following are the key factors that need to be in place before commencing on a website design project.

Purpose

In order to make a good website for you, I need to know why you need a new website (or a website re-design). So ask yourself, exactly why do you need a website? What would you like to achieve with it?

Is it to sell a product, promote yourself on the Web, connect with your customers through social networking or something else altogether.

It's ok if you are not exactly sure because you are entering unfamiliar ground. After all that's what I'm here for: To guide the project along the right path, so that you end up with a quality product.

Existing Branding

Do you have quality branding in place? If the answer is no, or if your current logo and identity design is dated then I highly recommend that this is taken care of before the website design. Knockout Designs offers branding & logo design services by the way.

Even without a proper logo or branding in place, it is still possible to make the website. The end result will just not be as good. I understand that you have a limited budget but without a proper foundation to build upon, your web presence will be poor. In other words Garbage in, Garbage Out...

A Budget

Now this one is obvious but you may be asking yourself what price range am I looking at? This one is really difficult to answer and one of the reasons why I don't post prices on this website.

Design projects can vary greatly, but here is a rough hint:

For a logo design or simple one-page website design you would be looking at a 3-digit figure.
For a complete branding overhaul including logo design, creation of style guide, business card design, CMS website design etc. you would be looking at a 4-digit figure.
For consultancy work, an agreed upon hourly rate would be negotiated.

The best way to find out is by getting in touch with me and requesting a quote.

The Website Design Process

Say Hi

Tell me what you are after. We can then have a chat about the project and I will come back with a quote.

Information Gathering

Before I start the design process I will need your logo and any other brand assets (see requirements above). Additionally I will need any text and images that you want to include on your website.

Concept Design

Time to go ahead and create the concept design. Think of this as a prototype or preview of what your website will look like. This is a really useful tool since it clarifies that we are on the same page before actual development work commences.

Website Development

Sit back and relax while I do all the work. When the website is ready, I will put it up on a test server and send you a link so you can check it out. You will be able to see and use the website. Kind of like a test drive really.

Finished Project

The website is deployed live on the Internet. I will show you how you can login to your website to make changes or add new content. It's easy and I am always a phone call away if you need me.

Summary

Your website should reflect your business. Your customers should have a similar experience when they visit your website or if they walk in to your store or deal with you directly.

The Web is a brand new opportunity for a lot of businesses. There is more competition than ever. At the same time there has never been a time where you can reach out to so many customers as easily as today.

These days a knockout web presence can mean the difference between success and failure. So it's important to get someone who can see the big picture and deliver the right solution for your business.

Feel free to contact me for a quote, or to answer some of your questions.

Showcase of Yugoslavian Album Cover Designs

Damir — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:16:39 +0000

Yugoslavia always enjoyed a rich musical culture and today its descendant countries continue to do so. While its music is still readily accessible, unfortunately the same cannot be said about the graphic design work that stems from that region.

So I decided to pull together some of the creative cover designs that I could find on the net as well as the memorable ones that I remember from the past. However if you find that I left out an obvious masterpiece then feel free to mention it in the comments section.

I apologise for some of the poor quality images here, but then again that is part of the experience when looking at some retro graphic design work.

1970s - 1980s: The Early Years

Kad bi bio bijelo dugme

Artist: Bijelo Dugme
Year: 1973

This cover, which I imagine would have been a little provocative back in the mid 70s, was the debut album of the most popular rock band to ever emerge from Yugoslavia, and possibly the Balkans as a whole.

Bijelo Dugme (translation: The White Button) drew influences from traditional folk as well as American blues & hard rock music. The album cover reflects this cheeky and rebellious nature by showing a female wearing a denim jacket exposing plenty of cleavage. Their trademark white button also adds an extra touch to this cover.

Sta bi dao da si na mom mjestu

Artist: Bijelo Dugme
Year: 1975

A year later, the same group came up with another album whose cover shares a lot of the similar design traits as the first one. From these covers I have a feeling that life in the 70s wasn't too bad in Yugoslavia.

Prljavo Kazaliste

Artist: Prljavo Kazaliste
Year: 1979

The Prljavo Kazaliste logo is a parody of the Rolling Stone's logo, which was designed 8 years earlier. It is the work of Mirko Ilic, a famous Yugoslavian graphic designer who was also involved in some graphic design work for Bijelo Dugme. He later moved to the U.S. where he created illustrations for Time, The New York Times & The Wall Street Journal.

1980s - 1990s: The Golden Era

Mrtva Priroda

Artist: Riblja Corba
Year: 1981

Riblja Corba were arguably the face of the Yugoslavian heavy metal scene. Known for their politically provocative as well as dark lyrics, this disturbing image complements their music and also matches the name of the album Mrtva Priroda (translation: Dead Nature).

Their iconic logo (which translates to "fish stew") completes this album cover, making it stand out from the crowd of its time.

Dok cekas sabah sa sejtanom

Artist: Zabranjeno Pusenje
Year: 1985

(translation: while you're waiting for the dawn with the devil)

The reason I like this cover is because it is such a mess. There's so much colour it is hard to actually see what is in the picture. So in that way it perhaps tries to convey what it is like for the guy drinking with the devil.

Adding to the interest are the traditional wallpapers and table cloths which were a pretty standard look for restaurants and pubs of that time.

Kokuzna Vremena

Artist: Merlin
Year: 1985

Apparently the word "kokuzna" isn't really translatable but means something along the lines of "poor". So in conjunction the album would translate to "Poor times", so let's just leave it at that.

Ujed za dusu

Artist: Riblja Corba
Year: 1987

Another dark and mystical cover for Riblja Corba's Ujed za dusu (translation: Soul Bite). All of Riblja Corba's cover designs that are featured here were designed by Jugosla Vlahovic, a Belgrade born designer.

Nesto lijepo treba da se desi

Artist: Merlin
Year: 1989

The title of this album suggests that something beautiful is about to happen. If features a young man looking, with anticipation, into the distance of a clear and blue sky. There is a general feeling of positivity in this work.

In the following years, something did happen but it was neither beautiful nor positive.

1990s - 2000s: The War Years

Zbogom, Srbijo

Artist: Riblja Corba
Year: 1993

Again sorry about the low-res image. This one is a quite an interesting cover though. It is a parody of the double-headed eagle which appears on Serbia's flag, as well as kind of a sequel to the earlier album Mrtva Priroda.

The album is one of the first that was released after the war in Yugoslavia broke out. It features a number of politically related songs. Although Riblja Corba were later associated with right-wing and nationalistic views, the lead track Zbogom Srbijo featured anti-regime lyrics.

2000s - 2010s: After Yugoslavia

No Sikiriki

Artist: Edo Maajka
Year: 2004

The song No Sikiriki (translation: no worries) was amongst the first rap songs to achieve mainstream popularity in the countries that emerged after the break up of Yugoslavia.

It openly mentions the war and the rapper's attitude to proactively change his state of mind into a positive and happy one. Thereby finally coming to terms with the past.

The cover design does a great job at communicating the message. The artist Edo Maajka (translation: Edo The Mother) is pictured as a motherly figure, who through her own actions creates a positive environment in which to live.

Burek

Artist: Dino Merlin
Year: 2004

Burek is a traditional Bosnian dish.

This bright and cartoony design outlines the shape of a Burek. In connection with the album it reflects the artist's traditional style while also staying in tune with modern trends.

Balkansko a nase

Artist: Edo Maajka
Year: 2008

The image shows a black and white silhouette of a young pionir. "Pioniri" were the youth of Yugoslavia, or more precisely a communist movement, used to spread ideologies at a young age.

The notable thing about this image are the colours. Red, white and blue were the colours of the Yugoslavian national flag. However with the use of red and white stripes for the scarf, as well as white stars for the hat (the original pionir hat included only one red star) the image that is communicated here is that of the USA and capitalism instead of Yugoslavia and socialism.

There is an interesting blog post which discusses the origins of this image in further detail.

A New Blog is Born

Damir — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:09:14 +0000

The brand new Knockout Designs Blog is a place where you will be able to find topics on the following:

Web Design, Graphic Design, Identity Design
Social Media
Innovations on the Web
Technology & Design in general

I may deviate away from this list but that is the agenda for now. I'm also planning to squeeze in a few articles that are relevant to Australia and the Geelong region in particular. So if you are an Australian designer interested in finding out the state of web design in Geelong, or wouldn't mind seeing something out of the norm that you can't find on other blogs: Stay tuned!