You were not interested in compromising or following the status quo. You did what you thought was right. It didn’t always go perfectly, but you learnt, grew stronger and did it better.  You showed the world that design matters. That technology need not be about features and specs. That us, the users are special.

Although you have gone, you have created the tools that will build upon your legacy. We just need to have the courage to stick to our convictions and apply the same kind of drive to our own work.

Thank you Steve and good bye.

Front End Developer – HTML, CSS & jQuery

Full time - Salary consummate with experience

We are motivated to get someone awesome on board, we look forward to introducing you to the clever kids behind good marketing.

With so many of our clients and friends being badly affected by the floods, and we’d like to take this opportunity to say that our thoughts are with you and your families, if there is anything we do that can help you to get things back to normal, please let us know.

With that in mind, we have been thinking if there is a way we can use our design and digital skills to help in some way, so a few of us have got together over the weekend voluntarily, and developed a website that will allow retailers and services providers throughout the country to pledge and list discounts on offer for flooded residents and businesses.

Introducing Flood Discounts

Flood Discounts is a New Website to Centralise Discounts for Flooded Residents & Businesses – www.flooddiscounts.com.au

www.flooddiscounts.com.au has been launched on 16th January 2011 as a free web directory where businesses large and small can post discounts on a wide range of products and services that are needed to help victims rebuild their lives, homes and businesses.

Generous business owners can visit the site and post their discounts that are available for legitimate flood victims, continuing the giving of care and generosity that we have seen in recent days and weeks.

At this stage, over 50% of Australia’s flood victims are expected to be denied the ability to claim on their insurance, and will require extraordinary support from their community to rebuild their homes and businesses. And even those with insurance face the enormous task of rebuilding their lives with huge financial impact.

Retailers and suppliers of services are encouraged to register “special discounts” for flood victims who produce proof that their home or business was damaged by the floods.   We are looking for listings in the following categories:

Products

• home furniture
• business furniture
• homewares – linens, kitchen supplies, etc
• electrical equipment
• floor coverings
• window coverings
• hardware and painting supplies
• clothing and footwear
• toys
• food
• leisure
• hire cars and vans
• pool equipment
• timber, plasterboard and building materials
• turf, plants and landscaping supplies
• other

Services

• building, carpentry and cabinetmaking
• plastering
• plumbing and electrical
• pool services
• self storage facilities and removalists
• rubbish disposal and refuse collection
• building certification and other inspection services
• cleaning services
• counseling
• photographic restoration and digital conversion
• health and beauty
• landscaping
• handyman
• other

It is easy and free to list discounts offered by your business.  Just visit www.flooddiscounts.com.au and click on “register your discounts”.

For more information please visit:

• www.flooddiscounts.com.au
• www.facebook.com/flooddiscounts
• Twitter @flooddiscounts
• Phone Rebecca Wilson on 0408006176 for more information.

Flood Discounts has been proudly and voluntarily developed by Stretch Marketing and Niche Studio.  It is our hope that it will be owned by the community, and its success fed by the people who recommend it to others and post their discounts.  We thank you in advance for your support, and ask you to send this on to your networks and friends.

One of the things we pride ourselves on at Niche is really smart User Experience (UX) design on websites.  Clever UX design can mean the difference between a customer staying on your site or leaving it; or buying an additional product; or really loving your brand.

As with any design, it gives you the opportunity to persuade users of your site into behaving or interacting in a particular way, so it’s important to get it right.

But to what extent do you need to – and to what extent should you – persuade people?

What the heck is “black hat” design?

I was recently enjoying a really awesome presentation by Harry Brignull of Dark Patterns, who spoke at UX Brighton about “black hat” UX design. Simply put, “black hat” UX design covers a whole area of User Experience design whereby designers trick users into selecting a particular (and usually more profitable) option on a website where money is exchanged for products / services.

A great example of this is when airlines have a pre-selected check box on your airline booking form online that forces you to pay extra for a service that you might not be aware of.

Whilst this may not seem quite so bad when it includes, say, a carbon offset fee, when it comes to travel insurance or extra baggage fees, people are likely to be duped into paying for something they never wanted or needed.

It’s misleading to the customer, and it’s bad for your brand.

So why is “black hat” UX so evil?

Brignull draws a beautiful parallel here: black hat UX is essentially like being at the grocery store, and having the store manager come up and sneak something into your shopping cart.

Black hat UX specifically designs stealthy “add-ons” so that they will be easily missed by our already stretched attention spans.

The problem here is that whilst, in the real world, that huge box of Coco Pops might stand out quite obviously on top of your healthful greens, our eyes are constantly filtering data in the digital world. We are skim readers and our focus is almost always stretched by content overload.

Black hat UX takes advantage of this filtering by specifically designing stealthy “add-ons” and other tricky (and costly) extras so that they will be easily missed by our already stretched attention spans.

An Air New Zealand booking form sets paid insurances to default, with the hopes of catching passengers unaware.

But isn’t black hat UX good for profit?

In the short term, it might seem that black hat UX is profitable for your business, and there’s no denying that plenty of big companies use it to scam their customers all the time.

However, look at the other side of the coin – here’s the damage that black hat UX design can do to your brand:

1. A sneaky user experience on your site can lead to very bad word of mouth – if you piss off Jane Smith by sneaking add-ons into her online shopping experience, she’s unlikely to refer you, and her facebook friends are sure to hear about it = very bad result for your brand.
2. Users may well bombard your other means of communication (office phone/call centre) to get out of services or products you’ve sneakily signed them up to – this wastes your business’s resources, and leads to drawn-out and angry phone conversations that leave your customers furious.
3. There could be massive legal ramifications – if your black hat UX is just dodgy enough, you may well find yourself in trouble with the law for misleading consumers.

What’s the way forward?

Brignull advocates the need for a code of ethics that UX Designers should comply to, and can use as an “out” when their bosses or clients ask them to design something that is clearly lacking in moral fibre – or worse, outright misleading.

I wholeheartedly agree, and I wish that businesses were held more accountable to the promises they make about their products and services, particularly in the retail market. But then, any business that bases its profits solely on trickery and sleight-of-hand probably has issues that are much bigger than any black hat UX design can fix.

A UX design code of ethics would also help protect businesses from consulting designers and developers who promise short term results but deliver nothing but a PR nightmare down the track.

I’d be keen to see comments from other UX designers and businesses as to whether a code of ethics is worthwhile, or whether you’re for or against black hat UX in the first place.

• Check out Harry Brignull’s full presentation at UX Brightong here
• Read more about the tricks that the black hat operators use here

Images are from darkpatterns.org

We’re all for feel-good MOments here at Niche, and what better way to feel good than with a ‘stash!

Indy and Mikael (and “Zac Efron”), from our Account Management team, have both volunteered to finely tune their razor strokes for the month of Mo’vember to help raise money and promote awareness surrounding prostate cancer and depression amongst men.

We’d love it if you’d pledge your support via a small donation to our Movember team –

• Sponsor Indy’s slammin ‘stash
• Sponsor Mikael’s meticulous mo’

Mikael is taking votes on which mo to grow as there is no better way to make a permanent decision about ones fashion style than by a democratic vote. The styles are:

Or why not get involved yourself? For some inspiration for your ‘stash, check out these nifty options.

Stay tuned to the Niche Blog to see the ‘stashes in action! Check out the day one pictures below (we have already reprimanded Mikael for inappropriate beard growth and he has agreed he will step into line!).

You’ll also note that “Zac Efron” has shot ahead in the ‘stash-growing saga, with a sporting Dali-esque number.

How do you sell a suit?

Well, first off, it helps if it’s not just any suit.  We were well and truly covered on that count: the client was Mark Ferguson of Precision Tailors, and let me tell you, that guy does a mean suit.

But what is a suit, really? And why would you spend your hard-earned cash on a made-to-order, tailored suit by Precision? The answer to this question is what we had to communicate to Mark’s potential clients.

And the answer is: confidence.

When you put on a tailored suit, and the cut is just right, and the fabric is of beautiful quality, and the workmanship is practically perfect in every way — you get a swagger in your step, because you know you look good.

People see the swagger first; it’s the confidence that gets you noticed. The fine cut of your suit merely lends credence to the kind of man people already know you are.

But how do you sell confidence?

Hot design tip #1: Good photography is worth the investment. Good photography wins every time. Hands-down, much of the best design work we produce has good photography in common.

“Romeo looks down the barrel of a gun at you – he looks like a million bucks. He’s taking your money, and your girl too.”

And we were very fortunate, with this job, to have a massive arsenal of awesome photography to choose from. The main challenge was picking the photo that best conveyed the confidence you’ll feel when wearing a Precision Tailors suit.

The decision came down to two contenders, in exhibit A below.

In the one on the left, our Romeo looks lovely and his suit sits perfectly; but in the image on our right, Romeo looks down the barrel of a gun at you – he looks like a million bucks. He’s taking your money, and your girl too.

You already know that the suit is perfect; it doesn’t really matter that it’s sitting slightly askew. Because the confidence he exudes is what the customer is buying.

Game, set and match.

We compiled the design with both options for our client – with beautiful typography laid in on the reverse, and a photo of Romeo with his Juliet, to win over the brides who might be shopping with him.  The tailoring process was succinctly explained on the reverse of the card, with a nice, clear call to action in the footer.

And of course, our confident Romeo got the girl (or the design gig, at least).

Hats off to Kwintowski Photography for a gorgeous job well done.

If you’re in the market for a damn fine suit, and you live in Brisbane (or somewhere else in Australia), Mark at Precision can fix you up a set of gorgeous threads using some of the best quality materials available.

And if you’re in the market for some clever design, talk to the clever kids behind good marketing.

What’s the first thing that happens when you get a Real Estate marketing flyer in the mailbox?

More often than not, it goes straight into the rubbish. Because you already know that all those agents are exactly like all those other agents you’ve dealt with before.  ”Call us for a free market appraisal!”, or, “We have interested buyers ready and waiting!”

It’s slimy, it’s predictable, and it’s generic.

So when Stephen from the Remax Everything Property Group spoke to me about sending direct mail to luxury residential apartment owners in Riparian Plaza and Quay West in Brisbane, we knew that whatever we sent them had to be something sincere and passionate.

Communicating sincerity in Real Estate?

The great thing about Stephen Pahl is that he is a sincere and passionate Agent, and we thought the best thing to do was to start by giving the recipients something they might actually like to see – a beautiful, architectural photo of their building – and follow it up by showcasing his passion and understanding of these luxury residential buildings.

With carefully crafted copy, we broached a friendly and knowledgeable familiarity with each property and opted for non-pushy, approachable call to action, highlighting Stephen’s expertise in inner-city luxury property marketing, his professionalism, and a simple statement of services.

To top it off, we asked Stephen to sign each marketing card by hand in blue biro – to make it clear that this was definitely not a generic, printed signature. We wanted his market to see that he was all about little details and going the extra mile.

The results? An immediate response.

The impact of a well thought out marketing approach is that it gets noticed, and your target market responds and enquires.  This is exactly what happened for Stephen:

“The very next day after mail out to Riparian Plaza I had an immediate client reponse. That’s the bottom line!”

It makes us incredibly enthused to see that with clever, well-worded copy, and a simple and elegant design, we were able to show Stephen as a professional, sincere and experienced Agent worthy of his market’s business.

“I wanted to especially thank you and your team for a great job done on my Riparian Plaza and Quay West brochures. They look fantastic and all the hard work identifying and defining a unique positioning statement and approach for this project speaks for itself in the immediate results obtained from the target audience.”

Marketing in 1 page

Design Fundamentals

• The Design Process
• Art vs Design

Graphic Design

• The Graphic Design Process
• Colours – Spot, CMYK or otherwise
• Paper Sizes
• Branding
• Logos
• Typography
• Templates and Multi-page

Web/Digital Design

• The Web Design Process
  • Research
  • Brief
  • Users
  • Sitemap
  • Wireframes/Information Architecture
  • Content
  • Design
  • Build
  • Template
  • Content Entry
• Technologies
  • CMS
  • SEM
  • Open Source
  • Social Networking
• Techniques
  • Web Fonts
  • Web Standards
  • Forms
  • Email Newsletters

It’s straight-forward, plain-speaking, opinionated info on what you need to know without messing about with what you don’t.

When it comes to design, whether it is online or in print it is easy for things to get over thought, over done and over priced or conversely, under thought and half-baked. We want to keep things focussed on what’s most important. Thoroughness and process are important, but we intend to walk the line between clever and useful and the over-thought an unnecessary. We don’t intend to be authoritative or unbiased, but we do intend to be useful and informative.

We plan to expose the design process and make everyone a little cleverer in the process.

We are also using this blog to develop our Good Marketing Design guide a book for marketers, clients and anyone interested in design to know the secrets of how we work and how to get the best from your designer.

Who are we?