Hey all. I’m Nick Disabato, an interaction designer from Chicago. I’m writing a book called Cadence & Slang that’s coming out in 2010. I’m writing, editing, designing, and typesetting it by myself. I’m revising it with the help of some close friends and colleagues. My friend Daniel Bogan is doing the illustrations. Right now I have a Kickstarter project going on to fund its independent production, and as of press time, we’re over 40% of the way there.

What’s inside the book

Cadence & Slang is a style guide for good interactions. A huge part of interaction design is coming up with creative solutions to unique situations. But at this point, the majority of it is about ensuring sensible, conventional solutions that are easy for people to understand, and useful once they’re adopted.

For better or worse, only a handful of significant interaction models have really gained traction in the past few decades. For example, in my daily life, I usually use just two: the keyboard-and-mouse of my computers, and the touchscreen on my phone. And while these models may change in the long term - I don’t expect people to use mice forever - they’re around for long enough, with enough products written for them, that conventions arise and rules can be codified. Fitts’s law, for example, is at its most useful when designing any interfaces that are controlled by a mouse.

But I don’t expect any guidelines to be distilled into black & white issues. All rules exist to be bent and broken by those sensitive enough to understand the tradeoffs in doing so. But by having these written down someplace, they may provide a framework, a starting point, for more humane, useful products. That’s my hope, at least.

Why this all matters

Cadence & Slang isn’t only for designers. It doesn’t talk in any lingo specific to our field; it’s not born of a scene that celebrates itself. Making good design a reality is about everyone adopting the right attitudes, no matter their job title. As Panic Inc.’s Steven Frank recently noted, good experiences run the entire way down the software stack. They require good performance and reliability; these problems concern the left-brained and the right-brained equally.

So how does this all happen? How do you create it? There’s no perfect formula, of course - especially not in a field that’s prone to reinventing itself every eighteen months. But having a place to start builds consensus between teams with different priorities.

Everybody says they want to make something that’s “simple,” “elegant,” “user-friendly.” But those terms are hollow if you refuse to address how they pertain to your product, and what you’ll do to get there. A fairly big chunk of Cadence & Slang exposes and addresses this - but again, as a starting point.

You’re part of this

Maybe you struggle with these problems as a freelancer, or as the lone designer in an organization that doesn’t yet understand the value of good experiences. Or maybe you’re part of management, and you’re wondering about the success of various simple, well-designed products over the past decade. No matter your role, I hope you’ll get something out of Cadence & Slang. If this sounds interesting so far, there’s a lot more information over at my Kickstarter page, where fancy pre-orders and other goodies can be yours on the cheap. I’ve also been writing a bunch of other long posts about usability and design, both inside said Kickstarter project and at a dedicated site, called I see what you did there.

I’m really excited at our progress so far. If you’d like to talk about anything, I’d love to hear from you: just fire an email over to nickd[at]nickd[dot]org.

Usability is not Binary

Somewhere along the line designers have created a set of conventions that supposedly determine if a website is usable or not. These “rules” have seen widespread adoption and are rarely questioned. Combine this with the web’s all or nothing mentality and you have a set of “rules” that if not followed precisely result in the having the label FAIL applied to it. But why are these conventions applied and followed so closely without thinking about why they exist?

Just trying to discuss these conventions online is often met with animosity. However, it is these conventions that have lead to the homogenization of design on the web. Lets be honest, 90% of websites have a navigation that runs across the top of the page, main content starts between 200 and 500 pixels from the top, and presentation is purposely separated from content. These are all fine, but why are they all of a sudden the basis from which we start every single project?

The Change is Coming

Elliot Jay Stocks released the slides from his presentation “The importance of beauty in absolutely everything” a few months ago, and I can’t help but agree with his assessment. Most of the websites online right now are BORING. Unfortunately it is far easier to apply the same boring style to a website instead of thinking about the potential for concept or proper design research. We have all seen the various design trends over the years; pixel fonts, web 2.0 gloss, grunge, the list goes on.

But what if instead we actually stopped for a second and thought about avoiding those absolute rules that go untested. What if we were able push the boundaries of usability, what if we began using presentation to support content? Maybe we would discover that the unquestionable rules of web design don’t hold quite as much weight as we thought they did. Everything is in a state of constant evolution, and web design is no different.

What I am really speaking about is context, which is constantly changing. The context in which these “rules” were made is most certainly not the same after any significant amount of time passes. Need an example? In Chicago it is supposedly still illegal to eat in a place that is on fire. In what context was this law made, and who in their right mind would eat in a burning building? I know this is an extreme example, but in five years maybe our laws of good web design will sound just as ludicrous.

Right now we really see this scenario in relation to usability conventions, but what other web design conventions exist that go untested?

Stop Beating Yourself Up

In these situations where we are struggling to find that solution that perfectly meets the objectives of the brief, that flash of inspiration seems like the only saving grace we have however the truth is 99% of the time it will never come, and I’m not the only one who feels this way. The truth is that the only thing that is going to help you out is more hard work. Instead of beating ourselves up looking for that miraculous moment of inspiration we should just come to terms with this. This also means that searching through “inspiration” posts and design galleries is not going to help. These post may be fun to look at, which there is nothing wrong with – I even enjoy putting them together – but it is going to take more work to actually achieve something.

The hard part is that sometimes this means that we are going to fail, we are going to create something that we are not 100% happy with. As Eric Karjaluoto explains in this article “Concerning Design Superstars,” anyone who tells you otherwise is either seriously delusional or an ego maniac. It took me a long time to realize this and accept it, but in the end I realized that it is completely ludicrous to think that your work is going to be absolutely spectacular every time. Instead it is far more likely that you are going to make plenty of mistakes in the course of your career, but drawing upon these mistakes is what it takes to progress as a designer.

The harder thing to realize is that doing less than stellar work from time to time does not make you a bad designer. Clients will compromise projects, time will run out, and budgets will dry up leaving you with a solution that most likely works and is acceptable by the client but doesn’t achieve your internal goals. This is going to happen, but what is important is that you pushed yourself along the way and learned something in the process.

Some Alternatives to Inspiration

Continually pushing to find that bit of inspiration that will make the project is not sustainable, and will most certainly lead to burnout. Instead, I have devised the following list of tips that have helped me get past creative block without frantically searching for that spark of inspiration.

1. Get out of the office for a while – As time continues to go on, and your deadline gets closer stress can really start to pile on making it even harder to think clearly and fueling your need for an instantaneous solution. If I can’t figure out a solution often times I try to reset my thought process by doing something completely unrelated for a while.
2. Give yourself more time – Inspiration is a very compelling idea because it comes quickly. The truth is that if you aren’t able to find an optimal solution to a design problem, then you either need more information to frame the problem or more time to fully grasp it. Sometimes just knowing that a deadline is a bit in the future can help you free your mind.
3. Start over – for me this means going back to the sketching process and starting all over again with a completely new approach. I make sure to clear my mind (sometimes letting a couple of hours pass if possible) and start on a completely fresh page to try and deviate as far as I can from my previous attempts.
4. Ask others for perspective – If you have access to other designers they can often be of great help when you find yourself in a tough spot. The outside perspective of another designer and their thought process can often help you develop ideas that you can build from.

These ideas might not be new, but they have helped me avoid the desperate search through visual “inspiration” sites at the last minute of a deadline. If you have any tips or tricks that help you without searching for that spark of inspiration please share them in the comments below.

What is a Macroscope?

If scientists use microscopes to see the small pieces of a larger whole, designers use their “macroscopes” to see “the whole” of a large mass of smaller actions. Designers use this tool to determine what the sum of the changes made to all those smaller pieces would have as a whole.

Additionally, he states that since we are able to see the larger whole of the issue, we are able to approach it from whole new ways of thinking that someone only looking at the smaller issue will never consider. His example is a historical one about the idea of growing produce in space, which takes place about 11:20 into the video. In it, a politician raises the point that for all we know about space a plant may choose to grow in a completely different way than it might on earth because of the difference in environment.

The Value this Concept Brings

The immediate parallel I drew after hearing Matt talk about this concept was our current economic situation. It seems like every time there is a dip in our economy it is the designers who are saying it is time to for clients to increase their spending, and do more marketing. And for the most part, it appears that the large majority of clients do not take this advice.

I originally thought this might be because of fear on the behalf of the design firm losing operational revenue, which is probably still true in most cases, but what if it is because we are seeing the same situation from different perspectives. The clients who are so close to the problem are completely unaware of the opportunities that are available to them because of the sheer magnitude of the problem as they see it. Designers on the other hand, looking at the problem from high above with their macroscopes see the opportunities lying outside of what is in direct view of the client.

When you start to look at the situation from the conceptual vantage point of the macroscope you start to see why there is such a disconnect between the designer and client (placing fear aside for a moment).

Other Similar Scenarios

But spending and recessions aren’t the only area where this disconnect exists, consider design revisions and you begin to see what I mean as well. Often times when clients suggest revisions to a project they do not understand how it will affect the entire piece. What may seem like a simple change to the size of a headline would throw off the typographic scale requiring adjustment to all subsequent type. Clients may not understand this, because they do not see the problem from the same perspective. When you are able to understand the differences in perspective, it completely makes sense why it is increasingly important to discuss and explain design decisions to clients, aside from all the normal reasons.

Matt brings up some other great examples in this presentation and I highly suggest that you give it a watch. Also, please feel free to share some similar examples of the macroscope in the comments below.

A New Approach

To those of you who have not heard of Kickstarter yet, you will be surprised to find out that the site turns the idea of crowdsouring around. The individual posts their idea for the project, and then the community helps by making donations. You could think about it as the small guy’s public television drive without the annoying hosts and panel of phone operators in the background. However, the key differentiator is the lack of risk associated with making a donation. If the project doesn’t reach its goal within the timeframe, then no money exchanges hands. This avoids a project being 35% funded with no way to fulfill the promises it made to its backers. For more even more information on how the site works, check out the “learn more” page.

Currently the projects being posted are by invitation only, which may be why so many of the projects listed on the site are interesting. Part of me thinks that maybe it should stay that way? Right now the projects are all highly interesting and full of potential, the obvious result of careful oversight by a panel talented and influential individuals. But I am digressing; the true innovation here is how quickly Kickstarter has changed my perception of the idea of crowdsourcing.

As it currently stands, Kickstarter is using crowdsouring to launch the projects of talented individuals, not take advantage of them. A system built to achieve good things, things that may exist outside the boundaries of what is financially lucrative. Things that make people smile. Right now I think we all could agree that we could use a couple more things like those being created utilizing the Kickstarter community.

My Kickstarter Project

Being the designer that I am, I immediately saw Kickstarter as the solution to a number of potential problems upon visiting for the first time. The most interesting to me, and the one I felt was potentially the best fit for the community is a book idea I had been holding on to for a while. The only problem keeping me and Marin from starting the project was a lack of initial funding to secure some necessary tools/supplies.

So with the help of Kickstarter I am proud to announce the “Chicago Griddle Guide” which if funded, will be the greasy spoon lovers dream guide to navigating the Chicago food Scene. I encourage you to check out the project and make a donation if the project interests you, Marin and I would really appreciate your support (or your help spreading the word). Plus the rewards for making a donation aren’t half bad either.

Free eBooks & Manifestos

Get a Design Job! – AIGA & IDSA

Taking Your Talent to the Web – Jeffery Zeldman

279 Days to Overnight Success – Chris Guillebeau

The Vignelli Cannon – Massimo Vignelli

The Bootstrapper’s Bible – Seth Godin

Testify: How Remarkable Organizations are Creating Customer Evangelists – Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba

The Design Funnel: A Manifesto for Meaningful Design – Stephen Hay

A Call to Arms: Twelve Proclamations of a Win Without Pitching Agency

Ten Tests of Your Positioning

Presentations

Icon Design – Jon Hicks

Design Control – Khoi Vinh

Writing Maintainable CSS – Natalie Downe

Improving Interface Design – Garrett Dimon

Close Your Browser: Finding Inspiration In The Offline World & I Care Because You Do – Elliot Jay Stocks

Pixel Pushing a Guide to Icon Design – Jon Hicks

Interaction Design for Web Designers – Eris Stassi & Jina Bolton

Wireframes for the Wicked – Nick Finck

The Importance of Beauty in Absolutely Everything – Elliot Jay Stocks

Resource Sheets & PDF Magazines

Typography Keyboard Layout – Smashing Magazine

Font Magazine

Online Graph Paper Collections (Dot, Cross, Grid, Perspective)

Copyright Explained: I May Copy It Right? (2nd in list) – Smashing Magazine

Tutorials & Brand Books

How to Write a Wordpress Plugin – DevLounge

Creative Solutions PDF Tutorials

Skype Brand Book

Illustrator CS4 How-To Guide – Von. R. Glitschka

Web Typography

Better CSS Font Stacks – Nathan Ford

Add Windows Vista Fonts to Your Stylesheets – Christian Montoya

SxSW Typography Panel

Web Typography Sucks SxSW 2007

***end rant*** So without further introduction, here are 25 great graphic design portfolios that have caught my attention over the past 6 weeks.

Andrew Droog

http://www.andrewdroog.co.uk

Area 17

http://area17.com/

Atelier 1A

http://www.atelier1a.com/

Beth Coller

http://www.bcoller.com/

Cypher 13

http://cypher13.com/

David Arias

http://www.arias.ca

David Mascha

http://www.davidmascha.com/

Design-ed

http://www.design-ed.co.uk/

Eric Baker Design

http://www.ericbakerdesign.com/

Hello Monday

http://www.hellomonday.net/

Ian Coyle

http://cargocollective.com/IanCoyle

Jan Felikis Kallwejt

http://www.kallwejt.com

Johannes Schaefer

http://cargocollective.com/yohannes

Jonas Valtysson

http://www.jonasval.com/

Kiss Me I’m Polish

http://kissmeimpolish.com/

Mark Studio

http://www.markstudio.co.uk/

Martin Balhar

http://www.balhar.com

Mig Reyes

http://www.migreyes.com/

Network Osaka

http://www.networkosaka.com/

Nick Dart

http://www.nickdart.com/

Oneil Edwards

http://oneiledwards.com/

Serial Cut

http://www.serialcut.com/

Stone Soup

http://www.stone-soup.co.uk/

This Studio

http://www.this-studio.co.uk/

Tolleson Design

http://www.tolleson.com/

It was not until I tried one of the little instant packets that I was hooked. These things taste pretty damn good, and I could store them anywhere the only problem was they were far more expensive than ground coffee. So when I started seeing the advertisements being made by Nescafe about their new Taster’s Choice packets being 400% less than the Starbucks packets I thought it would be worth a try.

Understanding the Messaging

Before I discuss the my impressions of the Taster’s Choice packets – which you might be able to guess from this article’s title – lets take a look at the messaging of both products.

Starbucks Via

Starbucks has done something extremely interesting. The strength of their brand has been used to convince consumers to give instant coffee another try. This says a lot for their brand, considering that most Americans perception of instant coffee has been extremely negative. But the fundamental thing here is that their messaging matches their product. They claim that VIA is instant coffee that tastes like fresh brewed, and it appears that consumers agree.

Starbucks Coffee Value & Values Campaign

Nescafe Taster’s Choice

Aside from the obvious value-based message that Nescafe offers instant coffee for far less than Starbucks, they are also visually implying similarities between their product and the new Starbucks VIA instant coffee. I don’t think anyone would try to deny this, by comparing the recent Nescafe campaign to a recent series of Starbucks print ads we can see that not only are the color palettes extremely close (looks closer in print), but they even use the exact same bold wood block style typeface at large display sizes.

Nescafe Taster’s Choice Microsite

Surface Deep Design

What Nescafe is ultimately trying to do by emulating the Starbucks brand is convince consumers that their product is just as good as Starbucks VIA, which unfortunately is just not the case. In fact, it is the exact product that Starbucks is trying not to be wrapped up in new packaging with design being used as a thin veneer to saying otherwise. While this advertising campaign may pay off in the short run, I find it very hard to believe that many of these customers expecting an experience similar to Starbucks VIA will become loyal customers. I would even argue that the disappointment that Nescafe is creating could go so far as to strengthen the Starbucks VIA brand, signifying just how much better VIA is than other instant coffees.

It just makes you think, when will marketers learn that design used to deceive is only bound to fail?

Milton Glaser is without a doubt a design legend, and I am sure that Arthouse Films have created a wonderful movie to showcase his talent. The film premiers on May 22nd in New York City (order tickets here) and on June 19th in San Francisco, so if you live in either of these areas I would highly suggest that you attend.

Official Film Synopsis

For many, Milton Glaser is the personification of American graphic design. Best known for co-founding New York Magazine and the enduring I ♥ NY campaign, the full breadth of Glaser’s remarkable artistic output is revealed in this documentary portrait, MILTON GLASER: TO INFORM AND DELIGHT. From newspapers and magazine designs, to interior spaces, logos, and brand identities, to his celebrated prints, drawings, posters and paintings, the documentary offers audiences a much richer appreciation for one of the great modern renaissance men.

Artfully directed by first time filmmaker Wendy Keys, the film glances into everyday moments of Glaser’s personal life and captures his immense warmth and humanity, and the boundless depth of his intelligence and creativity.

The Giveaway & Entering to Win

Entering is dead simple, just fill out the form directly below to register. Filling out the form will add you to the new Zinni Design email newsletter, which will be sent out no more than 3 times per year. After filling out the form you will receive and email asking you to confirm your subscription. You must confirm your subscription in order to be eligible. No purchase is necessary to win, however you must be a US resident over the age of 18 to enter. You may unsubscribe at any time after the contest has ended.

3 Winners will be randomly selected (2 posters, 1 book) on May 25th 2009 and notified by email to obtain mailing information. All winners will be announced on this page after they have been notified.

Good luck All!

Why Email is Appropriate for Small Businesses

Email has to be the most appropriate tactic I can think of for most small businesses. Not only is insanely cheap to send, but it completely compliments the business model of most small businesses. Here are a few examples:

• Most small businesses already do direct mail. Because most small businesses will send special offers, promotions, and reminders to their customers they are already in the habit of developing these materials. The transition from a printed piece to email should not only be easy for these clients, it should also save them money in printing and postage.
• Email is can be tracked and is easily segmented. Many small business owners will be sold once you show them all the information they will receive once they send their first campaign. Information such as open rates, links clicked, and
• Email is inexpensive. The pennies it costs to send an email as compared to the printing and postage expenses of direct mail can easily be made to fit within the budgets of small businesses. Not to mention that emails are usually designed as templates with content being added by the client. This means that after the initial invest their costs are far less.
• Email marketing is convenient and a relatively small commitment. For a small business, it is very convenient to update and send email without ever having to install any software or call up the designer. Additionally email campaigns can be successful with only 4 sent per year. This lack of commitment means small businesses can manage the work without having to hire new staff or add significant responsibilities to current staff.
• Small businesses already are used to providing great service. Most small businesses remain competitive by offering superior service as compared to their larger competitors. A side effect of this is that their communications are often seen as more genuine. People are more willing to hand over their email address to a small business they have grown to trust rather than a large corporation.

Tips For Helping Clients Build Successful Email Campaigns

• Have them add a sign-up form to their website. A large percentage of visitors to small business websites are often made up of loyal customers, who would be more than happy to sign up to receive news updates and special offers.
• Discuss the difference between opt-in and SPAM. Small business owners may not be as technically savvy as you and me, make sure to explain to them what constitutes SPAM. Explaining how people who choose to opt-in to their program are generally more responsive and the costs avoided by only sending to interested individuals usually sells this in right away.
• Develop an email strategy that supports current marketing initiatives. Small businesses usually participate in or hold local events, think about how email can be used to help promote these initiatives or how they can be used to find new subscribers. Also consider how current promotional/sales events can be used to obtain new subscribers.
• Provide documentation on the email delivery system. Because small businesses may lack a large number of computer savvy individuals, in-depth documentation should be provided to ensure that you are not receiving a ton of support calls, and that the program is not abandoned.

In addition to the design of the initial template, the recurring revenue of email campaign mark-ups can be a great way to secure some steady passive income. The great thing about email programs is that as your revenue grows so does the client’s. Email is something that allows you to provide a great service, help a business become more profitable, and make a living all at the same time, something all projects should hope to achieve.