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Agencies Design

Great article about the differences in Traditional and Interactive Creative

An ongoing theme/struggle that I find in my day to day work life is the notion that traditional creatives can do interactive creative with the flip of a switch or by watching a few presentations. Obviously from some of my previous posts I do not agree with this “idea” and from my experience none of my colleagues in this field do either.

I found an article this morning that, yet again, argues this point. I will admit from time to time I need to read what others are going through because it makes me feel like this issue is everywhere and not just in my little world. It seems that every day the gap between the two disciplines widens. Case in point, this article we can start to think about yet another complexity about interactive creative that traditional creatives just don’t seem to be able to get there heads around. Adaptivity and responsiveness.

Here is an excerpt from the post:

With traditional designers, the focus is generally about the visual qualities of a design. All too often, traditional designers forget the underlying objective of the website: to convert sales and generate leads. A responsive website consists of clean design that directs users to do something. Websites are merely a company’s marketing “real estate.” They account for a substantial component of lead generation, sales and the cultivation of new business opportunities.

Success in designing sites for adaptability comes from understanding how the user behaves. In my opinion, a design that can be adapted or changed due to user behaviors is the best approach. It is how I approach every site design. User behavior involves meaningful activity; it necessarily involves interpretation and awareness. In most cases when people land on a site, they’re arriving with a specific task in mind. This means they already have tunnel vision on and they won’t look at all the other pretty things your site has to offer. The user will be clicking deeper into the site in no time. All the effort spent crafting your homepage is lost. People just want to get their task done. This is just natural behavior and we cannot change it no matter how much we try. Take this behavior into account when designing a website: you must ensure that the site’s purpose and content are clear on all pages. If the purpose is not immediately apparent, many people will either give up or look elsewhere (there are plenty more sites in the sea). The same goes for highly clever brand experience sites that have no direction but high quality videos playing in the background.

This all goes back to my mantra: “Traditional creative is consumed, absorbed and looked at.  Interactive creative is more like a product, that is actually used and interacted with and is fluid. The differences between the two are simply complex.”

Later in the article the author does say something though that I also believe:

“There is room for both traditional and interactive designers. Each can learn from the other if both can keep an open mind. But, and I say this with a big but, I have found that most interactive designers just want to do interactive and not cross over into traditional. With that said, I have a hard time with the idea of a traditional designer doing the job of an interactive designer. I myself find it hard to embrace this trend, but the traditionalists are children in the interactive space.”

I’ll keep beating this drum till I’m blue in the face, or on the street 🙂

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The 5 Hardest Jobs to Fill in 2012 | Inc.com

This is GREAT news for me and my peeps!

Creative Design and User Experience

After engineers, the biggest challenge for companies is finding high-quality creative design and user-experience talent.  Since almost every company is trying to create a highly compelling user experience that keeps people engaged with their product, it is tough to find people who have this type of experience especially with mobile devices including tablets and a demonstrated track record of success.

via The 5 Hardest Jobs to Fill in 2012 | Inc.com.

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Articles

User Experience Director and/or/vs Creative Director

A recent conversation regarding a project at work has me thinking a lot about what a Creative Director’s role is in the interactive space. I found this article about it  User Experience Designer vs. Creative Director | UX Booth and the comments are actually more informative than the article itself.

The article was written in 2009. Two years later, I think the topic is still one that hasn’t been fully explored and is still very relevant.

I tend to agree with some of the comments about how the role of “traditional” Creative Director and UX Designer are starting to blur (depending on the type of shop you’re working in), but at the same time I see how in the future there should be a separation between the two.

I keep trying to beat this into the minds of the traditional creatives I’ve had the pleasure of working with for the past six months:  “At the end of the day if we make the experience for the user a good one, they will be happy. A happy end user will make for a happy client. A happy client will make for a happy agency.”

Some creatives struggle with this notion because the “big idea” doesn’t always translate well onto the web and they feel then the site design isn’t “creative” and won’t win awards. I would beg to differ! What we do as interactive designers and developers is create a space online where content is used as well as consumed. Our job is to make sure that content can be consumed quickly, easily and as expected. To me that is the “big idea” and to do it well, you have to be creative as hell as well as analytical and detailed-oriented.

Another mantra I’ve adopted recently: “We build things that are used while traditional creatives build things that are consumed.. there is a big difference.” As a Creative Director in the interactive space, you have to understand this and believe it in order to achieve success for your client, and you have to be able to communicate this to the client when moving a campaign to the web or creating one specifically for the web.

“Big ideas” don’t work the same way on the web as they might for TV or print advertising. Think about your favorite web sites. Do these sites have a campaign behind them? or is there one “big idea” that dominates the site? I bet your answer is NO. Think about that for a moment. It’s the content and how that content is executed that makes it a great site.

Now this isn’t to say that all sites can’t be cool and fun and creative, but there is a time and place for that and herein lies the real challenge. To know when to flex your creative muscle and to know when to make sure the user is happy.

User Centered Design
User Centered Design Infographic
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The Creative vs. The Marketing Team: Yin And Yang, Oil And Water (Smashing)

I straddle both sides of this argument and it can be very difficult in the corporate world to deal with. Add know-it-all “technology” folks into the mix and the waters just get muddier and muddier and harder to manage. Sigh.

Unfortunately there is not one answer as everyone’s situation is different.  “Can’t we all just get along?”