Archive for the ‘Project’ Category

I’ve been pretty busy this week. Set the axe to the grindstone and finished the site layout for MB Design. Had it go live on Sunday, so now I can FINALLY put together business cards to hand out. It’s still a work in progress, as I’m not entirely happy with the copy, but I have a wonderful team of professionals (read: relatives and my lady) pouring over it with a fine toothed comb. I suppose that this is my first real usability test. It’s being done on the cheap, as described by Steve Krug in his excellent book “Don’t make me Think”, the premiere guide to solid web UI design.

As for business cards, I’m going all-out. In every “top 10 cool business cards” blog article I’ve read, there is always ALWAYS a transparent plastic card included. They’re durable, stylish, and definitely leave people thinking. I’m going to throw my hat in and try to capitalize on the trend. The one catch that I’ve noticed is that a plastic card isn’t exactly the easiest to write on. People are always writing additional info on the back of their cards. Should I sacrifice that functionality for style? Hell no! I’ve got a way to get the best of both style and function. I noticed that a lot of plastic card printing companies can add a credit-card style signature strip to the back of a card. Who says it can only be used for signatures? DUH! I’m totally going to use those as a writable area for the back of my cards.

I have a relative (always hit up those connections) that owns a promotional materials company. Strangely enough, he doesn’t have a website for me to plug (I smell business opportunity). He’s looking into pricing. Will post pics of my bitchin’ business cards when they come in.

Here’s a little Flash demo that I made back in college. It creates a pattern by snapshotting a circle that bounces within the frame, as determined by user set variables. Specific directions are on the page. This was really an experiment in UI design; how to program tabs, sliders and a play-head, and organizing those elements in an intuitive manner. Looking back, I’d like to have added a randomize button (for each setting as well as all at once) and the ability to save playbacks. The tabs could stand to be a little taller and spaced out a bit more. The velocity settings don’t quite work the way that I’d intended, though I was happy with the results at the time.