I’ve been thinking about the Apple v. Flash issue for a bit now and I have come to a conclusion that is not easy. I’ve been a Mac guy for over a decade (I was a Mac guy PRE OSX), I LOVE how Apple’s OS works and the great features they provide. I love the look of my Apple MacBook, how compact it is, the 8 HOUR BATTERY. I’ve never owned a computer that has made my job easier, made me more efficient, and overall has been my tool of choice for design since college.
But unless Apple lifts the ban on Flash developing I will be moving to a Windows 7 PC platform on the next computer upgrade, and I’ll be inviting other interactive designers to do the same. In fact I don’t think I’ll have to do much convincing…over 10,000 designers have joined the “I’m with Adobe” site on FB (it’s only been open for a week), and TONS of designers and developers are voicing the same opinion all across the blogosphere. In fact, many of the execs at Adobe are beginning to post images and lists of their new ‘Mac free’ design setups, that are cheaper and better (that was hard to say) than the Macs they used to run. I can completely understand Jobs not liking Flash or any other development tool, but to not support it and then COMPLETELY BAN it’s use on the new Apple SDK is ridiculous. Flash (love it or hate it) is THE MOST widely used tool to develop applications and interactive content for the web and for Apple to exclude it’s use is a huge set back for web development as a whole.
I hope Apple gets it straight (because I LOVE using Apple products) or else they’re going to successfully isolate the same demographic that allowed them to bounce back from the financial disaster of a company they were in the ’90′s.
Artist Ray Simon’s new site is ready for release…. This site should be unveiled this week as soon as the finalizations for the SSl certificate is complete. Ray’s site features a custom 1080 shopping cart, CMS, and invoicing system.
Check out the new site at www.raysimoninc.com, and check out us to at 1080site.com… Visit 1080 Media for all of your marketing needs. At 1080 we specialize in web design, web development, video production, graphic design, photography, SEO, and marketing solutions.
Good Morning! I stumbled across this excellent article from my friends at www.zurb.com about designing good copy. I thought it was a worthwhile read and tied into my theme for the next couple of months. That is correct, through the entire winter season I’ll be blogging about things that I think make good designs truly excellent and engaging. I’ll be drawing from my decade or so in the biz, plus using great resources (like www.zurb.com). These are things I think about every time I get in front of my screen here at 1080 Media (shameless plug for the search engines LOL). I hope these will get you all thinking and hopefully you will find these useful. Thanks again to the ZurBlog!
Headings: Treat each line as a phrase
A good headline sparks interest and captures your attention. It also gives you a good idea of what’s to come as you start to read. When it comes to headings, I’m often faced with working with more than one line. In those situations, you have to treat each line as a separate phrase.
Consider this example:
It doesn’t read well, does it? The lines are choppy with no consideration to the overall flow or interaction of each line. Each line breaks in mid thought, forcing an unwanted break in the message. It feels rushed and amateur, making me focus on individual words instead of the overall message. (And look at that widow!)
Let’s take that same example and give it some structure, forcing line breaks at the proper points such that each line reads on its own:
Each line can now pull its own weight, giving readers a small sense of completion with each line that adds value to the entire headline. Forced line breaks in HTML are easy (<br />), so take the extra time when possible to make your headings stand out.
Paragraphs: Strategically emphasize
When it comes to emphasis, you can learn a lot from properly styled hyperlinks. If the goal of a hyperlink is to encourage action through special visual styles, then the same can be said of bold and italicized text.
With a similar goal in mind—improving scanability by highlighting important ideas—a little emphasis can add a lot of value to your words. We call it strategic bolding.
Look at it this way: as you’ve been reading or skimming through this post, you’re eyes have likely jumped to the bolder, bigger, or more colorful elements. That means our styles are doing their job. We want your eyes to skip along, fixating on key areas to grab your attention. We know where we want your eyes to fall, so we put a little extra emphasis on them.
The result? Faster reading, improved comprehension, and some more “colorful” paragraphs in an otherwise dull piece. But the real benefit is that you’ll improve the interaction of your words. As readers get through paragraphs of text faster, they’ll be able to latch onto and recall key concepts.
However, not even strategic bolding can help you out if the words you’re bolding aren’t readable. That’s where an iteration or two will help you out.
Everything: Read, re-write, repeat.
Nothing compares to copy that’s been put through the grinder a few times. Consider your process and approach to writing. Do you start with a good outline, but spin your wheels on turning it into a stream of thoughts? Maybe you have a tendency to talk too much with run-ons abound in everything you write. Then again, maybe you think your words are the best around.
Either way, writing what comes naturally is easy to do, but iterating—rewriting and proofing your work—will have a huge impact on the success of your words. Getting someone else’s eyes on your work will also help expedite the process. Seek out someone who has that attention to detail and passion to read and write.
We employ the same tactics here at ZURB. When blogging, we encourage the off-the-cuff posts, but also acknowledge that those in the moment posts come with diminishing returns. You need the proofreading, the editing, and that little extra polish to make your post sing.
You can get better results with very little overhead. Encourage your teams to print and edit drafts, use a blogging buddy, and establish a few guidelines to designing your words. You’ll like what you read a lot more.
We at 1080 Media hope all of our site visitors, customers, and subscribers had a great new year! Be sure to ring in 2010 by downloading 1080′s new January 2010 desktop wallpaper calendar under the downloads section of our website. Call 1080 Media today and get a jump on your competition by partnering with the premier Youngstown marketing agency. 1080 Media has all of your solutions from web design to video production and from graphic design to on site photography… ask how we can help you! Call 330.482.5855
1080 Media wishes you all a happy holiday… be sure to call us during the new year to get a fresh take on all of your marketing, advertisng, and web design projects.
1080 Media’s newest video production for the Youngstown area is complete. Check out Mr. Tight in the new commercial for Tight Spot Security. Be sure to visit 1080site.com to view all of our new featured projects.
At 1080 Media we believe in ultimate customer satisfaction… which means we not only want our customers to be above and beyond satisfied, but we also want our customers’ customers to be above and beyond satisfied!
So What does this all boil down to… I will tell you… It means GIVING PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT! … SIMPLICITY, SPEED, and EASE of USE. One way to accomplish this is by providing interactive desktop and mobile applications for customers. Customers who utilize your website frequently will see the benefit of being able to order from your site and access your sites information without having to open a browser. Desktop and Mobile applications that compliment a website provide the most streamlined experience for a customer seeking information and/or ordering a product. Direct access to the information from one click saves time and makes your company look more professional. These applications open a door way to give each customer a very unique experience when doing business with you.
1080 Media is the premiere interactive internet application provider in Ohio. We have been at the forefront of this movement since its inception, and understand the importance of such applications for your business needs.
For all of your internet application needs and questions call 1080 Media today… 330.482.5855
1080 Media setting the standard for Youngstown Marketing, Cleveland Marketing, and Pittsburgh Marketing
At 1080 Media we take the marketing and advertising needs of our clients very seriously… That being said, we like to have fun and by no means do we take ourselves as serious as our business.
Our recent office prank consisted of us heckling some of our clients using a mobile application called Spoof App, available by going to spoofapp.com from your mobile device. Spoof App allows you to change the caller ID on the phone of the person you are calling to whatever number you want, and can also mask your voice. It may seem childish to harass people in this manner but… well wait… it is childish, but its so much fun! LOL
Remember John… “It puts the lotion in the basket!”… LOL… can’t wait to see how you get us back brother!
If you haven’t had a chance to try it out yet I suggest you do… go to spoofapp.com folks from your mobile device… and for all your youngstown advertising needs or national marketing solutions contact us at 1080 Media… 330.482.5855
A $40,000 online challenge proposed by the US government has been won by a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – just hours after it was launched.
The Darpa Network Challenge, which took place on Saturday, offered a cash prize for the first group to successfully locate 10 large red weather balloons hidden at a string of secret locations across the US.
Competitors were asked to use the internet and social networking sites to discover the whereabouts of the balloons, in what Darpa – the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – said was an experiment to discover how the internet could help with rapid problem solving.
More than 4,000 groups eventually registered to take part, but although the organisers had given players up to nine days to track the balloons down, the team from MIT scooped victory within nine hours of the launch.
“Darpa salutes the MIT team for successfully completing this complex task less than nine hours after the balloon launch,” said Regina Dugan, the director of the agency.
The winning team has not explained precisely how they came to discover the location of all 10 balloons, but the process detailed on the team website explains that they created a viral campaign to encourage people to put forward information they gleaned about the locations.
The team offered the first person to spot a balloon a $2,000 share of the prize money, but smaller awards would also be given to those who referred that player to MIT’s website – a scheme of incentives aimed at getting people to urge their friends to take part.
Whatever happened in the end, it appeared to work – and quickly.
“The challenge has captured the imagination of people around the world, is rich with scientific intrigue and, we hope, is part of a growing ‘renaissance of wonder’ throughout the nation,” said Dr Dugan.
In the end the eight-foot balloons were hidden in locations across nine states: Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
With a similar goal in mind—improving scanability by highlighting important ideas—a little emphasis can add a lot of value to your words. We call it strategic bolding.