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Yeah, I said it. I know, it’s blasphemy. But somebody’s got to stand up and point out that big red pimple on the emperor’s butt, which we wouldn’t be able to see if he were wearing clothes.

Listen: A blog is a marketing tool. It’s not a be-all, end-all solution to all of your marketing problems, just like a hammer isn’t the only tool you need to build a house. And …

Oh you guys have to see this.

1. I know, I haven’t heard of most of these either. And I’m supposedly up on this sort of thing. So don’t feel too bad.

2. Some of the comments are hilarious. My favorite:

wyclif says:

Oh, and just what is a Web 2.0 app?

I thought a Web 2.0 app was:

1. Perpetual beta phase.
2. Rounded corners
3. Giant fonts
4. AJAX
5. Checkbox icons
6. RSS feeds all over the …

Great quotes from Sigia, which is a very academic mailing list devoted to user-centered design, usability and information architecture. They’d all crap their panties if they saw I didn’t capitalize any of those terms. Shnort!

“Design is doing for a dime what anyone can do for a dollar.”

I like that one a lot. It encapsulates what we do here at YVOD, I think.

“Design is the art and science of balancing the …

Color Fields Colr Pickr
Pick a color and you get pictures from Flickr that correspond. Awesomely fun tool. Sooo Web 2.0. Built for the best reason ever, and I quote:

To those that question the utility of this little application, let me point out that it is a toy — like all the stuff on my website. Its purpose is simply to provide wonder and delight. Nothing more, nothing less. Isn’t …

This article is for anyone who has heard or read the phrase “web 2.0″ and wondered what the heck it meant. But it’s especially for people like me who do what we do. God, I wish I could write this well. Kudos, Jeffrey Zeldman.

To you who feel like failures because you spent last year honing your web skills and serving clients, or running a business, or perhaps publishing content, …

About a year ago, a colleague mentioned that there was an online seminar about how to write better web content. I was new at YVOD and thought it would be interesting. Our then salesperson, CEO, Art Director and I gathered in a room and watched the presentation. It was phenomenal.

The speaker? Gerry McGovern. The people who brought his ideas into my life: Marketingprofs.

So the seminar was a hundred bucks, …

Online Marketing and Smaller Businesses

Interesting article from e-marketer in my inbox today. It pretty well sums up my experience with Small to Medium Businesses. About a quarter are doing online marketing; almost half are considering it and the rest are totally clueless. Yep, that’s about right. Interestingly, most of the ones who are currently doing it are planning to increase their budget for it in the next year. That …

In a study of a few internet users with various physical impairments, Clarity of content – using straightforward language and a clear, simple layout – was regarded by 88% as ‘very important’. Good navigation – the ability to know where you are within a site – was regarded as very important by 65%, followed by the use of meaningful and clear hyperlinks (63%).

Top five annoyances
1. Not having in-site search
2. No …

My apologies to Gerry if I have misquoted anything and please don’t be angry that I am spreading your gospel truth all over the internet. I hope this links helps in some small way:Choose Gerry McGovern for all your Content Management needs.
Quote of the day:

“The hippie period of the web is over.”

Infrastructure and Architecture are givens. But it’s CONTENT that wins you the game. The way you …

I’m reading E-Commerce User Experience by Jakob Nielsen et al, which is a very thick and informative book. Even if the findings and guidelines in it are not necessarily surprises, they are still valuable. Here’s what I’ve learned or reconfirmed so far:

The first law of e-commerce states: “if the customer cannot find the product, the customer cannot buy the product.”… Low usability equals lost sales. It’s as simple as …