“During Christmas season travel it occurred to me that the larger problems we, as an industry, have to work around right now are not all financial. More of our friends and colleagues may lose their jobs in the coming months, and it’s our shared responsibility to help them whenever possible. In this new year, it is simply not going to be enough to just meet your bottom line, but to help others who may not be in a position to be so entrepreneurial or carefree.”
Contract Killer
“When times get tough, it can often feel like there are no good people left in the world, only people who haven’t yet turned bad. These bad people will go back on their word, welch on a deal, put themselves first. You owe it to yourself to stay on top. You owe it to yourself to ensure that no matter how bad things get, you’ll come away clean. You owe it yourself and your business not to be the guy lying bleeding in an alley with a slug in your gut.
But you’re a professional, right? Nothing bad is going to happen to you.
You’re a good guy. You do good work for good people.
Think again chump.”
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Flexible Fuel: Educating the Client on IA
“Information architecture (IA) means so much to our projects, from setting requirements to establishing the baseline layout for our design and development teams. But what does it mean to your clients? Do they see the value in IA? What happens when they change their minds? Can IA help manage the change control process? More than ever, we must ensure that our clients find value in and embrace IA—and it’s is our job to educate them.”
FOWD: Paul Boag of Headscape: Educating clients to say yes
“Paul Boag‘s presentation on how to Educate Clients to say Yes was fantastic and my personal highlight of today’s conference. Paul had a superbe stage presence, engaging slides, and most of all, his message was clear and valuable.
So, how do we get clients to say yes? It’s all in our way how we connect and interact. Paul kept stressing that the designer’s relationship with clients is fundamentally flawed. We have to face it that a big part of our job is to work,”
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Sizes May Vary: A Workbook for Graphic Design
“This book references the varying standardized formats and systems used within graphic design. Part sketchbook, part reference book and part notebook — it is a space for composing and visualizing layouts, sketching and developing ideas, taking reference and making note.” (Thanks Coudal Partners!)
slide:ology, Duarte Design’s new book
“Inform. Inspire. Persuade. It’s the essence of presenting, but how well do you execute? Slide:ology, written by the world’s leading presentation design firm, contains the insights as well as the tips and tricks that have transformed countless speakers over the past 20 years.”
A List Apart: Articles: The Survey, 2008
“Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.”
Conversation with Michael B. Johnson of Pixar (Part 1)
Peter Merholz: “At UX Week 2008, our Day 4 keynoter is Dr. Michael B. Johnson, who runs the Moving Pictures Group at Pixar. He’s been gracious enough to engage in an email conversation with me, which I’ll be sharing here.”
Conversations With Thought Leaders: Jim Coudal Reinvents the Business Model
“Coudal Partners started as a traditional ad agency. Then Jim and Co. morphed it into something else: a multidisciplinary design consultancy that does everything from running an ad network to creating consumer products to cultivating a vibrant community of creative types. We caught up with innovator at the Seed Conference, a design and entrepreneurship pow-wow he helped found. Here he discusses Coudal’s business model and popular blog.”
8 Things You Should Include In Your Terms of Service Agreement
“If you’ve been a solo freelancer for any significant stretch of time, you’ve probably learned the hard way that a work project can go horribly wrong. They turn out to be life lessons in the long run, but there are ways to protect yourself.
Working with bad projects or bad clients generally boils down to mismatched expectations and inadequate communication. Your best safeguard is to make sure you and your client are on the same page before any work has even begun using a Terms of Service Agreement, which essentially puts into clear, written language what you expect from your client and what they should expect from you.”
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