Insights

We spend a good deal of time preaching authenticity in online communications. Mark, who is always more precise succinct in his posts, previously summed it up thusly: Corporate blogs should be more blog than corporate. Never one to let one sentence explain what several dozen can, I tackled business-speak in an incomprehensible press release I once came across.

However, the longer I spend in this business—and the more I read of similarly situated industry adherents—the more I realize how easily one can go too far with casual language.

It's an unfortunate, yet undeniable, fact that college tuition costs have been steadily increasing. Especially in today's economic landscape, colleges and universities, much like other businesses, are going to face even more obstacles with recruiting and retaining interest in their offerings due to those rising costs and the tightening of wallets.

John Eakin knows aircraft. For four decades, he's been flying, fixing, and researching a variety of flying machines, so he understands what puts them in the air. Still, it's an unfortunate fact of life that they occasionally come down, and John often found himself charged with researching service and crash histories in order to shed light on a particular problem. Though the data was readily available, however, it was rarely user-friendly.

I recently attended a workshop series called UX Intensive, hosted by Adaptive Path. For four days, I and about 100 other web enthusiasts examined four key elements that contribute to a successful website design: Design Strategy, Design Research, Information Architecture, and Interaction Design. I've put together a list of four insights to better web design, one for each day of the week.

Dear direct marketer:

I recently became a homeowner, and I couldn't be happier with the purchase. Yes, after years of bunking down in apartments, duplexes, and rented houses—not to mention one brief stint in a converted garage (thanks, Ma!)—I get to come home to my own place. I've found, however, that owning a home presents unique frustrations, problems that go beyond the expected and have implications for what I do for a living.