nclud™ | Our Sketchbook

You’re Invited to BeerCamp!

2009-06-16T06:43:23+00:00

It seems as of lately there is always something going on. From BarCamp to DevCamp, to WordCamp to SocialDevCamp to UseTwitterToProfitAndRetireEarlyCamp – so, we decided it’s time to fill the void and take it up a notch. We’re throwing a party, but since we know you won’t come out if it isn’t a “camp” of some sort, so we are throwing a “beer camp”!

What: BeerCamp
When: 8:00pm on Saturday, July 18th
Where: nclud's Studio (1808 Florida Avenue NW Washington DC 20009)
Why: Because its fun to geek-out over beer a couple times a month

No sponsors, no t-shirts, no presentations and definitely no business cards – it’s just beer, lots and lots of beer. Join us on Saturday, July 18th, and party in <style> -- rant, rave (no glow sticks please) and try and keep up. And of course we’ll have plenty of soda for the non-drinkers – we’ll even have some of the hard stuff for the non-beer drinkers (rumor is Jello-shots will be available as well).

Bring friends, come early, stay late and definitely have a good time.

Tell us you're coming on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2920992/

For those Facebook Fans: RSVP on Facebook.com

VentureBeat Redesign

2009-06-15T10:54:47+00:00

We are excited to announce the redesign of VentureBeat! While we are designers and inspiration junkies, we’re also very much entrepreneurially driven web geeks. So it’s no surprise that VentureBeat is among those of its kind in our feed reader, making the project that much more interesting. The VentureBeat team first reached out to us with a bit of a simple task, help update their website. However, what started out as a simple redesign quickly evolved into a much more complex project, more of a renovation than a redesign.

The goal was to accomplish the impossible; to completely re-architect, re-design and re-develop the publication from the ground up, within ten days! While “impossible” is typically a project red flag, we were certainly up for the challenge – we’ve become quite good at working with aggressive start-ups. The objective was to continue to use the WordPress platform as the CMS as well as to take the current category organization style of VentureBeat and evolve it into more of a multi-site sub-branded experience. This created a need for the design of a sub-branded experience for VentureBeat and it’s new suite of content properties; it also required much strategic thought on how to best technically accomplish the objective working within the limitations of WordPress along with the implications on the user-experience, search engine optimization and simple administrative maintenance for the staff. WordPress MU kept coming up in discussion as a possible solution, but in short there were just too many reasons why it was completely the wrong direction for the objective – so we went forward with a single good old traditional WordPress install.

As complex as the back-end strategy was becoming, the visual design was also a challenge – creativity is a tricky thing, especially when it lacks the luxury of time. Designing a clean and elegant aesthetic for a content heavy publication highly dependent on advertising is a challenge in of itself. Luckily, experience was on our side. Alex and I, before starting nclud, worked together at a publishing company; where we, a team of four, uniquely redesigned over seventy publications within a year-and-a-half timeframe – knowing how to handle the beast was something we’ve become quite good at. Sub-brands off of the VentureBeat brand were also created for each of the new five content properties; all of which now live on their own sub-domain but are very much intimately connected to the VentureBeat parent. We sought out to quickly design an aesthetic that was clean and sleek but highly organized, without over-designing.

From re-thinking the information architecture, to visual design, to brand extensions to front-end development and back-end integration, customization, migration and deployment … we are happy to say that mission impossible was in fact accomplished successfully. It was a great experience working with Matt Marshall and the VentureBeat team on this exciting yet aggressive redesign!

Every project at nclud is typically a result of our collective collaboration, VentureBeat is no different. However, a special shout-out to Alex for leading the design effort, Mike on the front-end development and Dan with working miracles on the back-end.

Read more about our role with the VentureBeat redesign within our portfolio.

BioLogos.org Launches

2009-04-29T13:43:46+00:00

Last night at a private event in downtown Washington, D.C. among family, colleagues and press, Francis Collins and the team at The BioLogos Foundation unveiled the new BioLogos website; http://biologos.org. I was pleased to be among the group as for the past four months the nclud team has been working intimately with the foundation on this ever-important launch.

It’s a project whose subject matter intrigues us backed by an impressive team of PhD who’s who. You know it’s a fascinating project when even the program director has studied theoretical physics at Cambridge and the philosophical foundations of physics at Columbia – so, it doesn’t surprise us how quickly they picked up something as simplistic as HTML and CSS. The BioLogos Foundation is founded by Francis Collins, who used to run the Human Genome Project – talk about an intimidating client meeting. His landmark discoveries of disease genes aside, you have to respect a man who holds his own against the likes of Steven Colbert and the Colbert Report.

The BioLogos Foundation reached out to nclud because of our unique style and attention to detail. The objective was to create an online experience that was not only representative of the foundation’s mission but also helped facilitate frequently asked questions about science and faith.

Can you believe in religion and science? Can Adam and Eve co-exist as historical figures with Darwin’s ideas of evolution? Extremely fascinating questions for those interested in such theological and scientific discussions, and for those of us who are not so much. The BioLogos Foundation “promotes the search for truth in both the natural and spiritual realms, and seeks to harmonize these different perspectives”.

We worked with the foundation in a full services capacity: from creative strategy, to branding, information architecture, visual design, front-end development as well as full integration into the ExpressionEngine CMS. We even squeezed in a bit of print collateral as well.

Read more about our role with The BioLogos Foundation website within our portfolio.

UNM’s Center for Health Policy Launched

2009-04-17T13:54:22+00:00

We are happy to announce that the University of New Mexico's Center for Health Policy redesign has launched!

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sought out a new redesign for the Center for Health Policy at The University of New Mexico. Partnering with ForumOne Communications a clean and modern visual aesthetic was created for the University’s new health policy site. Using the extremely well documented and detailed information architecture developed by ForumOne our objective on the visual was side was to design an informational, interesting and intuitive online experience.

Full Disclosure

ForumOne Communications worked with and fully integrated our design concepts to which they provided the front-end development as well as the integration into their custom Drupal based system. We do not currently maintain the site or are responsible for its design or development support.

Green Web Design

2009-04-14T11:57:21+00:00

Can the websites we design and develop be green? We’re not talking about CSS and HEX values; it’s a common question arising more and more from eco-cautious clients. Is one website really any friendlier to the environment than another and is there anything from conception that we can do to help contribute? As Earth Day is next week, now seems to an appropriate time to discuss green web design.

When discussing the topic of green, we always have to remember that the discussion is typically around how to be more environmentally aware while still keeping cost, performance and quality top-of-mind. We all love the idea of an electric car; but no one is interested in such a car that can drive less than a mile on a single charge, holds only one person at less than 120 lbs and costs more than $1,000,000.00. There is also a strong distinction between an electric car, a hybrid and a car that is just more eco-friendly than the version before it. These same distinctions exist across all industries — even web design.

The environmental impact of a single website is relatively insignificant but there are things that can make a website more green. There are essentially three high-level elements that together create a website: the tools, the team and the host.

The Tools

The typical arsenal of tools for creating a website is a computer, graphics program and a text editor. Theoretically, websites, or the creation thereof, can be eco-friendly from the tools used to create them — recycled computers and systems, parts and software optimized specifically for low-energy usage are greener than their brand new, overpowered and energy-hungry counterparts. But then of course the reality of cost, performance and quality set-in. Recycled and refurbished computers are great machines, they however just don’t always have the performance and up-to-date technology required of web designer and developers. The same is said for the software we use as well. While there is currently no marketed eco-friendly web design and development software, the reality is that the cost of using such programs over our industry favorites (standards) would most likely not have a proper time/cost benefit.

Apple has always been a favorite of our industry, while arguably excessively expensive, its latest generation of MacBook Pros are said to be the greenest notebooks on the market. Apple touts several green features, including recyclable aluminum and glass chassis, BFR-free internal components (the very same toxic flame retardants that once condemned Apple's green ratings), ENERGY STAR certification, mercury-free, longer-lasting and lower-energy LED-backlights, Arsenic-free glass, PVC-free internal cables, and the EPEAT Gold rating. Apple also has a free recycling program, allowing its customers to return older unused machines (regardless of manufacturer) to be recycled and disposed of properly.

Apple is helping us feel better about the machines we are already working on; but the reality is that there is very little from our tools that can make a website more green than another; when buying your next machine, it is something to think about.

The Team

We are the talent behind the design and development of a website, don’t our actions themselves have an environmental impact? Must we print the twenty-page PDF creative-brief, must we print a copy for every member of the team? Are we sending printed invoices and proposals when PDFs will do? Do we recycle the waste that is accumulated as a result, are our teams eco-aware and is our working environment embracing of such an initiative? Not all design agencies and development firms need to go overboard, but being aware of the energy consumed as well as the waste accumulated is absolutely a first start in creating greener websites.

We also control the technology and interactions of a website that may have environmental impacts. We all love to show off our print style sheets with a cute little print icon, but is that sending the wrong message? Are we encouraging audiences to unnecessarily print websites? Both an environmental and usability issue is to ensure that only the minimum and relevant information is actually being printed. In our ever-evolving eco-cautious culture, this for some becomes an opportunity to educate. Most won’t consider the environmental impact until reminded to do so. It seems slightly hypocritical that Discovery’s Planet Green, an eco-lifestyle network, even has a “print” function – we’d hope that they would use the educational medium to advocate web users to reconsider printing website content. TreeHugger.com for example has removed the typical “print” link; they still have a print style sheet, they simply just don’t promote printing the way Discovery does.

Best practices on the web are an amazing thing, as by definition, they promote the right values. Typically we discuss inherent values such as better accessibility and search engine optimization; but the reality is that optimized sites also process and download faster, have quicker performance and ultimately require less energy usage. Again, not that much impact on an individual basis, but it adds up!

As the designers and developers of websites, our actions do most certainly play a role in creating more environmentally friendly websites. We do also have the ability, the power (the responsibility?), to help control and educate the users of our websites in an effort to be more green.

The Host

And here it is. A web host is the single greatest place where a website can strive to be more green than another; well beyond its conception, design and development. According to Green Data Center Info, by 2020 the web hosting industry will surpass the airline industry as carbon emitters.

Many web hosts have initiated and participate in green programs from Renewable Energy Certificates (ensuring that the power used is generated in an eco-friendly manner) to hosts that generate their own power directly from renewable sources. Some hosts even offer carbon offsetting, a tree planted on your behalf, discounts to non-profits and internal incentives such as letting their employees telecommute as well as providing solar power and paperless offices.

Some of the leaders in this space include:

aiso.net – The world’s only 100% solar powered hosting and data center, “web hosting as nature intended it”.
Sustainablewebsites.com – A 100% Carbon Neutral Web Hosting Community; with servers located in a green data centers and 100% offset of energy usage with Certified Wind Power.
ThinkHost.com – Powered by wind and sun; they provide world class hosting powered by renewable energy.
GreenestHost.com – 100% solar powered; offering zero emissions web hosting. They rely on Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to offset their non-renewable energy usage; powering all of their servers with 100% clean solar power 100% of the time.
GreenGeeks.com -- The World's #1 Green Energy Web Hosting Provider. Green Geeks uses wind power for all of their servers, offices and office equipment.

We recommend checking out GreenHostingGeeks.com where they review what they consider to be the top eco-friendly hosting companies; including industry favorites such as DreamHost.

A Greener Web

When asked, “can a website be green?” the simple answer is that it essentially comes down to the efficiency of the application and the web host. That is where the greatest environmental impact lies; reducing the carbon footprint of our work as much as possible is where we can make a difference.

9 Web Design Agencies That Inspire Us

2009-04-08T15:54:58+00:00

It is no secret that we are inspiration junkies; as a web design agency that inspiration often comes from other web design agencies. Keith Robinson of Blue Flavor wrote an insightful post, “Hanging In and Helping”, where he pleads that in these economic times “small businesses need to stick together and keep an eye out of each other”. In this spirit, we thought we would list not just the designs, tips and techniques that inspire us but nine agencies that are often behind most of that inspiration – agencies that inspire us as designers, developers, entrepreneurs and most importantly, those that inspire us as a result of the bunch with respect to their culture.

There are many more agencies to this list, but in an effort to keep it short and sweet, we decided to list the top nine in alphabetical order. It goes without saying that all of the below-mentioned create beautiful aesthetics with a strong (slightly obsessive) appreciation for Web Standards, Usability, Interaction/Experience Design and over-all web best practices.

Blue Flavor

Appropriately first in our alphabetical listing, as Keith’s post is one of the driving factors for this write-up. Blue Flavor is just a bit over a year older than us; it seems so hard to believe as they feel as though one of these entities we grew up on. The reason for this is because of who Blue Flavor really is, a group of top talent, some of which has been leading this industry for over a decade. When deciding who you want to be you often question who you want to be like; and for us the answer was easy, Blue Flavor. They are a small team, and small by design – but it is their desire to be community centric that really appeals to us most. While they do what they do and are great at it, they share that knowledge and empower the rest of us to contribute. From creating respected industry publications like Digital Web to a local Refresh group – they really embrace the community on such diverse levels. Online at blueflavor.com.

Clearleft

Clearleft was one of the first small web design agencies to pop-up, back in 2005, who from inception had a roster of top industry influencing talent. We all sort of sat on the edge of our seats waiting to see what would come of such a group; and they’ve yet to disappoint. We strongly believe that great talent will do great things and the team at Clearleft has certainly proved that. They simply “make websites better” – it is how they go about that, the thinking and the process, which has always inspired us to think differently, to strive to also make websites better. Online at clearleft.com

Electric Pulp

A great team that does great work, it is that simple. Electric Pulp has been around since 1996 (when most of us were just freshmen in High School) and continue to define design trends and push the boundaries of what is possible on the web. The most inspirational thing about Electric Pulp is the diversity in their visual aesthetic, no one portfolio piece is like another. When we look at their work we don’t see the “Electirc Pulp style” we see a well-crafted site perfectly appropriate for its client; isn’t that the way it should be? That and they love bowling at SXSW! Online at electricpulp.com.

Erskine

Erskine is a small agency with extreme talent; their work speaks for itself. A combination of creativity, engaging and beautiful work along with a culture that embraces, teaches and continues to inspire us all leaves them to often be a topic of conversation. Their work is simply beautiful and that is something we can’t turn away from or continue to stop talking about. Online at erskinedesign.com

Happy Cog

No introduction necessary. Through their personal blogs, presentations, conferences, books and community-centric attitude they not only inspire us, they demand the best of us – Happy Cog doesn’t just talk-the-talk, they walk-the-walk and create this drive in us all to want to be better; to want to create a better web. They are more than simply just practitioners; they are advocates, teachers and leaders. We really appreciate how they not only lead this industry but also have become such an integral part of this community! Online at happycog.com.

Huge Inc.

We love Huge simply because despite their name, they act small. They are a very large and very successful agency that very much embraces the small agency culture. It’s not all ties and briefcases; they play kickball, bowling, RockBand and drink beer – and it’s all on flickr! They evoke professionalism and demand the respect they deserve, but at the same time they embrace a culture of fun and “sketchiness”. And what do they look for in perspective hires, talent who “Want to be on projects that redefine your industry” – what more could you ask for? While we love being small, they sure make Huge look great. Online at hugeinc.com.

nGen Works

Not only does the team at nGen Works inspire us, but they’re the type of group we’d want to grab a beer with; and really, what’s more important than that? They really embody the type of agency we ourselves try to be everyday. No one can say it more perfectly than they themselves, “nGen Works believes in working hard, enjoying what we do, getting it right, learning and having happy clients. Oh, and beer. Lots of beer. And video games.” Quite possibly the best description a creative design agency could have. Their Happy Webbies make us smile, their portfolio gets us excited and their blog constantly leaves us thinking. Oh, and we loved the jQuery rockstar by the way. Online at ngenworks.com.

Squared Eye

A team of just two with a “monstrous appetite”, but being small doesn’t keep them for thinking big. It is that big thinking about the tiniest details that constantly has us on the edge of our seats. We all say that “design is in the details”, but the team at Squared Eye really embrace that fact. While they don’t put themselves in the public eye as much as other agencies, their work never goes unnoticed; always referenced in publications, presentations and galleries – they don’t just inspire us they inspire an industry. We were really excited to hear about the launch of their very own Pattern Tap, created “to satisfy and encourage the inspiration needs of my interface design peers and peeps”. Online at squaredeye.com.

Viget Labs

Our next door neighbors; located just across the Potomac from us we’ve become fans and friends of this ever evolving agency that continues to inspire and support our local community. But it is the people within the agency that gets us most excited. Viget is an agency that seeks great young talent and allows them to flourish. While the company is ten years old, most of its creative team are twenty-somethings. It is their collective youthful energy and passion for this industry that inspires us most. Online at viget.com.

Why The List?

We love design and are strong web standards advocates, so we seek out the same and are always excited to find like-minded talent and organizations that embrace the same. We don’t look at other designers or agencies as “competitors”, even if we do happen to go after the same project occasionally. We look at them as sources of inspiration, as examples and happily enough, as friends. While we get excited and love to hear when others say that our work inspires them, the truth is nothing excites us more than being inspired by others.

How to Handle a Copycat

2009-03-27T15:31:20+00:00

Imitation is often said to be the best form of flattery. However, when your designs are your livelihood, is imitation flattery or potentially detrimental? We are a creative web design agency and we position ourselves as creating "unique" stylish designs for the web -- it would be detrimental for our brand (our company) if it were to appear to our existing clients, potential clients and community of colleagues that our design (especially our own corporate design) is in fact not unique to us.

Jeffery Zeldman is famous for saying, “it is when they stop copying your work that you have a problem”. We agree with Zeldman as well as the adage that imitation is in fact a very flattering sentiment. However, while flattering, imitation or design theft needs to be addressed and confronted. And we’ve found there is a very tactful, logical and respectful way to confront the issue with the “offender”; one that we’ve seen has extremely positive results. Cool heads often do prevail.

We have a standard, but extremely informal, cease and desist letter prepared for when the situation presents itself; whether it is for our own work or the work we’ve created for a client. While the nature of the letter is a “cease and desist”, the tone is very much not – it is a simple explanation of why the copying or theft of a design does us more harm and a very respectful request to change.

An example of the our standard letter is:

This is a very informal message to kindly ask that you not use any or all elements of our design and code found at www.nclud.com. While we know that imitation is the best form of flattery -- we ask because our image, design, brand, content and mark-up is our livelihood. We are a creative web design agency and we position ourselves as creating "unique" stylish designs for the web -- it would be extremely detrimental for our brand (our company) if it were to appear to our existing clients, potential clients and community of colleagues that our design (especially our own corporate design) is in fact not unique to us. While we did not grant you permission to use or hand-over intellectual property rights for the elements on nclud.com -- our constituents won't know that; it is further conceivable that our constituents might assume we borrowed, stole or purchased our unique design elements from you or your organization.

The tone is informal and personable – it has a sense of urgency and a hint of legal speak without getting too “corporate bully” about it. Sending in a lawyer or an official legal cease and desist can only create further animosity in what is typically a rather embarrassing situation for the offending designer or organization.

The reality is that we are not going to spend our time or money to really go after someone “stealing” or “copying” our work (legally speaking) – it just often isn’t worth it in the end. So, instead we make the issue more about respect and integrity among designers and professionals.

Advertising, Promotion and Public Relations

2009-03-26T14:05:12+00:00

We are “designers” when we speak about what we do professionally. We might also be artists, but in the context of web design for hire, we are “designers” creating a visual experience that communicates a message, a design reflective of a strategy. However, what we do and the world we work in there can often be confusion as to difference between the fundamentals of this communication such as “advertising”, “promotion” and “publication relations” – as well as the base understanding of “marketing” that is the bunch.

A website is often a marketing endeavor (most often), it is typically some form of advertising, promotion or public relations. Because of this, it is important to know and understand the difference between the three. The distinction isn’t always clear and we often question what it is we are actually doing, always in pursuit of better understanding the objective and tone of the message we are designing for.

There is a great quote that I remember from my early marketing courses that helps keep the distinction pretty clear in a real world context:

If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying 'Circus Coming to the Fairground Sunday,' that's advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk him through town, that's promotion. If the evening news shows the elephant walking through the mayor's flower bed, and you can get the mayor to comment about it, that's public relations.

In this advertising and social media driven industry that was once the “information super highway”, things tend to be called or understood as “advertising” when they often are not. One thing that often gets lost is the fact that advertising is a “paid mass-mediated attempt to persuade”. That is the shortest and most direct definition, but the key components are “paid” and “persuade” – it is a commissioned message with the hopes of a returned action.

Three basic textbook definitions to help better understand these three concepts:

Public Relations: The process of evaluating stakeholder attitudes, identifying a marker’s products and activities with stakeholders’ interests, and using nonpaid two-way communication to reach stakeholder audiences and build long-term relationships.
Advertising: Any paid form of non-personal communication link, initiated by an identified marketer, to establish or continue exchange relationships with customers and, at times, with other stakeholders.
Promotion: The mechanism whereby information about the product offering is communicated to the customer and includes public relations, advertising and sales, and other tools to persuade customers to purchase the product/service offering.

When designing our message it is good to know what the message is, in really understanding that communication and strategy that our designs ultimately derive from. Not all websites are marketing endeavors, but when they are (or facets within) it’s important for us to know the distinction between the various components and truly design for the strategic message at hand.

Why We Can’t Do Spec Work

2009-03-24T12:20:39+00:00

There has been a lot of conversation/debate recently in the industry regarding “spec work”. The panel, “Is spec work evil?” at SXSW this year as well as emerging online communities such as 99designs and GeniusRocket are only adding to the conversation, for better or worse. We by no means are looking to get into the debate or even truly express an opinion one way or another; the truth is we have pretty mixed feelings on the topic. Fundamentally speaking though, it isn’t about wanting to do spec work or even believing in the idea; it is just something we can’t do more than something we’ve arguably decided not to do. To do “web design” the way we do it (the way we believe it should be done), spec work just isn’t possible; it isn’t feasible or appropriate.

“Web Design” is the summation of parts, of critical elements that together make a unique, usable and stylish experience reflective of the organizational objectives with respect to the end user. To truly accomplish that you’ll need much more than a creative brief or a requirements document. You’ll need a competitive market analysis, content inventory, business objectives, audience segments, use-cases, user-personas as well as a wealth of other information that begins to define the basis for a problem before articulating a solution.

A website is much more than a pretty picture; every product manager, information architect, usability and user-experience designer out there will defend and articulate the importance of understanding the entity before designing the entity. We simply can’t draw the picture without knowing the subject; and in the context of web design, the subject is very complex. Web design is not about art, it is about visual communication – visual communication as a strategy. This is a strategy that can’t be articulated over a word document; it is one that involves stakeholder and executive interviews, one that involves and understanding of the organization, their objectives, their constituents and that relationship.

Misunderstanding of the use of Spec Work

Many misunderstand how spec work is used (for the most part). For most large-scale organizations, spec work is nothing more than early design research; think of it as low-fidelity common-sense based mood boards. Many organizations will seek out spec work only as draft conceptual ideas for the basis of a real design conversation. Essentially taking many early non-strategic “visual” ideas and using them as a spring-board for conversation when developing a strategy; getting the common-sense lowest-common-denominator ideas out and in front early.

Spec work is rarely real work (work meant to be final and utilized), and in that context it really isn’t appropriate work for most. Most are not in the business of creating design drafts for other designers to create design solutions; that is where the misunderstanding of the use of spec work resonates the most.

It is when spec work is utilized to find and execute design solutions without the consideration of the critical summation of parts, the all-inclusive entity that is web design, that the concept fundamentally fails. It is that failure that prevents us from participating in spec work to begin with. Spec work typically asks for a pretty picture and we know web design to be more than that; that is why we can’t do spec work.

Our SXSW Experience

2009-03-23T16:59:36+00:00

From a company birthday to the celebration of New Years Day, nothing really tracks another year or us like the coming and going of SXSWi; it is that annual conference we all look forward to each year. It is however much more than just a conference; it is truly for us an annual convergence of a community. It is that time of year that we reconnect off twitter and mailing lists with industry colleagues (and friends) and when we finally put that new avatar to a face, meeting for the first time many new and exciting people that drive this community and inspire us so.

We thought we’d share some of the highlights this year that really got us excited about SXSW.

While we all enjoy a good party (or HappyHour), we definitely look to get a lot of the panels (sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t); here is a round-up of top favorites from the group.

Lauren Moon

An actual favorite of all of ours but most specifically of Lauren’s was Paul Annett’s (of ClearLeft) “Oooh, That's Clever! (Unnatural Experiments in Web Design)”. Paul did an amazing job of really getting the designers (and developers) in the room to literally think outside the box. It was more than just clever favicons and 404 error pages (of which he actually listed none), Paul with his amazing presentation skills and great British whit used a terrific magic analogy to articulate the importance of presentation in design. By looking at what makes a great presenter and showman in magic we develop this different perspective of how appeal and further engage our audience through design on the web. It is one of those panels where you had to be there to fully appreciate the message and left us on the edge of our seats wanting to go back to our rooms and “try that”! In a hast to get our own redesign our before SXSW, we’ve left out a few hidden Easter eggs that we plan on implementing soon; we hope you keep an eye for them and enjoy!

Michael Dick

A Zeldman lead panel is always a sure bet to be among our favorites, and this years “From Freelance to Agency: Start Small, Stay Small” was no exception, especially for Mike. Along with Roger Black, Kristina Halvorson and Whitney Hess; Jeffery Zeldman (of HappyCog) did a terrific job of moderating a group of talent that has gone freelance and of whom some have gone on to develop top respected agencies. This was of particular interest to the team here at nclud as our entire model is built around culture and the desire to start small – it was very interesting to hear the insights of respect talent in the industry to see where our thoughts match-up and differ, for better or worse. Above all else, it was great to hear like-minded leaders in the industry share their thoughts on creating a culture and maintaining that culture with respect to the size of an agency. We like staying a small agency and there are a lot of obvious reasons why, the largest being our ability to keep our culture in tact; never letting the business of running our business over shadow the agency we sought to be.

Dan Drinkard

Dan lives above our heads and we think he likes it that way; we also enjoy his passion for the more technical nature of this industry, which is where the magic really happens. By far, the most inspiring panel Dan sat in on this year was Kent Brewster's (of Yahoo!) "Kick-Ass Mash-Ups with Punk Rock APIs." Yeah, we know what you're thinking--why would you even go to something with that name? Well, Dan did, and from what we hear, it was awesome. Ken had Dan at “Hello” or something to the effect of "every public site has an API, whether they know it or not." Kent showed off some of the exciting stuff he's built with Yahoo! Pipes, and to be honest, It blew our minds a little. We’ve played with pipes a few years ago, and while it's always been a powerful, easy way to splice, filter and manipulate feeds, it didn't really strike a chord with us until we learned about one of its more recent features, YQL (Yahoo! Query Language). It was extremely interesting to hear Kent describe how you can scrape content from a public website. From there it's dead simple to remap your data as you wish and output to rss, json or a pre-made badge. This comes in especially handy in cases where an RSS feed isn't available for the content you want. It was very insightful to hear what Kent was doing with APIs an YQL; really got us thinking and getting us excited for some of the ideas that have been hatching in our heads!

Martin Ringlein

I got a lot out of this year’s panels, but as an aspiring professional “Information Architect”, the most insightful panel for me of the year was Nick Fink’s (of BlueFlavor) “Wireframes for the Wicked”. Nick lead a panel along with Donna Spencer and Michael Angeles where a variety of topics and issues were covered from the basics to the experienced pitfalls and tips and tricks of IA. I think Nick did a great job of keeping the interest of both the novice and the expert, a hard thing to do with just 45 minutes. The biggest take-away for me was the covering of the different types of wireframes and a detailed explanation from three veterans on when to use each as appropriate for scope, schedule, budget and client. Knowing how to wireframe and that process is fundamentally important, but knowing what process is right for what situation can often times be a very difficult thing to do.

HappyHour!

Now that we got the panel mumbo-jumbo out of the way, lets talk about the parties. This year was a big year for us, as we are much bigger than years past – double the size actually. It was great to be able to bring the entire team down to SXSW; to really immerse ourselves in this community we are so very much a part of. For Lauren, Doris and Michael, this was really there first live exposure to the community we talk about so much; a first introduction to many of the names and avatars we talk to and talk about (always positively, we promise).

The amazing talent that leads this industry we are proud to call our “friends”, it is that discussion, ranting and raving, over drinks that really helps spawn our passion for this industry – to want to contribute and push the limits of technical specifications as well as design trends. From new local talent to the experience designers and developers, we have a solid respect for the members of this community – a large part of our culture is being a part of this community. It felt great to have the entire team together in Austin to be a part of that with us, many for the first time.

Also, a special thank you to everyone who played with and helped us "beta" test our HappyHour! web application. We had about 1,500 people using it each day during SXSWi, which was much higher than we expected, very exciting. The SXSWi version was just a small taste of what it is to come, but we really appreciate the support and feedback we've received. We are excited as we continue to work on the next iteration of the "big idea". We'll be out of pre-game mode before SXSW 2010 for sure (hopefully).

We can’t wait to see everyone again next year!