Various elements may look broken, since Internet Explorer 6 renders CSS very poorly. May I suggest you download Firefox or Safari?
del.icio.usSep. 26th, 2008
Let’s see if this internet works like it says in the user’s manual.
I’m getting rid of some stuff at the last minute. I’ve thrown together a page with details and photos, and if you can pick up what you want in Hamburg this weekend (and you can read broken German), you should have a look.
Sep. 26th, 2008
A while back I mentioned Frank Chimero and his lovely poster designs, and bemoaned the fact that they couldn’t be bought. I hassled him in email, and he replied, saying he was working on it and to expect the store “soon”. Well, soon has come. There are 14 different design themed posters, each for $25, or all 14 together for $300. Other than that he’s also got stacks of other beautiful and creative work. Go get ‘em. I know I will, just as soon as I have a flat in Sydney.
Sep. 19th, 2008
Just a quick note: I was quoted briefly in a profile of my mate Stowe Boyd in Inside Knowledge magazine. It was interesting how the article came together. The author, Jenny Ambrozek, asked for people to post their thoughts anywhere they want:
Please post your insights as comments here or in streams using whatever tool is most convenient but tagged #IKStowe so I can find them.
And all of the quotes in her article came to her that way. Nice to see journalists and bloggers playing nice together, instead of constantly sounding the other’s death knell.
Sep. 14th, 2008
I remembered some lovely animated typography this evening, went to see it again, and through the wonder of web 2.0 magic, I’d suddenly discovered a whole YouTube subculture of folks who are animating dialogue from films. Here’s the most impressive stuff I found.
Warning: none of it’s visually unsafe, but some of the audio is NSFW. Put your headphones on.
The one that started all of this for me. It went around in emails ages ago, and I’ve looked at it again and again ever since. By the talented Jarratt Moody, who has more goodies on his own site.
Pretty wild mix of fonts here, but somehow it works, and the timing’s spot on.
Lovely feeling of 3D space, and the graphic illustrations add a bunch. The spelling could do with a check, though.
The grungy background, wobbly camera and type make for a nice change.
One of the best speeches in the movie, and here the colours and layout express the different voices well. The background colour changes also create a good visual rhythm.
I haven’t seen the movie, but the animations nice and smooth. But better than the type animation are the little object details, especially the “dating” table.
Love the palette, the textures also add a lot, but what really makes this one are the silhouette illustrations. I must however admit that I’m getting a little sick of Helvetica. Are students so conservative these days?
I know, it’s not from a movie, but I found this so spectacularly well done that I just had to cram it in here.
I don’t do type animation, and likely never will, but I enjoy looking at it and am sure it gets different creative juices pumping in my head. Andy Budd reminded me that we web designers often live in a fenced in little world, and that we’re cheating ourselves of a world of inspiration. When you look over the fence, where do you look?
Sep. 13th, 2008
Let me start by saying I’ve rarely been as disappointed with an online experience and customer service as I currently am with those of Electronic Arts. Frankly, I’m pissed off. If you’re rant-squemish, look away. Update: see below.
I was at dConstruct last week, and one of the speakers I enjoyed the most was Aleks Kotoski. She shined a light on the chasm between the games and web industries, showed what we can learn from one another, and suggested ways to encourage bridge building. When you think about it, game designers have everything anyone needs to totally rock interactive design. Think of the stunning skills that game designers can be proud of:
So why does Electronic Arts, a company that earns its money from the sweat of game designers’ brows, have a site (especially the store) which fails to even be usable, let alone rock? Couldn’t someone in the company with these skills take a minute to look at their web site?
My problems with Electronic Arts started back in 2006 when Will Wright, best known as the guy who created The Sims, gave the first demo of Spore. Back then, my problem was only that I wanted to play Spore, and it didn’t exist yet. It took two years for it to be released, and when it finally came out last weekend the more irritating problems started.
Keep in mind that as soon as I saw that demo I said to myself, “I must play that.” I was a fan before the game even existed. I’m the proverbial choir. There should be nothing in the world easier than selling me a copy of Spore. So why haven’t I got it yet?
That’s what most of us do first when something goes wrong online: blame ourselves. I had indeed made two critical mistakes, but both were unavoidable. I hadn’t screwed up, Electronic Arts had. But more on that later.
After many more clicks and quite a bit of backtracking, I’d managed to write a mail to Electronics Arts support: “I screwed up, blah blah blah, please change my download to the Mac version blah blah, thanks!” An automated email reply promised an answer within 24 hours.
After 60 hours without an answer, I tried again. Another 24 hour promise. 48 answer-free hours later, although I was pretty annoyed with Electronic Arts and their service vacuum, I was still ultra-keen to play Spore. I’m not known for patience, so I figured I could work out a refund for my PC version mistake later, and went back to their site to buy the Mac download.
So, Electronic Arts has managed to turn an excited future Spore fan into a disappointed and frustrated ex-customer in three easy steps.
First, by making their website as misleading as possible. As I said above, they have hundreds of people who are interaction masters. Games and websites are quite different animals, but the principals of clear and simple interface design, user guidance and expectation fulfillment work for both. Note to EA: get your designers to help with your site. You need it. Urgently. If they’re too busy, let’s talk. I’m looking for a challenge.
Second, by hiding behind a “service” wall which pushes customers away. No one who’s spent money on a product should have to explore, research and fight their way to getting help with that product. The best single way to get a customer to love a brand is to turn a moment of confusion and helplessness into a feeling of relief and satisfaction. Note to EA: without your customers, your products are worthless and you can pack up shop. Make happy customers priority number one and change your service strategy to reflect it.
Third, by insisting on selling bits packaged in atoms. Games are bits. Boxes and CDs are atoms. Bits travel well through the internet, take up no space on the shelf, and don’t require me to leave my keyboard, which is where I play my games. This should be obvious to anyone who’s been selling bits as long as Electronic Arts. But I’ve got a Mac, and there is no Mac download. That doesn’t mean there’s no Mac version of the game. There is. There’s just no download. Their games have taken very creative advantage of the internet for years now, so why are their distribution methods (at least for Mac versions) stuck in 1998? Note to EA: Apple’s US home computer market share seems to be around 8%. Do you really want to inconvenience and irritate that many potential customers? All you’d have to do is upload the Mac version to your server. Why haven’t you?
I’ve just written Electronic Arts again, and simply asked for a refund. Another promise of an answer in 24 hours. We’ll see.
As much as I wish I could claim that Electronic Arts will collapse in on itself due to its confusing web sites, poor service and outdated sales methods, I doubt they will any time soon. They sell some pretty cool games, and people want them. I’d like to say this experience has so turned me off Electronic Arts that I’ll never buy from them again, but I still want to play Spore and will buy it somewhere, somehow. So in this case, getting the experience right is probably not a matter of corporate survival.
But think of how much better EA could be if they not only had killer games, but also a site that encouraged instead of hindered sales, and service that left customers loving the brand? Sounds like a pipe-dream from where I’m standing, but it should be CEO John Riccitiello’s dream. Anyone got his email address?
Update: today I got an answer from Electronic Arts! Only five days late, but who’s counting? Bad news is, they say:
Spore in Macintosh platform is not available to download. We recommend you to purchase physical copy for Mac Platform.
The good news is, they’re idiots! Spore is actually available as a Mac download from GameTree. A friend (thanks captkevman!) saw my complaints, read this article, and made me aware of GameTree via Twitter. Funnily enough, the info about where to buy a Mac download of Spore is buried in Electronic Arts’ own support site. Maybe the support staff should also read it? Either way, I’m off to download Spore. Hold my calls!