Archive for March, 2009
Great Websites work beatifully
Devido às conversas que temos tido acerca de como devem ser e funcionar os sites, resolvi colocar aqui um texto do senhor Gerry McGovern que é bem elucidativo da actual fase de evolução da comunicação on-line.
Humans are dominated by visuals. But the Web reflects a movement away from this visual dominance.
For millions of years we lived in a world dominated by visuals and images. We saw the lion coming. We didn’t need to be able to name the lion. We didn’t need to be able to write the world “lion.” We just needed to run like hell and climb that tree.
Our brains are much more wired to understand and interpret visuals than they are to understand text. Our brains believe that what looks right is right, what looks wrong is wrong. Of course, the other big factor in decision-making is emotion.
Generally we make decisions based on feelings rather than logic or reason.
Marketers and advertisers have long known about the dominance of visuals and emotions in our decision-making processes, and have often exploited these facts.
When margarine was first invented it was colored pink to make it look more like butter. Rich people ate white bread so poor people wanted white bread. Only high quality flour resulted in white bread, so bakers started coloring the low quality flour to get more white-looking bread.
In 1858 in Bradford in the UK, 200 people were made sick and 20 died from eating lozenges. The sweets had been coated with arsenic. “The lozenge-maker had intended to adulterate his lozenges with plaster of Paris but had bought arsenic by mistake,” writes Bee Wilson in her excellent book on food adulteration called Swindled. Seemingly parents and kids were obsessed with the brightest colored sweets possible, and manufacturers obliged by coating sweets with various poisons.
I always remember the arrival of the first vacuum cleaner in our house. I was fascinated by it, so fascinated by it that my mother said to me: “Why don’t you clean the carpets with it?” I was excited at first, but as the weeks went by and I was asked again and again to clean those bloody carpets, I learned to despise the very sight of a vacuum cleaner.
That is until I came across the Dyson vacuum cleaner. Yes, it was expensive but it was such quality, such amazing design.
After years of using a particular Dyson model, some parts wore out. We rang up service expecting to pay for the new parts. Not alone were we not charged but a service engineer came out an installed them for free.
“There are two sides to the design coin,” James Dyson has recently stated. “There is serious design – making sure that the manufactured object performs its task in the best possible way.
And there is styling – the essentially superficial task of making sure something looks attractive … styling for its own sake is a lazy 20th century conceit.”
The Web reflects a society that is maturing. It is a more questioning, probing, skeptical, probing society. Is it totally rational and logical? Absolutely not. Of course, we like our websites and products to look beautiful. But it is much more important to the Web customer that websites and products work beautifully.
Gerry McGovern
blend memories #01
Olhem o que estava escondido no precioso (ou nem por isso, uma vez que a foto já tinha sido publicada, eu perdoo-vos por não quererem fazer parte das estatísticas do Flickr). Antes que perguntem, as fotos do jantar já estavam reveladas e tratadas há séculos, eu é que ando cada vez mais senil e esqueço-me de fazer upload (já para não falar dos duros meses em que voltei à Idade das Trevas). Bem, tudo isto para dizer que aqui há mais (104 e a contar…).
(*) Preciso de ajuda para o descritivo, cada um tem direito a duas palavras e um sinal de pontuação.
Microsoft Office Labs imagine the future
“Microsoft has collaborated with customers, partners, and thought leaders across multiple disciplines to develop scenarios that explore how long-term trends, customer challenges, and emerging technologies might converge to improve our lives, both at work and home.”
Ver aqui
But does it float
Uma corrente de inspiração – aqui
Sugestão
Apesar de andarmos bastante ocupados nestes tempos de crise (contra-senso), penso que seria interessante juntarmos esforços em equipa, para mudar a rotina, e participarmos neste projecto (e noutros do género).
Talvez numa onda de: alguem-começar-e-passar-ao-seguinte-até-correr-toda-a-gente-e-termos-uma-ilustração-feita-em-conjunto-como-o-jogo-de-ir-contando-uma-história-em-que-toda-a-gente-vai-acrescentando-partes type of thing.
As the Omega Code poster was very well received by the design sphere, we decided to open space for submissions. We’re currently receiving illustrations everyday. We’ll pick up 20 illustrations and feature them on our upcoming book, that will be released this year by IdN World.
Download our template, follow the guidelines and send us your art until
March 31st, 2009. EXTENDED DEADLINE!
Please, no porn, no violence, no disturbing images.After the download, use your favorite tool, open a canvas with 707 mm x 1000 mm (or 500 mm x 707 mm*), in 300 dpi (or 150*). Do your art in pixel or vector, save a small preview of your art (up to 1MB) and send us on: hello@omegacode.net.
We’ll add your art on out Flickr page as soon as it arrives.If we choose your illustration to be featured on our book, you will receive an email.
blend@flickr
