charlie francis
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Why changing direction is so difficult for creative people?
How do you tell when you’ve become set in your creative direction? By this I mean the processes, skills, disciplines and behaviour that you employ to be creative. For example wireframe > look and feel > prototype > delivery. These may be some of the creative processes a web designer may use to see a…
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Push and Pull a new tug of war for old media
The notion of ‘push’ is when you push your content towards an audience who may or may not be aware of its existence. In a ‘pull’ environment the consumer pulls their content towards themselves because they are interested in it.
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WordPress: has its moment arrived?
Why is WordPress such a powerful tool? It was first released in May 2003 and has seen constant improvements resulting in it being on 2.6 since July 2008. It has become more and more relevant to a publishing company as the WordPress software has developed and is now able to support ‘magazine‘ themes. This has led…
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What I do all day
As a web designer I often wonder what other web designers get up to all day. So I thought the least I could do is share a day with my colleagues. To the best of my knowledge there are just under ten of us at IPC. In no particular order myself, Nadeem Akhtar, Andrew McManus,…
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Google Chrome explained by Scott McCloud
Before the day is out and because anyone who has any interest in web technology has already blogged on it, Google Chrome is out and about. But I would just like to draw your attention to the supporting documentation. Read about the technology. It has been drawn by Scott McCloud. He authored Understanding comics and Reinventing Comics, which…
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Card sorting and post it notes
At the beginning of a project a card sorting exercise will guide the business owners towards a structure for the content of their site. Everybody uses post-it notes. Putting it all up on a wall is key, so everyone involved can take in the whole site.
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It’s ugly, but it gets you there.
Its a web designer’s conundrum. That despite our best efforts some of the sites that are the most popular don’t appear to have a strong visual design. Some people might say they are ugly. It is a balancing act that is one of the great skills of visual design on the web. Usability, Information architecture…
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NPD notebook
At IPC media as their Lead Web Designer, I put together a little blog for Andy Cowles and his New Development Team. Andy has taken the blog down but I don’t think will mind me reproducing some of my posts. I had a few backed up but also its amazing what you find on the…
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Whats on TV.co.uk
Whats on TV magazine is Britain’s best selling magazine with over 4 million readers a week. I was asked to redesign Whats on TV.co.uk its online site. It was decided from the start that it would be an iterative process.
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say goodbye to ‘customer’ silos
People are now making what they want of your customer silos. People online have more options than ever before to access the information they want. The tool they most often use is a search engine, and with mission statements like this “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” who can blame…
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