Great Quote...

In these times of economic uncertainty, this timeless quote from Architect Frank Lloyd Wright is quite timely....

From my Real Simple Quotes newsletter

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.

-Frank Lloyd Wright

Graduation Swag: My Shiny, New Kindle is Siphoning Money Outta My Wallet!

In a small torrent of graduation swag, I was recently gifted by my family with a Kindle. Glorious! I just checked my poliblog for new action-lots-and have been busy on the Kindle portal lining up books to buy. Now, I could lie and say I was checking out the newest tome on brain behavior or human habits and thinking, but I'm getting the next Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter installment.

Life is completely grand!

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Need a Different Secretary...

OK. I'm officially back from vaycay. Here's my unofficial secretary editing my most-recent document. It's not the poor typing skills I worry about (her last document was 27 pages of the letter "A" -- it's the attitude problem I find worrisome.

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Productivity 2.0 from Zen Habits

Productivity 2.0: How the New Rules of Work Are Changing the Game | Zen Habits

For years, books and articles and blogs on productivity have been showing us how to be more productive: crank out the tasks, multi-task, work faster, be organized.

In short, they’ve taught us to be a good part of a corporation that wants more out of us. But that’s old-school productivity, or Productivity 1.0.

Today let’s take a look at Productivity 2.0: a new set of rules have changed everything for the workers of the world. Don’t crank out tasks — learn to work with a deeper focus. Don’t plan and hold meetings and form committees — just launch the software or product or service and keep improving it. Don’t spend time organizing — you’ve got more important things to worry about.

The Economy: A MadLib

1. fine.
2. a nightmarish disgrace.
3. freakishly good.
4. magically delicious.
   

People aren't poorer, they just ___________________ (enter your selection here)

1. like eating mac and cheese from the box.
2. were going to downsize their house to a small walk-up apartment anyway.
3. are giving people--giving blood, that is.
4. enjoy watching channels 4, 6, 8 and 13 only.
5. wanted more family time
   
6. were looking for leisure time to read books...from the library...after having taken the bus to get there.

Besides, we aren't in a recession. This is better termed a ___________________ (enter your selection here)

1. time-out for profitability.
2. stock earnings hiatus.
3. return to Green Stamps and the Dollar Store.
   

Credit isn't tight. It's ___________________ (enter your selection here)

1. being carefully rationed.
2. a valued token of appreciation for people who can jump on one foot, fill out credit apps, and boil water for Ramen noodles at the same time.
3. been rendered invisible and clicking your heels and repeating "The economy is sound" will reveal it.
4. the grand prize for the winner of "Flavor of Love."

See? Isn't that better?

Cross-posted at the American Values Alliance

Brand Analysis for Presidents

A very good article from AdAge on analyzing audience engagement and loyalty metrics for the presidential campaign.

Just like brands and media, engagement and loyalty metrics can be used to measure presidential candidates. The technique is more accurate than traditional polling because it measures what voters think -- as opposed to what they say they think. Our research shows that there are four drivers that define the "Ideal President" and they are:

Action: Does the candidate have a comprehensive, realistic, well-considered plan for solving the problems facing the country?

Compassion: Does the candidate care about all the people? (A nod and a note to one of our alert readers: Attributes and values approximating liking, bonding to and seeing the candidate as being "someone like me" and "for me" resides in this driver along with concern for people.)

Perception: Does the candidate have a deep understanding of the problems facing the county?

Resolve: Does the candidate have the strength and leadership to guide the country?


the rest is here...

Passikoff: Obama Wins Second Debate 116 to 110 - Advertising Age - Campaign Trail

The mistake many web "designers" still make.

Making it look pretty for the sake of the current trend or style at the expense of not communicating the clients brand or not being usable at all.

Web Design: On Essence | 8164

“It looks pretty, but I’m not sure if our audience would feel it’s who we are.”

Design Is More Than Packaging - The New York Times

One of the hardest things to convince clients of is that design is more
than just the pretty skin that is draped over a solution at the end to
make it look pretty. It is more than make-up or aesthetics. Design for
me, is a modus operandi, it is an attitude to problem solving that not
just compliments the scientific approach but it also
fuels the process. "Making it pretty" is not design, never was, never
will be. It's merely putting lipstick on a pig. Making it pretty is the
polar opposite to design thinking.


The first place I learnt design thinking was at the Caribbean School of Architecture. That way of thought is the most valuable skill I have in my lil' arsenal.


not Photoshop,

not Illustrator,

not Indesign or any other program that I know how to use.


The critical thought required to creatively solve a problem or to
deliver new ideas takes a whole lot more than pushing pixels. Disecting
a brief, distilling the elements and desiging an appropriate response
begins long before I fire up my tool of choice on the computer. The NY
Times article makes excellent points on the design thinking approach and
it's place in the workplace. Good to see that this is finally, truly,
hitting the main stream media.


Unboxed - Design Is More Than Packaging - NYTimes.com

“Design thinking is inherently about creating new choices, about divergence,” says Tim Brown, the chief executive and president of the design consulting firm IDEO, based in Palo Alto, Calif. “Most business processes are about making choices from a set of existing alternatives. Clearly, if all your competition is doing the same, then differentiation is tough. In order to innovate, we have to have new alternatives and new solutions to problems, and that is what design can do.”