The Stairwell

Though no one officially has admitted guilt, the Board of Directors of the now-defunct MarchFirst Corporation have recently settled a class action law suit against them.

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Thinking seriously about content very early in the site design process can lead to great interfaces and effective brand messaging. Not doing so can result in reverse engineering, political infighting, and lost leads. Truly, content (copywriting, visual and functional elements) should not be 'the last thing to hammer out' once the design interface and technology is approved.

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http://www.billupsdesign.com/pcgamma.html

Here's an interesting discussion in Digital Web Magazine of what might be next in web sites - designing and marketing to all five senses. It's not as far fetched as it sounds when you think outside the box of designing only in color, grid and pixel. It's also an interesting article because it touches on 'inclusive design' for the elderly or the handicapped.

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Very simply put, I think "plug and play" portable satellite radio players (what a name, eh?) are going to take a huge bite out of the iPod's bloated market share. What's not to love? With XM Radio or Sirius you get sports, music, and even talk radio. If they put a 4gb flash drive inside it would be the finest thing out there.

• Sirius portables (my favorite)
• XM Radio portables

Now that three weeks have passed and the story begins to disappear from media headlines, it is important to continue supporting the efforts of everyone in South and Southeast Asia to put what's left of their lives back together.

If you have been meaning to help tsuanmi victims, but haven't done so yet, here's another chance.

• American Red Cross
• DirectRelief International
• Disasters Emergency Committee, UK

It looks like the fashion industry is leading the way with bright colors this spring. Coral Reef, Delft, Begonia Pink, Sweet Lavender, Aurora, and Blue Turquoise to name a few. Pantone, the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, attributes the brighter colors to a movement away from wearing Black and the well established Modernist look. Bringing color into fashion is a way of making people feel better, either as a form of escapism or optimism.

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Just saw a cool new handless watch that uses light movement on an innovative face to display the time. The web site is a design nightmare, but one can order directly from the shopping cart.

Have a look.

Just read a great article in “Internet Retailer Magazine”, January 2005 by Mary Wagner. Here are some of what I think are the most interesting facts from the article.

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Sometimes, I find, the best inspiration for interface design comes from unlikely places. I’ve spent years trying to glean new ideas for interface and content design from other web designers here in the U.S. and in Europe, but there is something slightly incestuous about the exercise – and the results can be very similar - which has led me to seek original approaches in other places.

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This may of importance to marketing folks tracking the best ways to spend their key word money in 2005.

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Think the online world is crazy? The real world's got it beat still.

Weird Headlines of 2004

You can get great color results when creating a PDF if you embed the correct color profile. If you are planning to use the PDF mainly for the screen you will get best results from sRGB.

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