One Interface to Rule them All (part 6) – the finale!

If only software could be designed and developed at the snap of a finger! Alas, great programs typically have to iterate their way to excellence and broad acceptance. However, it helps to have some big picture goals to shoot for, and that is the main purpose for this series of posts on the ideal web [...]

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One Interface to Rule them All (part 5)

In this post, I want to take a step back from tossing out MetaMee flow diagrams of how an ideal portal/dashboard/master interface might look and function, and just deal with a single issue. Layering.
(If you’re just coming into this discussion, here is the background: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4)

When it comes [...]

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Your Personal Brand – Does it Matter?

I was at a facilitation workshop last week, at which I gave an impromptu “from the heart” mini-talk on personal branding.
People often question if they “need” a personal brand. Here’s the news – you already HAVE a personal brand. The only questions are, what is it? And are you projecting it effectively?
When people see you, [...]

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A Really Dumb Question

For years, I’ve been wondering.
Why don’t marketers get together with trucking companies and place advertising on those huge rolling billboards called trucks?
Most 18-wheelers have nothing but boring trucking company logos, or nothing at all. But talk about exposure to eyeballs, 24/7!
If Sealy can do such an effective job on their own trucks, why can’t other [...]

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One Interface to Rule them All (part 4)

What we’re thinking about together in this series of posts is an “ideal” interface (or portal/dashboard) that will allow for a more efficient and personalized web experience. There are many very cool applications and functions scattered all over the internet – however, this fragmentation brings with it a lot of frustration. Is is possible to [...]

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One Interface to Rule them All (part 3)

First, I’d like to thank all those readers who have left comments and given input on my prior posts (part 1 and part 2). We’re all wrestling with the problem of having application-overload, and while none of us has “the” answer, all of us together might be able to craft something that gets us closer.
After [...]

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One Interface to Rule them All (part 2)

In a previous post, I outlined a handful of reasons why I think it is time for a pull-it-all-together user-centered interface for web applications, and also sketched out a few key characteristics that I’ve been  envisioning.
This will be a series of posts, but my goal is much higher than just dumping my own ideas. I’d [...]

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One Interface to Rule them All (part 1)

I’m on a quest (as I’m sure many others are) for the One Gold Ring – a single interface that will be my functional portal into the web. Right now, I go to too many places (iGoogle, Yahoo Mail, Google Reader, Flickr, Pageflakes, WordPress, Twitter, Plurk, Amazon, eBay, etc., etc., etc.) to “do web stuff,” [...]

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Logo No-go

You’d like to think that big companies, when they re-do such an important branding component as a logo, would really go all out to make something notable. Something striking. Something creative.
Something unforgettable.
Well…forget about these two. The only thing remarkable here is how boring these are:

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TweetDeck – a Chirp in the Right Direction

I was excited this morning to test-drive TweetDeck, a new Adobe-Air based interface layer tying into Twitter.
It’s early days for this beta, but I like the general design concept. The key thing so far with TweetDeck is the ability to split up and customize the Twitter stream so that you can view it in “streams” [...]

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I’m “Out of the Box” – how about you?

In the narrow old days, before the advent of all these social media tools, most of us had a very defined and constrained outlet (if any) for our creativity. Our jobs required that we occupy a certain role, and if we were lucky, one or even two creative strengths might get exercised.
And might get noticed [...]

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Turning Points: How I became a Consultant

It was on I-80 Eastbound. On the way home from a little father-son getaway with my fourth at the Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos. After a day of water-sliding, a professional epiphany at 60 miles per hour.
For 9 1/2 years, I’d worked with a small company doing sales/marketing/biz dev in the pharmaceutical training field. [...]

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