Digital Strategy, Design & Development - Milwaukee, WI

App Review: It’s Good to Be Blue

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:22:00 GMT

I like simplicity in my life. I don’t give two thundersnows what the barometric pressure, moon phase or wind gust speeds are when I get up in the morning. I just want to know if I should I wear my parka and/or do I need an umbrella. Blue gives me that at a glance.

My annoyance with weather information overload led me to a random weather app search in the Apple Store. That’s where I first met Blue. She was 99 cents and I loved the logo. Great reasons to buy an app I know – it’s like picking March Madness tourney winners based on your favorite color jerseys.

Blue is an iPhone and iPad app that gives 36-hour forecasts based on your current location. By a simple swipe up and down you can see each hour in a gradient color based on temperature as well as shade based on time of day. There is one icon that shows what will be happening that hour, the time and date, your current location and one line in a clean white font describing the weather. That is it.

At first I was skeptical.

I do like knowing what’s coming this hour, this week, this weekend and this month (no matter how inaccurate they end up being). What I found though was that I missed those features like a bad ex. Once out of sight you realize just how awesome things are without them. My phone is basically an extension of my right hand making it my first resource for weather checking. With Blue it takes all of five seconds to grab my phone, open the app and based on the icon and color of the hour bars know exactly how the day is going to go. This week so far - umbrella and parka it is.

Displaying every snippet of information available on a topic was so 2006.

Focusing on what information people really need and delivering it in a clear, concise and beautiful way is wave of the future. You don’t have to be a minimalist to appreciate a brand drowning out the noise and giving you only what you need. It makes you want them more. You know what they say, build one thing really well and they will come. (Field of Dreams… anyone?)

My only complaint about the app – I’ve only seen shades of blue since I’ve purchased it. Though that has more to do with me living in Wisconsin and less to do with Blue.

Words cannot describe how ready I am to see the red end of the visible color spectrum in Blue. Thanks Oak.[n]

Craft Beer + Investment Crowdfunding = CraftFund

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:26:00 GMT

Does is get any better? Craft beer and crowdfunding. WHAT? Where in the h--e-double hockey sticks do I sign up? Oh, CraftFund.com.

We've all either heard of or participated in rewards-based crowdfunding; I hope? You see the world's thinnest watch and because thickness was the clearly the reason you stopped wearing your last one, you want in. You go to Kickstarter.com, pay your $99 and wait for you digital slap band to arrive.

But aren't you ready for something that feels more authentic and less like an e-commerce site?

We like craft beer, just a little bit. Okay, we have it on tap in our studio - currently Founders Breakfast Stout - a full meal in a glass + caffeine which is perfect for the hours of a startup. Wouldn't it be nice if Founders wanted to expand and we were able to buy in? What if you could crowdfund a new or expanding craft brewery and instead of getting some bottle openers and a lame tour you could actually OWN a small piece of the business? Oh, and become a vested evangelist for the brand at the same time!

Equity crowdfunding is what we're talking about party people. The final legislation isn't quite there but David Dupee, Founder of CraftFund, is betting that it will be by 2014. And when it is, companies will be able to sell shares of common stock directly (over the web perhaps?) to individual investors.

In equity crowdfunding for craft beer, David refers to this as 'disruptive capital for a disruptive industry'.

"It was a pleasure working with Northern Ground. Ryan and team took the time to really understand my brand and help me better define my objectives for the new site. As entrepreneurs themselves, they appreciate how important strategy is to getting something off the ground."

We recently helped David launch CraftFund.com. The project began with brand design and culminated in this simple, first phase of his website. The site is centered around thought leadership content and a blog that encourages user signups in an effort to establish an active community of craft beer enthusiasts that are excited about the possibilities of equity-based crowdfunding. David has big plans for the site and this emerging market - but you will have to wait and see.

Love craft beer? Yes. Love the idea of equity crowdfunding? Yes. Want to support new and expanding brewers in the future? Yes. Sign up today and become part of the disruption. Cheers![n]

In Vine, Veritas

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:45:00 GMT

When Twitter exploded, startups everywhere set out to dupe its success by trying a different take on the same premise. Even back at our old place, we developed a product that we pitched, with hubris, as "the Twitter of images." The leadership at the company ultimately didn't support bringing it to market, so it's not a great story, but it's a handy example of the ubiquity of the pursuit. A couple years later, of course, Instagram found success using that exact formula, so you can't say the chase was entirely of windmills.

A new-ish app, Vine, takes the Instagram-variant of Twitter and adapts it to video. It will be just as popular, probably, and it's interesting to think about why. How many thousands of people must have said "Let's do the Twitter of videos," and never got anywhere? (It helps that Twitter bought Vine before it debuted and is supporting it with all of its resources, but the question remains. Kanye West invested in a video messaging service too, and no one uses it. Why this one, and not the thousands of others?)

There's a lot to say about how ideas are worth less than you think, and execution is all that really matters, but I'd rather save that for a different post and just talk about Vine. Because it's rad.

Vine is an app where you record video or animation in 6-second chunks that post to a feed people can follow. What's great is that they've basically invented a new kind of mechanism for gathering sound and video, and that new mechanism is inspiring new forms of creativity.

The app records while your finger is on the screen, but you can lift your finger off and on, as often as you want, until all 6 seconds are recorded. Then, you either publish or delete. No editing, no separate tracks, no multiple takes. It requires, almost begs, a leap of creative courage (or at least shamelessness).

This mechanism also creates an even playing field - pros can't use a better camera to make their Vines look better, tinkerers can't work on a video for weeks getting everything perfect. Everything has to be improvised, and then, just let go of. You can delete a regretted post, but you can't save one to publish later. This inherently increases engagement and participation (and more than a little silliness).

Technically, stopping and starting recording like this is far more difficult than it might seem, and the app works incredibly well, even uploading over a cellular connection. The videos play back in a loop smoothly, load quickly and generally feel less like the buffering, waiting experience of a video streaming service like YouTube, and more like a photo app, like Instagram. It's fun and breezy.

Which isn't to say it's perfect. The first version had usability issues, and some hardware limitations also exacerbate some of the problems of the app. If you think back to recording video with an old camera, the first few seconds of every shot were always marred by the lens zooming in and out hunting for focus. On Vine, you only GET those first few seconds, which means posts are often made up almost entirely of fumbling, blurry moments while the camera finds the shot. I would propose the quality of videos would improve greatly if focus stayed locked during recording (if you need to refocus during a take, just lift your finger up for a second).

But all that will be worked out. It's a great little app - one that's fun to make stuff with, and fun to watch. Several people have already started mastering the idiosyncrasies of the mechanism and producing results that feel like the beginnings of a slightly new kind of art form.

I keep deleting everything I make with it, but for what it's worth, a few tips I've found:

1.

You can close out of the app while you have a recording started, and return to record more later. This lets you set up an idea and wait for a shot. So for example, you could record a little bit over a period of time to create a time-lapse.

2.

In the record screen, swiping anywhere on the top of bottom gray bars will sustain the recording, allowing you to set the phone down and keep filming. Handy if you want to step out in front of the camera.

3.

You can fade to white by pointing at a light source, and fade to black by pushing in too close on something.

4.

The videos play in a loop, so you could film a punchline first, then set up the joke after. The Vine will play in sequence and the beginning won't really matter.

The platform also opens up a new way for brands and businesses to reach out to people. How-to videos, product demonstrations, promoting in-store events as they're happening or just having fun while building awareness - 6 seconds is just long enough to give you plenty of room to communicate, without being too long to exhaust the attention span of your average social-media junkie. It might be the perfect advertising mechanism.

I guess since I'm thinking a lot more about Vines than actually shooting them, maybe the app doesn't inspire as much creative courage as I originally thought, but I'm definitely more engaged with it than I've been with a lot of the other Twitters-of-this and Twitters-of-that. And Matt's been secretly working on some kind of Vine aggregator that's very mysterious, so I'm excited about that too. [n]

I think about you. I miss you. I need you. A lot. Seriously.

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 01:34:00 GMT

Remember what matters? Customers, prospects, partners, etc. They should be spinning around in your brain at all times - like 80's movie lines or, if you have a 3 year old daughter like me, the theme song to Dora. "C'mon Vamanos! Everybody let's go!"

Far too often clients and prospects come to us with a specific INTERNAL issue. Then, they discuss the needs of their audience and target users much later in the chat. Sound familiar?

Likely Business Challenges: Communication, awareness, differentiation, market perception, new product launch, etc.

Likely Business Goals: Revenue, list growth/audience share, engagement, LEADS!, social responsibility, marketshare, etc.

User Goals: None of the above.

I get it. We are internally focused creatures and not predisposed to walking around in someone else's shoes. We are also a break/fix society. We have a problem and look for the shortest (dare I say cheapest?) solution. However, the web is likely the best manifestation of your brand – not your car with a flat tire or your iThing with a broken headphone jack.

In between your 6th and 7th team planning meeting today, I encourage you stop letting your internal business challenges be the main driver of decisions.

Your users will see through it – they will see it's not for them and it will limit your ability to grow. Think of them first and always - like a stalker. Let your users be the loudest voice in the room during planning meetings. Invite a few of them that you trust. It works and they will appreciate it.

Don't get me wrong, we solve internal issues all of the time and we love doing it. Maybe it's an internal sales automation application or a training portal. Maybe we're using a digital experience to change internal perceptions or launch a new product or division to a global team. Whatever the case may be, there are still users involved and they need to be thought of from the start. We will challenge you to do that.

When you tell us "We have a perception in the marketplace that we are expensive." This is what I here: "We need to provide more value and purchase justification to our customers. We need to give them the emotional and financial ammunition they need to feel good about our story and commit to a purchase. We need to do better at supporting them as they decide". That is a very direct example but surely you can translate it to your business.

What helps?

I encourage clients to write a simple user story for their top 3 targets - just a Twitter length description. In additon to initial direction, we use them to gut check decisions much further into projects. But it has to start there. Have we offered up the experience, content and platform to solve their problems? To make them happy? To get them to buy? To get them to share?

Internal problems often fuel innovation on the web. Just consider that the solution to overcome those challenges may lie with your users. Let their needs drive project scope, goals, decisions. Then think about solving your internal challenges.

By the time you do that, I bet we're already there. [n]

Northern Ground Launches New Website for True Process

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:17:00 GMT

We could go on and on about the design system, user experience or content strategy but I'd rather have our client share his experience. After a small bribe, he agreed. Plus, we're tired. Thanks Todd. Back to bed.

"My name is Todd Dunsrin and I am the CEO of True Process. We launched our new website this week and Ryan asked that I share our experience with Northern Ground.

True Process is a growing clinical connectivity and consulting business. In short, the products and services we offer help our clients connect with their clinical data and leverage it in a variety of ways. We are product developers, technology translators, digital integrators and software engineers. We needed a digital firm to help us tell that story in a new way on the web. We need to attract new clients. I was told we need Northern Ground.

After a referral from someone I trust, I couldn't be more pleased with the process or the results. As a business owner I work with a variety of vendors; and Northern Ground just gets it.

Our goal was ambitious. Launch a cutting-edge, creative website in three months.

What did we end up with? A responsive website built from the ground up that I couldn't be more proud of. Dozens of custom illustrations, new custom font (that Jay aptly named "TruPro"), all new navigation and content, 100% new copy and a powerful Content Management System to help us drive our content strategy.

Northern Ground delivered, pure and simple.

They were able to work seamlessly with our Marketing Director and various other 3rd party resources – copywriter, photographer and at the same time they pushed us creatively in both design and content.

Ryan has the perfect combination of creativity, business-savvy, marketing and technology to lead his technical and creative team. Matt was able to architect a scalable, powerful site that will work for us for years to come. Jay went above and beyond in delivering a creative site that is like no other.

We have a site that doesn't contain a SINGLE piece of stock art! Not one.

Not that there's anything wrong with that but we wanted something that was unique to us and reinforced our brand and cultural DNA. Between TruPro and the illustrations, we now have design assets that we are already using across all of our marketing touch points to further reinforce our brand. Jay was able to capture the innovative and fun side of a business in the healthcare IT market - not an easy task.

Northern Ground brings years of business, marketing, technology and web experience to companies that are ready to make a name for themselves. Not afraid to push the boundaries, they will make you think about yourself in ways you probably didn't.

I'm excited about the future for True Process, and I'm proud to say we had a great partner to help us get there, Northern Ground." [n]

Visiting Northern Ground

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:20:00 GMT

Find us at 260 E. Highland Avenue on the top floor of the historic Blatz Brewery.

See the map below for parking options or, if you love parking tickets, street parking is readily available. You can enter our building under the covered drive on Highland or through the courtyard off of Market Street. Once in the Blatz lobby, take an immediate right through a set of glass doors and take the elevator up to 8. Then prepare to never want to go back to your old office again.

Please contact us with any questions. Hope to see you soon!

PICS: DEMO BEGINS ON NORTHERN GROUND'S NEW STUDIO

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Smell that? Progress is fermenting at the Blatz. Okay, it's probably asbestos (or body odor) but either way demo has begun on our new space. We're scheduled to take occupancy by EOY and are well on our way. Great light, huge volume, private entrance, wonderful views, oh, and it needs to get totally gutted like my smelly refrigerator two weeks after Thanksgiving. Some pics from today...

A Little Less 'Tourist' And A Little More 'App'

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:43:00 GMT

No one wants to look like a fanny pack-wearing, map clutching tourist wandering through a city when they travel. It’s not safe and fellas, your man-bag won't help you 'blend', even if it is crocodile hide. There are apps for that, and here are my picks.

Two weeks ago I made my first visit (no laughing) to San Francisco with my husband. Even amidst the Giants-Mania; it was an awe-inspiring vacation.

We hit up all the touristy spots like Golden Gate, Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz, etc…, but also made a point to wander through the less-traveled parts of the city, trekking up the hills to Bernal Heights Park and Telegraph Hill to get breathtaking 360 views of SanFran.

One of the ways we combated Tourist-itis was to use our phones to help us navigate the city. Today you can’t go more than two feet without seeing someone with their face buried in their iThing so we were definitely in our natural element.

There are many travel apps out there, but the two that became our digital BFF’s were Google Navigate and Poynt.

Google Navigation is what it sounds like. It combines Google’s ridiculously comprehensive maps, with a step-by-step navigation system. You can use it just like Google maps for walking, public transit or driving directions and it’s free. My favorite feature is speaking an address and having it route you there, which has proved especially helpful when you are in a car by yourself and get a bit lost.

Poynt is an app that uses the GPS on your phone to locate the nearest points for various travel needs. E.g. gas stations, restaurants, movies, events. You can even do a white pages look up if you need to find someone in the area. This app is great because no matter where you are it will quickly find you whatever you are looking for close without unfolding a 20” x 30” map in the middle of the sidewalk. I saw it. It still happens.

It’s well designed with a carousel for navigation so it’s easy to flip through while you are walking. Poynt is available on iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones. I definitely recommend this for travelers, or even people in their own cities. Take a peek you might find something you didn’t know was there before!

Moral of the story: Use travel apps to help you find your way and blend with the locals. Also – and more importantly - friends don’t let friends wear fanny packs.[n]

Homage to Mom’s Calendar

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 21:27:00 GMT

When I was growing up my mom had a large desk calendar with every square inch written on neatly and color coordinated. These days moms everywhere can rejoice, because there is an app for that.

My three siblings and I each had our own color for activities and events and my mom had an elaborate scheduling system to make sure we were all where we were supposed to be at the right time. 15+ years later, I find myself a mother of three trying to get my kids where they are supposed to be while coordinating with my husband and his work schedule.

Problem is - I was never good with paper calendars. I’d take a few hours and go through and write out a few months at a time. Within days I’d erased so much as appointments moved, additional plans eeked in and it started to look like my five-year-old's math homework. Then I’d stuff it in my purse and not think about it for weeks.

After showing up for my son’s doctor appointment on the wrong day for the second time, I decided to make the leap to a digital calendar – I figured at this point – what could it hurt. It was then, about a year ago, I started using Cozi.

Cozi is a shared family calendar (and grocery list, journal, etc..) but it’s biggest and best feature is by far the calendar. After using this application for a year, I’ve determined that while it offers many features I have no use for (others may), it’s one that has saved me time and headaches day after day as far as coordination of multiple schedules.

Some of the things I like about it:

Offers a shared account, one password with individual login ids for family members
You can create separate calendars for each family member and assign them a color (just like mom used to!)
Allows imports of other web calendars (Google calendars, school calendars, etc.)
It lets you set up reminders in case you forget to check the calendar
Has a great Web interface as well as mobile app for quick entering of appointments
Also offers To Do Lists, Shopping Lists, Meal planning, Family Message board and Family Journal
Did I mention it’s free?

Some things I didn’t like:

Can be slow to load at times (seems to always happen as I’m at the doctors office trying to schedule appointments on my phone)
I found the shopping lists and meal planning to be overkill and I kept forgetting to keep them updated (maybe I should have wrote a reminder on my calendar?)

While you can pay $4.99 a month, or $49.99 a year for the Cozi Gold version (enhanced features and no ads) from my experience the free app more than covers the bases when it comes to keeping multiple people and calendars together.

Try it out – let me know what you think! [n]

Insta-Accomplishment

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:05:00 GMT

There's going to be a time when we'll look back at all the photos we took with Instagram and be embarrassed. Not for the thousand identical shots of our dogs sleeping or blurry plates of food that we will never, ever care to look at again, but because of the "retro" image filters that we lathered on them. Literally any minute now they are going to start looking very, very cheesy. Sutro is the puffy glitter paint, and tilt-shift lens blur is the grungy ink-splatter of our time.

As a designer and image-maker, I recoil at tarting up our photos with some trendy, stock set of effects. They became gross and overused the minute the developer built them into the tool.

And I probably resent it slightly too - color-grading is a trick designers have always had for enhancing photos. With tastes flexed from a knowledge of aesthetics and the skills needed to use the complex tools, it's a service we were able to provide that added value to our vocation - and now anyone with a smartphone can just drunkenly mash a button and accomplish the same effects (Another example of software eating everything, including design).

Here's the thing, though. From the perspective of a user-experience designer trying to build services and interfaces that people want to use, Instagram's filters are brilliant, and I think far more important to the success of the platform than people might realize.

Interactivity requires participation. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of photo-sharing services on the net. It's tautological, but the thing that makes any of them a success is that people use them. How do you get people to take pictures, post them and share them with their friends? First make the process as well-designed, easy and pleasurable as possible, of course, but what else?

What about the psychology of exposing what is both a public work of art and a private memory to a potentially judgmental audience, ready to call you out for being arty or pretentious? "Who do you think you are, Nan-freakin-Golden?," said no one, ever, probably, but you know what I mean. Social media has busted the spigot on communicating anything and everything to the world, but think about how quickly you clam up when someone points a video camera at you and says, "Say something funny."

With filters, Instagram brakes down those barriers in a few ways. First, it democratizes photography so that the worst photo and the best photo aren't all that far apart from each other. Second, that purplish blur puts a distance between the picture you take and the picture you submit, giving you a safe place to hide from the decision to publish. It's a free license to be arty.

Lastly, Instagram's filters make any photo look cool with you as the creator supplying neither choice nor skill nor effort to achieve that outcome. Like throwing a basketball over your head and hitting the basket, it feels good to accomplish things, even if you, yourself, made a questionable contribution to the achievement.

I think the overriding theme of our time is the open abandonment of individual choice and tastes. I want to say more about this some day, but this is one tiny example. Say what you will about artistic legitimacy, by taking away the risk of making something that looks crappy it also takes away the fear, and fear has been a huge obstruction to new technologies like social media. A platform that makes its users automatically funny, talented and artistic will have obvious, enormous appeal.

And while it may give designers something to be depressed about, another thing Instagram teaches us is how important it is that stuff looks cool. And soon, when those filters start getting a little too ripe, we're going to have to step in and dig up something fresh. [n]

Database: Word of the Week

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:21:04 GMT

Database. No matter what anyone tells you, a spreadsheet is not a database. Like a replicant in Blade Runner, they may look the same – but they are not.

Databases are repositories to hold data in a structured format, and yes, so are spreadsheets. However, a spreadsheet is not a database. A database has powerful relationships that help keep your data intact, safe and accessible through time and trouble.

There are two major types of databases in the world today: relational and object databases.

Relational databases store your data in a very similar format as a spreadsheet, in rows and columns, but that’s where the similarity ends. Databases have many tables and each table is meant to represent a piece of data in your business. The tables are connected together by rules. The rules are a sort of protection called Referential Integrity (RI). RI keeps your data safe by making sure a related record in one table has an associated record in another. It can also update and delete records automatically if a row in one table is associated with a row in another. Relational databases are constructed using a method called the Normal Forms. There are three popular Normal Forms, and then a bunch that are used sparingly in specific instances.

Object databases store information as a “document” or a hierarchal object. Object databases have been around for a while, but have just recently started gaining momentum. In an object database each entity is held as a separate object and its separate associated properties.

Bottom line, databases are the right way to store data. So the next time a co-worker tries to get you to store your data in a spreadsheet tell them, “Hey, we should talk to a database guru and learn the right way to do this."

Trust me. It’ll save you trouble and headaches in the future. [n]

If Tab Can Survive – So Can Print

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:00:00 GMT

I love how print feels. But space wise you can keep hundreds of books on a Kindle Fire vs. your living room bookshelf. Side note though: John Waters and I agree – if you go home with somebody and they don't have any books – head for the door.

The Internet is flooded (and awesomely so) with books, blogs, magazines and news. Digital media rocks for many-a-reason. It’s easier to store, more portable and accessible from anywhere on the planet on your phone, computer, tablet and coming soon your glasses.

I read my news and blogs online and I read my books on a Kindle, but I have a secret love affair with magazines, the real thing.

Full page glossy ads and articles. I love how it feels when you turn the pages, I love how it looks. As a writer, I love how decisive it feels. Once it’s printed it can’t be changed. Sure it can be corrected in future issues but there is something about the finality of someone saying “this is okay to print” and not being able to log into a CMS and change it every few minutes that just gets me.

Our house has stacks of magazines; Time, Newsweek, Nat Geo for kids, 2600, Highlights, Lucky, Money, the list goes on. And now more than ever – magazines are cheap. Mostly because of the flailing industry to which some even say that print mags are dying. Though people have been saying Tab was going to fizzle out for decades and Coke’s first diet soda is still kicking it on grocery store shelves today– so I’m happily taking those naysayers with a grain of salt.

Recently Milwaukee Magazine did something cool and combined digital with print by making their October issue completely interactive. Grab a copy of the mag and download QuadGraphics Actable app from the market and you can interact with every single page of the magazine.

They have extra photo galleries, audio, video, data, giveaways and other interactive elements throughout the issue. It’s also their Best of 2012 issue – so you can get your digital and analog fix on while discovering things like Flavorcycle and MKE’s best cupcake shop (congrats Miss Julia’s!).

Check it out and get a dose of what the 414 is up to while helping to keep print alive! [n]

Authentic Content Marketing

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:00:00 GMT

When I [am forced to] watch a traditional corporate marketing video, ion rays fly out of the screen and penetrate my soul stealing my dreams and replacing them with feelings of regret and shame, like when I reach that weird part of YouTube.

I'll get right to it. One, we built the new website for About Face Media and two, and more importantly, if you are a brand that cares about storytelling and differentiation, you should get to know them.

We aren't a content development company. Of course we spend considerable time understanding a client's current content strategy for all of their audiences, brands and platforms and sometimes we help them plan a new strategy but we don't necessarily develop the content. About Face does, and in one of the most approachable, authentic ways.

About Face uses a national (and sometimes global) team of award-winning, independent documentary film makers to make videos for brands and then optimize them for viewing on the social web.

It works. I've seen it. You probably need it. Trust me.

Now, there are lots of video production studios that do great work. There are just as many that wagonjacked (oh yes I did) the documentry style bandwagon and claim to be 'storytellers'. However there are far fewer that have an award winning documentary film background and are immersed in this and only this all day, like About Face.

They are specialized and it shows in their work. Good shops need to stick together and we can think of few better to attach our name to than About Face.

Like us, a small percentage of their work is with Milwaukee clients but that isn't to say they aren't committed to developing the creative community here. If you have been attending the Milwaukee Film festival over the past 10 days, no doubt you've seen their logo in the sponsor trailer and heard the name of About Face's CEO, Barry Poltermann dropped a few dozen times. Their roots are in independent film and they have a vested interest in fostering emerging talent in the industry.

I recently asked Barry about his experience with our site build. "Northern Ground is smart and nimble - the right combination in a world that moves this fast. Aside from what the do best, they understand the value of marketing to social channels with good content. They earn real trust with clients so when they recommend About Face, their customers take that seriously. That's far too rare."

I've had the pleasure of partnering with About Face on several client projects and the results have always been exceptional. I recommend them without hesitation.

To help them tell their story, we built their new website on Umbraco's CMS platform allowing the AF team to control content and site optimization on their terms. The site layout and architecture was somewhat predetermined but Jay took it the rest of the way through smart choices in usability, typefaces and color treatments. Overall, he made a conscious effort to get out of the way and let their video content tell their story.

Watch for future client announcements with About Face and the launch of a new video collaboration platform we are currently designing together. [n]

Fade In: Milwaukee Film Fest!

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:45:00 GMT

When I first moved to town, my main complaint was the lack of screenings and resources for cinephiles. It wasn't until I started dating the Education Director of the Milwaukee Film Fest that I found out we actually have one of the bigger annual film festivals in the country, right down the street.

It opened yesterday with a huge party at Discovery world, and runs through October 11th. They have a bunch of great stuff showing which you can check out on mkefilm.org, but there's a few things I'm definitely hitting up in this year's program.

J. Hoberman has a new book out and is giving the keynote address for the festival. Even more exciting for me, though, he has chosen to screen David Lynch's Inland Empire (9/30,4PM) and Chris Marker's San Soleil (9/29,4:45PM). Both films rank among my favorites, but I've never seen them on the big screen, and it's especially poignant to see Marker's film since he just died in July.

Mark Borchardt from American Movie is presenting the Giant Spider Invasion (10/6,9:30PM), a Wisconsin-made B monster flick, and he'll be talking to the director on stage after the film. This is the kind of thing you will only ever see in Milwaukee.

In that same vein, the Milwaukee Show (10/4,7PM) shows films from local filmmakers. This town always supports its own, and this show always sells out the big room at the Oriental and is a great time. This year, among others, they're showing Studies in Space by Tate Bunker, which was a successful Kickstarter I supported, and The Vampire Formerly Known As Dracula, this year's film made by Collaborative Cinema. A program run by the formerly-mentioned Education Director of Milwaukee Film, Collaborative Cinema is an amazing and unheard-of opportunity, where every year they workshop screenwriting with high school students, choose one of their scripts and get real film professionals and film students together to make it as a big budget film. This year, I got a chance to do the credit and title sequences, and the director let me do them in the style of Hammer vampire films, so I was stoked.

The Jeffery Dahmer Files is locally-made documentary that I've already seen at SXSW. Not something I'm usually interested in, but the interview subjects are incredibly compelling and some of them will be at the screening (10/7,3PM) for a panel afterwards. The movie's been picked up by IFC, and it's still a really resonant subject for the city, so it should be another very unique Milwaukee event.

Other films I'm excited about are Klown, from what I hear one of the funniest, most vulgar comedies of the year, Little Red, another local feature having its debut, Beyond the Black Rainbow, a rad cult film if you can imagine David Cronenberg making a Daft Punk video, Compliance, one of the most talked about indie films this year, and We Are Legion, a documentary about Anonymous, the internet activists. I should also mention the Milwaukee Children's Film Festival, which runs along with the grown-up version and shows great kids films from around the world.

This year, though, the thing I might be most looking forward to isn't a film at all, but a panel discussion (10/6, 7PM) with the guys from Red Letter Media, famous for their Phantom Menace review and more recently, the funny and spot-on Prometheus video that went viral. My now-twice-formerly-mentioned Education Director / girlfriend and I started becoming fans of their mix of comedy, film criticism and online filmmaking and one day we noticed the alley they were shooting in looked a lot like the one down our street. It turned out they were from Milwaukee and we never had any idea!

It's amazing that in such a small market, people who are huge fans, supporters, educators and practitioners of a fairly narrow field like film could pass in the night unaware of the great things being done all around them. Maybe this city's bigger than we think? [n]

Our Simplest Pinterest Sharingest Tool

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:35:00 GMT

When confronted with a creative or technical problem I search for a solution. If I can’t find one, I make one. That's why I love being a developer. Who says we don't make anything anymore?

The great thing about code is that you are working with the most fundamental of tools. Like a metal worker, I don’t do it all with hand tools.

One of my favorite tools to use is a Content Management System (CMS) to help store information in a database and display that information back to a user on a webpage. There are many to choose from, all suited for different purposes, and they can serve up most of what I need.

Many times though, the standard tools don’t always do the job.

That’s when I break out the hand tools and start the fine work. Fine work is often more difficult and time consuming, but it’s good to know that when you need it, it’s right there at your fingertips ready to use. The share tool below this article is an example of just that.

There are several social sharing plugins for the CMS we are using (called Orchard - more on that in a future post) so we thought we’d try out a few. Some were too complicated and others didn’t work at all. Jay demands elegant design and understated simplicity of operation e.g. he makes my job complicated, but the results are truly beautiful.

So we decided to write our own. Our goal was to keep it simple, share to the popular sites and make sharing easy, duh.

Through that process, I wrote a new Pinterest sharing tool because the standard Pinterest tool is horrible. It can't pick an image from your page dynamically and makes you pick the image ahead of time when you install it. What if you have a lot of images you'd like people to pin, like Ryan's pictures below from Doors Open MKE this past weekend, floor 41 of the US Bank building. You'd make a better Pinterest sharing tool.

It was a quick job but the results are just what we needed. In my version it reviews the images on the page, dynamically makes a drop-down menu based on those images and allows you to click on the image in the menu to pin.

Maybe I should give it to Pinterest. In the meantime, if you want it, just shoot me a note through our contact page and I'll send you the code. In a short while, I'll make sure to get it up on the Orchard Gallery as a module you can install.

I often use available tools to speed up development while maintaining the ability to “pull back the covers” at any time to manually give you the power you need to succeed and differentiate your company or brand. [n]

Object: Word of the Week

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:11:00 GMT

An object. Normally we can touch, smell and see an object. Not so in coding, but we can do one thing just like in real life: interact. Objects form the basis of interaction on the Internet, on your iPad, heck even your toaster may have a basic OOP language.

Now before the programmers reading this get their keyboards in an uproar, there are other language types that are not object oriented. They are called procedural languages (I'll leave those for another post). Object Oriented Programming (OOP) has become the dominant language construct in programming because of its superior ability to organize and represent things in the real world as a set of objects in the computer world. Makes sense right? Need to program something, start with what you know.

If you remember my last post, about class, you can see that making an object is pretty easy. Now what is it good for? Let’s take a small, simple example of how objects work together to form more complex computer machinery by architecting objects for a person.

A person looks like this:

PHOTO OF RYAN

and to a computer it looks like this:

public class Person{

}

Now let's add an attribute to the person. For example, what is the name of the person:

public class Person {
private string _name = “ryan”;
}

Attributes in OOP languages are called properties. And finally let’s have the person perform an action

public class Person{
private string _name = “ryan”;

public string SayHello()
{
return “hello”;
}

}

Actions in OOP languages are called methods.

This is just a very simple example. If you extend this to hundreds of objects all working together, you’ve got a powerful tool able to drive an e-commerce system, calculate the cost savings by using your product over a competitor's, or any number of other business and marketing opportunities you can imagine.

Next week’s word: Database. Don't worry, these will get harder. [n]

A Tech Called Hope

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:30:00 GMT

iOS 6 Maps notwithstanding, things in the digital world always get better.

For those of us who are sensitive to the frustrating stall of political progress or the crusty state of art, music or movies, technology offers a source of optimism. That might be the main reason I'm in this industry.

The possibility of being able to actually count on things getting better is kind of amazing, if you think about it.

Take this app that I'm writing this blog post in - right now, people smarter than me are testing it, tweaking it, eliminating redundancies in the code and simplifying the interface while adding new features - a year from now it will be better than it is today; two years from now, better still. Not to mention my proficiency using it, the hardware running it and the network delivering it, which will all improve too. That's pretty much a guarantee.

What other aspect of modern life can you be so sure of?

Not every change digital brings is good, of course. It's been said that software is eating the world, and each new application that gets written is probably putting someone, somewhere out of work. If it takes seven people seven days to complete a task that software can do in seven seconds, that eliminates a month and a half of livelihood for those displaced.

That's a problem digital is creating, but I think it's one digital can solve too. It has to be a good thing to correct a step in the machine that amounts to a Sisyphean waste of energy - efficiencies will lead to innovations, which will lead to new industries. It has to. I realize that kind of long view is useless to someone worrying about next month's rent, but hey, check out the new Angry Birds app!

Kidding, of course, but I do have faith in digital in a way that I think everything will just work out and we can worry about the details later. Whether it offers the best hope, or just the last hope in a world that's not supplying us with much else to get excited about, I believe technology can solve many of our biggest problems - poverty, hate, superstition, hunger, the energy crisis, classic rock radio, my hairline.

As a practitioner, what's perhaps even more exciting about technology is it's still totally open. The frontier is wide and the ocean is incomprehensibly far.

Not only is it possible to create something that's never existed before - it's often necessary to, and innovation actually becomes a relatively banal requirement of the simplest development tasks. Daily little DaVincis, the people who churn out even the simplest digital, connect new threads of thought and invent cool, novel bits of things all the time. That's basically the job description, and I'm inspired by the other people in Milwaukee who I've been fortunate enough to work with, to see them do it.

I love that we can make stuff that helps people, fixes little parts of a broken and inefficient world and, to a tiny, incremental degree, adds to the tally of new things in the universe. It's an awesome calling, and I'm always excited to name a new folder and start a new project. [n]

Good Design Makes Things Cheaper

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Graphic design used to annoy me because I associated it with style and decoration; essentially it was vanity. I'm going to make my boxes and letters look different and pretty so you'll notice me and my work.

I wasn't interested in that. My goal was just to create stuff - jokes, arguments, metaphors, ideas. I worked on ways of presenting things so that the way they looked didn't interfere with their communication.

Do that long enough though, you realize that's all design really is. Decoration is not a synonym of design, simply a poor application of it. Vanity is probably still involved in the presumptuousness of invention, but good design doesn't need to be fancy, and for the most part doesn't show off all that much. It just makes things work.

In fact, working for a web design company serving mainly Midwestern brands, I've learned good design is as much a tool for frugality and pragmatism as it is for high style.

This market still just has no patience for expensive, frou frou exploratory concepts. It just wants things made well that do what they're supposed to. It may not be the sexiest aspect of 'my art' to talk about, but a lot of what design is about is figuring out how to make something with a limitation of money or time. It may not be intuitive, but good design is integral to smaller budgets, not a buster of them.

What parts do I need? Where will they go? What's possible given constraints? Design is creation and creation requires both conception and viability. Designing something impossible is the same as not designing anything, as far as results go.

On a project I designed and built last year, a popular tool manufacturer came to us and asked if we could create an experience on Facebook that celebrated a big milestone. They really wanted an interactive tool that invited their users to contribute in some way; to share their history with the company and their products.

Their budget was about a third of what would normally be needed. If you think about it, UGC needs logins, custom databases, dynamic front ends... not to mention animation and rich interaction. How could we do it?

The answer was simply that we knew which parts of those steps were complicated and which weren't, which were expensive and which were cheap. We knew how to step through the development minefield on Facebook and how to let tactical bits of animation give feedback to the user so the interaction feels rich.

As a designer my task called for eliminating everything that might be obstructive or inessential. After that we helped our client understand exactly what was possible and then asked for their trust. In the end it's one of the projects of which I am most proud; not only because it succeeded on Facebook and surpassed the client's expectations, but because it was simply good design.

Okay, I guess there's some vanity in that! [n]

We Needed Some Glue, Not The Sniffing Kind

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:06:00 GMT

If the future success of Northern Ground will be based on our first hire, we’re going to be fine. And by fine I mean amazing. Welcome Jenni Madson, employee #1.

Man, where do I start with Jenni? She likes to laugh, work hard, laugh, spend time with her amazing family and laugh some more.

I met Jenni at Layer One five years ago. The day I started was the day she gave birth to her second child, her son Solomon (nestled nicely between her oldest, Scarlett and her youngest, Madelyn). Since I have cognitive aptitude of a small child, I thought it was fitting that we share that bond.

We became fast friends; a friendship that has endured since she decided to stay at home with her three wonderful kids almost a year ago.

During her past eight years she wore muchos sombreros. From Sr. Producer and Traffic Manager to Accounting Manager and Copywriter. She was there from three people and there at twenty-five people. What will she do for us? All of that. Jenni will be our Operations Manager.

She has affectionately been called ‘enterprise glue’ by her husband Quinn. We aren’t an enterprise just yet, but we know she’ll help keep us together just like she always had.

After being off of work and having a great summer with her kids, Jenni is recharged and back better than ever. We are lucky to have her. We grabbed grub and drinks last week. I quickly realized how much I missed her experience and her passion for what we do. Next thing you know, she became our first employee!

Plan to see posts from her soon but for now, her words sum it up better than I ever could...

“The chemistry with Ryan, Matt and Jay is simply not replicable. We’ve all worked closely together for years hitting the highs and lows of agency life and constantly driving forward to take each project beyond the clients’ expectations; and further yet beyond our personal ones.

Every agency tells you they are different – this one actually is. It combines all the things I respected and was inspired by when we worked together with the agility of a small studio.

Working alongside people you trust implicitly, who you care about like family, who are so incredibly talented that daily progress on projects is a constant inspiration is something that shows in everything Northern Ground does and has yet to do.

I would follow this team anywhere, without a moment’s hesitation. Oh, looks like I just did!” [n]

Programmers Word of the Week

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 01:34:00 GMT

Class. Welcome to it. In this weekly series of articles I’ll be covering off on some tech terminology designed to help the marketer in you communicate in the double meaning, acronym-heavy swampland that is what programmers verbally sling around “in secret” on any given day. Our first word: Class.

Like an author writing a character description for a person in a book, a programmer uses a class as a way to describe what an object looks like, how it behaves, and what it should do. An object is what a class represents to the computer – like a description of a person is not the person, just what the person looks and behaves like.

Objects form the fundamental structure of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) – more on that in a future Word of the Week, for now just think of a class as a way to make an object that does good things for your business, makes your website run, and keeps your business logic in order.

A class can be written in many ways depending on the language that a programmer is writing in. In Java and C# a class looks like this:

public class Person
{
}

Getting a better understanding of some basic coding terminology will give you the upper edge when talking with programmers, which will help make better projects for you and your company.

Stop by next week for the next word: Object. Class dismissed.[n]