Design is...

How Affiliate Marketing Works

Value of Data Visualization

Bye Bye Internet Explorer

If you happen to be one of "those people" using Internet Explorer -despite my previous direct and indirect messages to raise awareness amongst my network- I feel compelled to keep reminding you to stop and get your web life on the right track.

"Friends don't let friends use Internet Explorer. And neither should acquaintances. Educate others about moving off of Internet Explorer."

So I removed 2 characters from Microsoft's quotation... since this is how it SHOULD be and this is what millions of designers and developers would tell you!

Stop using Internet Explorer and get something decent! Decent as in a browser or an application that is secure, supports web standards and keeps up with emerging technologies and trends. In random order and based on your own preferences, you may choose Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Opera.

So what are you waiting for?!

More info:
http://www.iesucks.info/
http://whyiesucks.blogspot.com/
http://www.lockergnome.com/news/2004/06/15/why-you-should-dump-internet-explorer/
http://theie9countdown.com

World Graphics Day... offensively!

World Graphics Day is an opportunity to recognize communication design, and its role in the world.

Designers of the world... I salute you!

Today, April 27th, marks "World Graphics Day" as per the international body of graphic design and designers worldwide. A day to seize an opportunity to pause and ponder... on different levels.

Wikipedia states: "On this occasion, designers reflect and hope that an international network can contribute to a greater understanding between people and can help to build bridges where divides and inequities exist.". Yet, being the arrogant rebellion I seem to be, and will all respect to all parties, I hereby declare an offensive stand, holding my grounds, and stand up face on, face up in confrontation with the commercially influenced crescendo design, visual and web-ic.

What the heck is happening to creativity and design ethics... at least within the realm of my surroundings and the middle east region in specific. Yeah yeah yeah, you will immediately say "it's a business world"... it is absolutely a business world, and it is absolutely a distorted perception, understanding and definition of "business", just like your perception, understanding and definition of "design".

Ready to shed blood?! I bet on every drop!!!

Soooo... I will allow myself to explain, in plain terms, to the managers, CEOs and business people of the world, the Middle East and Arab world and Lebanon in specific. I know I am cipher when it comes to the business realm, yet, when it intersects with design, being it architectural, visual and communicative, or web... Haiiiiiiiiiiii my dear reader... And forgive my naivety if is offending in any way...

I recently shared "The joy of an early release lasts but a short time. The bitterness of an unusable system lasts for years." -a user experience quote I picked up from somewhere I can't recall- and it falls within the context.

Design by Rodolfo Fernandez Alvarez

Correlating between "business" and "design", usability and user experience is the "shared ground" where both parties mostly debate/agree upon. As such, I will state:

A design, a logo, a poster, an application, an interface may cost an arm and a leg, or peanuts and will definitely fail to address your audience if your audience could not relate, use, understand or figure out. So mr./mrs. "decision maker" think a dozen time before you cut corners "believing" a "free" solution or a "2hours or 2days" shorter deadline will save you cost... it will save you cost for sure, the cost of succeeding within the bigger image and longer term.

And yes, disabled mentalities of the business realm, I assure you, disabilities should be catered for, accessibility -even if at a bare minimum- goes side by side with function and aesthetics! Or, in simple "business" terms, if your business is coffee, water, shoes, clothing, services, or anything... I assure you, individual with disabilities drink, eat, wear and use... when you discriminate, you are intentionally leaving a percentage of the market outside your profit... and if you call yourself an efficient marketer or business strategist, I beg you to think again!

So what is "Design"?!

In "design" terms, it's about creating a mood, a look and feel, triggering emotion, communicating messages with and without words, communicating the right message within the right context -or the indirect message within the proper context-; it's when form follows function, when function follows form, when form and function synergistic-ly and gracefully -or boldly- intertwine and become a statement. It's something you can only grasp by experiencing, by feeling, by connecting the dots of the psychological, artistic, visual, mental and emotional. Design is so many other things.

In "business" terms, design is:
... and again... forgive my annoyingly disturbing sarcasm...

- Coloring... Obedient designer slave says: yes, let me grab my Crayola set and give me 20 minutes or so and this website will be done!

- Skinning... Obedient designer slave says: no worries, I will just use a free template and need 20 minutes to plug and play!

- A 10 minutes job... Obedient designer slave says: I will do it in 8 minutes, we already did many templates before, I will just flip the layout, move a couple of elements around and change the background and text color.. and it will be awesome!

... shall I carry on?! ... I am sure you can spare a couple of minutes and crack your LOLs and ROFLs checking Clients from Hell.

To put things above into perspective... Yo... business people... kindly check above "Design is" definitions and keep that in mind the next time you devise a plan, a deadline or a strategy... for your own sake, and the world's, if not for design's sake. I pledge and firmly attest that when it comes to design, it's way beyond matching colors, elements and resizing photos; way beyond "how much time do you need to design this?", you may rather ask "what factors and information do you further need to translate this message perfectly?"; design is a labor of understanding, interaction, and love!

OK... so all is blah blah blah... what am I saying over here?!

"Designers of the world..." Unite, be aware, be alert, hold your ground.. it's not a business world, it's a visual interactive functional world... it's a design world... a designed business world... our role is to raise awareness, to educate, to understand and communicate.. let's communicate on all the levels.

"Business people of the world...." I need to hear from you... I would love to have a chat to you... please ping me, I wanna see your perspective, I wanna learn, I want to understand, I want ... I need... I need to know your perception, I need to learn from you, I need to understand. I need to be able to go beyond innovation and trends... I need to go beyond the limitations and illusions...

Above all -or is it really?! after all the blitz :P- happy World Graphics Day! :)

Would you prefer it if Facebook looked like this?

It's interesting to see other designers really concerned about the web aesthetics, look and feel. Although, it seems for many people, friends, family and colleagues -and most of my clients- refer to Facebook as the "web". I am sure you've heard a client ask for web design "I want it to be like Facebook, only better" .. hehehe.

Thank you Jonathan Moreira for standing up and pointing out where the most popular -and not necessarily the best- site fails.. or at least that's how I see it. I wrote to Facebook a couple of times about user experience and interaction style...but it seems my "style" of indicating what should be improved has fallen on deaf ears.. not that I, Maher Berro, am a fancy or important user experience designer.. eventually I am nobody trying to be somebody; but if there is something I have learned along the way of user experience is to consider every single feedback from your users, whether it was trivial, nasty or out of context... it may be shedding light on aspects no one has yet addressed!

Original Post and Source: thenextweb.com

The simple two-step process

"Step one: Open all doors. Learn a little about a lot. Consider as many options as possible, then add more.

Step two: Relentlessly dismiss, prune and eliminate. Choose. Ship.

The problem most people run into is that they mix the steps and confuse them. During step one, they aren't open enough, aren't willing enough to consider the impossible. And then, in step two, fear of shipping kicks in and they stay open too long, hold on to too many options and hesitate.

Simple doesn't always mean easy."

by Seth Godin

It's interesting to see the dynamics of the interaction amongst teams and projects when drawing back on experience. I would non-reluctantly avow that I have been on both extremes; yet, the proper recipe is a the right amount of the ingredients, being it arrogance, guts, knowledge, perception, and most importantly, awareness and skills!

I feel pity for the teams who miss on the values, on many levels. Being in a position where I was very fortunate to experience remarkable production, efficiency and success makes it trivial to critique the other side of the fence...