Agencies, Culture, DesignDecember 12, 2018

Last Rites get a Rise with New UX Experiences

How to revive funeral rites through the creative use of experience design

The most exciting thing about experience design is its potential to improve everyday life. Beyond setting click paths, designing pretty pages, and ensuring flow, the job of an experience designer is to take a step back, look at the world, and figure out how rising digital behavior can better it by enhancing, enabling and easing pre-existing human behaviour.

To illustrate this point at the recent Adobe Creative Jam in Montreal, I talked about Fragment, a start-up project that aims to transform one of the most difficult moments in life: its end.

Reviving funeral rites in 3 crucial stages

1. Involving the community

2. Creating engaged remembrance

3. Assisting in the mourning process

Using UX for lasting, life-changing results.

Seven Tips to Success on YouTube

The Best Companies on YouTube in 2018

“We all know that YouTube reaches just as many, if not more, people than any of the existing cable networks.

However, what might be surprising is that the volume of videos uploaded per company is increasing tremendously. In total, the companies on our list have, during the past year, generated over 178 million views on YouTube.

You can also see a clear change among the types of companies that are actively using YouTube. When comparing 2014 and 2018, we see that YouTube was previously used largely by the retail industry but is now being used by all industries,” says Peter Söderlind, CEO of Chimney Sweden.

Seven Tips to Success on YouTube

1. Place the message you want to communicate at the beginning of the video. Viewers rarely watch the video until the end.

2. Make sure that the title of the video answers a question or tells the viewers how to solve a problem– this is a key factor in driving traffic from Google.

3. Add a clear link to your company or product. It should be a clickable link in the subject field, not just text in the video.

4. Add the video to a playlist along with other relevant videos, which will lead the viewer to more of your content.

5. Upload material frequently. Do not upload all videos at the same time if you have multiple videos ready. Spread out the publishing over a couple of days or weeks so that the channel appears live and current.

6. Use an eye-catching thumbnail. You want your video to stand out.
7. Think of YouTube as a fast and cost-effective platform to increase your reach, and follow up with optimized videos for Facebook.

YouTube has gone from being a platform where you can experiment with new ideas, to becoming an important part of our communication strategy. YouTube allows greater freedom, more interaction, and a higher engagement.

ChimneyGroup – Puffing from Sweden (and NY)

Culture, UnfilteredDecember 07, 2018

So much of the social engagement right now is not about a sense of community, but more about playing into your tribe, your following.

Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Says Social Media Has Peaked—Here’s What’s Next

Reddit recently surpassed Facebook to become the third most visited website in the U.S. (Facebook still has larger traffic on a global scale.) But Ohanian suggests that it’s only a matter of time before its weakness starts to show.

“In some way, Reddit is still ahead of the game at this point. But it’s a ubiquitous platform; it’s not designed for specific communities,” he said. “I think we’re going to see this balkanization where more communities move from Facebook Groups or subreddits to entirely new platforms that are getting built.”

If you don’t have a following, you don’t really have a voice…

“What people seem to be clamoring for more and more is community, whether it’s going to private group chats on existing platforms, like WhatsApp groups, or going to new platforms that have emerged,” Ohanian added.

Design, UnfilteredDecember 06, 2018

Four Non Profits Get a Helping Hand from the University of North Georgia

University of North Georgia students devised a complete advertising plan for four lucky nonprofit organizations as part of the graphic design for advertising class. Nonprofits were The Bridge Foundation, Buckhead Christian Ministry, Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation (OCAF), and PAWS Atlanta
University of North Georgia students devised a complete advertising plan for four lucky nonprofit organizations as part of the graphic design for advertising class. Nonprofits were The Bridge Foundation, Buckhead Christian Ministry, Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation (OCAF), and PAWS Atlanta.

Marketing with little or no budget. Reaching a younger generation that gets its information through social media. Finding creative ways for people to volunteer their time or donate their money for a worthy cause. These are a few issues nonprofit organizations deal with on a regular basis.

And so four Georgia nonprofits received some assistance this fall when University of North Georgia (UNG) students selected them as clients for their graphic design for advertising class.

University of North Georgia students in the graphic design for advertising class taught by Mark Taylor, a part-time adjunct faculty member for visual arts at UNG, devised an entire advertising campaign for four nonprofit organizations. The campaign included designing a logo and direct mailer, generating a magazine or newspaper ad and an outdoor billboard, crafting a 15-second radio ad, and producing a 15-second television storyboard concept.