Usability guru Jakob Nielsen [has criticized web firms](https://web.archive.org/web/20070707163011/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6653119.stm) for being so quick to jump on the “Web 2.0” bandwagon that they neglect basic elements of good design. He’s absolutely right, and it’s great to see so…
Behind famous logos are scrappy stories, not pricey brainstorms. From Adidas to Volvo, names often spring from rivers, jokes, and founders’ quirks, proving creativity and context beat consultants.
Brands live in minds, not infrastructure. Sell your true vibe, not generic “quality.” Lean into what you are—authentic culture beats wishful rebrands and earns loyalty faster than polished spin.
It is estimated that there are around 85 million websites in existence at the time of this writing. By the time you launch your website, it will probably be closer to 100 million. The days of “If you build it, they will come” are long gone. Don’t lose hope, though. Your website can receive the atten…
Stop copying competitors and build a site people want to visit. Focus on useful content, stickiness, professional craft, and ongoing care. Challenge assumptions, measure wisely, and keep refining with love.
The web design and development industry can be difficult for businesses to navigate, with options ranging from your cousin looking for iTunes cash to multi-million-dollar agencies like [Avenue A | Razorfish](https://web.archive.org/web/20060820095208/http://www.avenuea-razorfish.com/). This guide wi…
The world’s biggest branding crisis isn’t accounting scandals, poor customer service, or ugly logos—it’s executives’ paralyzing fear that they’re going to do something wrong. Imagine that you’ve just been chosen as the new CEO for a Fortune 500 company. The numbers you see each morning are comparabl…
The technology for of “internet radio” has been around for well over a decade, so why is it now taking off in the form of podcasting? Folks have dabbled in online radio for ages. Dozens—possibly hundreds—of companies have risen and fallen on the promise that it would work this time, that they’d fina…
In an effort to improve public perception (which leads to increased tourism and investment), some states might consider investing in an attractive new name. We’ve seen numerous examples of well-established companies changing names in an attempt to reinvent their reputations. We’ve also seen an incre…
Having recently been consulted for a corporate naming project, I thought I’d post my personal guidelines on how to dodge the most common naming landmines. Over the years, I’ve put together a mental checklist that I’ve used when working on naming projects, and this seemed like a good time to put the …
There are golden fields ready for the harvest, if you can bring yourself to stop fighting your peers for table scraps in oversaturated markets.
XHTML, CSS, DOM, XML, XSLT, XMLHttpRequest, and JavaScript were just programmers’ techno-babble…until they were collectively christened “Ajax.” On February 18, 2005, Jesse James Garrett (founder of [Adaptive Path](https://web.archive.org/web/20060328061204/http://www.adaptivepath.com/), wrote a brie…
If you run a website, you may have noticed that your Google rankings dancing around over the past few weeks. Is this the end of the world as we know it? Google wields enormous power over the economy. When a Google developer tweaks a formula, thousands of businesses can be affected. In their most rec…