5 Ways the New CommonCraft.com Will Be Different

We've re-thought our website from the ground up and soon you'll see the all the changes we're making.  For now though, I want to highlight a few things that make a big difference.

1. A Focus on the Business. This may be the best way to explain how the focus has changed:

• The current Common Craft site says "WE HAVE A BLOG - and we sell videos"
• The *new* Common Craft  site says "WE SELL VIDEOS - and we have a blog"

It's true - the new site is more closely aligned with the goal of finding, viewing, purchasing and downloading videos.

2. Simplified Video Organization. Our videos used to appear in two places, depending on their version: "free" or "presentation quality."  We've consolidated the display of videos one a single page. This means:

• No More "Common Craft Store" - Instead of trying to attach a video store to the site, we're integrating the purchase experience into the pages where the videos appear.
• No More "Common Craft Show"- The "Common Craft Show" was simply a way to organize the free versions of our videos.  Now higher-quality versions of the videos will appear in a single place on the site. 

3. Videos in 5 Languages

We're taking a big step to internationalize our videos.  For the first time, 10 of our videos (including the Social Media 9 Pack) will be available with voice-overs in 5 languages (English, French, German, [Brazilian] Portuguese and Spanish.)  These videos will be available for viewing, purchase and download.

4. Organization by Major Topics

Our video library will be organized into four major topics, which outline our direction in the future.  The topics are: Green, Money, Society and Technology.

5. Overall Look and Feel

Our goal was to make the site look and feel like our videos.  We've integrated our artwork, used a white background and tried to make the experience as focused as our videos.

Of course there are many more changes, but I think these points capture some of the big ideas that drive the new design. More soon... 

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What's Missing From This Sign at Airport Security?

Me (to the friendly TSA ID checker):  Do I have to remove my laptop computer?

TSA Employee: Yes, you do.

Me: It's not listed on the sign

TSA Employee: Well, it's the most important thing to remove.

Me: But not important enough to be on the sign?

TSA: It's supposed to be on there, the people that printed it messed up (rolls eyes).

The TSA folks have hard jobs and I appreciate what they do. However, it doesn't exactly give me a safe feeling when the instructions for moving through the line efficiently are "messed up" and no on seems to care. 

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Designing Common Craft T-Shirts on Pixish.com

As you may have seen, the Common Craft Store has a section for merchandise that is looking pretty minimal at the moment.  At the same time, we often get requests for t-shirts.  Hopefully, we're about to solve this problem.

We've created a new "assignment" on a website called Pixish. Using Pixish, we can describe an image we need and have a community of creative people submit their ideas.  The creator of the winning images win "rewards" - often money, links, etc.  

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My Personal Life Stream on Tumblr

For a while now I've been fascinated by the idea of creating a single place (other than Facebook) that brings together all the things I do on the Web. That is why I created the zeitgeist page here on Common Craft - to have that single place to bring it together. At the same time, I've had a blog at leelefever.com that has become a pain to keep updated - I needed a replacement.

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The New Common Craft

After 3+ years, Common Craft has a new design and a new platform (Drupal) - Yay! We hope you like it, we sure do.

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Blue Flavor is Open for Business

Congrats to my friends and fellow Seattle guys Blue Flavor for getting their new company off the ground. From their site:

We're four guys with a zeal for simple, clear and effective communication and creating lasting interactive experiences.

We’re big picture thinkers, Web and mobile architects, user advocates, writers, speakers and well-respected experts. We're also fairly regular folks who think technology should work for people, not the other way around.

 

Blue Flavor is: Brian Fling, D. Keith Robinson, Matt May, Nick Finck. See the bio page.

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Building a Project Vision by Understanding Users

Boxes and Arrows: Building a Vision of Design Success

Since I started to learn a little more about Contextual Inquiry/Ethonography, it seems like it is coming up every where.

Though this article does not mention the terms above, it describes the techniques as a viable way to build and promote a vision for a project.

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Good Experience.com Interview with Peter Coughlan, IDEO

This interview with Peter Coughlan, by Mark Hurst of GoodExperience.com, provides a good look at the "broken" state of hospitals and how his company IDEO works with hospitals to improve.

Having a Masters in Health Administration, I hold this stuff close to heart. I think there are incredible opportunities to help hospitals improve and I like the way Peter describes their process.

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