Our lovely admin assistant, Catt Clark, sent around Time’s list of the 50 Best Websites 2010. Most of these are sites that I’m familiar with, but some were completely new to me. While I perused through the list, and clicked through to check out most of these sites, I noticed a commonality amongst some of my favorites.
You might ask, “What made them similar?”
Each of these websites uses a feedback tool of some sort. These feedback tools are immensely helpful to use on sites, particularly those with complex functionality. Before websites launch, they (should) go through an extensive QA process; despite all of the testing and pre-launch preparedness, there will always be little things that the QA team or testing group missed. By having feedback tools available to the end users, you’re able to collect feedback from some of the best testers: your actual website visitors!
Here’s my list of faves, and you’ll notice that all of them use the nifty feedback tool.
This websites provides travel guides for major cities around the world, and they’re available both online and for download. Why lug around Rick Steve’s (another favorite of mine) blue book when you can keep all of this information online? I like the flexibility of managing your travel information in whatever format you prefer: read it online, save it electronically, or print it out and take it with you. Note how easy it is to supply feedback should you notice something funky on the site.
Stay
Posted by Mary at 9:00 AM
Poster design is something very close to my heart. I got my start as a designer doing gig posters for my music-promoter-intern roommate after graduating college, and have been pumping them out in the evenings and on weekends ever since.
There are rarely any rules or design parameters when doing show posters, aside from including all the pertinent information and staying within the limits of basic printing capabilities. Poster design is a virtual designer’s playground where we are given license to experiment with typography, color, illustration and layout to express our visions; there is rarely any sort of creative filter or limitation.
Given the fact that I primarily contribute inspiration posts to Fresh, and I moonlight as a poster designer while not pushing pixels at eROI, this post will combine these two constants. I would like to share some of the work of Toronto-based designer and screen-printer brother-duo Andrew and Matt McCracken, otherwise known as Doublenaut.
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Color is such a huge part of what draws me in to a website, interior or piece of advertising. Choosing color is one of my favorite aspects of the creative process. It is so important and can mean so much!
This grouping of color palettes is inspired by all of the beautiful, lackadaisical colors of late summer. School is starting again, Fall is on the horizon, and leaves are starting to turn. I’m thinking about enjoying a drink on the porch, watching the sunset.
I selected these from palettes created by users on Colourlovers (an awesome source for inspiration). If you haven’t checked out this site before, take a peek and see which color palettes inspire you!
Love, love, love the fuchsias of my first choice!
It is on the more lively (and less relaxing) side of my group today. Hot!
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Posted by Verity at 10:00 AM
The folks who work at eROI are known to be people who work hard, and play even harder. We like to have fun, express ourselves creatively, and act a little goofy from time to time.
This year, at the annual eROI party, our theme was “Release Your Alter Ego”. The idea behind this theme was to push our creativity — how did we want to express ourselves to each other? Are you a sinner, or a saint? A beauty queen, or a goth chick? Trust me, it’s not as easy as you might think to identify your own alter ego.
Check our our stellar party invitation:
eROI Alter Ego Party Invitation Email
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Posted by Mary at 9:00 AM
We love our neighborhood here at eROI.
Nestled in between downtown Southwest Portland, and the ever-classy Pearl District, Old Town / Chinatown remains one of West Portland’s neighborhoods that has held on to some of its history and gritty peripheral personality while it has changed over the years. It’s one of the last few neighborhoods where you might see a screaming crazy person, a crowd of folks eating at a fancy restaurant, and a DIY art gallery opening all within a few blocks of each other, and its residents take pride in this edgy diversity. It’s a happening sort of place, and a lot of creativity and progression take place right under our noses, even if we might not be aware of it every day.
Image courtesy of Portland Ground
It is in this light that a committee of people who work in Old Town banded together in 2009 to create the Old Town Block Party. The concept was simple: to get businesses, restaurants, and all of their patrons and employees out in the open, share their work and culture with everyone else, have a few beers, and enjoy some good music – all for a charitable cause. 2009’s inaugural Block Party was a big success boasting over 3,000 attendees throughout the day and donating money to resurrect the historic Hung Far Low Cocktails sign, and this year’s party promises to up the ante. Killer food, drinks, and bands are only part of the reason that this free (What?! Free?!) event is going to rule this year.
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Posted by Tom at 10:00 AM
Like a lot of ladies, I revel in great accessories. These accessories may help enhance an outfit, pull everything together, or even help you function better throughout the day.
When I think of the accessories that help us function better throughout the day, they’re usually something digital: an iPod for listening to tunes while we strut down 5th Avenue (I’ve only been accused of doing this a time or two), a cell phone, or a laptop.
These digital accessories can be shown some serious love by spicing them up with stickers, covers, or any other kind of decal to personalize them to your tastes. Here are some of my personal faves for your accessorizing enjoyment.
Cell Phones
One of our very own eROI designers, Tom O’Toole, designed this fancy case, “New Vibes“, for Grove. This bamboo case is pretty sweet, and for those of you who prefer something a bit more distinct and sustainable, Grove gives you plenty of great options. And — BONUS — Grove offers free wallpaper downloads of your favorite designers. So, you can heart your fave designers by showing your love on an iPhone cover and on your desktop.
New Vibes, Grove
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Posted by Mary at 1:23 PM
One of the most interesting things about working here at eROI is the variety of clients in which we deal with on a regular basis. On any given day we work with large national brands, and then turn around and help a start up company grow from the ground up. In both cases, it has become essential to have a comprehensive style guide for several reasons:
For the larger brands, it is a simple way for a client to communicate the essential elements and rules as they apply to their brand in a concise document. A large brand may have multiple agencies working on projects at any given time, and this ensures consistency across the board. This is especially important when working on projects with tight timelines; there is little time for brand misinterpretation. A good style guide will cover all of the major elements, which allows for a Creative Brief to be more focused on the project at hand.
For smaller companies, a style guide is equally important as it becomes the blueprint from which the brand evolves. A small company may not have the resources to employ a marketing/brand manager, and so a style guide needs to work that much harder.
While many companies are already familiar with brand guidelines that include things like logo usage and brand statements, I want to focus instead on what specific elements should be considered for the digital space and the screen.
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One of the most important things to my design work is constant experimentation. Whether it is a new photographic technique or an entirely new program I am always looking for a new way to create innovative graphic communication. Here at eROI experimentation is encouraged and in my last fit of unbridled creativity I pulled out a new program and tried my hand at some 3D work. Nothing innovative but in terms of someone that has NEVER worked in 3D I thought I did pretty darn good. The result was a few Fresh themed wallpapers for you to use… so go ahead and download them.
Need this wallpaper in a specific size? You got it!
1024 x 768
1280 x 800
1280 x 1024
1440 x 900
1680 x 1050
Posted by Elliot at 4:57 PM
If you use the internet, chances are that you have seen a 404 error page. It is basically inevitable. The 404 error page will be displayed whenever someone asks for a page that is not available. There are many possible reasons for this error; it could be an incorrect link somewhere on your site or someone made a typo when entering the URL.
At the bottom of this post is a table that explains the various error code messages.
Unfortunately the 404 error page is usually an afterthought, or not a thought at all. Let’s get creative! When designing a custom 404 error page, consider the company’s culture, and the type of response desired by their audience. These will no doubt lighten the actuality of the situation (the page they wanted can’t be found) and possibly steer them into a different direction and increase exploration of the site.
I have scoured the web for clever 404 error pages and compiled a list of 25 for your enjoyment. This list is relatively short compared to other websites such as:
Get inspired to create a custom 404 error page for your site!
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Posted by Amanda at 10:47 AM
Your users. They have opinions about a lot of things. They probably have opinions about your site and what’s on it. What’s the best way to collect those opinions in order make your site better? The easier it is for your users to tell you what they think, the better. Here are a few ways for your users to give feedback painlessly.
“Was this helpful?”
In a situation where you want to help the user find an answer to a question, or learn how to do something with your product or service, you can ask them directly: “Was this helpful?” or “Did this answer your question?” Allowing the user to also leave a comment along with their “Yes/No” answer (most likely “no” if they are frustrated enough to leave a comment) might give you some insight into what they were looking for and how you can improve the content itself, or the search algorithm to better help answer their question in the future. But the “Yes/No” buttons alone, along with a good look at your help documentation search logs, might be enough to show where you may have dropped the ball in your documentation.
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Posted by Jill at 9:08 AM
