Stefan's blog

Slovakia starts to promote itself. Finally :)

Stefan — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:46:48 +0000

I remember my presentation about our poor promotion of tourism in Slovakia compared to places like Tirol. When I was studying in Antwerp, I was so amazed with the ability of Tirol tourism office to bring artificial skiing slope to the city center of Antwerp. Air lines were also present. They had their own stands and happily promoting cheap flights to Tirol.

However, we are not that far yet there are some small steps taking place. At least in some advertisements on Eurosport channel. Don LaFontaine apparently borrowed his famous Hollywood voice for this advertisement.

Check it out…

Here is the older ad… I like this voice much more than the above… It sound more Slovakian, not like Terminator.

After Eurosport, it would be great to see it on BBC, DW and other big channels…

The power of conformity and the elevator

Stefan — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:13:33 +0000

People copy one another. Human behavior in the group can be easily influenced by the others. Here is a great illustration from the London underground elevator.

But how to use it for your own benefit? I am sure you will find out :). I realized that jealousy works similarly well. Few years ago, when I started my online catalogue of hotels and B&Bs in High Tatras, I find out that once I got one customer and his neighbor found him in the catalogue, he wanted to be there too… And I got another customer.

What to take from it? Don’t let your opinion to be formed by the others. It is good to stand hard behind your views and actions even if others are acting differently.

(Via: PsyBlog)

How to enable people to easily bookmark your site and avoid confusion

Stefan — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:08:52 +0000

Here is something I learned recently from the web site of dConstruct - user experience design conference. Their web site has one example of how not to design for user experience, especially if your users are keen on using bookmarks and services alike - which most people do trust me.

I was just thinking that I need to go out between people again, someday, somewhere. Attending conference is great to meet like minded people and learn something new at the same time. As I was running through my Del.icio.us bookmarks I end up at dConstruct page and “Sold Out” popped just into my mind before I realized that the page is for 2007. What? I wanted to go. Ok something has to be wrong. Off course it was for 2007 and my bookmark 2007.dconstruct.org was wrong. I rewritten the URL for 2008… and luckily found what I was looking for. It took me quite a while to realize that the page was out of date.

Here is the hassle. Dconstruct web site always moves you to sub-domain and if you bookmark such a page, your bookmark is referring to old conference a year later. I consider this broken. I think that you should promote your actual content at your top domain. This way if people bookmark your pages, they get link to your main domain and always actual content. Even if they return one year later. Move the archive of your old content to sub-domains, that’s fine, but keep the actual content at the main domain.

By letting people bookmark your top domain you will always serve them up to date landing page. It will not only avoid confusion but you will also create better user experience.

Scandinavian design lesson from Volvo

Stefan — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:08:31 +0000

Volvo in their S40/V50 campaign speak about design principles which are applied in web design almost daily…

less is more
treat everything like a piece of art
form follows function
redefine luxury
never stop learning

These are scopes very similar to mine applied in web design. However Volvo is speaking about cars. Less is more. In fact less is less and that is good about it. It enables you to focus on what is really important and make it as best as possible, treat every little piece as a piece of art. Off course form follows function, we make web sites both nice looking, functional and easy to use. We do not design creative sites for creative designers. We design nice looking and usable sites and application to perform concrete functions, present, provide information and sell.

I never stop learning, that’s why “embrace the unknown” is my motto.

You can apply these principles for any design, either web, car, furniture or even property development. I would very much like to live in a house developed according to these principles.

Check it out, it is well done.

Unconventionally about design

Stefan — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:50:34 +0000

Philippe Starck is a french designer, whose scope ranges from deluxe objects to posh condos and hotels all around the world. I especially admire him for his believes and views on design and religion, which is very close to mine. Design should be done for the result. People, are going to use the product, so we should spent time thinking about how are they going to use it and make it the bast way, to create best experience. This implies also on web design. I focus on usability while designing web sites and applications, because there are people going to use them.

“God is the answer when we don’t know the answer. God is a trap. When you do not know the answer, there is a God, that is ridiculous.”

Welcome to Beijing, well done olympic song

Stefan — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:21:58 +0000

This theme song is great. However I do not understand 99% of it… it is sticky and sounds great. Well done Beijing!.

Is your traditional shop sinking? Look online…

Stefan — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:25:32 +0000

Out of every £1 spent by British shoppers 17p goes to online retailers. That is amazing statistics published buy The Guardian. Online sales are up 38% over the first six months of this year. Bottom and top of the market seems to be performing best.

What I have learned at the uni - part 1.

Stefan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:23:24 +0000

I have learned how to say nothing in 2000 words.

Extraordinary biology

Stefan — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:27:47 +0000

Embrace the unknown! This should be the slogan of every physicist, biologists, doctor… Well everybody. When was the last time you heard: It can not work. It is this way… Sometimes it works also the other way and probably it works even better.

In traditional chemistry, you can not create new elements without an enormous energy. True or false? Imagine a test. Feed chickens with a diet free of any calcium but containing potassium (element single step below calcium). Hen will lay perfectly normal eggs. Feed them without calcium and potassium and they will get sick and lay soft-shelled eggs. It seems that chickens can convert potassium into calcium without any trouble or use of enormous energy. Yes. Living systems are able to change one element into another without the use of enormous energy.

Always look at new things with open mind, do not get stick to what you already know. Challenge it.

More to find here.

Design behind sustainable future

Stefan — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:13:34 +0000

As a web designer, I may see design in everything. But really, good design can drive sustainable development and reduce humanity’s ecological footprint. Watch Alex Steffen’s talk, who is the founder of worldchanging.com. He shares his thoughts about design of our cities, buildings and every day things.