graphic designr » live blog http://graphicdesignr.net/blog Conversations about journalism, news and design Sun, 26 Sep 2010 18:32:05 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Liveblog your redesign http://graphicdesignr.net/blog/2008/04/23/liveblog-your-redesign/ http://graphicdesignr.net/blog/2008/04/23/liveblog-your-redesign/#comments Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:05:04 +0000 Erica Smith http://graphicdesignr.net/blog/2008/04/23/liveblog-your-redesign/ The Grand Island Independent found a clever way to use CoverItLive, a Flash-based liveblogging tool. They’re chatting with folks about the redesign of their Web site. It’s a genius use of the tool. The conversations are public (That whole transparency thing that we love, right?) and, as Grand Island learned, allowed them to immediately fix quirks and bugs that readers found. (And, of course, the obligatory explanation that they were not going to go back to the old design — people always ask, no matter what you’re redesigning.)

But do you know what was missing? A link from the blog to the new site. (There was a link in the first entry of the liveblog, but elsewhere.)

The front page of the Independent’s site has a link to a user guide and column about the redesign. The user guide is a PDF. (Clicking on the image of the guide will not download the PDF, though. It’s a separate link to the right.) Why not walk me through it on the site? Set up a slideshow or, if you can, create a guide in Flash. There were two ways to get from the Web site to the blog: a link from the user guide page or through the blog channel, but neither adequately advertised that a live discussion was taking place on the blog. (I did ask Web editor Stephanie Romanski about it, so a clearer link may have been posted later.)

]]> http://graphicdesignr.net/blog/2008/04/23/liveblog-your-redesign/feed/ 1 Death by caffeine http://graphicdesignr.net/blog/2007/02/25/death-by-caffeine/ http://graphicdesignr.net/blog/2007/02/25/death-by-caffeine/#comments Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:07:49 +0000 Erica Smith http://graphicdesignr.net/blog/?p=5 I’m not sure how I’ll use it, but I have to remember this exists for next year’s State of the Union.

I haven’t figured out exactly how to use this in print yet either, but I know there’s a way.

I don’t know if Dodge canceled their Durango ad before or after Snickers canceled its Super Bowl ad. (This was not the best ending to the Snickers’ ad — when its site was live, you could see alternate endings.) It seems companies are having trouble figuring out how far is too far. Or maybe the audience they’re targeting isn’t the audience they’re getting.

I haven’t seen this one in the U.S., but I did chuckle over this U.K. Dodge Caliber commercial.

NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth won at the California Speedway on Saturday. Why do you care? Because one of his sponsors is Arby’s. And, as promised, Arby’s will give away free medium curly fries on Monday. To get your free fries, take a copy of the official race results from a newspaper or Web site to your local Arby’s.

I had forgotten how much fun the zoo can be.

I can count, but my vegetables are predictable.

I am addicted to caffeine. It would, evidently, take 386.15 cans of Pepsi (my poison of choice) to kill me. That’s only 154.46 bottles. Which would cost me about $193.75. I clearly can’t afford that. (SPIKE Shooter, which I’ve never heard of, has the most caffeine.) In June, Pepsi will launch Diet Pepsi Max, which will have more caffeine (think Mountain Dew Amp) than the “regular” diet version.

Fantastic Oscar red-carpet play-by-play. Loved it.

]]> http://graphicdesignr.net/blog/2007/02/25/death-by-caffeine/feed/ 0