Sep 24, 2010 Posted by bradz

One Chapter Ends, a New Begins

A little over 3.5 years ago, I made the decision to pickup my family (ok, my wife had a say in it too) and moved from Northeast PA into Buckeye country. Kind of a difficult decision for a Penn State fan. But a fantastic career opportunity at Hart Associates. So I packed up the blue and white (family too) and off we went to Toledo and begin the next chapter of our lives. At Hart, I was welcomed with what... read more

Aug 7, 2010 Posted by bradz

Facebook GUI Templates: PSD and Omnigraffle

Big thanks to Surgeworks for creating a great visual resource kit for the creation of Facebook apps, tabs, and whatever other integrations you fancy. One that makes the design and prototyping phases much more efficient. Lots of UI elements  to choose and use, modal components, comment boxes, buttons, message boxes, tabs, etc. Let’s not forget those of us that like to prototype in Omnigraffle. A... read more

Jul 11, 2010 Posted by bradz

Personifying a Product: The Breakup Letter

There are many things happening now in the field of design research. And I am not talking specifically about marketing and communications design research, rather research that will help us design, build and bring more meaningful things into the world. “The Breakup Letter is a design research tool that Smart Design uses to understand the emotional connection between people and their products,... read more

Jun 30, 2010 Posted by bradz

Evidence That Personas Are Effective

In creating effective experiences, I have always found that developing personas helped our design teams better align their mindset with the users we were targeting. This is often a daunting task especially when faced with  high profile public brands whose message transcends among a diverse user base. Many believe that it requires a large research investment to properly inform a persona. That is not always... read more