Check out the Latest Articles:
It wasn’t broke, but it is now.

I am in the business of redesigning websites. A good portion of the work we do at 3W Studios is redesigning existing sites. There is always a good reason – it’s too old, there is a new president, the logo changed, there is a new product, it’s March – whatever the reason, we like to think we always come up with something that is better than the previous version.

However, there is that fact of nature, that phenomenon, that designer’s nightmare – the human resistance to change. We all like what we know, and we all have some resistance to change – more so if the thing that changed was something we really liked. In the case of most of our redesigns, the leap is big enough, the gain in functionality or service or ease of use is so big, that we get very little negative feedback. Hate-email about why we made it blue is pretty rare. Actually, I don’t recall any such problems.

A few weeks ago, the shoe was on the other foot. The BBC, my source for news (not opinion) and one of my links back to the homeland, redesigned their news website. I don’t like it.

In fact, lots of people don’t like it. The BBC blog entries discussing it got over 4500 posts (unverified), many of them from irate users who were swearing to abandon the site. In the other corner, there was a small group supporting change and ridiculing all the people who “just can’t handle change”. Lost in the slanging match, however, was the plain fact that the new site wasn’t very good.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
What are you still holding out for?

I can remember the conversation between my sister and me as clear as day (which is saying a lot for a woman in her forties teetering on the verge of menopause)… “Facebook? I’ve never heard of it… I’m happy with MySpace, thank you very much!”  That was three or four years ago… and yes, I did “look” at it.  I registered, took one glance and instantly developed a headache.  I did give it a whole two days to try and connect with it… to “feel it” as my sister so adamantly had.  But I am old and stubborn and set in my ways and besides, I was darn proud of the fact that I could maneuver myself around in MySpace just about as well as my 14 year old could! 

Then one fateful day, while at lunch with my girlfriends from high school, the conversation of Facebook once again filled the air. I remember feeling my eyeballs roll as their excitement rounded the table.  Almost every one of them had MySpace accounts, so why were they straying?  Why would you want to have to start over, to learn a new trick?  You know what they say about “old dogs”?  But as the conversation persisted, it became a “who’s who” of the class of 1988, 1989 and even a few from 1987 and 1986!  And trust me, there is NOTHING a woman loves more than getting the “dirty nitty-gritty” on past foes, friends and lovers alike.  So that afternoon, I went home, pulled up the website and dusted off my user name and password… and there it was… that same headache.  But, this time I persisted… I had a point this time; I wanted to see what “Jane” from Ms. Doe’s class looked like! (Especially after supposedly gaining 50 lbs.)

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
Hayward out…too little, too late?

It’s been 99 days since the explosion of Deepwater Horizon. Today, BP confirmed that Tony Hayward will step down as CEO on October 1, to be replaced by managing director Robert Dudley. The oil spill catastrophe has severely impacted marine life and wildlife, put fishermen in the Gulf out of work and has caused turmoil [...]

Greetings From …

Design can be found just about anywhere, even in an antique shop in Melbourne, Florida. I happened upon these postcards after spending hours flipping through ten or more boxes stuff in the back of the shop. The colors, illustrations and type all so different yet representative of each city.  So next time you are walking, [...]

Our relationship with Facebook: It’s Complicated

Most of you don’t “Like” Facebook. Don’t believe me? In a recent American Customer Satisfaction Index survey Facebook scored comparable to the likes of airlines, cable providers, and below the IRS! What is seen as Facebook’s big problem? Privacy concerns and frequent changes to the website. Meanwhile Wikipedia lead the social media category. The difference [...]

Big name advertising, little name price.

The Quick Response (QR) code is the latest instant-access, smart-phone trend to hit the US market. Which is great – if you understand what it is. Basically, the QR code acts as link, whether it is to a webpage, a piece of text, or to a phone number. Smart-phones such as Android, iPhone, and Blackberry [...]