Blogs in Business

Just got back from an awesome conference called The Future of Web Design 2009. So I guess you could say I've seen what the future has to offer. I gotta say, it looks promising.

If you're designing your business blog, or you're thinking about a blog redesign, I'd recommend checking out some of these names I'm about to drop. As we know, business blogging can really help you to communicate your message to potential leads / customers. Because blogs do very well in search, your blog could very well be the first impression you ever make on aforementioned lead / prospect. With new developments in web design, from things like HTML5 and CSS3 to new ideas in content strategy and creation, you can really make that first impression a big one by paying attention to your business blog's design.

So if you're just getting started, just thinking about it, or are just hungry for some inspiration and knowledge... here were some of the speakers that I found truly inspiring from the conference.

Mike Kus
Designer at Carsonified
personal site: http://thethingswemake.co.uk/

Mike Kus emphasized the importance of thinking "outside the web." As soon as we start thinking about a website design, we limit ourselves. We think of things we already know, things we've already seen, things that are trendy. But Kus approaches his designs as if they aren't web designs at all, but instead posters... tee shirts... or some entirely different medium altogether, autonomous of the web. He then brings his idea "back to the web" where his results are often head turning, bold and memorable.

Daniel Burka
Former Creative Director at Digg
now Director of Design at Tiny Speck.
personal site: http://www.deltatangobravo.com/

Daniel Burka's talk, "Listening, Really Listening, to your users," was stellar. I also had the opportunity to sit in on his 3.5 hour workshop the day before, which was even stellarer as he went into open honest detail about the endless lessons he learned over the many years working at Digg, one of the most popular news sharing sites online. Burka made great points on the importance of testing your site with real users, and really listening to what they're telling you-- not only with their words, but with their actions. He emphasized the importance of adapting to change, and being willing to do so. He quoted someone else, "If you look back and aren't embarrassed by your website's version 1.0, you spent way too much time on it."

That's the beauty of web design (as opposed to print), is that we can change things every single day, and if we try something, and it doesn't work, we can try something else. This mentality and willingness to adapt is what made Digg the site is today, and why it gets ridiculous traffic and interaction from its community. Burka also made a fantastic point about the politics involved when making changes to a website of such scale. Burka indicated that there were intense debates at Digg when facing design changes that would often delay change, or induce design by committee results. In his words, Apple is fortunate to have such a benevolent authoritarian dictator, because the result is an incredibly simple, streamlined, yet layered and powerful website.

Very cool, very humble guy.

Joshua Davis
NY Based Artist, Designer & Technologist http://www.joshuadavis.com/

Joshua Davis was the Keynote Speaker at FOWD. This guy charged the stage with bright red pants, a matching bright red jacket, and two Red Bull Energy Drinks. He then blew minds with his ideas and art in a presentation exploring the notion of "Space."

Davis started as a painter and fine artist, who fell in love with Flash back in the early nineties, and has since spent his time exploring and pushing digital art. His work and approach to art and design are extremely innovative, his process totally unique, his results powerful and unexpected.

If you can ever catch Joshua Davis at a comedy-- I mean speaking gig, or at one of his art exhibits, I highly recommend it.

Here's to the future.

-- MSM