Vol: 001 | Issue: 009
The bv02 creative digest is a compilation of thoughts, links, musings, and inspiration that has caught the eye of our creative team over the past week. A combined effort from Matt Davidson (New Media), Paul Wright (User Experience), Daniel Bianchi (Creative) and Steve St. Pierre (Creative).
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UX discussion of the week
In “Complex Speech Bubble Persona”, Barnabas Nagy outlines an alternate method for creating website user personas. Personas were introduced by Alan Cooper in his 1998 book, “The Inmates Are Running the Asylum” and are a way for members of a design team to communicate about the users or audience of that design project. If members of the team need to ask each other how a feature would work or benefit a specific type of user, they can go back to a common ground – a specific persona – to help them articulate their thoughts. For small projects personas can be as simple as how old the user is, where they are from, what they are looking for and why. In some projects, personas have turned into a deliverable, which can be useful to make sure the design team and the client agree on who the main users are and what they want, but can also increase confusion and force personas to match a style or template that may not benefit the internal team. In “Complex Speech Bubble Persona”, Nagy outlines his method of doing personas that encourages an emotional connection through visual cues, including a photo of the subject and images of items the user may desire or associate with, plus speech bubbles about themselves and their motives.
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Photo of the week
Both the photo and video this month have the same theme and campaign. They are both advertisements for the Canadian Paralympic Committee from the same campaign, and they’re both incredibly powerful.
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Video of the week
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Illustration
Solitude
In this amazing illustration made with graphite, ink and acrylic, Joe Fenton show us an impressive work with light and shadows.
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Web Font of the week
Sina Nova
Known as the slimmer sister of Sina, this typeface has a slightly higher x-height which allows for better readability at smaller sizes. It’s always tough finding a solid serif typeface that’ll do a bit of work, but this is a pretty great option.
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Inspiration of the week
Sure, it’s another video. But it’s one of the best you’ll see all month. Maybe all year. Hell, maybe in your entire life. Aaron Draplin is a designer based out of Portland, Oregon. Here he talks about his “50 point plan to wreck your career” – but in the best of ways. He is open, honest, and a bit of a potty mouth. This video will kick you right where it matters most and will hopefully open your eyes a bit.
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Website of the week
With various programs slowly slipping out of schools, it’s encouraging to find sites like DIY.org. This is a website devoted to kids who make – kids who get their hands dirty, kids who think differently and kids who will undoubtedly make a difference. Kids are encouraged to upload their projects for the online community to check out, and parents can add stickers to
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