This is a bit of a non-traditional (and longer) than most of our 180 posts, but it can be extremely useful for some individuals and companies who want and/or need to reconsider their future plans.

The Hedgehog Concept

First, I’ll summarize the part of Collin’s book that sparked my interest. It’s from the chapter titled “The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles).” This is a principle based on an essay by Isaiah Berlin.

Hedgehogs are little dudes with very simple lives. Their counterparts, the fox, are sleek and cunning, and supposedly much smarter. The fox is always trying to scheme a way to catch the hedgehog, and spends many long hours and days conniving new ways to attack.

However, the hedgehog doesn’t ever even waste one thought on the fox. While the hedgehog is enjoying his typical day, if it is attacked by the fox it simply does one thing: the hedgehog balls up in a sphere of little spikes. The fox will then retreat at once and begin planning for its next attack, leaving the hedgehog to uncurl and continue just as it had before.

Now you might ask: What does the hedgehog have to do with growing up and finding a place for yourself in life?

It’s simple, really. Unlike the fox – who is continually planning, scheming, failing, and also succeeding in his multi-ventured world – the hedgehog has created an environment which provides him with a narrowly focused yet highly enjoyable and sustainable lifestyle. The concept is fairly easy. Once you find something that: (1)  you enjoy doing, and (2) is economically sound, and (3) – this is the best part – you have the potential to be extremely good at it:  DO IT.

For you as an individual or business, the Hedgehog concept is the principle of finding an area where you can merge these three areas:

1. What you are deeply passionate about?

2. What you can be the best in the world at?

3. What drives your economic engine?

Each of the above items can individually be found in many areas of a person’s life, but when they all collide it’s simply golden.

Here is a picture by Collins in the book, using the 3 circles to create a sort of intersect where the good stuff happens:

When someone only focuses on only one or two of the above things, he or she will eventually need or want to move on to another discipline. We all know these individuals, and we have probably experienced this ourselves. Artists that passionately focus on something that makes them less money than they need to live will eventually fall into economic crisis. Salespeople who make great money  selling items they are not passionate about often die a slow painful death from a calloused heart. And even great people who are placed in one area doing the the same service as a million other people will ultimately be replaceable.

I believe that all humans are created with unique gifts that, though sometimes hard to  find or acknowledge, set them apart in a way that is amazing. Those assets were designed to give their family, company, and community something that few others can provide.

What Do You Really Want?

So the real key here is to be able to find those gifts (all of us have more than a few) that combine all of the three areas from above. I’ve created my own questions that I think could apply here: both to individuals and to businesses. In fact, I filled this out for both myself, and for 180byDesign.

Here they are. Don’t think about $$ for these, or what job you’ll be doing.  That will be easier after these questions are answered.

——————————

1. What things am I best at?

Example: Building up businesses and people.

2. What things am I worst at?

Example: Maintaining my home, keeping up with long-distance relationships, etc.

3. What things would fulfill me most?

Note: Imagine when you’re dying and someone asks you to summarize your happiest moments/accomplishments.

4. What would make me happy temporarily?

Example: Monthly gardener, new motorcycle, etc.

5. What does a dream day look like?

Note: Not just a holiday, but if this day represented a perfect fulfilling day for you.

6. What does a dream week look like?

Note: How many days are you working/playing/relaxing?

7. What does a dream year look like?

Note: How many days will you take off and how many are you working? Will you be traveling? Etc.

8. How can I best serve God?

Note: Only if  you’re religious, obviously.

9.  How can I best serve Others?

After spending a bit of time with the above questions – you will be best able to answer 2 additional more practical questions that will ultmiately help you make your above dreams more possible.

10. How much $$ per month or year will you need to make these dreams a reality?

11. Does your current job or occupation have the possibility to help you fulfill any of the above questions?

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I spent half a day thinking through this (with coffee & a nice pipe!) so even if you are in a hurry at first, maybe think about some of these more thoroughly later.

Finding Your Perfect Patch of Universe

After answering (more or less) the above questions, you’ll want to take the Hedgehog concept, the 3 circles, and formulate what you could imagine yourself doing.

I recommend to just start thinking about this broadly. Really open the funnel to dream about positions or opportunites you never really considered. You just might surprise yourself with what you find.

I think I’ve found it myself, at least for now. I love creative directing and developing websites. And I think for 180byDesign, this has helped us clear out the side projects we’re always playing with (mobile apps, software, film, etc.) to focus 100% on what we do best: designing and building frontend websites.

Note from author:

Our 180 content editor said no one would read this article because it’s TOO LONG for today’s busy-paced lifestyle! Although she is probably right (darn her), please help me out by letting me know if this is helpful. Commenters get a prize!

What would you like to be when you grow up?

We just created a couple of jQuery plugins in order to format dates a little easier.  Enjoy!

jDate Plugin for jQuery
This is an easy plugin that is ported from Php.js’ date() function. Basically, it mimics php’s date function taking two parameters (date format string, timestamp in seconds) with the first being the only one required. This plugin features a jQuery function for easy returns of formatted date strings as well as the convenience of a jQuery method that inserts the formatted date string into each matched element as text. If you need help with the function just follow the guidelines at php’s documentation site here. Here are some examples of use:

$.date(string format [, int timestamp]);

Examples:
$.date(‘F j, Y \\a\\t g:i:sa’);  will return =>  “January 1, 1970 at 12:00am”
$(‘.date’).date(‘Y-m-d H:i:s’);  will insert the string into .date => <div class=”date”>1970-01-01 12:00:00</div>
$.date(‘m/d/Y’, 127018165); will return => “01/09/1974″

Download: jDate.plugin.tgz

jStrtostring Plugin for jQuery
Like it’s big brother, jDate, this plugin is a port from php.js’ strtotime() function. It acts just like the strtotime function in php taking two parameters with only the first required. It is used as follows:

$.strtotime(string time [, int now]);

Examples:
$.strtotime(‘+3 weeks’); => timestamp in seconds exactly three weeks in the future
$.strtotime(‘-1 year 2 days 7 hours’);
$.strtotime(‘now’);
$.strtotime(‘last Monday’);

Used in conjunction with jDate above:
$.date(‘F j, Y’, $.strtotime(‘+30 minutes’));

Download: jStrtotime.plugin.tgz

Here is random example of developing a simple 5 page website with no addons:

CMSMS = 5-10hrs
Wordpress = 5-10 hrs
EE = 10 hrs
Joomla = 20hrs
Drupal = 50 hrs (drupal is very very powerful, but just setting it up is a headache)

But here is the beautiful part about ExpressionEngine: What if the client wants a 5 page website with blog, cataloged portfolio, heavy event management, and simple commerce system?

CMSMS = 50+ hrs
Wordpress = 70+hrs
EE = 30 hrs
Joomla = 60 hrs
Drupal = 100 hrs

And if you add everything above + registration-type member management:

CMSMS = 70+ hrs
Wordpress = 80+hrs
EE = 40 hrs
Joomla = 65 hrs
Drupal = 110 hrs

EE, Drupal, and Joomla come with this out of the box. WP does too, sort of , but it takes a lot of hacking to actually make it so registered users can do anything useful besides just adding posts (for example – if you wanted members to be able to speak to each other, upload/download files, etc).

I’m really not making this up: we built this community site in Drupal 2 years ago in around 150 hours, and a similarly powerful Expression Engine site just 5 months ago in around 35 hours. Both are fully updated by clients all the time, have advanced event management, member management, etc.

That’s why we have actually started charging clients MORE for non-expression engine projects.

Expression engine = What 180byDesign loves!

p.s.  Thank you to the WCIU.edu team for forcing us into the Expression Engine world. You’ve made our lives that much better.

Fun, energizing, exciting, encouraging: everything 180 hopes for in a new client is what we found in Catherine Goldwyn and her entire team at SoundArt!

So our ultimate goal with the new SoundArtLa.org website was to simply reflect their vibrant personality and passion for training and building up inner city Los Angeles youth.

The experience we envisioned for SoundArt’s website is unique because their organization is unique. They teach rock music to inner city kids, by classically trained musicians!

As Catherine explained to us, the same values in teaching violin and piano at a young age apply to any instrument – so why not use a medium that kids can get excited about? Their kids look forward to lessons, and when they have the instruments – they practice at home too!

So we felt the best way to direct the site visitors is a linear “storyboard” walk through to explain to visitors the Why, What, and How of SoundArt. First you see the Our Vision page for the quick “Why,” then on to the Programs for more “What” and then to Instructors for “How.”

There is still a full navigation at the top for the more traditional “choose your own adventure” way of navigating. But our user testing has shown us that most users really do follow the storyboard for at least 2-4 clicks before moving to something that piqued their interest.

All images are their real kids, the entrance page included. And all the fun page transitions and drop downs are still deep-linked; you can hit the back button or refresh the page without jumping back to the beginning.

We also had custom written content for each page’s main descriptions, and the initial 5 blog entries.

Add in a slick Mobile version and the fact that the main site is even optimized for old IE6 browsers, the SoundArt site bridges the gap between the young and the mature.  Amazingly, SoundArt does this very thing between the at risk youth of Los Angeles and professional musicians.  We are honored to have worked with them!

So please check it out: http://www.soundartla.org, and be sure to come back to comment!

Spending your hard earned money on a website design only to later cut corners is neither smart nor wise. Designed websites are sometimes thought of as new rugged trucks ready to tackle the off-road experiences of online marketing.

On the contrary, professional websites are more like finely crafted works of art customized to tell your story and to tell it well. If you wouldn’t rely on a physical mentor to coach you into shape for a marathon only to eat fast food during the race, then you probably shouldn’t rely on professionals to craft a site for your organization only to use it however you see fit.

You’re probably really good at the work that you do, which is why your business is able to afford a great site. So be ready and willing to allow others who are good at what they do help you communicate your vision to the public. If in doubt ask a professional designer about the changes you want to make to your site. Run the idea by several people and make sure it fits in with the overall message of its design before completing the last step of actually uploading the content. This is a great practice to get used to!

The strongest aspect of your site is the design—the way your site is planned to speak to those who engage it. The text on the site only serves to reinforce that primary message. Seeing your site in this light can help you trust in the purpose of your design and rely on your site’s presence over the words that you choose to place on it. Doing this can create a powerful impression that might lead each visitor closer to taking action, and this, of course, is always the end goal.

At 180byDesign we specialize in designing beautiful websites and turning your business around by better communicating who you are. That’s our design; our purpose. We only hope this brief message will help a little more to do just that.

So. You’re not a designer. What should you do?

The first thing you want to do is make sure your vision for your company is clearly articulated before ever starting the design process. It doesn’t need to be a 100% completed version of your vision, but the foundation must be laid and enough direction given that the designer can effectively and efficiently plan out your site. Starting with a bad design vision (one that fails to communicate who you are) will only confuse whatever else you plan to place on the site.

Second, think twice about the content you want to place on your site. In most content areas there’s room for images. When it comes to communicating, the use of good, professionally-prepared images or graphics can explain what you’re getting at much faster than your words. Images are valuable because they tell a more personal story.

Third, be conservative. Think of it as speaking in a one-on-one conversation. Remember that whatever you place on your site, whether images or text, is communication. It’s tempting to post content without realizing you wouldn’t say the same thing if you were speaking to your visitors face-to-face. Use this opportunity to be genuine, authentic, and compassionate toward the needs of your guests. You’ll often find that the reaction is mutual.

Stay tuned for next Thursday’s installment: How can I utilize expert advice? Design 103.

Design, by definition, is the purposeful planning and communication that expresses the objective thing that is your business or organization. More simply, design is communication purposed for a desired outcome. It is the clothing of your business.

One of the most common downfalls of any site with great potential is to flatten its communication. Communicating never comprises just words. In fact, words are one of the worst ways in which to communicate!

Think about your everyday living experience. Communication comes from all sorts of directions. It is received through the five different channels of your senses. Words that you see are only a small fraction of that overall input and, not to mention, they’re not really natural. Your brain has to go through countless conditioned steps of interpretation in order to construct a thought or scene from words, whereas a beautiful, crisp photo of a peaceful meadow is understood naturally. Upon seeing the image you immediately feel something for that scene, whether good or bad.

Design is an art and a science. It concerns engineering the communication of your site so that it will inspire within your audience the feelings and thoughts that are wanted. That is, with as little effort needed on behalf of your guests.

Trusting your design to do your communicative heavily lifting can not only save you time (and money!), but it can also help ensure that your site stands out from the rest, especially against your competitors.

Before placing any new words on your site, first ask yourself: “How does my current design communicate what I want to say?”

If you’re not sure your design is meeting your needs, check back next Thursday, April 1st for the next post in this series: But I’m not a Designer! Design 102

Take, for example, this image of the helicopter disrupting the sky with its power and almost mysterious elegance. Your imagery and overall design process should interrupt your site visitors and make them feel something about your company. It should be striking and commanding. It should communicate more than words.

Who you are, what you do, why you do it, and where your passions lie should all be evident at some level in the design of your site. Showing your users your values through visual cues will invite them to become a living, breathing part of those values. Words are factual but visuals are engaging. This is what design is for.

The next few blog posts will focus on these questions:

Why is design important for my site?

I’m not a designer. What can I do?

How can I utilize expert advice?

When this blog series is complete you will feel more equipped to use the best design resources for your company. You will be well-informed and ready to trust your designer to help you develop the highest quality of content that your company deserves.

And thanks to Will Keeler, we hope to show users the power of great imagery.

“I really like the color green because my grandmother had a green scarf.”

“I like the idea of the sea being on the website. I think that would communicate what I represent.”

In situations where clients are not familiar with how to communicate “What they do” through design, we tend to recommend for them to step away from their ideas and imagine how someone with a different perspective (in some cases: the whole world) might view the website.

Poor Design Communication

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ (Snapshot taken March 18th, 2010)

The imagery on this site begins to almost makes sense after a few minutes of concentration. They talk about websites that suck. Perhaps it could possibly make sense to have a baby sucking a pacifier right where we would (usually) place a logo. The first picture we see is of a guy who looks like he’s about to barf. He is obviously gagging because he is looking at websites that suck.

However, the first glance of these images, along with the tag line “On our 14th year of sucking,” gives a very strong impression that their own website is the one that, well, might make their own list. [Legal Notice: In no way am I outright saying that their website does, in fact, suck. Just implying.]

Great Design Communication

http://www.stoffers-steinicke.de/ (Snapshot taken March 18th, 2010)

This Non-English website demonstrates just how well thought out imagery and an overall aesthetic can communicate so much in such a short time.

You probably got the impression that this German website is for a creative company. The variation in colorful objects against the far wall, the empty table with apples and a Macbook: they are almost beckoning clients to employ them in a new project.

(If you actually speak German you will get the added benefit of knowing they are, ”not only good but also very fast.“)

It is possible their potential clients will feel comfortable with their company within the first 2 seconds of entering their website.

Great home pages should have images that add function and value. They will communicate clearly and provide a comfy welcome mat to the visitor. Any other images will likely be distracting and unnecessary.