Posted: June 1st, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Coworking, Design, Events | Tags: alex, arkansas, community, conway, conwaycowork, Coworking, creative, hillman, indyhall, lessconf, little, meeting, philadelphia, professional, rock, starbucks | View Comments
I’m not a big fan of being alone. I crave the comfort of being around other people. Having someone there that you can bounce ideas off of, or collaborate with – it’s awesome. That’s what I love about coworking. It allows for collective collaboration of creative individuals in a friendly and open environment.
I’ve had an interest in coworking for some time now. Early last year, I was involved in trying to get a coworking space setup in Little Rock. Even though it didn’t work out, I learned a lot of what’s needed to get a coworking space started. Mainly what’s needed is a willingness to work hard to see it through.
Fast forward to today.
When I attended this year’s LessConf, I had a great conversation with one of the presenters, Alex Hillman, the founder of a coworking space in Philadelphia called IndyHall. That conversation sparked a newfound interest in me to get a coworking space started in my community. So as soon as I got back from the conference I spoke with a few of my friends and they had a similar interest in seeing something like this started in Conway; thus Conway Coworking was born.
We have our first meeting planned for June 9th at 6pm at Starbucks on Oak St. in Conway. We’re going to use the meeting to gauge interest in the community and find out what creative professionals in Conway are looking for in a coworking space. We want to make sure that we provide them a proper space for their creative output.
If you’re a creative individual, you should join us. It’s gonna rock.
Posted: May 24th, 2009 | Author: Arlton Lowry | Filed under: Advertising, Design, Thoughts | Tags: aa, Advertising, american airlines, corporate branding, Design, dustin curtis, pr, public relations, UI, user interface, website | View Comments
Designers – So, you see a website that is in desperate need of some TLC, but you’re not sure how to get that across to the organization behind it? Well, you could just redesign it. That’s what Dustin Curtis did.
Dustin Curtis wasn’t impressed with the current design and UI of the American Airlines website, so he decided to do something about it. Being a User Interface Designer by trade, he redesigned the site and created a much more appealing site for customers to visit. You can read his blog post here.
Clients — There are two things I want to touch on with this post. First — UI is very important for your site. Second — your site is the face of your company.
UI is very important
I cannot stress enough how important it is for the visitors of your site to be able to find information easily. If a visitor comes to your site and its either too complicated to use, or horribly laid out, they’re not going to stay long. Visitors require a site to be easy to use and visually appealing. Plus, content has to be appropriate and to the point.
There’s a local organization that I’ve been courting here lately, that suffers from this exact issue. I’m meeting with them next week and I’ve put together a proposal similar to Dustin Curtis’. This is something their organization has needed for a long time. I hope to help them create a better experience for the visitors to their site.
Your site is the face to your company
Too many organizations and businesses don’t take their websites seriously. They don’t understand how much a poorly designed website can effect prospective customers and clients decisions about their product/service. If you haven’t taken your site seriously, I guarantee you’re losing customers/clients because of it.
Moral of the story – your website is your organizations’ most important advertising/pr/corporate branding tool. Take it seriously.