Josh Orum

Every design-related industry relies on guidelines to help ensure consistent quality. We’re no different. There are a number of important guidelines related to web design and tons of minor ones. While they’re important to follow, it’s equally important to recognize when they need to be ignored in order to get better results.
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It’s not that designers need to be getting people to visit sites, but that search is creating the new context of design, both from a visitor-perspective and from a client-perspective.
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The idea of customer education is frequently thrown about as something to aspire to. Is this the case? In some instances it is - when we are educating a customer on a fundamental design or usability principal, for example. In other instances, however, it’s necessary to educate the customer so that they can understand the design document, but this shouldn’t be something to aspire to.
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Note: this article is still under development.

Although I rarely compare Loud Dog to freelancers, I occasionally compare Loud Dog to myself as a freelancer. Although I may be rare, as a freelancer my overall rates were lower than Loud Dog’s overall rates, and I think the quality was almost the same. Why would a company hire a firm over a freelancer? And why are firms more expensive?
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Jodi mentioned to me earlier today that although our marketing material is focused on usability, our real focus was not so narrow–or so expert. We have a wide range of skills in the office, and I’m the only one that’s ever focused on usability per se, and even I haven’t done that much in terms of advanced research.
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