1 How do we avoid MS Clippy Though?

I would be interested to hear where you think Microsoft went wrong ( so wrong ) with their “Clippy” character in the original Office Suite?

posted at 02:26 pm on October 18, 2011 by rufio

2 It's in the Book

@rufio: You’ll find discussion of Clippy in Chapter 4: Emotional Engagement.

posted at 10:35 am on October 19, 2011 by Aarron Walter

3

I enjoyed reading the article thoroughly. Yes being a designer my self and have around 15 designers under me, its personality that really counts. I have been in the field since last 8 years and now i can proudly say that i can judge designer by his personality, so if a client needs a unique blend of work, i know which one from the team to call and hand it over!

posted at 03:39 am on October 25, 2011 by thewebsurgery

4 Client Relationships

Your design persona technique is very impressive and seems like it would build a connection with the client’s customers very well, but also the relationship the designer has with the client. Working with many clients makes maintaining relationships difficult. But with a design persona prompt, I feel like it would encourage the client to be creative, thus instigating a creative bond that could work towards building each company positively in business and relationships. Great article! @BopDesignSD

posted at 01:12 pm on October 25, 2011 by BopDesign

5 I am thinking poetry

I understand the dislike of the term for human computer interaction, just doesn’t have a real organic feel to it.

I like the idea of thinking of a website as a personality idea. For me I always end up thinking like this with the idea of poetry in mind, is there something poetic happening between the page and the reader where they grasp a bigger message than whats on the page.

posted at 02:56 pm on October 25, 2011 by madbohem

6 Attraction

A very interesting read.

It is important to engage on a level with your customers and potential customers as though you are a friend and indeed friendly.

It turns whatever it may be website or application and puts a human side to it.

posted at 11:05 am on October 29, 2011 by Claire van Schijndel

7 Highly recommend the book

I read Aarron’s book over the weekend and it’s truly inspiring. I can’t say I agreed with all of the example sites he showed but other than that it was utterly brilliant. Especially loved his frank discussion on the pros and cons of the MailChimp brand. Highly recommend it.

posted at 07:27 am on October 31, 2011 by Gordon McLachlan

8

I got the book on Saturday morning and by the evening I’d finished.

There was plenty to chew on particularly as I am involved in a project at the moment which is begging for the kind of personality that Aaron Walter discusses.

Aaron draws heavily on the success of his Mailchimp project and i certainly is convincing. Less convincing – or shall I say less detailed – is how the Mint program has personality. Sure it looks professional, but a personality? I would like to have seen a brand personality analysis of this particular site as Financial Services websites (and I’ve worked on a few) are notoriously difficult to add a scintilla of personality beyond the suited and booted.

Similarly when he talked about a couple of iPhone apps that had WallE type reassuring robotic faces, I had to look at the images a long time to see what he meant.

Anyway, these are quibbles. What the book does is make you think about connecting with site visitors rather than making something functionally usable.

Finally, when I hit my desk this morning I started to act on some of his suggestions immediately. What more of a recommendation do you need?

posted at 01:06 pm on November 7, 2011 by Wootlebug

9 'Friendly'

Someone told me the other day that my websites always look friendly. I’ve been trying to work out ever since how I actually achieve that, I guess it just must be my personality coming through. Whatever it is I’m glad, there are so many lifeless template driven sites which get rehashed over and over again that it’s nice to know this is still desirable.

posted at 05:10 am on November 16, 2011 by theradicallight

10

I like the fact that you defined personality in design in positive way. I think it is risky in general as you deal with customers, but I agree that revealing your own personality into your design is another way to express and attract certain audience to grab an attention. It will be more unique and satisfied. I am glad that you brought up about personality in design, because I always think that designers should have their own strong voice and language. Your examples of designs persuade well to convince the customers to understand. I also agree that it will work really well as long as designers can create something that bond with the audience by designing a personality. However, I still feel that we (as in designers) always still need to follow the customers’ styles, options, favors to design rather than putting our own voices and personality into design.

posted at 07:40 am on November 18, 2011 by hydoh411