Our clients’ challenge:

Adobe Systems wanted to develop a microsite that would fully introduce a new web application, Adobe Edge, to web designers. Adobe sought a user-friendly, intuitive website that introduces the product, shows samples of what designers can create with Edge, and leads them to download a beta version of the software.

The Scott Design solution:

Scott Design designed and developed a clean and simple microsite to clearly present Adobe Edge to web professionals. The site presents a unique, compelling look and showcases samples that inspire and educate site visitors about Edge. Clearly presented information and a prominent download button lead visitors through all the information they need to decide to become part of the preview program.

Scott Design received two more awards for its work on the online Adobe/Amazon.com Product Selector — an Outstanding Achievement Award in the Computer Software category of the Interactive Media Awards and a Silver Award in the Online Advertising category of the Horizon Interactive Awards. This interactive banner ad previously won a Gold Davey Award, a Silver W3 Award, and a Summit Emerging Media Leader Award.

The Interactive Media Awards recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement. Created by the Interactive Media Council (IMC) — a nonprofit organization of leading web designers, developers, programmers, advertisers, and other web-related professionals — the competition is designed to elevate the standards of excellence on the Internet and offer winners a boost in marketing and exposure.

The Horizon Interactive Awards highlight the “best of the best” in interactive media production. The international competition saw more than 1,000 entries from more than 20 countries around world and nearly all 50 states. An international panel of judges, consisting of industry professionals with diverse backgrounds, as well as an end user panel, evaluated many different and diverse categories ranging from online advertising to mobile applications.

The Adobe/Amazon.com Product Selector is an online application on Amazon.com that removes the guesswork for Adobe customers selecting products to buy. Instead of a static banner ad, the selector is an interactive application powered by Adobe ColdFusion and AJAX technology with a back-end database that recommends products and brings the user right to the Amazon.com purchasing page to shorten the sales cycle.

Mike Sauce, Founder of the Horizon Interactive Awards, said: “The competition was fierce among many of the top entries in all of the categories and there were so many outstanding projects this year. Each year, I am truly amazed at the talent, creativity, artistry, and technical expertise that is on display in our International competition. It is simply fascinating to see how the internet and other creative media are influencing people’s lives from all corners of the Globe. All of this year’s winners should be proud to be among the best of the best from around the world!”

For the latest information on recent awards, visit the Design Awards page.

Male Color Preferences by Age

(There is currently a tie between blue and green as favorite color for males 25-35)

Female Color Preferences by Age

Preferences by Gender

Respondents

The written responses on sites where we posted the link have been all across the board:

• Decisive: “Green!” and “Always red” and “REDDDDDDD!!!!!”
• Descriptive: “Warm Red or Fiery Red!” and “Skyblue”
• Specific: “100C 100Y 10M 30K” and “I think I would have to go for British racing green (Pantone 5535)” and “Blue, RGB: 102.204.255, HEX: 66ccff” and “Blue: not a power blue and not a real dark blue, more like somewhere around PMS 285 blue” and a personal favorite: “1 micrometer (wave length) or maybe 10 micrometers”
• Silly: “Plaid” and “Iridescent” and “They still don’t let you pick ‘clear.’ Oh well….”
• Angry: “This is not a scientific study” and “I like different colors for different things. This poll is junk.”
• Entertaining: “Blue … not into that purple crap” and “Blue NO RED Auuuuuuuuuuuggghhhh…” (Monty Python “3 Questions”)

A sampling of FAQs:

Did you know you forgot pink?
Yes, and people wanted to vote for it for most AND least favorite. If we created a new survey, it would definitely be there. (Plus, isn’t it just technically a shade of red?)

Don’t people like different colors for different things?
Of course. We actually talk about just that in “Selecting colors for design projects.” But, judging by the number of people who were willing to pick just one, we bet that most people do have one they generally like more than others.

Don’t you think it would be better to be more specific on where people are from, for example, eastern U.S., southern U.S., etc.?
No way! In fact, we wish we had just made it a question of which continent you were from so we had more data from each place. There were so few from each country other than the U.S. that we’re not even going to analyze the differences based on culture. If we get more answers from other countries, we’ll share that information.

Why do older people like red so much?
As our eyes age, we sometimes lose the ability to distinguish between blues and yellows. The color that stands out the most is red, so that may be why we are more drawn to it as we age. Or maybe it was just a cool color when they were growing up in the first half of the 20th century!

Can I see the raw data?
You bet! Just drop us a request using the form on the right and we’ll send you the data so you can sort and analyze to your heart’s content.

This poll isn’t very scientific, is it?
I’m a designer, not a scientist! But it still is interesting to see the differences emerge in the responses we’ve received so far.

Can I still vote?
YES! In fact, we’d love to have you post a link to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/colorprefs so everyone you know can participate. The more responses we get from around the world, the more we can learn about color preferences. Take the one-minute poll, and after you vote, you can see how your answers compare with the latest worldwide results.

Download the full infographic (PDF 171K)

Our client’s challenge:

StepWare, which offers a line of desktop computer software that helps people of all ages become better readers, wanted to create a web version of AceReader, its premier product. The online version would provide a subscription-based service to schools and allow educators and students to use the software at any computer in the school’s computer lab.

The Scott Design solution:

Scott Design created an online application that is almost identical to the desktop version of AceReader. The web version even uses configuration files and settings from the desktop version. Teachers can monitor students’ progress by viewing speed and comprehension graphs from any computer on the network.

The Summit EMA competition is based on the foundation that advertising is consistently at the forefront of the technological evolution of communication. It was created to identify the world’s marketing communication pioneers – those pushing the bounds of the communication badlands.

The Adobe/Amazon.com Product Selector is an online application on Amazon.com that removes the guesswork for Adobe customers selecting products to buy. Instead of a static banner ad, the selector is an interactive application powered by Adobe ColdFusion and AJAX technology with a back-end database that recommends products and brings the user right to the Amazon.com purchasing page to shorten the sales cycle.

“Those involved in today’s emerging media technologies are the leaders who are establishing tomorrow’s avenues of advertising communications.” Said Jocelyn Luciano, Executive Director for the Summit International Awards (SIA). “Most communication professionals recognize that established avenues of communication can be reliable and safe. However, audiences are becoming increasingly fragmented and difficult to engage, inform, and affect.  Developing, applying, and combining emerging media with creative messaging and market awareness is challenging.  Achieving this synthesis is what makes earning a Summit EMA a significant achievement.”

Since 1994, the Summit International Awards (SIA) organization has been dedicated to furthering excellence in the communications industry. It administers three distinguished award competitions throughout the year with the goal of raising the awareness of companies and individuals who have the creative and marketing talent to go beyond the ordinary.

This SIA organization stands apart by offering a true competitive environment where entries are judged alongside those of their peers, and makes its competitions affordable and accessible to the industry by offering multiple entry discounts, streamlined internet submissions, and a friendly, knowledgeable customer service staff. Companies and individuals from more than 50 countries and across five continents participate in its awards programs and choose to invest their promotional dollars for the opportunity to be recognized as an SIA winner. The SIA organization conducts three awards competitions each year: Summit Creative Awards, Summit Emerging Media Awards, and Summit Marketing Effectiveness Awards.

For the latest information on recent awards, visit the Design Awards page.

Here’s a quick rundown on how to use type like a pro on your website.

Typeface selection

There are five web-safe fonts that work on most Mac and Windows browsers. Here are the reasons you might choose one over the others:

Alignment

The appearance of type on your web page can change depending on the device, browser, screen resolution, and personal settings. Use left alignment instead of justified text for the best readability. When the browser justifies text, it inserts space in between words that cause the reader to pause or stumble when reading. Although you might end up with a ragged right edge when using left aligned type, it is still more readable. To help reduce the ragged right edge, put spaces before and after dashes so the browser puts the words before and after the dash on two lines if needed.

Column width

If your columns are too narrow, you break up your sentences into too many pieces, which slows down reading. If your columns are too wide, it is hard to move your eye from the end of a line to the beginning of the next line and you can get lost. Ideal line length for the web is approximately 12 words or 66 characters, however if a user changes the browser’s default font size, the number of words that can fit in a column changes. It’s best to use a measurement that changes depending on the font and size, such as an “em,” which is the width of a capital “M” in any given font. Setting the column width to 30 ems usually gives you the optimal column width no matter the type size.

Color

If you emphasize everything by using colors, you end up emphasizing nothing. Use colored type sparingly, only where it will help guide the reader, for example on subheads to help readers skim for the information they want. Don’t rely on color alone to convey information in case someone who is colorblind is looking at your site. Bold or italicize your type in addition.

Backgrounds

Use enough contrast between the background color on the page and the type. Colors that are too close in darkness are hard to read. Don’t put type on complex backgrounds or images with a lot of contrast or it will be difficult to read.

Smart punctuation

Professional typographers always use typographically correct punctuation on the web, including “smart” quotes and apostrophes, em and en dashes, and ellipses. Don’t use inch and foot marks, hyphens, and triple periods when you can use the real punctuation.

Amateur moves

These are web design choices that will instantly mark you as an amateur designer:

- Use of non-web-safe fonts
- Justified type
- Columns that are too narrow or too wide
- Too many colors
- Background color that’s too close to the text color
- Inch and foot marks, hyphens, and triple periods
- Two spaces between sentences
- Writing in all caps

Hopefully, this information has given you ideas about using type to strengthen your own website. Following basic rules of good typography can help produce professional-caliber results.

Snow Bash! iPad and iPhone App: Protect Ginger Hill from the Snowmen

Enjoy the free iPad and iPhone versions of the award-winning Snowbash Flash app created by Scott Design in 2007. All the fun of the original version, plus new prizes, more animals, and icemen! Download Snow Bash! for your iPad or for your iPhone from the App Store.

3D Fun: Put on your glasses and enjoy some holiday scenes

Grab your stylish 3D specs and enjoy some 3D holiday images. No 3D glasses? Send us an SASE and we’ll send you a pair!

Augmented Reality Snowstorm: A virtual snowstorm using your webcam

Get into the holiday spirit with the Augmented Reality Snowstorm, where you can put yourself or your family in a virtual snowstorm. No webcam? No worries! Just visit the virtual snowstorm, instead!

Special Delivery: Create your own holiday-themed web pages

Design and share your own one-of-a-kind holiday pages in minutes with Special Delivery. You can make a holiday page, send birthday wishes, invite friends to a party, or create a page just for fun. It’s a free, easy, green alternative to traditional cards! Create your holiday greetings.

Snowbash: Can you stop the snowmen?

See how many snowmen your gingerbread man can get without harming the innocent pink bunnies in the award-winning Snowbash game. Play Snowbash.

Snowflake Designer: Design your own beautiful flakes

Select the number of branches, the shape of the crystals and their complexity, and watch as your snowflake grows right outside your window! Make some snowflakes.

Virtual Fireplace: May your days be merry and bright

Just because you’re stuck at your computer doesn’t mean you can’t gaze into the hypnotic flames of a crackling fireplace. Have fun decorating the mantle for the holidays, or just kick back and imagine the warmth! Curl up by the fireplace.

Happy Holidays!

We hope you have a lot of fun and send all our best wishes for the season and the coming year,

The Scott Design team

Here are 4 ways to get the love:

1. Be Relevant: Someone doing a search on Google is looking for information that is trustworthy, from an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, and includes original content. This original reporting, original research, and original analysis are top qualities in Google’s eyes, so create the one-of-a-kind content your audience is looking for.

2. Make It Fast: Website visitors are not a patient lot. Studies show that users are happier with faster sites and less satisfied with slow sites, so speed is now a factor in Google site ranking. Make sure your web coding is lean and mean, uses the latest web standards, and uses CSS to minimize bulked-up code.

3. Be Thorough: Web users want to get all the information they need in one place. Include plenty of helpful information about your subject and links between content on your site so users can find everything they need without having to search elsewhere. Be smart about your tags, meta descriptions, and site architecture, and include relevant keywords in your copy to help Google find your content and rank it higher.

4. Keep It Fresh: Web searchers are looking for the latest information on a given topic, so Google ranks sites that have regularly updated content higher. While Google will crawl virtually every page on the web eventually, the more frequently your content changes, the faster Google comes back. Regularly create content with catchy headlines and cool stories covering the latest information on your specialties.

Remember: If Google doesn’t deliver, searchers will go elsewhere to find what they need, so it’s in Google’s best interest to deliver what searchers want: relevance, speed, comprehensiveness, and freshness. Make sure your site delivers these and Google will love your site.

Resources:

Learn why you shouldn’t launch your website without SEO and the art and science of SEO. Catch details about getting Google to love your site in the Marketing Profs class What Marketers Should Know About Google. And Google Webmaster Central is a great place to get all the inside help you need to optimize your site and keep your loving relationship with Google going strong.

Our client’s challenge:

Adobe wanted to promote special upgrade pricing for photo- and video-editing software products. The goals of the “tours” were to allow users to quickly and easily understand the value of the products, become inspired by the top features, and actively engage with the products by exploring all the features.

The Scott Design solution:

Scott Design produced online Flash “tours” that display new features in action and highlight price-slashing offers right in the welcome screen of trial and full-version products. The team combined animation, compelling imagery, and streaming videos in a series of online presentations that display the software’s top features. Each of the presentations included prominent, strategically placed calls to buy the product. Scott Design also created special “Black Friday” versions of the tours to promote a limited-time upgrade offer.

Our client’s challenge:

To show online sellers how to use a new listing process, eBay sought animated online demos that would explain the new flow. The goal was to provide mid– to high-volume sellers with clear, step-by-step instructions for using eBay tools to add and revise listings in the eBay online catalog.

The Scott Design solution:

Scott Design partnered with HDI to design and produce a series of easy-to-follow Flash demos—with corresponding PDF versions—that make it simple for anyone to add their products to the eBay online catalog. These step-by-step tutorials include animated screen views and narration that remove the guesswork. The end result is a fast and easy learning experience for sellers.