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Experience Design & Development |
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A robust system
doesn't amount to much if users can't easily interact with it. At CVNUE ,
we're committed to a philosophy of user-centric design -- everything is
designed from the user's perspective, with the ultimate goal of creating a
meaningful experience for them. Experience design and development focuses
on the "front-end" of a project, and requires deep knowledge in several
key areas:
| User Profiling and Surveying
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| We begin by creating a detailed
portrait of the target audience: their expectations, motivations, and
technological capabilities establish several important parameters within
our work. Capturing this information isn't always an exact science,
however, and often relies on a variety of analytical approaches, including
traffic analysis, competitive and marketing analysis, user interviews, and
focus groups, along with a little educated guesswork based on prior
experience. |
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Information Design |
All information derives its meaning from
structure -- without a coherent organizational scheme, information can
feel chaotic and confusing, and ultimately of little value to the user.
CVNUE 's information designers are well-versed in the creation of systems
that give information contextual clarity and accessibility. Text and
visual comprehension, sense of place, consistency, and user control are
all foremost in their minds as they develop flowcharts, storyboards, and
site navigation/orientation schema. Because we design in a user-centric
manner (adopting the user's perspective throughout the project), our
information designers create not only logical structures but also
meaningful, audience-oriented pathways through them
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Interaction Design |
In
the broadest sense, human-computer interactions are driven by intellect,
emotion, and muscle; mediated by the senses; and experienced over time. In
online media, the actual interaction with a website or other product may
be limited to pointing and clicking, but these actions take place within
the context of a navigational structure and sequence of events that the
interaction designer must consider as more than just a graphical
interface. Good interaction design invites users to explore the site and
provides them with appropriate, meaningful feedback along the way.
At
CVNUE , interaction designers consider all relevant aspects of the online
user experience including efficiency and ease of navigation, user-to-user
and site-to-user communication, performance issues, form design and system
feedback, and interactions expressed via specialized technologies. Our
work includes sites that offer advanced personalization and customization,
and systems that adapt to users' behaviors and locations. |
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Sensorial Design
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Sensorial design encompasses those components that engage the user's
senses: visual, audio, tactile, taste, and smell. While the latter three
aren't (yet) considered in Web design, the first two are of utmost
importance. More than merely adding graphic appeal, visual design allows
us to convey meaning on many levels. Every visual element -- lighting,
color, typography, layout, etc. -- helps create a mood, communicate a
message, and achieve the goals of our clients. These results aren't based
on current trends, but rather on an understanding of how to communicate
visually. Every photograph, illustration, graphic, or word helps tell the
story and each needs to be aligned with a project's goals and brand
attributes. CVNUE 's visual designers are highly skilled in all aspects of
graphic presentation, from logo and identity creation and evolution to
page layout and construction. Additional types of media are making
significant inroads as supplementary components of the online experience.
Audio can be used to create a mood or reinforce navigation; streaming
audio and video allow users to enjoy physical events via webcasts; and
dynamic technologies like Shockwave and QuickTimeVR offer users enhanced
opportunities for play and discovery. CVNUE designers make good use of
these and other technologies to create media-rich experiences.
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Writing
& Editing |
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Text lays the foundation for many Web experiences,
from the no-nonsense delivery of technical and marketing information to
the highly stylized telling of a sci-fi adventure tale. Although smartly
crafted copy rarely receives the same accolades as a dazzling visual
interface, it is nonetheless an essential part of a well-designed website.
Writing plays an integral role behind the scenes, too: at CVNUE , we use a
variety of written tools to conceptualize designs and explore interactions
before we begin pushing pixels. Narrative user scenarios allow us to
speculate on an audience's differing needs, abilities, and experiences
with a system; proposals and scope-of-work documents express specifically
what it is we are creating, and what features will be created later in the
project; and specifications and style guides document our work and
establish guidelines for continued site growth.
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