Impactive Design is proud to announce the launch of the Tejas Ear, Nose and Throat, P.A., web information portal, www.tejas-ent.com. Tejas ENT serves the Austin and Round Rock, Texas, communities with adult and pediatric ENT and Audiology services. The new site incorporates cutting edge design and technology with valuable medical information to improve the user experience and improve its visibility on search engines.

Some of the goals of the site redesign included:

• Explaining Tejas ENT’s wide variety of services to its clients
• Providing a wealth of information on medical ailments and procedures
• Serving as a central portal for online services offered by Tejas ENT
• Increasing search engine optimization and recognition
• Reinforcing Tejas ENT’s brand and color scheme
• Improving site navigation and usability

• Bringing the site up-to-date with modern web technologies and designs

“Since we launched our original site, a lot had changed. With our new site we wanted to provide our patients with a single source of information on our services and relevant topics,” says JoAnn Tamez, Director of Operations for Tejas ENT. “We also wanted to use the power of the Internet and improve the site’s presence in search engines to draw in new clients. With the added search capability and improved design, we believe our patients will find the site a useful resource to improve their quality of life.”

About Tejas Ear, Nose and Throat, P.A
Tejas Ear, Nose and Throat, P.A. is the office of Dr. Oscar A. Tamez, board certified Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist/Head and Neck Surgeon. Tejas ENT offers the latest in proven medical and surgical care for diseases which affect the ear, nose and throat, in addition to comprehensive hearing evaluations for adults and pediatrics, and is dedicated to anticipating their patients’ needs and providing the highest quality care possible.

Some of the goals of the site redesign included:

• Focusing the site content and design to speak to engineering and scientific leaders
• Describing TREW Marketing’s growing service offerings in more detail
• Highlighting examples of TREW’s work and capabilities
• Reinforcing and strengthening the TREW Marketing brand and color scheme
• Optimizing search engine results
• Improving site navigation and usability
• Integrating TREW Spotlight blog into the design
• Making the site easier to update and maintain
• Making newsletter registration easier

“We are thrilled with the new site,” says Wendy Covey, principal of TREW Marketing. “Steve listened to our thoughts and ideas on what we wanted in a new site, and brought creative solutions to the table. We addressed each of our goals, and the project exceeded our expectations.”

About TREW Marketing
TREW Marketing is a full-service marketing firm based in Austin, Texas, uniquely serving leading organizations in engineering and science. Drawing on our experience, and a tested set of best practices, we quickly move from opportunity analysis to action plan to implementation.

When I started Impactive Design at the beginning of 2009, I came into it with my eyes wide open and ready for anything. I had a couple strong clients, but knew I needed to expand in order to be successful. I reached out to old friends and colleagues, and started networking like crazy. My endeavors paid off as I engaged with several new clients and business partners to expand my reach. My partnerships with TREW Marketing and Sento Design began to take shape, and clients such as Inquisite, Spredfast, Policy Strategies and Solutions, MICOR Solutions, and Tejas ENT helped make 2009 a successful year.

2010 arrived and started with a bang. My wife received a promotion in February, so we picked up our things and moved to Denver. This was very nerve-wracking, as I had spent over 20 years in Austin and had most of my clients, contacts, and friends there. Not only would I be leaving them, but the disruption in my work availability as we relocated could put a strain on these relationships. Fortunately, I have the best clients and partners in the world. I didn’t lose a single client, and even managed to rebrand Impactive Design, update the website with recent projects, and drum up some new work in the process.

The Redesigned Impactive Design Logo

Then, in May, my wife and I welcomed the arrival of our first son into the clan. While an amazing time, this certainly offered some challenges. Between the loss of sleep and changing diapers, the first few weeks made it difficult to focus on work. I made a few mistakes and had to push a couple things out, but fortunately my clients were understanding and we were able to get through the rough patch.

As our son grows, work has become easier and easier to focus on. In fact, I’ve found a new energy and creativity to my work. In the last week I was able to finalize and launch a couple new sites, and have brought in two new clients. Additionally, I’ve started reaching out to the creative community here in Denver. I think there is a lot of opportunity in the Denver area, and hopefully this will result in building my presence here. It’s a very tech-savvy market, and my experience with technology companies in Austin should suit me well.

So, looking forward, I’m excited by what the future holds for Impactive Design. I thank all of my clients and partners for being understanding in this time of change. I hope I’ll be able to continue serving them well, that their businesses will thrive and our relationships will strengthen. Additionally, I believe that new opportunities will open up here in Denver, and as I nurture those opportunities they will grow and prosper. I’m looking forward to the rest of 2010 and beyond, and maybe even working with you in the near future.

The We Are One initiative demonstrates a new level of collaboration as twelve of Austin’s largest nonprofits come together to speak as one voice and address important needs across the region as the economy continues to decline. In recent months, requests for services among many Central Texas organizations have increased while funding has dropped. Therefore, We Are One is more than just an awareness campaign. It is a call-to-action that is simple and straightforward, inviting all Central Texans to volunteer time and provide financial support. By our community working together as one, we can help more and more who are in need reach their full potential and succeed.

“We believe that by acting as one collective voice, our organizations and the people who support us can more effectively address the important and growing needs throughout our community,” said Hannah Nokes, Vice President of Development and Marketing at Leadership Austin. Impactive Design is proud to be a part of this campaign, and encourages all Central Texans to take this opportunity to step up and become one together.

“A key piece of the campaign was video, so we used social media and the web as our main marketing channels to launch and spread this grassroots campaign. The We Are One webpage played a key role in the campaign, and the work of Impactive Design was critical to helping us tell the We Are One story simply and visually,” stated Rebecca Geier, principal and co-founder of TREW Marketing, who directed the pro bono We Are One launch. “Impactive not only developed the logo and design elements for the site, but also helped weave the twelve different nonprofits’ stories into a cohesive campaign.”

To learn more about the We Are One campaign, visit www.weareonecentraltexas.com.
To learn more about Trew Marketing, visit www.trewmarketing.com.

Best Panels
There were a lot to choose from. ‘Being a UX Team of One’ definitely stood out, offering practical tips and techniques on brainstorming and getting development team buy-in. So did ‘How to Scam Your Way into Anything’, which was both entertaining and informative. Also strong were ‘Presenting Straight to the Brain’ and ‘Journey to the Center of Design’.

Best Keynote
This one was easy, and probably unanimous amongst all of the attendees. Tony Hseih of zappos.com spoke about his company culture and the difficult decisions he had to make to keep that culture. I can’t say enough about how refreshing it was to see a company be open, honest, and transparent. And next time I make it to Vegas, I hope I’m able to tour their facility.

Best Tradeshow Booth
Okay, they didn’t really have much of a booth. And I’m not exactly sure why they were there, I guess part of the film part of the conference. But I’m a zombie movie nut, and www.lostzombies.com was fun and original, and inspired me to start making my own zombie film. I may come calling for zombie extras at some time!

As for stuff that has real world applications, I love the software and services TechSmith is putting together.

Best Swag
I’m not a swag guy. Getting pens, notepads, or even shirts doesn’t really interest me. But the Mayan “worry dolls” that Zoomodo gave out were definitely the most unique. I don’t know how handy they’ll be, but I’m not worried about it.

Mayan Worry Dolls

Best Parties
frog design threw a great party Saturday night. It was large, open, extravagant, and was very easy to mingle at. It was everything you would hope for in a party. In fact, you can see me and the fun gang from Small Word Labs at the frog party on slide #26 in this slide show: http://www.austin360.com/alist/mediahub/media/slideshow/index.jsp?tId=149559

Another good party was thrown by my friends at FG SQUARED. This was much smaller and more intimate, but very comfortable and energetic at the same time.

I’m All A Twitter
One of the other things I discovered during the conference was the value of Twitter. By itself a single ‘tweet’ doesn’t really mean anything. But when you look back over a week or month of twitters you start seeing the context and conversation that’s going on. There’s where the value is, and the opportunities lie. So if you’re interested in following me on Twitter, my handle is @ImpactiveDesign.

In conclusion, SXSW was quite the affair. I highly recommend it for any designer or developer looking to see what’s coming down the pipe in interactive media, and meet the people bringing those technologies to you. I’m glad I finally got to go, and if I’m lucky I’ll get to return next year.

It was tough getting up on Monday morning. The long weekend had taken it’s toll on me, and I was definitely dragging. I just barely made it to the first panel session on time. ‘Presenting Straight to the Brain’ was a nice talk on how the brain works, and why all of the PowerPoint presentation we do are horrible. It has nothing to do with PowerPoint itself. Rather, it’s the PowerPoint culture. Some tips for improving your presentations:

1. Design for the BRAIN – Deep down the brain wants survival, so it keys in on things that relate to how to survive. Faces, relationships, engaging and impactful images. Oh, and puppies.
2. Never use bullet points – You’re talking about bullet point #1, but the audience has moved on and is reading bullet point #3. The brain can’t handle hearing one thing and reading another, so both are lost. And the audience loses interest.
3. Never use corporate templates with a logo on every page – They know who you are. It’s a waste of time, and clutter on the page. Make every item on the slide be about telling your story. Focus and engage your audience.
4. Your presentation should not be a verbatim copy of your presentation notes – Use the presentation to enhance and reinforce what you are talking about, not just repeat it word for word. The audience gets lost.

And one more thing. Once you see your audience go into BlackBerry prayer mode, you’ve lost them. Overall, a really good presentation. Starting off good today.

Then I went to the Microsoft presentation on automobile navigation systems. What a waste. First off, Microsoft is really detested by this crowd, so there were only about 50 people in the whole room (compared to the hundreds to thousands in the others). The panelists were uninspiring and argumentative, while pretty much caving to the auto industry. I walked out of this presentation near the end, and felt a little dirty that I had stayed there that long.

The next presentation was about ‘quitting your perfectly good job, and doing what you want’. Very timely, and not bad. A good mix on the panel. Maybe it’s what I wanted to hear, but I came away thinking that I made the right move, I’m on the right track, and need to keep pushing and exploring new opportunities with my business.

I then went to a panel on wireframing and prototyping web and software interfaces, thinking it would show me new applications and techniques. Apparently a lot of other people thought the same thing, because the room was packed. However, there didn’t seem to be any of that, and I didn’t feel like I was learning anything, so I left about halfway through. Apparently a lot of other people thought the same thing, because they were joining me on the way out.

So 2 of 2 for presentations on Monday. Not bad, but not great. The good were pretty good, but the bad were really bad.

Monday night I decided to take it easy, relax, and recharge. I headed out and saw a movie playing at the SXSW Film Festival, The 2 Bobs. It’s a really funny film about 2 Austin video game nerds who have their ultra-violent game stolen by some Christian financial swindlers who want to use it to sell video game porn. It definitely feels like something Kevin Smith would have done in his early days, but not quite as crude and with a sweeter side. It probably won’t make the big screen for long, but if you see in on DVD, NetFlix, or iTunes, check it out.

So Tuesday wraps up the show. The keynote includes Guy Kawasaki, who designed the original iMac and led Apple on their rebirth. I’m definitely looking forward to that. There are some panels that look interesting, and there are some great parties to finish up the conference. Plus, it’s St. Patty’s Day, so that should make the parties that much more fun.

It started off with a wonderful presentation, “Being a UX Team of One”, that was engaging and practical (especially for early on Sunday morning). It was full of tips and techniques for brainstorming, idea generation, looking at projects in different ways, and getting constructive team feedback and buy-in. 1 for 1 today.

From there I moved to “Journey to the Center of Design”, which was both entertaining and illuminating. The presenter spoke of moving away from user-centered design (like Microsoft and the airline industry), and towards informed design (like Apple and 37 Signals). Get away from methodology and dogma, and towards tricks and techniques. Also, beware of “voodoo” techniques, such as eyetracking and analytics. They really don’t mean anything. Or rather, they mean what you want them to mean. 2 for 2.

The keynote wasn’t so interesting. It was all about statistics. They’re important, but statistics are only so interesting. A lot of the talk was about baseball, and it was a miss. 2 for 3.

My last panel of the day was a discussion on product design. It included the director of the new movie “Objectified“. You may know him from the surprisingly engaging movie “Helvetica“. It also included the ceo of IDEO, one of my favorite companies. Great discussion, and I can’t wait to see the film.

I skipped the last presentation of the day, and instead went to the trade show. It was very interesting, with a lot potential vendors and services that I could see using. Also, there is a cool zombie film community site, and I can’t wait to see if I can make a mini zombie movie and upload it to the community.

In the evening I headed over to the web awards. The opening presentation was given by The Onion, and it was hilarious. From there I moved over to the fgsquared after-party. It was a fun, intimate affair, and I loved it. It might have been late on Sunday night, it felt like a Saturday night party.

I’m amazed at how much there is to do, it never ends. I’m finding myself losing track of what day it is. There’s still 2 days of panels left, and I hope they are as engaging as the panels were on Sunday.

Arriving at my first panel of the day, “7 Rules for Great Web Application Design”, I had high expectations. Unfortunately, the panel was somewhat of as bust. It was a recap of many of the things I already put into practice in my projects. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t bring anything new to the table. 0 for 1.

My second panel was about bringing rich storytelling to online media. Again, lofty expectations. However, the panel of experts onstage basically came to the conclusion that you can’t. Or at least not until advertisers are willing to pony up the $$$ for it. Not very insightful or inspiring. 0 for 2.

Next was the keynote speaker, zappos.com founder Tony Hseih. Feeling dejected, I was hoping he would be better. And was he ever. This was a great talk. You may know zappos for being a great place to buy shoes, but that’s just a byproduct of the company culture they instill in their employees. Everything they do is about having the customer have the best experience ever when they shop with them. From surprise free overnight shipping on every order, to having 365 days to return a pair of shoes, it is all about happiness. Customer happiness and employee happiness. Definitely a wonderful talk. 1 for 3, but it was a big 1.

My fourth panel was about stepping out into the freelance world. Very relevant, and a lot of the things I’ve seen and felt were covered. Another good panel discussion. 2 for 4, and another big 1.

My last panel was about online typography, or the lack there of. The panel basically came to the conclusion that web designers just need to deal with it and work with what they have. Maybe we’ll have more options in the future, but don’t count on it. This might be true, but it sure wasn’t inspiring or hopeful. 2 for 5

The parties of the night were much better than the previous night. I’m getting better at mingling, and the weather is cooperating more. I went to a little part called Dorkbot, which mixes robots and beer. Strangeness and oddness. The big party of the night was hosted by frog design, and was a lot of fun. Good mingling, Chinese dancers, fireworks, a drum line, giant bicycle creatures, and a burlesque show (that helped turn the 14 year old kid in the front row into a man) made this a wonderfully fun party. Loved it.

Sunday brings more panels, parties, and I’ll be hitting the trade show floor (ran out of time Saturday). Looking forward to it. I’ll keep you posted.

After getting registered and my goodie bag I headed to my first panel, “Everything You Know About Web Design is Wrong”. While a catchy name, that wasn’t entirely true. The main crux of the talk was that web design right now is very similar to print design, with web technologies taking a back seat to standard brochure/newspaper content. As we move forward the web technologies will move to the front, and the user will define the meaning of the content. Meaning that the user experience will be more critical than ever, and needs to be more than just the “pretty stuff” thrown on at the end. A pretty good first panel, if a little hypothetical and open-ended.

The next panel, “How to RAWK SXSW”, was a waste. The basic thrust of it was that everyone there is in the same boat, they’re all friendly, so go up and say hi. Everyone wants to meet everyone else, so go for it. Give out lots of business cards.

Finally I went to “How to Scam Your Way Into Everything”. Great presentation. You can check out the speaker and his Scam School videos here. A lot of his talk was about understanding human tendencies and controlling conversation. If you can do those things you can score free drinks and get out of traffic tickets. Seriously though, there are a lot of real world applications for this, from taking charge of job interviews to opening up conversation. Really informative presentation.

The parties last night were pretty good. Lots of free booze making it easy to mingle and start up some good conversations. The weather is cold and rainy here which dampened the festivities a little, but not much. I think the big parties really get going tonight, so it should be interesting to check them out now that I have a feel for they work.

Today starts early and ends late. There are a ton of panels, the start of the trade show (let’s hope the swag was better than yesterday), and some good parties tonight. It’ll be a very long day, but it should be fun. Stay tuned for more updates!

PS Even though it’s booming in the real world, for these people Twitter is old news. Everything is follow me on Twitter at this and that. Seeing some of the applications of this, I have a new appreciation for it. So I’m now all atwitter (sorry, bad joke) at getting started on it. You can follow me on Twitter at #Impactive.

My first impressions? A good mix of people, from young hip creative types to older, more established professionals. I’m looking forward to the networking. Also, lots of twitter. By the end of this I think I’m going to be forced into the twitter movement.

I’m about to head to me first session, “Everything you know about web design is wrong.” I hope not! Anyways, I’ll keep you posted…