Communiqué

In the vein of the 37Signal's, The Long Road to Simple, iMarc just went through a similar exercise.

What follows are details from our complicated process in search of a simple and clean interface solution. The end result, in this case, is only a small 200x200 pixel information block, but incorporates the input from six people over a couple days.

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Last week, I attended a fairly large meeting with Nils, Rob, the client, the client's team, and the client's consultants. This three and a half hour meeting was probably semi-productive for some of the people in the room.

Wait, did I say three and half hour meeting? Since there were 10 of us in the room, that really makes it a 35-hour meeting.

Thirty minutes (or 5 man-hours) into the meeting we were still vigorously debating the project's first feature. There was lots of brainstorming and whiteboard note taking, but we were still on point number one of a ten-point agenda. That's when the heavens opened, a non-florescent light of hope shone down through the suspended fiberglass ceiling and our client professed the following:

"If this is a good start, then maybe that's where we should stop."

Pure Genius!

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The grid is more than a theory of design. It is a way of thinking.

A (perhaps the) fundamental trait of the human mind is to identify, categorize and analyze:

We identify elements of our environment; then
We categorize them according to our previous experience, or create new categories; then
We analyze them according to past experience, known relationships, and anticipated future experiences, finding patterns and identifying the greater context.

Which neatly brings us back around to step 1: identify. The cycle repeats in ever-widening circles.

The grid method of design facilitates understanding by creating a framework that aids in identification and categorization of content. Each item exists in a self-documenting, self-reinforcing structure which becomes an aid to rapid identification, categorization and analysis of additional content. The reader's comprehension improves geometrically.

Thus: the grid is a human-centric design methodology.

The grid is a concept, of course, not a methodology. The grid doesn't have to be designed from squares or columns; it can be just as effectively based on hexagonal tiles, isometric overviews — any pattern which we can recognize and use to organize information.

(See also: Grid Systems in Graphic Design)

It's officially the busy season. iMarc launched five sites in the past few weeks: WallStreetPrep.com - a global full-service financial training firm; GastonScout.com - a flat-fee acquisition and divestiture ("A&D") firm; MatSysInc.com - a developer and manufacturer of sub-systems, components, and advanced materials; Dexsil.com - a manufacturer of portable test kits and instruments; and NEVOG.com - a veterinary oncology facility.

Wall Street Prep

http://www.wallstreetprep.com/

The new Wall Street Prep site was updated to provide a more secure, extendable infrastructure that can support more programs and options. Wall Street Prep administrators can add and edit training courses and materials, post news updates, manage their members, and track their site usage easier, safer and more reliably than ever.

Gaston Scout

http://www.gastonscout.com/

Gaston Scout is a private company creating a new process and market for middle-market mergers and acquisitions. The firm needed a web presence to market it's self to investors, buyers, and sellers. iMarc created a clean site that allows Gaston Scout to manage their firm news and publicity, and attract clients.

Materials Systems Inc.

www.matsysinc.com

Materials Systems Incorporated manufactures advanced materials for defense and commercial systems customers. iMarc updated MSI's site to reflect their current identity and business strategy, and express more compelling calls to action for visitors. Through the iMarc SiteManager, MSI can author, maintain and publish product documentation, post employment opportunities, manage news items, and offer the latest information on their tradeshow and expo participation.

Dexsil

www.dexsil.com

Dexsil is a manufacturer of portable test kits and instruments for the detection and quantification of contaminants in soil, water and oil. iMarc updated their site with valid XHTML and CSS, and created a new design to replace their outdated web presence. Dexsil needed a way to make their expansive product documentation easily accessible to their customers, reducing some of the load on their customer service department. Through dynamic tools created by iMarc, Dexsil can now manage an extensive database of FAQs, MSDS information and product manuals all through a single, online tool. Shopping cart functionality drives the commercial site, where Dexsil now offers it's full line of products online.

NEVOG

www.nevog.com

NEVOG (the New England Veterinary Oncology Group, LLP) is the only private referral veterinary oncology care center in New England. Their state-of-the-art facility was designed exclusively to serve the needs of veterinary oncology patients.

Three quick things:

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1. Christian: What's that smell?
2. Dave: Lamb stew.
3. Christian: Mmmmmm.... It doesn't smell baaaaaaaaaaaaad.

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Say hello to our new Director of Sales and Marketing, Karin Klapak.

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A couple of days ago Fred sent around a link to the best song ever. I can't get it out of my head and, quite frankly, I'm glad.

The new threat:

This morning, a friend sent me an article excerpt about the latest spam technique, image spam:

The increase in zombies and image-based spam is also leading to an increase in the overall total amount of spam. IronPort's analysis notes that between April 2006 and June 2006 spam volumes grew by 40 percent. The new growth in spam turns the table on what had been spam volumes that were beginning to level off in 2005.

If current trends continue, it may well get worse before it gets better.

"I would say that a year ago many people were thinking that we had turned the corner and I think that this new data is indicative that we still have a ways to go until we actually do turn the corner," IronPort's Sprosts said. "I think we will see a spike and an increase over the next 3-9 months until new technologies are deployed that can detect the new forms of spam."

A quick Google turned up the source: Image-based Spam on the Rise, by Sean Michael Kerner.

How to stop it:

Spam vs Antispam is an arms race; give the defense some time to catch up. Meanwhile, here's a mail filtering rule you can use to catch image spam -- it has worked very well for me.

If message is ALL of:

• Header "Content-Type" contains "multipart/related"
• Sender is not in my address book

Take Action: Move message to your Spam folder. If possible, give it a color so you can check for false positives (ie, image-only messages from friends).

Here's how this rule looks when implemented in Apple's Mail program (part of Mac OS X):

Apple Mail includes an automatic rule for "Sender is not in my previous recipients", which includes not only address book entries but everyone you have sent email to. Your mail client might have something like this.

I haven't had any false positives from this, and it has eliminated nine-tenths of the image spam that was making it past our server's spam filters. Let me know how it works for you.

It all started very well... Read More

Before iMarc launches a site, we run it through a formal quality control process. The QC team tests every page, validates all HTML, tries to break all the dynamic tools, and submits bugs to our bug-tracking system if when something goes wrong.

Usually, about half the issues submitted pertain to inconsistencies. One error message is red, another is black. The phone number has dots on one page, dashes on another.

Today, Fred submitted an issue about the inconsistency of a page title.
At the bottom of his bug, he added:

Consistentliness is next to Godliness.

My current pet-peeve is inconsistencies in English numbers.

Let's examine.

My 4-year old daughter is learning to count, and if our number system was consistent, she'd be able to count to infinity by now.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine - No problems yet.

Let's skip "ten" for a minute. Eleven? What's that? Though it should, the word has nothing in common with "one", "twenty-one", "thirty-one", "forty-one". Maybe it should be "one-teen". Better yet, call it "onety-one".

Good: forty (except for the spelling), sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety
Bad: ten (should be onety), twenty (should be twoty), thirty (should be threety), fifty (should be fivety)

Thirteen should be "onety-three", Fifteen should be "onety-five" (or at least, fiveteen).

Imagine how easy it would be to learn (and teach four year olds) how to count beyond ten if all the numbers followed a consistent pattern.

one, two, three...
onety, onety-one, onety-two, onety-three...
twoty, twoty-one, twoty-two, twoty-three...
threety, threety-one, threety-two, threety-three...
fourty, fourty-one, fourty-two, fourty-three...
fivety, fivety-one, fivety-two, fivety-three...
sixty... Everything from 60 - 99 could stay as-is.

If Fred were around to submit a bug report when the guy who invented numbers was giving them names, we'd have a lot more free time, and a consistently named number system.

I hope you enjoyed my twoty-eighth Communiqué.

NEWBURYPORT -- iMarc L.L.C. is pleased to announce the addition of Karin Klapak to the staff.

Karin will be working with the sales and business development team to help grow iMarc's business. Karin was a Palm Ambassador at Palm Inc, developing grass roots buzz and working in all aspects of the company's marketing efforts. Karin later joined Amesbury, Masschusetts-based startup MAGPiX, bringing innovative new digital imaging products to market. We're excited to welcome her to the team!


iMarc is a full-service web development and hosting firm in Newburyport, MA. iMarc takes a user-focused multidisciplinary approach to web and online application design. iMarc's applications and web sites provide high levels of interactivity and engagement for the user, with more functionality and ease of maintenance for the administrator. iMarc's customers include Cubist Pharmaceuticals, EMC, Starwood Hotels, Springfield Museums, Upromise, and PCNomad, among others. For more information, contact iMarc at 978-462-8848 or visit www.imarc.net and view our portfolio.