Two years ago, we launched this blog as a bit of an experiment. Several hundred posts later, the blog has come to play a central role within our company - with our peers, our partners and our clients.
The work and referrals that have arisen out of this blog have kept us busy… so busy that the blog itself was, perhaps, a little neglected (at least from a design perspective.)
Today, we’re pleased to showcase a brand new design
Over the course of the redesign, I have had a chance to get intimately re-acquainted with the articles produced by my fellow colleagues. And I have say, they have written some extremely interesting stuff. To celebrate the re-launch, I thought I might highlight a few perennial favorites.
The very best of the non~linear creations blog
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Creating Compelling Content and Interfaces
It’s long been understood that writing for the web requires a different approach. Short, scannable content is typically the norm. This year, an empirical study was released by the University of Hamburg that provides much more tangeable insights into real-world reading and web browsing activities. Here’s Randy Woods’ take on the data and his advice for crafting and improving web content:
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CMS Template Design
The non~linear creations CMS team was formed in 2001. Since their inception, they’ve had a lot to say about the differences between a well-designed CMS template and one that will give your IT team nightmares for years to come. Glen McInnis created a series of excellent posts on designing flexible and effective CMS templates for non-technical content authors:
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Monitoring your Brand - Beware the Flying Burrito
One of my all-time-favorite posts describes the challenge that Export Development Canada faced in defending their online brand against a very persistent flying burrito. Here are a few case studies and a useful tutorial for tuning in to your brand online:
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Getting Involved in Social Media
One of our most popular posts discussed how to leverage LinkedIn to achieve real-world marketing goals. The post to-this-day still provides excellent advice on how to extend your network of contacts and source business opportunities. Other important posts about marketing through social media included an interesting case study about the marketing effectiveness of various social networks and insights on marketing through Facebook.
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The Shape of Search
In 2006, AOL released three months of data on the behaviour of those using their search engine. Our team analyzed the data to reveal some fascinating trends on how people search and implications for marketers. Here are our findings:
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Conference Insights
NLC employees have been sharing their thoughts - both as speakers and participants - at a number of key industry events. Noteworthy posts include “live” blogs produced at SMX Social Media; play by plays of Gilbane and Microsoft Partner Conferences; and some insights drawn from the 2008 IA Summit:
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Corporate Blogging Strategies
In efforts of bridging the corporate communications gap, a number of organizations are undertaking blogging activities. This series of posts describes some common approaches to corporate blogging and associated pitfalls:
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Succeeding with Intranet 1.0 - Before Tackling Intranet 2.0
There’s a great deal of interest in enterprise 2.0 and social computing technologies at the moment. Before jumping headfirst into all things social, it’s important to realize that the fundamentals - an effective information architecture, a decent search, and that content serves some useful purpose - are still needed.
We’d love to hear from you!
- Any thoughts on the new design?
- Is there a post that you’ve found particularly useful?
- Anything you’d like to know more about?
Let us know!