Here’s a quick checklist to ensure strong usability of your website:

• Determine the goals of your website
• Know your audience
• Keep navigation clear and simple
• Make it compatible with mobile devices

Why, you may wonder, do I have a flock of paper cranes on my desk?

We regularly have incredibly fun, interesting design projects. Some are just a bit more unusual than others. This is one of them. How often do you have an excuse to learn origami and call it work? This will be a fun campaign – stay tuned for the final product!

Here’s a sneak peek at one of the ads we designed for Charlotte-based VisionCor. This is part of a creative campaign we are developing to help further brand VisionCor, which specializes in the learning and information management industry. More to come as we roll out this campaign.

Immersing myself in a foreign culture is a good lesson in empathy, which is the main tool used in the “user-centered design approach.” Many of you often hear us at Moonlight talk about “usability” and “experience” when referring to your projects. Many of you might also wonder how one can design an “experience.” The real answer to that question is quite complex, however the simple version is easy: empathetic design.

The foundation of empathetic design is observation. This is not my first trip to Aber, but before my first visit I did volumes of  research on the people, their culture, the land, etc. I observed through movies on YouTube, books, photographs and maps. But none of that could compare to the observation that took place once I finally reached that pearl of Africa.

I found insight through observing in a true environment. I think that the people at IDEO describe it best by calling this “human inspiration” and stating that “innovation starts with an eye.” Without that environmental observation, I wouldn’t know what this feels like:

This is my “human inspiration.”

Since MCG works mainly in the public and not-for-profit sectors of Charlotte, understanding empathy and it’s role in creating social impact through design is important – whether I learn it in my backyard or across the pond. Plus, I will be back before you know it — see ya’ll on the 12th.

And oh yeah Mom, I promise to be safe!

PS. If you are curious to see “empathetic design” and its relationship to what we do here at MCG in action, check out this TED talk from user-centered filmmaker and documentarian Morgan Spurlock, called “The Greatest TED Talk Ever Sold.”

2011 has been an awesome, super duper year for us. We worked hard, laughed a lot, drank a ton of coffee, made new friends, ate a lot of salads, invented wine-o-clock, and celebrated 15 years in business. What a crazy and productive year it was. But we still aren’t out of BIG ideas yet. We have something up our sleeve for the holidays – keep an eye on your inbox in January for more details.

We are looking forward to 2012, another great year of marketing and graphic design in Charlotte. From all of us at Moonlight, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

This year presented me with a lot of changes, some good and some bad. I moved from Athens, Georgia to Boston, Massachusetts. While the summers up here aren’t any cooler or less humid, they are shorter. (I was totally bummed to get up here and find myself equally as hot because I hate hot weather.) The winters are much, much colder. (I went for a 13 mile run this weekend and it was a lovely 21 degrees.) My parents split after twenty years of marriage, and in a society where everyone is divorcing, I was still taken by surprise. Ah well I guess. On the flip-side, I’ve met a lady up here, who’s everything I could’ve wanted and then some. And I’m in a part of the country where outdoor activities are aplenty, including mountaineering which is something I’ve taken interest in. The White Mountains of New Hampshire offer some of the greatest alpine climbing and skiing in the country, believe it or not, and people from all over, including Canada, come to our little spot in the world.

And I guess more work-related, I’ve gotten the chance to read several good books by other UXers and meet several of them as well, including some of my favorites like Steve Krug, Whitney Hess, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Ethan Marcotte. I feel like I’ve grown exponentially this year in my field of expertise, and that goes for development too. I built my first responsive website, which adapts styles on-the-fly as the browser is resized (for mobile, or those folks who for one reason or another view the web on a tiny screen) and dove head-first into HTML5 (which, by the way, is kindofawesome). So as I approach thirty years old, 365 and a quarter days from now, I hope to be a little less selfish, work a little harder and a lot smarter, and take advantage of being one more year wiser. Here’s to new technologies, new friends, new adventures, and another year on this rock.

Cheers!

The site has been simplified to enhance the overall user experience, particularly focusing on the donation process and communicating information to teachers who use the site as a resource. The donation process has been refined to create a more user-friendly experience. In addition to a simple donation form, a key component of the new site is the virtual drive module. This custom developed virtual drive gives visitors the option to quantify their gift by “purchasing” specific school supplies that will then be virtually donated to Classroom Central. There is also a volunteer sign-up page and a registration portal where teachers sign up to shop for school supplies.

“We absolutely love our new Web site, which is bright and colorful, comprehensive and user friendly,” said Janice Holly Booth, executive director of Classroom Central. “The Moonlight Creative Group team did a fantastic job giving our site a fresh and new look along with several bells and whistles that are extremely useful for our teachers, volunteers and donors and that enable our visitors to feel more comfortable and confident in helping students in our community.”

About Classroom Central

Since Classroom Central’s inception in 2002, it has served the education and creative needs of the children of Greater Charlotte by providing students with donated merchandise through a free store for teachers. Classroom Central’s mission is to equip students living in poverty to effectively learn through the collection and distribution of free school supplies. For more information, visit http://www.classroomcentral.org.           

About Moonlight Creative Group

Moonlight Creative Group Inc. is an award-winning marketing and advertising agency that specializes in creative and unique communications solutions. Clients include: Carolinas HealthCare System, The Cannon School, Hayworth College at Queens University of Charlotte, Catawba Lands Conservancy, Community Blood Center of the Carolinas, and more. Visit http://www.moonlightcreative.com or call 704-358-3777 for more information.

Founded in 1996 and designated a Small Business Enterprise (SBE) by the City of Charlotte, Moonlight Creative Group has won over 115 awards for their design work and business accomplishments over the past 15 years, was named a finalist for the 2003 & 2005 Charlotte Chamber Entrepreneur Award, was ranked 91^st on the Charlotte Business Leader magazine’s 2008 list of “Top 100 Small Businesses in North Carolina,” and named a winner of the “2009 Charlotte Regional Ethics in Business Award” in the Small Business Category.

Follow Moonlight Creative Group on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MoonlightCreative and Twitter at http://twitter.com/MoonlightCG.

I have been lucky enough to spend the last 6 of my 31 years in Charlotte, doing graphic design, and the last 4 here at Moonlight. I’d say things have worked out pretty well so far. Sounds like a good reason to celebrate to me!

I was told that the “official” MCG birthday blog tradition is to write about things I have learned. So here are a few:

1. It is possible to make it through college and graduate school, and get a job, without ever learning to type correctly. (I type mostly with 2-3 fingers)

2. I generally prefer to do things slowly. This earned me the nickname of “Turtle” on my recent Grand Canyon trip. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t meant as a compliment, but that’s ok. I don’t like to rush through things – you miss the details that way.

3. I am not, and will probably never be, a morning person. I am ok with this.

4. Plane tickets to visit friends and family that are far away are always worth whatever you have to pay for them.

5. There will probably never be enough vacations days and weekends to do all the things I want to do and go all the places I want to go. The list just keeps getting longer.

6. The plural form of the word beef is “beeves.” Weird.

7. I am pretty terrible at bowling, pool, and darts, but I enjoy all 3 anyway.

8. Red wine gives me a headache, even in small quantities (but I sometimes drink it anyway).

9. I actually like to cook way more than I thought I did (and I’m better at it than I thought I was).

10. You can improve almost any food by adding one or more of the following: cheese, bacon, butter, or lobster.

Whew! What a whirlwind of BIG ideas it has been! We have finally recovered enough to fill you in on our BIG 15th anniversary celebration which lasted several days and WAY more than 15 hours. I just did the math folks, and on November 15, 2011 (exactly 15 years after MCG opened its doors to the advertising, marketing and design world of Charlotte) with the help of many volunteers (and coffee), the grand total of hours donated to local non-profits neared 200 (not counting all the hours our crew put in before and after the big day). We spent these hours helping 8 nonprofits bring their BIG ideas to life, as a way of showing our appreciation and dedication to our community. And then we had an awesome party to show it all off. Thanks again to all of our wonderful volunteers and in-kind sponsors who showed up and helped out for 15, and to everyone who made it to our party and celebrated with us. We look forward to sharing the next 15 years with you all.

Sneak peaks are below and we will be releasing the final work on our website soon — stay tuned!

Now we are off to stuff our faces and fuel up for our next BIG idea – Happy Turkey Day ya’ll.