Cute

Ou est la Elevator pitch?

Or in Spanish: Donde estas la Elevator Pitch?

Why doesn't every company have an elevator pitch? Probably because not every company has a business plan, real market, or strategy. Sad, but true.

An elevator pitch should be done or at least drafted in the ideation phase for startups. It's ok to fumble at it but once you are selling (to VCs, to customers ect) you have to have this down.

In other words, have an answer to questions like:  

• What is what you do useful?
• Why are you better?
• Why should I care?

Learn more about how you can not sound like an idiot as you try to say why you're so great by listening to the CreativeXpert podcast Interview with Henning Fischer - Mission Statements and Objectives
Find more at the CreativeXpert show archives or just subscribe on iTunes.

Flickr kills Stock photography

To begin building my brand I wondered: how could I get a high resolution quality photo of some random item.

First I googled and sifted through the mostly OK images. The earth-shattering, beautiful options were all stock photos. ranging in price from $100-$1,000.

Ew.

Then I turned to Stock Photography's night mare: Flikr. Aside from way more choices and better pictures, the people who took them are NICE and all too happy to let you use their photo in your website (I've asked twice three times now....not a large sample size but I don't care!)

Case in point: Jodi_tripp's awesome "I love Flickr" shot used with permission

Rutgers Data Viz class materials

If you've always wanted to know how Rutgers does data visualization, there's finally a place to look. Back in the 90's some instructors had handouts which were essentially course notes. Nowadays, some kind professors are going the extra mile, giving kids audio & video. Instructor Anselm Spoerri, you are awesome.

3 of my favorite videos from UX Week 2010

UX Week 2009 | Matt Webb | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

UX Week 2009 | Jeffrey Veen | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

UX Week 2009 | Jesse James Garrett | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Ad error

I wonder how many people write into Hulu demanding their ads work right.

Being friendly to users is a full-time job

I did something then something happened

This is a confirmation message in Call of Duty interface on Xbox:

It reads:

Notice
Your sign in status has changed returning to the main menu
Exit

Totally awesome

Selling out Wayne's World style

Wane's World did one of the best parodies of something happening all of the time on reality TV: cross-marketing.

Some of my favorite shows involve segments where they pitch products with this same deadpan approach and minus the humor. But I have to think the TV contestants are subconsciously remembering this scene to justify hocking wares they don't even like.

Benjamin: Wayne! Listen, we need to have a talk about Vanderhoff. The fact is he's the sponsor and you signed a contract guaranteeing him certain concessions, one of them being a spot on the show.
Wayne Campbell: [holding a Pizza Hut box] Well that's where I see things just a little differently. Contract or no, I will not bow to any sponsor.
Benjamin: I'm sorry you feel that way, but basically it's the nature of the beast.
Wayne Campbell: [holding a bag of Doritos] Maybe I'm wrong on this one, but for me, the beast doesn't include selling out. Garth, you know what I'm talking about, right?
Garth Algar: [wearing Reebok wardrobe] It's like people only do these things because they can get paid. And that's just really sad.
Wayne Campbell: I can't talk about it anymore; it's giving me a headache.
Garth Algar: Here, take two of these!
[Dumps two Nuprin pills into Wayne's hand]
Wayne Campbell: Ah, Nuprin. Little. Yellow. Different.
Benjamin: Look, you can stay here in the big leagues and play by the rules, or you can go back to the farm club in Aurora. It's your choice.
Wayne Campbell: [holding a can of Pepsi] Yes, and it's the choice of a new generation.