Engagement is not a campaign, it’s a continuum where technology is merely an enabler for a greater vision, mission, and purpose. And as such, the attention, engagement, and outcomes that result are indeed reflective of what is both earned and deserved.

My friend Alysha hired me to draw a custom original of Puddin’ with Sophie, her mom Zinda’s cat. Normally, I try to make characters of pets to tie in better with Puddin’s style, but I didn’t think I could do Sophie justice unless I kept with a more realistic style.

UI is not UX. This is something still very much worth pointing out. To many in the interactive industries, this is already known, but it is still unknown to many others, and especially those new to our industries. That the two are conflated is easy to understand. Many see UX–User Experience– as another industry buzzword to dismiss out of hand, or as some meaningless marketing jargon not worth paying much attention to. I’ve seen plenty of examples to justify those perspectives, and this is my attempt to change them.

UI stands for User Interface, and is used shorthand to refer to User Interface Design as much as just “User Interface”. UI is but one part of a much larger puzzle known as UX, or User Experience, also used interchangeably with User Experience design. While UI is a large part of the puzzle, it is not the puzzle. Design is a key piece of the User Experience puzzle, but the definition of design is important. It’s not just UI design, or visual design, or framework design; it is how design is defined with regard to all of these.

The design of the platform limits the design of the framework, which limits the design of the UI capabilities, which together limits the visual design. Of course, the user experiences the design of each of these major components of the product or service, but the one they are first aware of is the visual design; this is the first opportunity for success or failure. After that, users become aware of the user-interface–the primary means of accomplishing their goals, and the second opportunity for success or failure.

Of course, the visual design–the skin, and the UI–the controls, can be only as successful as the foundation they sit atop. If the framework is too limited in scope, it may limit potential interactions. And frameworks are always limited to the capabilities of the platforms (hardware or software) on which they reside.

Traditionally, many–if not most–interactive products began at the engineering level, understandably so. Recently, products have been originating more and more from the opposite visual end. Unfortunately, in so many cases, projects and products are seen from either end, when they should be viewed from not just both, but even larger perspectives. The platform, the framework, the UI, the visual design–each their own puzzles, are all but parts of a larger puzzle.

Think of UX–User Experience–as one big jigsaw puzzle, and each component as parts of the overall image. You can’t solve the main puzzle without solving the component puzzles, and they all have to fit together. While some parts ft together readily and easily, it’s always the outliers–the piece that fell on the floor, or never made it into the box, etc.–that threaten to keep you from solving the puzzle. Worse, though, is not knowing what the puzzle is supposed to look like once it is solved. It’s nice to have an image of the puzzle you’re working on from the very beginning.

It is not possible to solve a puzzle that you don’t know what the end result is supposed to be. You can solve smaller parts of a puzzle, and find ways to make them fit with parts of another puzzle, but ultimately, you will end up with a hodgepodge collage of well-solved smaller puzzles with questionable utility. Generally speaking, the user isn’t interested in solving puzzles, they just want to experience the end result, that being their goal.

UX is all about making sure users can accomplish their goals. The better experiences remove as many layers of friction as possible, the best experiences manage to layer in a bit of pleasant surprise and delight. Of course, this is not done at the expense of the business, but rather to the benefit of the business. Getting the user experience right can be expensive, but that should be seen as an investment.

As interactive industries mature, products and services become commoditized, even in the Long Tail. To think otherwise is foolish. What cannot be commoditized is the experience users have with our products and services. This is our opportunity to differentiate and excel; this is our opportunity to connect with our users emotionally, to bond with. This is Branding 101. Our users and customers are branded by the experience they have with our products and services. What they remember about their experience affects how they perceive the brand, and influences how and what they share with their friends.

UX is the brand.

As of the end of October, I am no longer the Creative Director for Nickelodeon Games Group. With the sudden and unexpected departure of our group manager five months earlier, a re-org was inevitable. This re-org did not include me, nor a sizable number of other talented designers. Oddly enough, it happened within a couple of weeks of one of our most successful product launches ever, one which I was heavily responsible for. Ah, irony.

So, if you–or anyone you know–is looking for a talented and highly skilled designer specializing in user experience design (tactically and strategically), let me know. Meanwhile, I’ll be working on some cartoons!

In early October, we launched the AddictingGames compilation app on the App Store. It’s a single app with lots of games in it, as well as an ever expanding set of social and gameified features. Over the weekend after the launch, the app reached #1 in the app store, where it stayed for a few days. In only five days, there were over one million downloads. As Creative Director/Art Director/UI Designer/UX Visual Design lead, I am extremely proud of that accomplishment, especially considering the entire product was built in less than six months. iPhone users can grab a free copy (everyone else can just look at the screen shots) here:

This is the shorter 30-second version edited for pre-rolls:

Here’s the full-length version, intended to run on the product up-sell page:

Credits:
Jake Barlow – Creative Director, Art Director, Producer
Maisa Morin – Art Director, Illustrator
Josh Jacob – Technical Designer, Animator, Editor
Vincent Carrella – Writer
Mo Mellady – Voiceover, female
Scott Reyns – Voiceover, male

What that means is that there are quite a few missing posts since the last backup in March, and some of the image galleries have been corrupted and need to be re-posted. I don’t know when I’ll have time to get to that, but hopefully some day soon.

I directed this video, used for internal promotions. The principal animation was done by my designer, Josh Jacob. After Nick Creative Resources told my boss it would take a few weeks and cost over $30k, we took it on and managed to knock the whole viagra out in less than two days.