Chaz Mee Writes:
People are constantly coming up to me on the street and asking me "how do you do it, what makes you tick?" I'm never sure how to answer this partially because I can't remember - and because I have the attention span of a 3 year old on 18 pounds of sugar.
In an effort to explain what we do, and because I am tired of having the likes of Bruce Willis asking me to autograph his kids eyebrows, I thought I would take you through the thought process, show you examples of some recent work and talk about how we create these "websites" you keep hearing so much about.
Plus, I am told that unless I do write something about this thing called "interactive", I will be deprived of coffee until I do. Yes, I know what you're thinking, I thought it was overly cruel too. I have 2 hours and 15 minutes before my last cup wears off and I start weeping like a wee babe.
So without further ado...
Basically, the process always starts with someone coming to us wanting a website. Sometimes they use the word "experience" as well. Website experiences are websites usually built with flash, cgi and occasionally dancing elves. Usually they are interactive. This means when you press a key on your keyboard or a button on your mouse, the website does something. Then you press your button again and it does something else - and back and forth you go - kind of like tennis but without the ball.
Then we ask basic questions like, what color do they want it? Blue, red, yellow? We start with primary colors and work "out" from there. We also ask things like "if this website were a movie what kind of movie would it be?" Hopefully the answer is not a website based on the adaptation of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights". I was forced to read that book the summer before 9th grade and I vowed never to become a writer of 19th century literature. Instead I went into advertising.
This is followed by a period of research which usually consists of coffee and staring at clouds. When you stare at clouds its important to furrow your eyebrows - people with furrowed eyebrows are considered "intense". Also music - music affects us a lot - is this Burt Bacharach or Metallica? These are important things to find out. What if we combined Burt Bacharach AND Metallica and made it interactive? Hmmmm. More staring at clouds.
Next we sequester ourselves like monks and make really complicated drawings and diagrams that no one besides us could possibly decipher. We try not to show the boss man these as it usually makes him wonder whether we are really smart or just completely insane. My answer to this is always - some of the smartest people in the world were ALSO insane - it doesn't need to be mutually exclusive.
Below is one of these drawings.
I know what you are thinking - that looks nothing like a website. That's because you haven't had 30 cups of coffee in one day and you have gotten more then 1 hour of sleep since last Thursday. Sleep deprivation makes you think in 3 dimensions and can actually make a piece of cardboard loosely resemble a website. Of course this website still needs to be "designed".
But that's not important to our conversation at this time.
You will see that this was scrawled in pen. Truly creative people have the handwriting of a serial killer. And of course truly creative people are all misunderstood. Then again that's what serial killers always say. But I have never met a serial killer who could build a website. At least not yet.
So what next then? Remember that "design" thingamajig I alluded to earlier? Well that's when we take that piece of cardboard, put it in the interactive microwave, add salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, scotch tape, scissors, coffee, glue, spit, a nail gun, chocolate milk (reduced fat - cuts loading times), 3 staples, a slinky, doritos, some luck and my niece's rubber ducky (she loved that thing but its gone to a higher cause).
And a few million pixels.
So the next time someone asks you about this thing called interactive, show them the piece of cardboard and say "the answer my friend, is all in here".
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