We typically take on clients that are interested in using the Internet as a long-term strategic tool. We work with them to develop an Internet strategy as opposed to just building a site-we help them determine how to build a business asset that works for their company today and tomorrow.

We do a large amount of research into the client’s business and market situation and then develop a creative direction that reflects their business objectives and effectively communicates with their market. At the same time, I assess where they are creatively-determine what kind of box they’re in-and once I understand that, I work to develop a solution that will get them out of that box. I push them beyond what they’re used to and, in effect, get them to take risks that they normally don’t take.

In the office, I’m working as a creative director and a designer, either developing the creative vision for each project or brainstorming with the other designers to develop a solid creative direction. I do a lot of the Flash pieces myself, because in designing motion graphics, a lot of the design is done in production. Plus I love doing it-there’s something that’s totally gratifying about taking a static page and breathing life into it through motion and sound.

So when Steve, who is also from the architecture profession, and I started doing web development 4 years ago we carried over a lot of the project management and visual communication processes that were a part of our daily lives into this new arena. Back then their were no experts, no books, or no resources saying, ‘this is the process used for web development.’ most people were experimenting and learning through trial and error. At Juxt we have developed some processes that help us to both communicate with the client and to manage the project, which are the backbone of our business.

Doing the job is not just getting the site built, working and launched. It’s also helping the client to understand what it is that we are creating, helping the them to get involved in a positive way, and helping them make the decisions they need to make when they need to make them, so that we can make our decisions when we need to. We work very hard to help the client understand what we are going to deliver, so that they get what the expect and so that they can be confident that the project is on track, on budget and on target throughout the process.

As far as training goes, this business takes an understanding of structure, organization, communication, technology and design. As designers, the most important thing you can have is creativity, the ability to think critically and to think out of the box. But you also need to be very analytical-you need to be able to solve problems with structure, navigation, design and user experience. I have seen many designers coming out of the schools that either know how to decorate a page to make it look interesting, or that want to force their style into every project they design for the sake of design-not to solve a problem. I think the real challenge is to draw a visually creative solution out of the problem at hand. I am a firm believer that there is no teacher better yourself, especially in this business. So my advice is kill your TV, move next to a good bookstore and devote an hour a day to personal development, and in time you will really surprise yourself.

We take on a new client and go through a strategy phase in which we have several meetings and interviews with the them and members of their business or organization. We do market research; we do customer surveys and we do a lot of analytical thinking. Once we understand the client and their needs, we write up a strategy document. At this point we also develop a site architecture diagram or diagrams, depending on the scope of the project. This is where we start to differ from other firms. We use Macromedia Freehand to do these diagrams, and rather than developing just structural org charts, we create illustrations that communicate the functionality of the site along with navigational flow and content interaction. This allows us to further explain how the site works with visual tools that they can understand-a picture is worth a thousand words.

Next, we break the architecture up in logical objective-driven phases, which allows us to get started. The architecture is followed by Creative Direction. We then develop the site design concept, using the objectives developed in the strategy and the information we have learned about the client and their markets, to develop the solution. We typically develop one solution, which we spend time maturing, as opposed to developing three comps as many shops do. It is our feeling that we will experiment and explore options in-house and determine the strongest design direction. We hone that direction as opposed to trying to spread resources across three directions, just for the sake of having three to show the client.

Once we have developed a design solution, we create large format presentation boards from the Freehand sketches. This is another area in which Juxt differentiates from many firms. Screen-based comps and presentation are very popular in this business, but research shows that presentation boards are extremely effective and do much more for you as a designer. A presentation board is a real, tangible object-the client can see how their design works across an animation or across the site all at once the can study it, analyze it and take emotional ownership of it. Screen presentations are abstract and they make what you do seem easy to create and to easy to change. Plus, most clients are not visual people so they will have to spend hours studying the screens of a concept to get the whole picture.

When the client signs off on the design concept we do the technical spec, if it’s a heavy technology project. At the same time, we develop navigational models and structurally diagram each page of the site in Freehand and develop our content schedule. The next step is to design the rest of the pages in the site. We systematically walk through each and every page or screen of the site and lay it out in Freehand it then post it to our project management system. This is something you’ve got to have! One of the first things we did at Juxt was build a tool, an entrant that allows us to interact with our clients and team members via the web. The best thing is that when we find a new need, we just build a piece for the project site that meets the need for this and all future projects-I love the web. Once the layouts are approved, if it’s a flash project, we use the Freehand SWF export to move our layouts to Flash; if it’s static HTML we just open our layouts in Fireworks and process for the web. Then we move into Dreamweaver to build the site. Finally, we do the database connectivity and/or tie the applications together.

Typically after or just before launch, we do promotional work for the site in print and other mediums. Since we started our layouts in Freehand we can easily re-purpose assets from the site design files for print promotions, as well as other branding pieces.

As far as balancing design and function goes, I look at each screen I’m designing and ask myself, ‘what is the point of this screen.’ If the point is to communicate a mood, the design will be very heavy. If it is to guide the user through an application, the design is a tool to get attention and call the user to action without distracting. For example, http://bornmag.com is art and literature but it is more about experience than about having the words as plain as day for you to read. On the other end of the spectrum, PhotoDisk is about getting you through the process of buying stock photos; there is subtle sell, but the design is built to communicate, organize, and to explain how to use the site. Of our projects I think we struck a pretty good balance on Lundstrom and Associates Architects and The Process.

What I always try to do is focus on what the objective of the screen is and the micro level, and focus on the target audience at the macro level. With every project I try to push myself into new territories and to push my clients out of the box, design-wise. I stay up on the latest design trends on the web, but I do that more for appreciation and inspiration. I strive to make our projects original and not draw literal influences from other web projects. I try to find uniqueness through critical thinking; every move I make backs up the design concept or design theory behind the site.

If you start with an original concept as the seed and then grow the design solution from that concept, then your design should be somewhat fresh and intelligent at the same time. All the while you maintain focus on the purpose of the site and the purpose of the page. Also, when you start sewing it all together you need to walk through the site and make sure the overall experience is in sync with the objectives. We work real hard to create seamless experiences that flow well with no awkward shifts or jumps or breaks in the experience; we employ technology in ways that add to the concept and objective and are not just tacked on. We also work real hard to ensure that experience is driving the technology, and that it isn’t the other way around. All of our sites use databases for content in some or all places, but we don’t want the user to feel that. We want the experience to feel totally integrated. We live in the Experience Age-the Information Age is over-and more and more people will go to sites that offer good, intelligent functional experiences for their content, over just sites with content.

In order for you to build that trust, you need to come across in a professional manner. And I don’t mean show up in a suit. I mean be professional in how you run your business and manage your projects, use proposals and contracts. Always put things in writing, create schedules and budget reports and other documents that help the client understand how the project is going, and give them the security that it will get done. Also, do your home work about the technology, know your subject matter and then act confident in that knowledge; if you’re uncertain about the direction you’re going the client will pick up on that and loose faith in you and the solution. Then make your presentations the best that they can be. Give yourself the tools you need to create presentation deliverables that will sell your design ideas, and give the client security through the knowledge that you are creating a great solution. Walking into the client’s office with a couple of inkjet prints shrunk to fit on 8.5 x 11 is going to say to them, ‘I’m not really prepared and your time isn’t that valuable.’ If you walk in with large presentation boards nicely laid out and mounted on foam core, it’s going to communicate positively to the client. It’ll say ‘I have put a lot into this, I care about this project, and I need to really impress you, the client, because your time and opinion are very valuable to us.’

Also, the single design approach tends to allow us to push the edges a bit more; we’ve done a couple of projects presenting three designs, and what has happened is that the client has always picked the safest solution. So, by showing only one, your job in presenting is to explain why this design is going to succeed, as opposed to presenting three and deciding which is the most liked of the three. You can present one and focus all your efforts on making that direction extremely effective and not just different from the other two schemes. This is what has worked for us-I’m not saying if you do this it is going to automatically work for others, but I am saying that this is why we’ve been able to push our clients design spectrum out further.

There are so many million domains registered today that if you were to visit each one and spend, say, 60 seconds at each one, it would take a lifetime to hit all the domains. What I’m getting at here is that competition for visitors will become more and more extreme. So if your spending ad dollars to get those visitors to a site, you want to give them a better experience than the next one to keep them coming back. So I see sites becoming more and more experiential and more and more personalized over the next 2 years.

Five years will look nothing like today. There will be other technologies that will supersede the current ones. We will probably be fighting the issue of super fast access over broadband; we will find ways to clog the pipe and need more and faster access. I doubt that their will be a browser in five years-it will just be a part of the OS. It could be something extremely different than anything we imagine now. But I do see that the economy as we know it today will be completely tied to the Internet. Many big corporations are going to suffer dramatically due to the empowerment of the little guy to compete with them. I think the entertainment industry is already turning on its ear due to this. Movies, music, video games will be built by extremely creative guys in their basements and will outsell the magacompanies on a regular basis.

I think in the next 2 years, more and more money will be invested in the little-guy entertainment companies as opposed to the giants, because they are fresh and will deliver what corporations can’t or won’t. But I could be very wrong; Nostradamus I am not. I will say one thing for sure, this is the right business to be in.

I do have one creative influence that is like the foundation of my creativity: the flower. If you look at flowers, the functions are all the same but there are millions of drastically different species-each a masterstroke of design by the master designer. Some of these masterpieces seem like such a balance of structure, color, opacity, texture and function. The fact that they are able to stay up is an impossibility, but none the less they do and carry out their function. This to me is a constant reminder that there is never an end to creative solutions and that my greatest design will always be trivial in comparison to such a masterful creation.

I think sites that are designed as an experience and not a page are on target. It’s so easy to see the breaks between technology, design, and content on many sites, I think beauty is achieved when you weave all those elements together into an integrated experience that achieves it’s objectives and enthralls the visitor at the same time. I think we’ve all been to cool looking sites that after two clicks we bail because the experience was convoluted or we know we wouldn’t get much more out of it. A beautiful site draws you in and gets you to go through the whole thing, and you want to go through the whole experience because you’re being delighted of educated with each new screen. To me, beauty on the web is an experience that is solid from beginning to end.