I view my work as three closely intertwined areas:

• The content -- the message or story we want to convey to your audience
• The interaction -- how the site or software responds to the user
• The visuals -- how the message or interaction is visually packaged

With these three broad areas of expertise, I can help clients in many different ways.

“Content is hard,” as one of my clients said. And he's right. Before we try to craft copy I try to get all of my clients to answer these fundamental questions: Who do we want to reach? What story are we telling? What do we want our audience to think, or feel, or do? These aren't always easy questions, but I can help. The content itself -- a combination of copy, images, infographics, and data (to start with) -- needs to serve your goals with razor-sharp intent. Ideally, the copy is developed specifically for the online medium -- not cut-and-pasted from some other application. Online audiences are ruthless clickers of the back button, so online copy should be brutally brief, highly targeted, and exceptionally engaging.

The interaction design is where the user touches your online product, service, or software. It goes by many names -- such as "experience design" and "user interface design" -- but it refers to the process of bridging the gap between what you want to offer as a business, and how the user actually takes advantage of it. For example: if you want to guide your site's visitors into registering, so you have some idea of who they are, I can help you figure out how to entice them to do so, how to make it look easy and nonthreatening, and advise you on how you might reward them in return for their information. As an interaction designer I'm interested not just in making sites pretty, but in making them work well, and seeing people use them enthusiastically.

If you need a new web site or an old one remodeled I can help you figure out what you need, whether it's new content, new visuals, or new interaction. I can write for you, design for you, and help you get the site built. I am accustomed to working with large companies and numerous stakeholders, as well as with in-house communicaton staff or IT departments so that the execution is as good as the concept.

If you provide a service online I can help in several ways:

• Interaction sequences and design
• Information design: categorization, labeling, navigation
• Information graphics
• Review or create new visuals, or more consistent visuals
• Usability and readability review

If you have a message or a story to tell -- getting the word out about your product or service, or conveying why your company is different or unique -- I can help you:

• Craft the message, find the right tone, and come up with great copy
• Tell a complicated story in a simple way
• Use the available media in the most effective ways, particularly the Web

If your venture or company needs a more coherent identity because it's new, it's been repositioned, or because it never had a identity, I can help you find something that fits, feels right, works in a variety of media, and sends the message you want to send.

If you need a name for your new venture, product, service, or company, I can help you identify potential names, comment on how they will be perceived by different audiences, and craft the other cues surrounding the name, such as color, typeface, and logo.

I am especially adept at helping companies which...

• offer highly specialized services, or a category-defining service;
• have a complex or technical message, such as software or drug companies;
• offer a cutting-edge product or service which requires consumer education as well as persuasion.

If you think I can help you please open the conversation using my contact form. I'll get right back to you, and we can find out how we can work together.