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Media Contour is proud to announce that we’ll be regular contributors to UX Magazine. Our series of interviews with industry leaders and innovators will be featured within the magazine. We’re incredibly grateful with such an honor, and very happy to be part of the UX Magazine family. If you’re not familiar with UX Mag, it’s an online magazine dedicated design excellence, usability, technological evolution, interface design and other areas.Our interview series has already included some big names. We have spoken with Jessica DuVerneay, Steve Portigal, Susan Weinschenk, Christopher Noessel, Alberta Soranzo and Maggie Hendrie and Don Norman thus far, and there are more slated. The interview series is geared for helping anyone with an interest in web design understand the ongoing evolution of technology, industry best practices, different techniques and tactics for achieving the right style and usability, and a great deal more. As the series progresses, it will include further topics, helping to ensure that readers are able to innovate with interactive design, improve responsive design skills and prepare for new technology coming down the pipe. Our interviews will feature regularly within the magazine’s pages (you can check out our interview with Steve Portigal and Don Norman). Of course, don’t read the magazine just for our interviews. There is plenty of other great content to inform, educate, illuminate and lead you to better results. If you have questions involving anything related to user design, chances are good that you’ll find several articles, news stories or op/ed pieces that offer insight and information. The magazine’s mission is “to be the destination for people and companies looking to understand the value of experience-orientation, and to learn the tactics and strategies behind successful user and customer experiences,” and we’re immensely proud to be a part of this worthy initiative.
Expertise.com scored 460 Web Developers in Los Angeles and Picked the Top 20: Media Contour is proud to have made that list. Congratulations team!
Availability: Consistently approachable and responsive, so customers never feel ignored.Qualifications: Building customer confidence with licensing, accreditations, and awards.Reputation: A history of delighted customers and outstanding service.Experience: Masters of their craft, based on years of practical experience and education.Professionalism: Providing service with honesty, reliability, and respect.You can read more about their selection process here.
The goal at Expertise.com is to make it easy to find the best local experts, every time. Their goal is to find the right highly-skilled professional which can take a significant amount of time and effort, including in-depth research, detailed comparisons, and deciphering which online reviews are reliable and authentic. Expertise.com uses only objectively quantified and qualified professionals hand-picked using their selection process. They take the time to do the research and understand what’s important when searching for experienced professionals which is important because we need to be trusted by our readers.
Their proprietary research and selection process identifies the top service professionals in over 200 different industries across the top cities in the United States. Every month they help over 1 million customers find the best-qualified service professional for their needs. To date, they've analyzed over 10M companies.
Here is a link to some of our additional web developer awards.
Our very own Art Director & CTO, Luke Swenson, was able to catch up with Steve Portigal at the Los Angeles User Experience Meetup & IxDA organized by Crystal Ehrlich. Steve was able to give us (and you, our readers) a great deal of information about user research, and if you’re not sure just how important that research really is, his interview is more than worth a few minutes of your time. User research is probably one of the least understood aspects of business, particularly when it comes to user design, or even product value and utility. Steve points out that just because you can make something, that doesn’t immediately mean that it’s worth making. Does it answer the needs or problem of the ultimate end user? That’s one thing that user research excels at doing – ferreting out the answers to questions like “how does it help our users” and “what need does it fill for our users”. User design is, after all, about the users. View the full article on UXmag.com. Steve was very direct in his answers, especially on some of the most important topics out there today, and happily expanded on several vital points. Quite a few questions abound on exactly what types of user research even exist – Steve managed to pack a lot of information into his response. He was also particularly enlightening on when you should invest in user research. If you’d like to read the entire interview with Steve Portigal, you can catch it over at UX Magazine. You should also make sure to check out Steve’s book, Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights. Not only is it a great read, but it’s very illuminating when it comes to really digging into how to interview users and conduct research while asking the right kinds of questions.
Los Angeles, Calif.- Los Angeles based web design firm, Media Contour, has won the gold Communicator award for its design work on www.swytculture.com. Media Contour’s work for SWYT Apparel (pronounced “sweet”), a Los Angeles-based girls footwear company, was ranked within the top 90% of submissions in the fashion and apparel category of over 6000 applicants. This is Media Contour’s 3rd Communicator Award and 10th award for overall web design in only 3 years. The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA). The IAVA describes itself as “an invitation-only member-based organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media.” Current members include acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms such as: Time,Inc., rabble+rouser, Lockheed Martin, Pitney Bowes, Airtype Studio, and many others.Media Contour created an interactive lookbook page that features each of SWYT’s many designs in a quick, simple to use manner. Luke Swenson, the Media Contour’s Art Director and the designer of swytculture.com says “The lookbook serves as a fun way to present their different shoe patterns at trade shows and get customers excited about their product.” Small swatches of the shoes patterns are featured on the left allowing users to click through these swatches and see a larger version of each shoes style and pattern.“Everyone around the office is buzzing about the award,” says Matt Dandurand, CEO of Media Contour. “We put a lot of time and thought into how the SWYT project should look and feel. We wanted it to be bold and catching to the girls checking out the shoes but also practical and easy to use for those buying the shoes, whether it’s the kids or the parents.”Media Contour, is an award winning full service interactive studio specializing in both traditional website design and development. Based out of Los Angeles, Media Contour provides complete solutions for web design and programming, as well as branding, graphic design, print, and marketing services.
Audio patch bay manufacturers, Bittree, wanted to revamp their website to better match their recently updated brand and create an easier to navigate layout. Los Angeles web design firm, Media Contour, was tasked with creating a website that not only resonates with those interested in audio recording and engineering markets, but creates the easiest shopping experience possible. “At first, it was easy to get lost in the detailed specifications and notes for each product; so our first goal was to simplify it to create a better hierarchy,“ says Media Contour’s lead designer, Luke Swenson. “Patch bays by their very nature are very visual and easy-to-use tools and Bittree’s patch bays are labeled simply and easy to figure out.” Media Contour took their cues from Bittree’s products and catalog section to create a site that would make navigation easier for users as they looked through products to find what they needed.“We used their product offerings as a launchpad and created an image-driven catalog. Rather than just text, each product category was accompanied by a photo making it much easier to differentiate between products.” Media Contour also looked to increase the usability of Bittree’s website and calibrate it to their client’s basic needs. “Functionality wise, we created a quoting system that allowed users to add products to a quote, send it to Bittree, who would then contact the user and help them get exactly what they needed.”Bittree and Media Contour plan on expanding their site in future updates. “We have some really cool stuff coming up,” says Swenson. “Next, we'll be rolling out a product builder which will help users build their own patchbay.”Media Contour, is an award winning full service interactive studio specializing in both traditional website design and development. Based out of Los Angeles, Media Contour provides complete solutions for web design and programming, as well as branding, graphic design, print, and marketing services.
SWYT Culture, a ballerina flat company known for their creative designs and customizable patterns launched its website, www.swytculture.com, to both its consumer and wholesale market. SWYT, helmed by former Rock and Republic and Taryn Rose brand-builder, Maggie Finneran, SWYT teamed up with Los Angeles-based web design firm Media Contour to implement a multi-stage online strategy that is targeted towards females of all ages and wholesale buyers alike. Media Contour created an interactive lookbook page that features each of SWYT’s many designs in a quick, simple to use manner. Luke Swenson, the Media Contour’s Art Director and the designer of swytculture.com says “The lookbook serves as a fun way to present their different shoe patterns at trade shows and get customers excited about their product.” Small swatches of the shoes patterns are featured on the left allowing users to click through these swatches and see a larger version of each shoes style and pattern. Along with creating an interactive site, SWYT also developed a blog and social media platforms to encourage further dialogue from their consumers and share their image as a fun, fashion-forward shoe brand for the creative-minded female.To further keep in contact with their customers and vendors, SWYT has also launched an email newsletter to keep their most faithful customers up-to-date with the latest news and happenings in the company. Much like other popular fashion sites like fab.com, an invitation to join the newsletter is given to the visitor immediately upon visiting the page. “It's slightly intrusive on purpose,” Luke says. “[The newsletter request] gets in the way just enough to not be lost in all the other excitement on the page.”SWYT and Media Contour look to continue building the company’s brand and to implementing more innovative and creative ideas for marketing and branding the apparel company. “We're all pretty excited on moving forward. We have some great ideas on the e-commerce phase of the site and other cross-marketing ideas.”Media Contour, is an award winning full service interactive studio specializing in both traditional website design and development. Based out of Los Angeles, Media Contour provides complete solutions for web design and programming, as well as branding, graphic design, print, and marketing services.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.- Los Angeles based design and marketing firm Media Contour was presented with the American Graphic Design Award from GD USA magazine for their contributions to the marketing efforts of Deadlines.com, Artisthead and Advanced Swiss Precision. These awards were bestowed upon the Media Contour team for their logo designs for Artisthead and Advanced Swiss Precision; their overall design of the deadlines.com webpage was honored by the magazine as well.GD USA describes its annual awards as their “four decade old flagship competition, and is open to everyone in the graphic arts community – graphic design firms, advertising agencies, inhouse corporate and institutional designers, publishers and other media.” Each year, GD USA picks the top submissions and parades their work in their magazines and online publications that reaches graphic designers and small businesses across the country.Media Contour won awards for their logo designs for Artisthead, a website designed to assist musicians with copyrighting their material and establishing their own labels and Advanced Swiss Precision, a company that manufactures small fasteners and screws for complex and intricate mechanical devices. A third award was given to the firm for their overall design on deadlines.com, a company that provides event management to small firms and their staff in order to manage their various cases deadlines and upcoming events.“This is a great honor for us here at Media Contour,” says CEO Matt Dandurand. “We truly love what we do and hope that it shows in our work. We truly relish in this award but what really gets us going is when our clients appreciate what we have created for them.”Media Contour has been in business since 2004 and since its inception has created dozens of websites for businesses all across America. Over the years they have also been recognized for their design prowess by the W3 Awards, The Davey Awards, and The Communicator Awards.
Media Contour Launches ShinerGroup.com To Help Struggling Contractors
Los Angeles, Calif.- Contractors looking for new solutions for managing their finances and improve profitability in this sluggish economy can find help, seminars and trusted literature at The ShinerGroup’s new website, shinergroup.com. Los Angeles web design firm, Media Contour assisted The ShinerGroup with their desire to develop a site that allowed them to provide news to their clients quickly and efficiently.The ShinerGroup is a consulting firm that helps contractors gain financial control of their companies. Founder, Leslie Shiner explains: “We provide management consulting and coaching to help contractors better understand and improve their business practices and maximize profits. We believe training and education are instrumental to the success of those in the contracting field.”Combining their knowledge of construction management with a passion for education, The ShinerGroup works on-site and remotely to teach contractors how to identify and eliminate inefficiencies, misconceptions, or poor practices that prevent them from making the profit their hard work should produce.Media Contour, is an award winning full service interactive studio specializing in both traditional website design and development. Based out of Los Angeles, Media Contour provides complete solutions for web design and programming, as well as branding, graphic design, print and marketing services.
Media Contour is proud to be the winner in this year's Davey Awards Gold in the web design and promotion category! Congratulations team!We treated our website redesign like we would for our clients. We carefully reviewed the previous design then highlighted its strengths and eliminated its weaknesses. Most importantly, it was a team effort. Matt, our CEO and managing director organized the content and focused MC's selling points. Alex, Luke, and Victor designed and developed the final product. Gabriel came in at the ended and added his Javascript magic. The site is powered by SilverStripe's CMS.About the Davey Award“We were once again excited to honor and recognize the amazing work submitted into this year’s Davey Awards and are humbled by the exceptional work we have grown accustomed to seeing year after year. This year’s competition saw an increasing diversified pool of entries and the high quality of work continues to push the limits of creative possibilities throughout the industry,” noted Linda Day, Executive Director of the IAVA.The Davey Awards is an international creative award focused exclusively on honoring outstanding creative work from the best small firms worldwide. Entries are judged to evaluate distinction in creative work. In determining Gold and Silver winners, entries are judged on their merits based on a standard of excellence as determined by the IAVA, considering the category entered. A category may have multiple Gold and Silver Winners, or may have none. Entries are scored on a ten point scale by the judges. Generally, Gold Winners receive a score of 9.0 or above and Silver Winners receive a score of 7.0 to 8.9. No more than 10% of entries will be awarded a Gold Davey. Best in Show selections are made by the Academy from the pool of Gold Winners, based on their scoring and other elements of merit as determined by the Academy. The judges will award 10 Best in Show honors, one for each medium.
Say hello to Think Insights with Google, a new site launched by Google where they will publish data-supported insights about digital marketing trends. It's goal is to allow users and marketers to learn more about how people use the web, and even includes research on lesser known topics like the Mobile web. After watching the Google video "The Mobile Movement: Understanding Mobile Consumers" (see below) it is clear that Google also intends to promote their own services like mobile ads.Regardless of Google's intent, this new tool looks like a great resource for web design studios and agencies who are looking for data that will help with decisions regarding client deliverables. How much emphasis should be put on the mobile version of a Restaurant's website? Should coupons be offered on the homepage? What kind of marketing strategy is best for Auto Insurance websites? You may just find the answer or the data that will help you answer those questions on Think Insights with Google.The site is very simple and clean with a left side navigation that easily helps users find studies in a specific category like Automotive, Restaurants, Technology, etc. The site is divided into 4 sections: Featured Topics, Studies, Events and Videos that help users easily find what they may be looking for. Featured Topics include a summary, video, as well as related content like case studies and 3rd party articles. Case studies feature downloadable PowerPoint files as well as PDF for offline viewing.
W3 Award Material deadline l May 14, 2010 WebAward Material deadline l May 25, 2010 Summit Awards International - Marketing Effectiveness Award Material deadline l June 23, 2010 One Show Interactive Material deadline l June 30, 2010, September 30, 2010 and December 31, 2010 HOW Interactive Design Awards Material deadline l July 15, 2010 Summit Awards International - Emerging Media Award Material deadline l September 22, 2010 Communication Arts - Interactive Annual Material deadline l October 8, 2010
Today it seems as though there is a race for businesses to get online. Sure, there are templates that allow you to “fill in the blanks,” add a few stock photos and throw up a website real quick. This is the cheap way to do it, but what most businesses don’t realize is that when you use a template that thousands of other websites have used, your business is also seen as “cheap.” Your website should be custom designed with your customer in mind. You have spent time creating a brand and image for your company. Why destroy that brand with a website design that a thousand other people are also using? By doing so, you are sending out the message that you don’t want to be unique and that you are not better than your competitors.Choose a Website Designer that is Raising the BarWhen selecting a website design service, it’s vital that they not only fulfill your needs in the design aspect of web development, but also ensure that your website is a direct extension and reflection of your business. The right designer will assist you with:Business Development – Your brand image, logo design, brand development and even the training of your own webmaster.Business Consulting – Creating the color palette, icons and other nomenclature specific to your business that will create an overall professional look for your company.Identity & Branding – Creating more than just business cards and letterhead, but also customized emails, newsletters and more.Information Architecture – Creating a solution that allows you to create an easy to use solution for the update and management of your website.Web & Graphic Design – Services that mesh your corporate identity with your online portrayal. Combining the components of your brand and identity into your web design creates harmony between your marketing materials and branding as a whole.Logo Design – The creation of your logo because your logo is your business’s face. This is how customers will identify with you.Business Collateral – Creating print material that corresponds with your website’s design and graphics. It should all work together cohesively and the right designer will help you to ensure just that.Marketing & Sales Material – Ensuring that every aspect of your website works with your marketing and sales material as well from your letterhead to other promotional items such as press releases, fact sheets, press kits, and more.Services Your Web Designer Should ProvideNot only should your website and business image work together cohesively, but it must appeal to the customer or client as well. A premiere website design service will ensure that your website does just that by providing you with:An appealing header and logo that is easy for your customer to remember.High quality photographs that show off your location, products and property.A color scheme with aesthetic tones that convey an up-to-date view of your business.A professional website appearance that shows you are an authority in your industry.Browser compatibility that ensures all Internet users can view your site the way it was meant to be seen whether they use Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari.Analytics that provide you with information on your traffic and the usability of your website.Specific coding that influences on the search engines see your website and provide optimal usability.Today’s process of web design should not be one that merely creates a cookie cutter website design. By selecting the right website designer, you should find customer service that goes beyond graphics and coding, but also ensures your business image as a whole is one of modern professionalism. Anything less means that you are sending customers to your competition.Did you find this article useful? Check out related posts here, here and here.
