James Wynne is Director of User Experience for Sandstorm and has been in digital product development since 1996. He has worked as a UX designer for a myriad of clients including large eCommerce brands, mobile device manufacturers and integrated marketing agencies.
Recent Posts
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Recent Posts
I know it feels like no marketing and design firms are hiring right now. And when you go to careerbuilder.com (one of our fav clients we've had for over 6 years now) and do a search for web design, web development, graphic design, marketing and copywriting positions it seems like the opportunities are pretty slim. But here's the reality. Most marketing, interactive and web design firms are boutique, and boutique firms generally don't have HR departments, and they often don't post on the large job boards because they often can't manage the masses of resumes. So what do they do? (we are hiring despite what the media conveys).
I can't speak for all, but I can tell you a little about our marketing agency. We always go to referral sources first. We ask our employees if they have any friends. We utilize our social media connections to see if they have any friends or family that would be a great fit. We go to Craigslist. And we give Creative Circle a call. You know we always mean to post our open positions on our web site, but we often don't get to it. I think mostly because we're always looking for a blended position - someone who has a few primary skills with secondary skills that compliment others on our team, and it's tough to write a job description that is always fluid and in motion... kind of like our company.
This blog was posted by Sandy on July 14, 2009.
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The Sandstorm staff just can't stop going on vacations! It's like we're all playing tag around the office - but heck, it's the summer and we all love a vacation. I'm not sure when it started, I think it was Janna going on a long birthday weekend, then Lisa just got back from her week away in Door County, Holly went to a music festival, Alma is hitting the Harry Potter museum and movie (she calls it a Harry Potter Holiday), and I am heading out to Keystone Colorado with the family. Our marketing firm sure knows how to use our PTO days :)
This blog was posted by Sandy on July 7, 2009.
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I have written about how we are using social media as a lead generation tool (with modest success), and I've been dying to try out social media as a recruiting tool, so when we finally had the opportunity to grow our staff we gave it a try and... SUCCESS! Thanks to a combination of twitter and facebook, social media was THE tool that uncovered our latest and greatest staff member! But we didn't use social media alone. We used recruiters, craig's list, and other job posting sites for this particular position.
In the past, we've had success with recruiters and craig's list - so like integrated marketing, we will continue to recruit in multiple ways, but I have to say for our web design firm, it's really most fulfilling using social media. For all the job seekers out there, I would recommend following the companies you most want to work for... and post your success stories here!
This blog was posted by Sandy on July 2, 2009.
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It feels like we're always behind when updating our web design portfolio on the Sandstorm website. Does anyone have any feelings on how often we should be updating our creative work - monthly, weekly, quarterly, whenever we have time to? It's great that fresh work is always being produced, and I'm proud of the quality of award winning work we do, and want to give ample time showering our clients with pride and love by showcasing them on our web site... but right now our timing is pretty random. We're always working on content in our web site and changing that almost daily (as part of our SEO and keeping the site fresh), but those portfolio pieces tend to lag a bit. Maybe I should assign the portfolio update task to the new guy at our web design firm (he he he).
This blog was posted by Sandy on July 1, 2009.
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At our web design company, we often become friends with our clients, and some of our clients are referred to us by our friends. So the whole business client/friend relationship becomes one. Just yesterday I heard our client/my friend say - 'hey at Sandstorm, you buy a web site and get a free BBQ'. (she was coming over to my place for a BBQ after our brainstorm as we haven't seen each other for awhile and I was interested in catching up, and the weather was just so nice we just had to eat outside). So I was thinking, would the call to action "buy a web site, get a free BBQ" create buzz?
This blog was posted by Sandy on July 1, 2009.
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So I don't usually write about pop culture, nor about tragedies in the news. But the Michael Jackson brand has just exploded. The PR, the news, the talk shows, the memories, the brand. As I am writing this, there are 404,210 memories from Michael Jackson fans worldwide on the Michael Jackson web site (and growing by the minute!). Web sites are popping up everywhere selling memorabilia. I predict the Michael Jackson brand will only get stronger. And the name 'Michael' will now make it back to the #1 boy's name for 2010 (it was slipping a few years ago after the Michael Jordan days).
This blog was posted by Sandy on June 30, 2009.
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We are having way too much fun with our newest web design and development project - traveling Broadway shows like Wicked, Stomp, Annie, etc. brought to smaller cities across America and in Canada. We are creating this amazing, theatrical user experience on the web utilizing almost everyone on staff from usability experience and message development, to information architecture, creative execution, web development and of course - project management.
Stay tuned for our web site launch date for city #1 coming in July. (Our web design company is so excited we can hardly resist showing you the web design comps!)
This blog was posted by Sandy on June 24, 2009.
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We're so honored! Our web design firm won a web design award for the National Association of Realtors Green Designation web site. It's a green industry site, an association and in real estate - three of our favorite industries to work in. As Holly would say, we heart winning!
This blog was posted by Sandy on June 22, 2009.
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When you are talking about informal usability testing, it doesn't have to be complicated nor time intensive. Think simple, think as Homer Simpson would say "duh?". When you take a look at the web site navigation and the initial web design concepts, think about the questions you have about what something means or what the section is about - and you can see if others run into the same questions. It's simple, it's quick and it's a good start to get out the easy problems (mostly terminology). Then you can dive deeper into more formal usability testing to really get ahead of your competition.
This blog was posted by Sandy on June 19, 2009.
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To the average google researcher, the two key word phrases 'web design chicago' and 'web design firm chicago' may seem like the same thing so you would assume you would get the same results, but it's not entirely true. Interestingly enough, google considers Sandstorm Design an incredible find for a web design firm (maybe because we're a full service interactive agency?), but for the average web design search, we're not. In my next life I would enjoy being a google algorithm strategist.
This blog was posted by Sandy on June 15, 2009.
