Redesigning Google: how Larry Page engineered a beautiful revolution

Something strange and remarkable started happening at Google immediately after Larry Page took full control as CEO in 2011: it started designing good-looking apps.

Great design is not something anybody has traditionally expected from Google. Infamously, the company used to focus on A/B testing tiny, incremental changes like 41 different shades of blue for links instead of trusting its designers to create and execute on an overall vision. The “design philosophy that lives or dies strictly by the sword of data” led its very first visual designer, Douglas Bowman, to leave in 2009.

More recently, however, it’s been impossible to ignore a series of thoughtfully designed apps — especially on iOS, a platform that doesn’t belong to Google. Google+, YouTube, Gmail, and Maps are consistent and beautiful — in stark contrast both to Google’s previous efforts and even Apple’s own increasingly staid offerings.

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Redesigning Google: how Larry Page engineered a beautiful revolution

Something strange and remarkable started happening at Google immediately after Larry Page took full control as CEO in 2011: it started designing good-looking apps.

Great design is not something anybody has traditionally expected from Google. Infamously, the company used to focus on A/B testing tiny, incremental changes like 41 different shades of blue for links instead of trusting its designers to create and execute on an overall vision. The “design philosophy that lives or dies strictly by the sword of data” led its very first visual designer, Douglas Bowman, to leave in 2009.

More recently, however, it’s been impossible to ignore a series of thoughtfully designed apps — especially on iOS, a platform that doesn’t belong to Google. Google+, YouTube, Gmail, and Maps are consistent and beautiful — in stark contrast both to Google’s previous efforts and even Apple’s own increasingly staid offerings.

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NASA's Space Food Systems lab shows what astronauts really eat in orbit

NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory is where the agency researches, tests, and produces food fit for consumption outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. Everything from the packaging to the menu has to be meticulously evaluated; the food must balance nutrition, flavor, and safety with more practical concerns such as preparation time, size, and a shelf life of three to five years.

Space food plays another role, too — according to NASA, it “not only provides nutrition for astronauts, but also enhances the psychological well-being of the crew by establishing a familiar element in an unfamiliar and hostile environment.”

The agency has posted a series of photos on its website that track the development of space food through recent decades, as well as further details on the laboratory’s work.

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NASA’s Space Food Systems lab shows what astronauts really eat in orbit

NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory is where the agency researches, tests, and produces food fit for consumption outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. Everything from the packaging to the menu has to be meticulously evaluated; the food must balance nutrition, flavor, and safety with more practical concerns such as preparation time, size, and a shelf life of three to five years.

Space food plays another role, too — according to NASA, it “not only provides nutrition for astronauts, but also enhances the psychological well-being of the crew by establishing a familiar element in an unfamiliar and hostile environment.”

The agency has posted a series of photos on its website that track the development of space food through recent decades, as well as further details on the laboratory’s work.

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Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 returns to the top of the charts

Well, that didn’t take long did it? One moment,DmC: Devil May Cry is flying at the top of the sales chart. The next, it’s being jackbooted down the list by some of 2013’s strongest titles. Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 has reclaimed the top slot for the first time since its unbroken six-week run back in 2013, while FIFA 13 and Far Cry 3 land in second and third position respectively.

DmC: Devil May Cry drops to fourth position, while Assassin’s Creed III climbs five places to fifth. Need For Speed: Most Wanted and Just Dance 4 both drop a place to sixth and seventh respectively.

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Vine Quietly Adds Verified Badges for High-Profile Users

It’s not exactly easy to tell if someone is who they say they are on Vine, Twitter’s new video-sharing app. Case in point: There’s an account with the username Vine. Who is it? Hard to tell — maybe it’s run by the company; maybe it’s an unknown, opportunistic individual.

Duplicate usernames and easily faked profiles mean it’s difficult to ascertain the legitimacy of high-profile Viners (if that’s what we’re calling them). For now, our best way to tell who’s who on Vine is if verified Twitter accounts plug their six-second videos, or if they pop up when you look for people to follow via connected Twitter accounts

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Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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How to Nurture Prospects Without Being a Pest

One of the toughest things to do in sales is effectively stay in front of and keep in touch with your prospects.  Studies have shown that it takes anywhere from 10-12 “touches” before the prospect will actually take the time to sit down and listen to your pitch.  (Even then, most still aren’t ready to change from their current provider.)

So how do you effectively stay in touch with prospects without becoming a pest?  And how do you do so in a way that will actually help the lead move down the sales funnel?

Value Marketing

Value Marketing is a concept I’ve developed where every interaction with a prospect (or even client for that matter) needs to bring value to their lives.  The best way to do this is by creating (or even simply finding) effective content that will make your prospects’ lives happier or save them money.  (If it doesn’t do one of those two things then you shouldn’t send the information over to your prospect.  They won’t take the time to look at it, and you will just annoy them by trying to push useless information.)

Valuable Content

So how do you create valuable content?  It’s not as hard as you might think.  The best and easiest way is to pay attention to common questions your prospects have.  These questions don’t have to be related to your product or industry.  (In fact, you may even become more credible by sharing information that isn’t related to your product directly because you become more of a partner than a salesperson.)

Take those common questions and then find creative ways to answer them.  For example, you can do video interviews with industry experts, create interesting emails, draft white papers or ebooks, generate infographics, or even post the information to a company blog.

Get It In Front Of The Prospect

The next important step is to get the information in front of your prospect.  One of the best ways I have found to do this is by writing a personalized email with a note on why you are sending them the information.  For example, you could say, “I was thinking about our conversation last week, and thought this information could be valuable.”

Be Consistent

Last but not least is the importance of consistency with your messages.  You don’t want to inundate your prospect with information every couple of days.  (We’ve all had this happen to us and it usually has a detrimental effect on our perception of the company.)

You also don’t want to spread the messages too far apart.  If you do that the prospect might not even remember you or your company.
I like to send messages out about every 3 to 4 weeks.  This doesn’t inundate the recipient, but still keeps me top of mind with my messages.

 

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A Little Inspiration

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