Mark Badger
In his role as senior experience design consultant at Molecular, Mark helps clients provide value to and engage with their customers via the Web and other digital channels. Mark believes that exceptionally designed customer experiences can be both efficient and satisfying, providing users not only with a way to get things done, but also with a meaningful context for those activities.From his first web site in 1996, Mark has led experience design projects for companies in various industries, including financial and professional services, retail (both B2C and B2B), and government. He has provided solutions for both small businesses and large corporations, including Fidelity Investments and Lockheed Martin. Mark received a B.A. in Architecture and graduated cum laude from Yale University. Though he wanted to be a polymath when he grew up, Mark has settled instead for pursuing the several interests about which he is passionate, among them user interface design, writing, and social networking.
Posts written by Mark Badger
November 5
Just when you think you’ve got this whole brand experience thing figured out, along comes another form of social media that threatens to shake your grasp on the status quo. Over the past year, Twitter has taken the spanner-in-the-works title from Facebook, which took it from YouTube, which took it from Flickr, and so on. While it can seem daunting to consider managing your company’s image over so many forms of new media, this phenomenon can benefit your company — you have more opportunities than ever to generate positive brand experiences with your customers. Of course, this means there are more chances to make a mess of things as well. So how do you make sure you do more of the former and less of the latter?
- Be generous
- Drop the facade
- Follow through
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October 6
For a while, I’ve been thinking it might be useful to compare the act of curating an exhibit and that of designing a user interface. By useful I mean helping folks who are not in the industry understand the value of good user interface design. Opening to the front page of the Sunday Styles section of this weekend’s New York Times, I thought: well, someone has finally done it. Below the fold was an illustration of the word “curate.” The related article, “On the Tip of Creative Tongues,” concerned the expanding use of the word outside the realm of museums and art galleries. But the author, Alex Williams, did not compare user interface design and curation in the article, which focuses on the use of the word to “self-inflate” other acts of selecting and editing. Since the Times article has left that particular analogy unexplored, let’s take a closer look.
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August 22
“The details are not the details. They make the design.”
- Charles Eames
There was something about the tail light of the Mini Cooper S in front of me that caught my eye. It took a moment, but as soon as the driver tapped the brakes again I saw it: the illuminated brake light did not fit inside its housing. I thought: that must be intentional. There is no obvious reason why the ring of of the light could not be made smaller or of a different shape, so why design the rear light in this way? I glanced around the rest of the car looking for clues (while paying close attention to the road, um, for the most part).
As I’d suspected, the evidence was there. Scanning the exterior details, particularly the curves of the side panels and the subtle tuck of various seams, it all made sense. The entire skin of the Mini appeared ready to burst from within, as if the envelope of the car were being distorted by the power of the machine underneath. That impression was being reinforced by the design gesture of the tail light: the housing appears to be too small to enclose the lamp.
None of these interpretations is true: the housing could be designed to contain the brake light easily and the panels are shaped on the assembly line, not by some barely contained force of the underlying machine. These construction details are designed to create the illusion that the Mini is brawnier than its size would imply. Whether the performance of the car lives up to the aesthetic is not relevant, I’ve already made this association. (more…)
