Over the past few months here at dt, we’ve been internalizing the concept of Continuous Betterment. The idea is that having this ingrained as a standard operating procedure of our team empowers us to function in the absence of a concrete set of to-do’s, and still be moving in the same direction – kind of like a north star by which we can all navigate. At this point, any one of us can look at a project, or product, and simply go about “making it better”, without needing instructions – it’s a pretty cool feeling!

A couple of weeks ago, our designer Jessica Moon wrote a great post about the snowball effect of continuous betterment – or rather, how an ongoing process of incremental improvements builds on itself over time. In it, she asked a very important question: this new year, what would happen if we skipped the tired old tradition of resolutions and instead established a practice of betterment in our lives?

Apparently that question resonated, and we decided as a team to answer it. In the dying days of 2011, we gave each member of our team one extra vacation day, a budget of $1,500, and a challenge: pick one thing that you’ve always wanted to do, and tell us why it would make you better – permanently.

The Rules

• The cost can’t exceed $1,500, and you have to actually do it at some point in 2012 (sorry, no time to save up for Virgin Galactic tickets)
• We had to pitch our ideas by the end of the first week of 2012
• After we have our experience, we have to make a presentation to the rest of the team showing how we made ourselves better

The Ideas

We’ve had some killer ideas come in, so we thought it might be interesting to share some of them.

Jason | Product Manager

“I’ll always remember the day I first got in trouble at school. I was 7, and put in detention for repeatedly making faces at my teacher. Turns out, I was squinting, because I couldn’t see the board clearly – I’ve been entirely dependent on glasses & contacts since then.

For my betterment bonus, I decided to get LASIK surgery, because I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to clearly see the world with my own eyes, especially now that I work in design. I can’t wait to see the world in HD!”

John | Developer

“My choice was to take piano lessons. I have always wanted to do it, but really never had the resources. I have always had an appreciation for music, and used to play a few instruments in the past. Still toot away on a penny whistle every now and again. Music helps me relax, and reduce stress.

Apparently empirical evidence shows that it can help improve coordination and memory, as well as fine motor functions. Also, I have a few friends and family that play music, and being able to jump in and “jam” would be awesome. Piano lessons also are really great for children, and so I see it also as an extra benefit to have something to share with my kiddo – maybe get some dad points!”

Jessica | Designer

“I’m going to New York City to immerse myself in the arts. Carnegie Hall, New York Phil, Broadway shows, Japanese Cherry Blossom viewing at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, MOMA, MET, etc…

It makes me better because the exposure offers an endless amount of inspiration for me to draw from for the rest of my life. I get my best inspirational bits from the little things in life and I know that my NY trip will definitely fill me up for a good couple decades.”

Brian | Developer

“I’ll be heading out this summer to ride motorcycles across Italy. I’ve always wanted to get my motorcycle license, and I’ve been dying to go to Italy (where my mom’s side of the family immigrated from). I’ve also never been out of the country, so it’ll be a trip of firsts. I’ll be signing up for motorcycle lessons here in the states, and spend a few days renting bikes to get the hang of it.”

Dave | Developer

“My wife and I are taking a trip to Washington D.C. in August for our anniversary. We chose Washington for a few reasons, namely that it’s the seat of our nation, filled with history and I’ve never even been to the east coast (let alone the capitol). We had been planning on taking a trip like this already, but that was going to be a few years off. This betterment bonus has given us a great opportunity to enjoy this trip now.”

Jamie | Developer

“I’m heading to Vegas with my wife! It sounds like a party, but to be honest I’m not much of a party-guy or gambler. I’ve never been to Las Vegas and droves of people have told me that I have to see it. In the spirit of betterment, I am hoping that Vegas makes me appreciate scale and makes me think to myself “I didn’t know that was possible/I didn’t know you could do that”. Craft is also a big part of UI design and UX in general and from what I’m told, a lot of the experience in Vegas is very crafted due to the high demands of the tourists and the exorbitance of the place.

While there I’m also going to see two cirque du soleil shows in an effort to bend the mind and again, make me think “I didn’t know that was possible!”"

“I will be going to Oahu to go surfing on the North Shore. The North Shore is arguably the best surfing in the world. It is something that I’ve always wanted to do. Traveling to new places makes you better, experiencing something that you’ve always wanted to do makes you better, challenging yourself makes you better.”

Pretty awesome, right? We’ll be sure to post the presentations as they come in over the course of the year, but in the meantime, tell us: how would you like to permanently better yourself this year?

Yesterday evening we lost a true visionary. A man that made design matter more in our lives than ever imagined. To honor the passing of Steve Jobs,  Hello Bar pays tribute with a LIVESTRONG themed Hello Bar.

This themed Hello Bar, encourages all to “Think Different” and help spread the message of cancer awareness. Anyone can place this Hello Bar on their website and the message will stay the same forever.

Find out more about how you can help promote and support cancer awareness on Hello Bar’s blog.

You can already customize what your Hello Bar says, how and where it appears, the color layout, and more but that wasn’t enough for us. You can now also add a breathtaking, crowd-stopping, eye-popping  texture to your Hello Bar to help it further stand out from the crowd.

So without further adieu, meet our 8 unique new textures. From gritty to swanky, there is something for every occasion:

Interested in applying for this position? Send us your résumé, some links to work you’ve done with WordPress along with a description of the work you did on the project, and why you would be perfect for this job to jobs@digital-telepathy.com

We just launched a design contest to create SlideDeck “skins” and get the opportunity to globally expose your design skills. Grand prize wins a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad!

How do I participate?

1. Create a killer design for a SlideDeck skin. Check out some of the great examples for SlideDecks other people have implemented on our examples page.
2. Submit your design to the contest microsite before the 26th of April. Your design will be available for public voting until the 5th of May.
3. After the public voting period has ended, we will choose 20 finalists! If you are a winner, we’ll request your source files and work on creating a skin based on your design.

Sounds great! Got any tips on how to win?

We will be judging SlideDeck skins based on the following criteria:

1. Concept/Originality - Your SlideDeck design should be original and creative, not just a color change of someone else’s design.
2. Completeness of Design - No half-ass designs here, think things through and submit an amazing piece and you’re more likely to win!
3. Legality and Feasibility - Your design needs to be doable. This means it can’t use copywritten material, and most importantly it can actually be built as a SlideDeck skin.

SlideDeck designs should be capable of being converted into a skin CSS file that any SlideDeck user could easily deploy. So, if we determine that to accomplish your design it would require modifying the HTML of the SlideDeck, you won’t qualify. Don’t let this be a limit to your creativity though!

Something else to keep in mind is that SlideDecks can be any size and the spines between slides can be any width. We recommend designing for a particular optimal height, but setting up your design so that it could be flexible – whether that’s a repeating background image or color for height is up to your creativity.

The nice clean and simple design of the site is welcoming and makes you feel comfortable right away.

Legacy offers a nice Quick Calculator on the home page so that you can get an idea right away of what you might expect from a reverese mortgage.

For a little more robust calculation, you can visit the Reverse Mortgage Calculator which processes the data you input and give you an estimate of return. You can then Request a Quote from Legacy for the most robust and detailed reverse mortgage offer.

Legacy has a great Learn page where you can read up on what a Reverse Mortgage is in detail witht the Pros & Cons listed. They also have a robust FAQ section with tons of information to put you at ease and answer any questions you may have. If your questions are not answered there, they would love for you to contact them via email, phone or even their Live Chat system.

Jim Cory, Legacy’s President, and their team are and have been a pleasure to work with and we are eager to continue the realtionship.

Reasons for site-wide announcements

If your web site or web application has a regular user base, and you’re constantly innovating (which you should be), then there will be a time when you need to let the users know of planned downtime, or explain why a particular feature is temporarily disabled. A nice notification of some sort is a great way to get the user’s attention while allowing them (or not allowing them) to proceed with thier regular business.

If you’ve used Mint.com, Dropbox or any site that uses the standard top notification bar then you’ve probably seen the “planned maintenance” notification or the “balance is low” warning. The two aforementioned sites are exceptionally good when it comes to UI design and interaction, but some sites just get it wrong. Here are a few tips that can help when designing one of these systems:

• Time the announcements
  If you’ve got a promotion running for 1 week, it pays to have the announcement bar appear only during that time. If you allow your announcements to have a start and end date, it will give an extra dimension to the way you can use them, and makes sure that they don’t start too early or go stale.
• Allow the user to dismiss the announcement
  The most annoying thing that can happen with announcements is the reappearing of an already dismissed announcement. Firstly, provide a close button and when it’s clicked get rid of the announcement, plain and simple. Make it go away and stay away.
• Don’t hide the “Don’t Show Again” button
  That fact is that some users are too impatient or uninterested to read your announcement before quickly closing it. Make your important announcements “sticky”  so they will reappear the next time the user visits the site. On the other hand, if the user has read it and would not like to see it again, make sure that the “Don’t Show Again” check box is prominently displayed and easily accessible
• Store the dismissal in a database if applicable
  If your users have actual accounts on your site and are not just anonymous, don’t just store cookies on their machines for keeping the announcement hidden, but also mark the announcement as read in the database for that user. This way if the user accesses your site from multiple computers, they won’t be bombarded by the same announcements all throughout the day as they switch computers.

The light box/screen lock out

I left this one for last because I’m not sure where I stand on this issue. The light box/screen lock out (dimming the screen and placing a modal dialog or settings pane) can be extremely effective for cases where user information needs to be updated, or action is absolutely required. However, this brings up the issue of stopping the user dead in her tracks simply because you said so. Remember that they are your users, and they’re on your site, but they can always go elsewhere if they become too annoyed.

The main thing to remember when creating an announcement system is that people don’t like popups, they don’t like being interrupted and they definately don’t like losing control of the screen just because you have something to say. It’s also important to remember that locking the users screen with a modal dialog box may be the best choice for some cases, but they never forget where the close box is located on thier browser and they are not afraid to use it.

As humans, our DNA carries genetic markers which provide risk-factor indications to possible “traffic signals” in the road of life – genetic disease risk, carrier status for recessive health condition, and likely drug responses based on your personal genome. It’s always helpful to have a map – Pathway’s testing can help to identify these signals and help you steer your health in the right direction. Another really neat aspect of Pathway’s testing is the “Famous People Map,” which will show your genetic lineage/linking with some of history’s most remarkable individuals.

The membership section of the site is filled with all kinds of valuable information: construct your family history, learn how your lifestyle affects your health, learn about hundreds of health conditions and so much more. There are articles and information from leading researchers and institutions to help you make good decisions as well.

While this type of genetic testing has historically been reserved for a miniscule segment of society, with tests starting under $200, Pathway is now bringing advanced DNA analysis within reach of everyone. It’s painless, safe and extremely secure. Go to Pathway.com and check it out!

Pictured: David Ely and Arnold Yoon (dt Director of Operations)

We talk a lot about our new clients, but what about those “golden clients” who have been with us through the thick and thin? We are currently working on our third website design for Convoy Auto Repair.  They have been a client for 6 years, 75% of dt’s existence here in San Diego. Convoy’s owner, David Ely, has become a personal friend of ours.  We value our time together, exchanging both business strategies and life philosophies.

How did we do it? Here are a few tidbits of advice for long-term client success:

1. Trust: Ahead of his industry, David has continued to move his traditional marketing and advertising budget to the digital space at an increasing pace each year and trusts us to manage it.  Why? See results below.  Convoy has worked on or advised me on every car I have own since we have worked together. David has been a trusted advisor to our staff on new car purchases, what to fix, when to sell…etc.  That’s a rare and invaluable resource to find.

2. Mutual Respect: When David has a new idea or need he always comes to us first.  This includes bringing us into outside projects such as the Napa Auto Repair Centers that we built and maintain. We wouldn’t even consider buying a new car without getting David’s advice.  In fact, our team just bought 3 new cars last month and David helped us through the whole vetting process. Clients and vendors can’t second guess each other and maintain a long-term relationship.

3. Results: Let’s be honest – money talks.  The auto repair business is not the most sexy or advanced industry.  We use that to our advantage.  Finding a solid auto repair shop is no different than looking up a Thai restaurant on Yelp. In order to create great results for Convoy Auto Repair, we combine SEM/SEO and Social Media with great design and conversion-based incentives. The result is bang-for-buck performance that far exceeds any of the traditional advertising techniques that Convoy’s competitors use.  Convoy’s online efforts are more than 50% effective than all of his other conventional advertising methods combined.

Trust and mutual respect allow us to share the risks and rewards of our relationship. This gives us the confidence to continue to deliver high performing results and push the envelope on our strategies and technology.  Plus, we just like working with each other – you can’t really put a value on that.

I can use the Dish Wizard to find dishes based on a wide variety of criteria, including: price, distance, rating and type of food.  The wizard offers a dynamic filtering system that is super cool – once I’ve narrowed down my options, I can see descriptions and pictures (not the brochure variety, but real pics submitted by real people).

There’s even rewards system in place – share your culinary experiences with the rest of the community, and earn points towards free meals.  It just doesn’t get any better!  They’re even running a launch contest – 30 Winners in 30 Days.  All you have to do is sign up and review at least one dish to be autotomatically entered.

The brainchild of a group of young local entrepreneurs, Dishizzle was cooperatively designed and developed by digital-telepathy/Santex alliance.  Check out the site and follow them on Facebook – eat, review, love life.  Foodies Unite!