My Clients are Nice

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it when clients send me information and photos of campaigns in action that we helped develop.  Maybe it’s akin to the dental hygenist who is so impressed when she sees that I have been flossing since my last visit.  Or when you send a picture of your fully grown dog to the breeder so they can see that the tiny puppy you took is happy and healthy.  You want to see the future results.

This week I received photos from 2 clients. Thanks, Bob at mimio for sending me photos from a recent trade show.  The mimio logo we revised is front and center here.  But the first thing I noticed in this photo was how busy the booth was – how fantastic!

Chris at McGregor Plant Sales sent me a photo from a show as well.  We developed the look and feel for their catalog last year, which they then applied to many communications including this show.  They had a terrific year with lots of industry buzz.  This shot was taken BEFORE the booth was opened to the public.

Wordless Can be Great

When I buy a new electronic device, for myself or the family, I’m not particularly patient about going through all the ineluctable chores such as getting the darn thing open to figuring out how to work it right away.

When we started collaborating with Myvu, we looked at the guidebook that came with their product. It was a booklet with several languages.  When I see booklets with many languages, I think that it’s sort of nice – this company is thinking about other people besides just English-speaking customers.  But that feeling quickly vanishes when all these pages are now in between me and my enjoyment or utility of the product.  That’s why I’m a huge fan of the wordless quick start guide.  Oh, like many people, I’m also a visual thinker.

The secrets to wordless (or almost wordless) communication are:

A very logical process must be detailed out in a very logical order.  If you’ve ever seen MASH where Radar reads “how to dismantle a bomb” you know that the order of events is very important.

You must have a very good illustrator who can make things simple, yet accurate.

Once you think you have it, give the draft to the least technical people you know (you might not want to tell them why they have been honored) and ask them to set up the product in question. Adjust as needed.

In the end, a wordless quick start should:

• Reduce the amount of paper and printing you use
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Make you a better communicator
• Help you identify ways to improve your product design