We first needed to start with a name, a tagline and a logo. The word ‘refurbished’ seemed to be tied to a negative connotation with our sample testing population. We ended up working to find a word that would have similar meaning, but would result in positive thought. ‘Renewed’ seemed to be the perfect fit we were looking for.

After landing on a name, we kept toying around with the fact that these refurbished products go through a certification process before being released back into the market. With that information, we designed a logo that stemmed off of the idea of a seal of approval. Not only is their credibility with the logo, but by being constrained by the oval shape, it can be easily translated into packaging labels, print collateral, web site use, etc.

With the brand having a launching point, we jumped into creating the business cards, letterhead and web site. We chose Magento to be our e-commerce solution. Their open source platform provided us with extensive out of the box functionality and could be customized for our needs.

The web site not only provides users with smooth ordering processes, but users can also manage their own account information through a secure area on the site.

In addition to creating all the designs for BuyRenewed, we needed to make sure we could also reach an active audience. For the brand launch, we relied on Twitter communication to get the word out. We’ve since added Facebook.

Activity on the site continues to grow. While the brand will always be a work in progress, some of the goals have already been met. We wish BuyRenewed continued success and look forward to our ongoing work with them!

To stay in the loop, follow them on Twitter and Facebook. If you are looking for your own renewed products, www.buyrenewed.com is a great resource.

What? Who’s Scott Walker? Oh. Oh my, he trying to… Well, wow, but that’s not what I was getting at.

I meant the video codec and playback debate, of course!

HTML5, looking to standardize the Web retroactively, has created an incredible tool: the tag within its markup. This allows any video to be play without embedding methods, which can be resource intensive.

Much like the tag, which brings an image in purely with a designation of its source, the tag will add many options for customization and more efficient playback. Sounds amazing, right? But there’s a catch.

The video has to be decoded by the browser. In the past, video was decoded by application plug-ins (Quicktime, Windows Media Player) and more recently this task falls to Adobe’s Flash.

It’s a fairly technical issue, but broadly, it comes down to three technologies. Flash, H.264 and WebM. Flash is proprietary but installed on nearly all internet-connected computers. H.264 is licensed but open-use and is relatively popular (Vimeo, YouTube). WebM is open source but has little support.

The goal is to keep video as open as possible, which is why the debate could become interesting.

Playing video with Flash can be usurped with the tag. The Flash plug-in has been unreliable on Mac and on many new mobile platforms.

Safari (Apple) and Internet Explorer (Microsoft) are both support H.264 and have no trouble paying the licensing fees associated with it. The quality of H.264 is well established.

Chrome (Google), recently, announced it was dropping support for H.264 in favor of WebM a lower quality standard that they recently opened to the public. This in order to enhance an open Web.

Firefox (Mozilla) has backed the actions of Chrome. Of the browsers mentioned, they have the strongest argument. They don’t have a multi-billion dollar corporation backing them, paying any licensing fees.

So does Google’s announcement and WebM support make the Web more open?

Google has recently made a call for patents related to WebM’s framework. A license fee may come about from that process. Their own browser comes packaged with a proprietary plug-in (Flash).

WebM is a lower-quality standard, but it’s free, so Safari and Internet Explorer may support it. Potentially, it becomes as ubiquitous as Flash.

What do I hope for?

I want a well-supported standard, a baseline, with higher-quality browsers using H.264 or another high-quality standard in tandem.

It may not be the debates in Washington or Wisconsin, but I’m curious how it will all turn out. Aren’t you?

Upon walking in to the restaurant, I was completely taken aback by the decor. The space (previously Tangerine) had undergone a color overhaul. In the place of medium browns and oranges were now striking blacks, whites and reds. Definitely more interesting than the orange globes that were once in the building, cutouts of crosses now cover most of the walls.

In addition to the cross cutouts, there is also extensive white, cursive writing on the walls. Since the writing bleeds right off the walls, it is difficult to figure out what the lines are. Being completely unfamiliar with the story of the restaurant, I was immediately confused about the purpose of the text. Upon asking, I quickly learned that Charro was named after the 1969 movie Charro! starring Elvis. The lines on the walls were pulled straight out of the movie.

The menu itself boasted Mexican and Latin fusion options. Upon sitting at our table, we were greeted with chips and salsa. I loved the chips. They were flavorful and hearty enough to stand up to the juiciness of the salsa without crumbling. For a beverage, I opted for their house sangria and was pleasantly pleased. Although the sangria was short on fruits, it was not short of flavor.

Finding what I wanted for dinner was easy as I am a sucker for Mexican and Latin flavors. I opted for their Mole de Poblano Enchiladas. The mole was a subtler flavor than I am used to, but the peppers took it to the next level. I found my rice and beans to be ok in comparison. I also sampled the Smoked Carne Asada from Ryan’s plate. His dish, a “chili rubbed, house smoked and seared flank steak”, was amazing. The steak was juicy and full of smoked taste.

Beyond the decor, perhaps the most stand out items from the evening were the desserts. I am still drooling over the Cheesecake and Apple Empanadas. Although I enjoyed my dinner, I’ll most likely go back for just sangria and dessert.

After moving, Ryan and I have been back three other times… all for dinner. Ryan became a member immediately. As far as restaurants go, Revolution Brewing has some of the pieces that make me love restaurants. Their beverage selection is amazing (if you like beer, of course). They rotate the blends with each season to keep the selection staying fresh. Although I make sure to try a new blend with each visit, my favorites have been the Iron Fist Pale Ale, Skara Brae and Eugene.

The food however leaves me wanting more. I have sampled appetizers, burgers/sandwiches and pizza. I find the appetizer selection to be limiting. There are not a lot of options for sharing with your table. Many of the items instead seem to be for a single person. Where is the fun in that! Out of the sharing appetizers, I do enjoy the Sweet Potato Cakes. I’m not a fair judge though as I haven’t found a sweet potato that I don’t love. You also can’t go wrong with their Bacon Fat Popcorn. Who doesn’t love bacon!

When it comes to the pizzas, I am in heaven. The variety of options for pizzas is wonderful. I’ve enjoyed the Smoked Buffalo Chicken and Italian Sausage. The variety for burgers/sandwiches… not so much. Each burger or sandwich that I’ve had or sampled has left me disappointed.

As far as the atmosphere, the place is fun… really fun! If you are looking for a place to enjoy a loud, energetic dinner… you’ve found it. The bar is full every night and there is usually a wait for a table when I’ve gone for dinner. The staff is also fantastic! The noise level can be overwhelming though. I find myself easily more distracted by the surroundings than my dining partner. That doesn’t not equal a very attentive date.

Although I continue and will continue to go back, I have refocused what I go back for. If I want some time out with friends and great beer… Revolution Brewing is the place. If I want a great dinner for an affordable price, there are plenty of other fish in the sea.

This Friday, we get to head to Hot Doug’s for lunch with dear friends Grant & @jumhauer. The two of them have had nothing but amazing things to say about the place, so my expectations are high. I’m hoping this is a good thing.

The combinations on the Hot Doug’s web site sound unbelievable. ‘Teriyaki and Mandarin Orange Chicken Sausage with Spicy Peanut Sauce, Caraway Havarti Cheese and Toasted Coconut’… yes! Perhaps I’d enjoy ‘Bacon and Jalapeno Duck Sausage with Bacon-Garlic Mayonnaise and Smoked Gouda Cheese’… double yes!! Seriously, who ever thought to do all of this to a hot dog!?!

I think the tipping point into drooling for me came today in my Google Reader. Chicago Bites posted a french fry photo worthy of my salivation.

The duck fat fries look irresistible and I don’t even think much about french fries. Suffice to say… I cannot wait for Friday!!

Their current destination features Seoul, South Korea. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with food from this region, so I can’t say if it was true to proper tastes and culture. I can say it was delicious. It was interesting to combine the flavors of Thai Coconut Crab Cakes, Hoisin with Pineapple Chutney Meatloaf Sliders, Moroccan Spiced Apricot-Mint Lamb Lollipops, Kimchi, and much more within a few hours. My taste buds were beyond satisfied, and slightly overwhelmed, by the time I left for the night.

Some of my favorites included the variety of Lamb Lollipops and Green Tea Ice Cream. A bigger highlight included a personal tour that owners Jim and Stefanie Ringo took us on through the restaurant. It was amazing to not only hear about the passion behind the concept of the restaurant, but to hear about the decor choices when designing the restaurant. I am excited to make it back to Ringo for next month’s featured region. I feel like there should be a sneak peak on their web site for me to salivate over.

Jim and Stefanie Ringo’s other restaurant, Forum, opened last week as well. I was busy for their soft opening, but I am curious to see the differences between Ringo and Forum. The menu there lacks in over ambition, but I bet the tastes are right on.

Now, if only someone could help them with their web sites… wink wink. I’m disappointed in the underwhelming nature of the sites compared to all the thought and effort that went into the restaurants. My fingers are crossed for some improvement there.

Unfortunately, their modular home site is in Spanish and my knowledge of the language has slipped like a rock down a mountain side over the past few years. In spite of that, I was still able to appreciate the striking nature of the combination of black and white with angular lines.

In design, it is easy to muddy work up with colors and movement. It is often harder to trim the glossy fat off our designs to really focus on the message we want to share with viewers. I think I might make it a personal goal to try to design a site using only two colors. I already like to design sites with only two typefaces. Somehow, I feel like this challenge might be a bit more difficult. Wish me luck.

I’m not concerned with its sales but I’m concerned with who will buy one and how that will change things. Specifically by “things” I mean how I will design sites if the iPad becomes popular.

To start, a design must be clean. With all the scrolling, pinching and double-clicking necessary to navigate the web through the Pad’s interface, blocks (Divs) must be clear and spaced well for accuracy. This is something I’ve already started doing.

Another part of this is simple, quickly rendered code. Too often the sizes of images or other content is ignored but the rendering, no matter how fast first-hands-on users claim, will be slower. Designers must address this lag by making pages smaller and decrease load times.

Flash, until something fundamental changes, is off limits. Until HTML5 is more heavily adopted (read: IE) or Adobe and Apple concede, the functionality of Flash has no use on the iPad. This is disappointing but only means different choices, not limited choices.

Designers must stay away from some drop-down menus. Sites that use drop-downs cannot link the first, or visible, element. Using the “#” link enables the mobile Safari to show the drop-down list, leaving it on screen until something is clicked, but linked elements jump to new pages. Drop-down menus are popular and useful but not if those hidden links are never shown.

People will likely adopt this new form of no-hassle, simplified computing. The lower price, diverse application and portability makes for a large market. Many will keep their desktop but enjoy the flexibility of a handheld device.

Tablets will be released from other brands soon. Their interfaces may be similar; some may improve on the iPad and many will fall far short. Generally, they may be popular or meet the needs of only a niche market, depending.

In any case, the death of the mouse, the shrinking of machines and reduction speeds necessitates changes in how sites work and how users interact with them. We will need to make small but significant changes as less technically savvy users move from desktops to a growing number of handheld devices.

Photo Courtesy Apple.com

ME: Is a hover on the logo enough for less savvy users to know it’s a link to home?
Coworker: In most cases, no. There needs to be “home” somewhere; people are programmed to look for it.
ME: Ugh.
CW: Yep, that lesson was taught to me the hard way a few years back.
ME: But that’s a few years back. ::sigh::
CW: Still the case today. Hell, people are still hooked on Internet Explorer 6.
ME: Best Buy doesn’t have one, [former employer] doesn’t have one… ha. I refuse to design for IE6, PNGs aren’t even supported. Also, it’s a decade old running on ’94 assumptions.
CW: Ha. Well, I see your point about BB and [FE]. Give it a shot, see after a few weeks.
ME: I appreciate your flexibility.

Pure user experience tells us there must be a “home” link within the navigation. This because they tried to make the internet as useful as possible for those unfamiliar. Most are now familiar. The fundamentals of user experience are shifting.

Major sites are dropping the redundant, near-useless “home” link, thankfully. More and more sites are moving away from explicit links home, for good reason. I didn’t use a “home” link for a few reasons but essentially it comes down to this:

The longer we build the Web for those that don’t understand it, the longer we wait to advance it for everyone. Any site built catering to IE6 slows that progress.

Small business, while likely to request these things, are most hurt by catering to a slower-adopting crowd. If you’re a smaller company, you can’t afford to slow the Internet’s momentum. Instead, you need to be at the forefront of changes because you can more easily adapt.

Instead of making your site backward compatible, provide helpful and thoughtful navigation so any user will find it useful. Provide a message for those, despite all odds and sense, still using IE6 that encourages them to upgrade. If you’re redesigning an existing site, carefully explain any changes to navigation and point them to new content, blog, social accounts, etc.

There are dozens of ways to create an online presence that anyone at any level of adopting. Cater your site to Web-familiar users. If only because that crowd is growing and who wants to direct efforts toward a dwindling customer base?