Arlton Lowry

I was watching CNN the other day and they had a gentleman on who knew a lot about business and was giving advice to people who might be interested in starting one in this economy. One thing he said really struck out — “you should focus on something you love, because in order to succeed in a business you really have to have passion for what you do.”

That really goes for anything you do.

That’s why I strongly feel that what you do in life says a lot about who you are as a person. Your career choices, the degree you received in college, who you work for, ext. ext.

I have a set of goals that I want to achieve in life. These goals are mainly focused around my career. Many people these days — even college graduates — are lacking goals. And the reason they don’t have goals is because they’re not passionate about what they’re doing.

So, do you have a career plan? Do you have goals? If so, what are you doing to reach them?

Moral of the story — if you don’t love what you do, then you shouldn’t be doing it. Find something you enjoy (and that you’re good at) and stick with it.

How many social networks do we need?  I mean, really?  There’s a social network for everything – racing, environmental causes, food, crafts, old women who like to talk about other old women, video sharing, micro-blogging, ext, ext.  It’s a bit much.  Don’t you think?

And where is this all leading?

Most likely they will all eventually implode into one another, which will cause our brains to turn to mush.  This will be caused by the disconnected euphoria that we will feel preceding the implosion.  Silly, I know, but not too far from the truth.

What is going to happen is we will all eventually only need one login for all SNSs out in the vast reaches of the web.  Many of you are already experiencing this.  Have you heard of Facebook Connect or OpenID?  Well, you will.  And there are plenty other organizations getting into the game.

Recently, I stumbled upon an interesting SNS that was doing some really cool stuff by bringing users content from their other social networks into their profiles for the site.  (Wow, that sounds confusing in retrospect.)  It’s called Virb.  Check it out and let me know if it works for you. I’m curious.  Also, add me as a friend while you’re there.

I’m thinking about replacing the existing logo on my site.  I’m throwing around some ideas.  I kinda liked this one.  Obviously, the colors can be adjusted.  What do you think?

Designers – So, you see a website that is in desperate need of some TLC, but you’re not sure how to get that across to the organization behind it? Well, you could just redesign it. That’s what Dustin Curtis did.

Dustin Curtis wasn’t impressed with the current design and UI of the American Airlines website, so he decided to do something about it. Being a User Interface Designer by trade, he redesigned the site and created a much more appealing site for customers to visit. You can read his blog post here.

Clients — There are two things I want to touch on with this post. First — UI is very important for your site. Second — your site is the face of your company.

UI is very important

I cannot stress enough how important it is for the visitors of your site to be able to find information easily. If a visitor comes to your site and its either too complicated to use, or horribly laid out, they’re not going to stay long. Visitors require a site to be easy to use and visually appealing. Plus, content has to be appropriate and to the point.

There’s a local organization that I’ve been courting here lately, that suffers from this exact issue. I’m meeting with them next week and I’ve put together a proposal similar to Dustin Curtis’. This is something their organization has needed for a long time. I hope to help them create a better experience for the visitors to their site.

Your site is the face to your company

Too many organizations and businesses don’t take their websites seriously. They don’t understand how much a poorly designed website can effect prospective customers and clients decisions about their product/service. If you haven’t taken your site seriously, I guarantee you’re losing customers/clients because of it.

Moral of the story – your website is your organizations’ most important advertising/pr/corporate branding tool. Take it seriously.

I was doing some research on billboard advertising the other day and I read something that struck me as very poignant. The article I was reading said that everything in a billboard advertisement needed to be simple — because people driving by only had a certain window of time to read the ad — which is true — they don’t have much time.

Doesn’t this really apply to all advertising?  Except maybe radio and television – but I’ve seen some TV advertising done really well – Comcast for example.

In our society we live in today, all advertising should really follow a simple set of guidelines — guidelines that focus more on the viewer, rather than the content of the ad.  For instance, the article I was reading went on to recommend a guideline that stated: no more than one image, not a lot of text, and get to the point.  That’s all you need in any form or advertising, really.

I don’t know about you, but it takes a lot for an ad in a magazine, or newspaper, to get me to stop from flipping the page. It’s got to have something that grabs my eye, text that’s simple and to the point, and the design has to lead my eye.  That’s what I need to stay on that page.

Also, advertising should entice the viewer to want to learn more about a product or business.  Relying too heavily on the advertisement to sell your product or service will only confuse and frustrate the viewer.  It will leave a negative impression with them — and in turn — a negative impact on your business.

The moral of the story kids — don’t get caught up in content.  Too much can be harmful for your business.

It’s amazing how specialized social networks can be. With social networking platforms like Ning, SocialEngine, and Elgg that allow developers (and novices) to build whatever kind of social network their little hearts desire, it opens up the floodgates for all sorts of specialized clubs and organizations.

I’ve been racking my brain for the last six months trying to devise a way to leverage one of these open source social networking platforms for use in the healthcare field. It’s not gone too well. The problems not the idea, it’s the plethora of choices healthcare professionals have in the way of social networking.  There are tons of SNSs out there that cater to individuals in the healthcare field — especially for nurses. Go to Google and type in “nurse social network” — it’s amazing how many sites pull up.  Honestly, most of those sites are horrible – badly designed, terrible UI, and the developers obviously had the wrong motivations behind creating the sites.

This brings me to where I’m at right now. Last week I contacted an old professor of mine to ask him a few questions and get his advice on some issues I was having with another project I was working on.  While I was on the phone with him I mentioned my plans to create a SNS for nurses.  He basically told me I was a dumbass.  He reminded me about how many choices nurses had out there – as far as SNSs go – and that if I wanted to reach that audience I would be better off investing the time and money in leveraging the existing social networks to reach individuals in the healthcare community.  This is especially is true for Facebook.

Why would I want to recreate the wheel when the nurses I’m going after are already familiar with the Facebook interface?  The conversation I had with my old professor made a lot of sense to me and it really opened my eyes about where I need to be focusing my attention.

The moral of the story kids — listen to what other people have to say.  Ask questions.  Get peoples opinions.  And especially don’t rely on your judgment alone.  In most cases its probably wrong.

Being that this is my inaugural blog post, allow me introduce myself.   My name, of course, is Arlton Lowry.  I live and work in the Heights area of Little Rock, Arkansas.  I’ve got two wonderful little girls and a loving sidekick as my best friend.  I enjoy many different activities, not limited to, but include: hiking, songwriting, music, web & graphic design, video production, marketing research, social media, and everything encompassing web 2.0.  I really enjoy reading enlightening newspaper articles and blog posts.  I also enjoy reading some books on occasions.  Some of my favorites are: Slaughter-house five – by Kurt Vonnegut, Into the Wild – by Jon Krakauer, and Stoner – by John Williams.

I hope you enjoy my new site and I look forward to hearing from you.